Top tip

The blog isn't really ready for launch yet but time marches on and there are things that need to be said - below the text of an e-mail to Somerset Waste Board this evening...


"I was very pleased to read the report on Midwest Radio's website earlier this week that your meeting tomorrow may approve plans to keep the CRC open. This evening I see the front and second page articles in the Western Gazette.
As a resident of Crewkerne I entirely support the move even if the price has to be a charge of £2.50 per visit as suggested.
Crewkerne resident Peter Traves is reported by the WG as saying that the proposed charge is "disgusting" and moans about "double taxes". Where has he been?
We have a serious financial crisis. We are where we are. People need to accept that and stop demanding the impossible because it doesn't fit with their ideals.
Has he and others like him thought rationally about how much it would cost him in fuel (!) alone to travel to Chard or Yeovil and back? Is his time of no value or does he have so much of it to spare that he can happily waste another 30 to 40 minutes of his life wearing out the roads that your council can ill-afford to maintain plus however much longer he has to sit and wait in the queues swelled by others forced into the same position?
If Mr Pearson at Purtington and others out of this town can just as easily travel elsewhere then fine - do it. But don't expect that I shall be happy to follow suit when I live only 3 minutes drive from a facility in which there has plainly been significant investment and is generally a credit to those who manage and staff it.
On page 2 of the WG is a picture of a Haselbury resident with evidence of fly-tipping. The article concludes with a determined statement of how the District Council will investigate, sort by hand, find the culprits...
...then what? Launch a prosecution no doubt - at just how much expense and to achieve what?
Quite right of course but has anybody missed the (correct) message that has been permeating our society for the last 50 years that prevention is better - and cheaper - than cure? How much fly-tipping might follow once you close this facility? How much pollution from folk burning waste at home? How much irritation to neighbours?
It is, to put it bluntly, a no-brainer. Go ahead please and approve the scheme even if it must be preserved at a modest cost.
I pay nearly £2000 p.a. in council tax. I would much prefer that I didn't have to pay again for a facility that I use at the very least 60 times a year - I visit once a week without fail and sometimes up to 5 or 6 times some summer weekends when the gardening takes a grip.
If I must contribute another £150 over the course of a year in the present climate I shall willingly do so in the recognition that it is a small price to pay personally - and collectively.
Michael Williamson
Crewkerne
24 March 2011"