WE all know the problem with the waste we create - and it's a big one.

It all has to be carted away but no one wants it dumped on their own doorstep.

The government has imposed penalties on local authorities to encourage them to reduce the amount being buried on landfill sites.

At the same time we are all being urged to separate our waste and make every effort to ensure that the maximum amount possible is recycled.

That way hopefully we will not bury ourselves in our own junk.

Energy-efficient waste treatment plants are being constructed at various sites to recycle household rubbish but inevitably they raise another problem.

Villagers in Huncoat, for example, are concerned at plans for just such a recycling plant on the former power station site and have even formed a branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England to campaign against it.

Of course they should be protected against anything that might pollute their atmosphere and stringent safeguards should be insisted upon.

But if a site formerly occupied by a hideous power station is deemed unsuitable for such a plant it is difficult to think of a site that might win wholehearted support.

The villagers of Huncoat need to be won over.