RESIDENTS of South Cambridgeshire, give yourselves a pat on the back. According to figures released by South Cambridgeshire District Council, a massive 92.47 tonnes of plastic bottles have been recycled in the district since kerbside collections were intr

RESIDENTS of South Cambridgeshire, give yourselves a pat on the back.

According to figures released by South Cambridgeshire District Council, a massive 92.47 tonnes of plastic bottles have been recycled in the district since kerbside collections were introduced in October.

That represents a 389 per cent increase on this time last year, a figure which, according to Cllr Susan Ellington, reflects the "fantastic" effort put in by council staff and the districts residents, who have shown much "dedication" to recycling.

Generally South Cambs district council is not renowned for doing things quickly, so they should be applauded for establishing an effective recycling scheme in a relatively short period of time.

It also shows that people are quite happy to recycle if it is made easy for them to do so.

With this in mind it is a shame that over the border in North Herts, the district council has decided not to collect brown bins - which take food waste and cardboard, as well as garden waste - during the Christmas period. They were last emptied on December 6, and will not be collected again until January 5.

In my opinion this is a big mistake by the district council. The bins were due to be collected on December 22, which isn't even any kind of public holiday, so there is no reason that I can see why they should have to miss it out.

It's all very well Cllr Linda Needham saying that there is "very little garden waste" at this time of year, but with most households having big family dinners, the amount of food waste is bound to increase, and with presents being given and received all over the place there will no doubt be large quantities of cardboard packaging which need disposing of.

I imagine that most people will not want all this rubbish hanging around for almost two weeks while they wait for the bin men to turn up again, so when their brown bins get full up, they will just dump it in their normal bin instead, meaning it will go for landfill instead of being recycled.

Cllr Needham is right when she says that "residents in North Hertfordshire have proved they care about the environment", and it is a pity that the district council in this instance seems to be putting up barriers to stop them recycling.

As a child I always liked visiting Woolworths. It was one of the few shops that held my interest for more than five minutes, mainly because it sold so many different things.

It has been a shame to see and read about its demise in recent weeks, and one can only hope a buyer can be found to take the chain on. It would certainly be a big loss to Royston High Street if our local store closed for good.

But I can't help think that Woolies is one of those businesses I wrote about on these pages a couple of weeks ago, - one that has not moved with the times.

When you went in there, all the products were usually a pound or two more expensive than elsewhere, and this was probably a big factor in customers going elsewhere.

If the chain does manage to attract new owners, they will certainly need to have a rethink on their pricing strategy.