Is bin plan wheelie a secret black bag conspiracy?

The local authority is expecting to save around £500,000-a-year by not having to provide plastic dustbin bags for each household in the district every week.

However, we the Bradford Council Tax payers, will still need plastic bags to put inside the bins which we keep in our kitchens before putting the

rubbish outside.

So instead of using Council-provided black bags in our kitchen bin and transferring them to the

dustbin when full, we will have to go to the

supermarket and buy them every week.

The only way to avoid this added expense is to traipse outside with every single empty tin can, milk carton, or used tissue to put them straight in the wheelie bin.

While many people are concerned about wheelie bins running away down Wharfedale's hills

dragging pensioners behind them, I am more

concerned about the Council saving money by making me pay for plastic rubbish sacks.

I was under the impression that the cost of the rubbish sacks was included in the expensive Council Tax bill I pay, but I must be wrong.

This issue does not seem to have been addressed by Councillor Keith Thompson, the chairman of the rubbish committee, and I would be interested to hear his comments.

Are we going to get a rebate for having to buy our own bin bags from now on, or is Bradford Council going to use the money saved to help pay for the new £14 million Peace Centre planned for the

centre of the city?

I keep getting this recurring dream where some member of Bradford City Council is standing

holding an computer generated picture of some multi-million pound super this that or the other which never gets further than the artist's

impression.

Most people, as we all know, regard Bradford in much the same light as TV presenter Chris Tarrant who expressed the view that the whole city could be bought for the sum of one-million pounds.

Assuming, unlike the £200 million Bradford Superdome, or the £200 million West End scheme, the Bradford Peace Centre actually assumes

concrete reality and gets built, what on earth are they going to put in a Peace Museum?

'Peace' is a state of affairs defined more by the absence of something rather than by anything concrete. Perhaps they could put a few comfortable easy chairs in a darkened room so people can drop in and have a bit of peace?

We have already experienced the fiasco of the 'Transperience' transport museum which was at least full of things to look at, a museum full of peaceful things could prove even less of a tourist attraction.

If there's enough space The Peace Centre could prove the ideal place to dump all Bradford's unwanted dustbins once wheelie bins have been foisted on the unwilling and ungrateful citizens.

I learn through the national press that Britain's military commanders are to undergo compulsory training in equal opportunities, and quite right too.

Obviously, when planning a strategy of war, the effect of unpolitically correct language, gestures or behaviour on members of gender, ethnic or

sexually orientated minorities should be a major consideration for the General Staff.

Among the issues covered on the five-day course are legislation, discrimination, harassment and complaints procedures.

It is considered that the training course might address the of low representation of women and members of ethnic minorities in armed forces recruitment.

I would not feel at all sure of victory if Britain went to war without the full backing of the homosexual pressure group 'Outrage,' militant feminist groups and the ruling committee of the Council for Racial Equality.

This column reflects the personal view of the individual writer, and not necessarily those of the newspaper. Wharfedale Newspapers

welcomes correspondence on any issue and

letters should be sent to The Editor, Wharfedale Newspapers, 9 Orchard Gate, Otley, LS21 3NX.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.