Sir – After reading the letters last week – one about the waste tip and the other about the public toilets – a thought came to mind. Local councils are supposed to work for us – we are not customers – they were put there to administer local services, not sell services to us. If we were true customers we could buy the services elsewhere.

Firstly, the public toilets. All decision makers should take some water tablets and then go out and try to find a public toilet in a hurry – believe me you cannot afford to have to walk across town to find one and to be fair you cannot expect to go into pubs and cafes to use their facilities. Did the people ask for the closures in the town? We are a tourist town and these days you do not know where to send people if you are stopped and asked.

The tip – it is there for household waste for the public to take things to and not fly tip. I did not mind a private company running the tip and recycling or selling anything that was left there. I do not mind having to sort items and put them in the right skip, but to be charged for bringing a couple of tiles that have come off the roof that is just a rip off. We pay for waste disposal in our council tax so why should we have to be charged extra.

Then we come to the £17 bin charge – another rip off. This was imposed on us, we did not vote for it. My friend who only has a few pots in their yard did not need a green bin as they do not have much waste. Most of the leaves are blown in. They went to buy the green bin bags from the council so they could drop off a bag when they passed the tip and they were not allowed to buy them as they had not paid the £17 for a licence. You could not make it up.

You find you cannot change anything to do with the car parks as they are all owned by different local and county councils. You should be able to get a cheap all-day ticket to encourage tourists to stay longer.

JANE HARRIS

Richmond.