Bring back cash rewards for recycling – Yorkshire Post Letters

AS a conservationist, and an organic gardener, for 60 years, I applaud the idea of bringing back the giving of a few coppers back on cans and bottles dutifully returned.

Our son now has three sons of his own but I clearly remember him, as a young teenager, going round the campsite every morning, when we were enjoying a caravan holiday, and picking up discarded bottles and receiving one penny on each one.

I admired him for doing that, it showed initiative and it made the field look far more attractive.

I had our gorgeous little dog for 17 years, and almost never walked on our village green without bringing home something to recycle.

Although most of the cans and bottles had been put into the rubbish bins, I still do it. I hate the thought of all our stuff going into the sea or on overcrowded refuge tips and I have regular little fires, late at night, behind our garage, to burn stuff that won’t recycle, including plastic, plus paper and maybe twigs.

I told our council I was doing it and they thanked me, as they deal with tonnes of it every week.

There is very little smoke and, in 17 years, it has never affected my asthma.

From: John Chester, Gledhow Grange View, Leeds.

ANOTHER excellent and diverse series of Springwatch programmes has recently concluded on BBC2.

One such piece involved a graph showing the amount of plastic some species used in nest building, often 25 per cent or higher. This I found startling, even alarming.

It was backed up by close-up photographs of several nests to emphasise the point.

Our feathered friends deserve better.

Fairer system of taxation

From: Michael Meadowcroft, Former Liberal MP, Leeds.

ANDREW Dixon raises again the capricious unfairness of property tax (‘Country needs a fairer system of property tax’, The Yorkshire Post, June 15).

He is banging on an open door.

Virtually everyone agrees that the present rating basis is unsupportable but the problem is that thus far there is no solution behind that door.

The most equitable and effective reform would be to switch to taxing land on its maximum permitted development value.

It brings empty property into taxation, it inhibits the land banks that the likes of Tesco and many public utilities amass, it reflects size and commercial viability and, most of all, it brings into the public purse the value created by local planning decisions.

As for valuation, it doesn’t move and it is already valued every time there is a sale. This gives a market indication for equivalent sites; when we talk of house or shop values it is actually the value of the land – bricks and mortar do not increase in value.

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click here to subscribe.