Interesting little piece in 'The Observer' today called 'Why did I bother?'"When I sold my care, I didn't expect a pat on the head: I wore my halo on the inside, and that was enough. But I did assume that those who had encouraged me to do the right thing - among them, my local council, which supposedly favours the walker, the cyclist and the keen user of the bus - wouldn't now actively seek to make my life more difficult. Three years later, and part of me wonders why I bothered. Thanks to low traffic schemes, which benefit only select groups of very lucky people, bus journey times are often twice as long as they used to be, cars having been forced on to the main road. Meanwhile, the council has decreed that those who want their garden waste to be collected, as it has been ever since I've lived here, must henceforth pay £75 a year for the privilege - and for a service only half as frequent as before. Isn't is obvious what will happen next? Relatively few people, I predict. will cough up. Those with cars will drive to the dump, increasing traffic and pollution, while those without will either hide their dead dahlias in their regular rubbish (which means they won't be composted), or they'll simply fly tip (a serious problem in our neighbourhood).If good people can be nudged into good citizenship. they can just as surely be elbowed in the direction of bad behaviour - and this, I think, is a perfect example of that."No comfort there - as we contemplate Hounslow's obsession with bikes before anything and everything else, but at least we know we are not alone.
Vanessa Smith ● 35d