LABOUR'S Abbot Bryning is once again falsely claiming that local recycling rates are falling and he implicitly tries to blame Green councillors for this.

However, the truth is that recycling rates are now rising.

When Labour lost control of the council in 1999, the district's recycling rate was 6.8 per cent and falling. Rates continued to fall with the MBIs in power, to a low of 5.9 per cent. However, since the intro-duction of the cabinet system I have chaired a committee which has worked hard to create a totally new system of waste collection and recycling.

This culminated last autumn in the introduction of a new trial recycling round in the Carnforth area (one of 11 rounds in the district). Even with the trial over such a small area and for a short time, rates now stand at around 8 per cent.

With the introduction of two or three further rounds onto the system in the coming year, our recycling rates should double by the end of next year. If the council continues to increase its recycling rounds, Lancaster will soon be one of the best local authorities in the country.

Lancaster has been very successful over the last year or so with recycling. We have recently won nearly £1 million from the Government to add extra areas to our initial trial round.

Labour has 16 councillors to the Green group's six. If they really are so keen on recycling, it would have been helpful if they had used their numbers to push the other groups to bring the new scheme in across the district more quickly instead of criticising it.

Cllr Jon Barry, Portland Street, Lancaster.