I RECENTLY went to Showfield Lane tip in Malton to dispose of 18 bricks and the operative estimated the cost of disposal at £7.50.

As I was not aware that North Yorkshire County Council was charging for this service it was something of a surprise. I had no means of payment on me, so returned home to check the North Yorkshire County Council website.

The website stated that the council charges £2.56, including VAT for a 25kg consignment, meaning that my 18 bricks were estimated to weigh 75kg. I found this quite remarkable, so I weighed one brick and it was approximately 1kg, making my consignment less than 25kg.

I intend to take up this method of guestimating charges with Trading Standards because it strikes me that this could breach the Weight and Measures Act.

They also charge £6 to dispose of a sheet of plasterboard, which is currently available at B&Q for £5. And this after the purchaser has used some of it.

I wrote to North Yorkshire County Council questioning this and have received a long and detailed explanation about what cost savings the council needs to make etc, plus lots of statistics to show that the local population agrees with the charging decision – 1,126 responses from the population of North Yorkshire seems a very low number, however...

I have to say that any commercial organisation on receiving this type of complaint would be mollifying me with vouchers, free coffee, and offers of free disposal as a demonstration of goodwill. However, this would never be a council’s way.

So residents of Ryedale and North Yorkshire, if you are going to take soil, rubble and similar waste to your local tip I suggest you weigh it prior to that journey because the operatives seem to be unable to estimate this with any form of accuracy.

Janet Sharp, Malton