Sometimes it’s necessary to take a second look at decisions that affect our daily lives and we might then realise that our first reaction was probably wrong.

A prime example is the fuss made recently about the Council plan to insist that cars taking rubbish to the district’s household waste sites must display a permit. On reflection, this is more than just mindless red tape. It’s to make sure that it’s only Bradford rubbish that the Council has to pay to get rid of, and it’s not unreasonable, as some suggest.

It costs more than £150 a tonne to dump it in a distant landfill site, and local taxpayers shouldn’t be asked to pay such sums for the waste from houses in the Leeds, Kirklees and Calderdale council areas. There might even be some from North Yorkshire brought in by commuters.

However, there’s another reason and this explains why, in the past, vans, as opposed to private cars, had to have a permit. The Council’s statutory duty is to collect and dispose of household waste only, and others, such as shops, small industries or sports organisations and the like are expected to pay to have their waste removed, either by the council or one of the private waste companies. It’s part of their overheads.

However it’s not unknown for some of this waste to be transported to household waste sites in private cars, to get under the height barrier, and we certainly don’t need more of this illegal waste from outside the district. The extension of the permit system to include private cars will mean a lower total of collected waste, and so less money spent on disposal.

None of this would be necessary if we were all responsible, and didn’t take short cuts, or realised that individual decisions, though very small, do add up in the greater scheme of things. Attitudes to fuel duty, and fracking are other examples of misguided human self interest.

There was general approval when the fuel duty surcharge, above the rate of inflation, was abandoned in the Budget, and it was convenient to forget why it was there in the first place. It was to make driving more expensive so we drive less, in smaller cars, and more slowly in an attempt to reduce the CO2 from our tailpipes.

The seven per cent reduction in car journeys since 1995 makes the point.

And it’s the same with the Chancellor settling for a quick energy fix by promoting the use of fracking to produce our own gas. It might be cheaper in the short term but the extra CO2 produced by thousands of wells and fugitive gas will be very damaging in years to come.