PAMELA St Clair (Oxford Mail, August 5) has a point. The green hessian sacks for garden clippings was indeed a perfectly good scheme.

But when the Government has cut the city council’s grant by a quarter over two years, something has to give.

That’s why we’ve reluctantly introduced a yearly £35 charge for brown bins or paper sacks.

The money helps towards the cost of the excellent staff and their lorries which drive around Oxford, collect our garden waste and take it for composting at Ardley or anaerobic digestion at Yarnton. The important thing is that we all try to recycle as much as we can.

Cllr JOHN TANNER (Labour) board member for a Cleaner, Greener Oxford city councillor for Littlemore and county councillor for Isis Sunningwell Road, Oxford