I was astonished to read of the selfish behaviour by some residents of West Wiltshire over the skip situation.

My first thought was that any council which provides skips in this day and age of recycling must seriously need to look deeply into its environmental policies.

Come on councils, please wake up. Successive governments have correctly signed the UK up to achieving a target (if my memory serves correctly) of recycling 25 per cent of its waste stream (based I believe on 1992 volumes) by the year 2020.

To achieve this will require active participation by the people who produce the waste.

In its simplest form this requires education consumers need to be taught not to discard so much of the waste that could be recycled.

Incidentally I'm told that Eastleigh in Hampshire has already achieved a 40 per cent recycling rate and is now working toward achieving a 50 per cent target.

Geoff Brewer,

Downlands Road,

Devizes.