AS a citizen of Blackburn who "does my bit" by recycling as much as possible through my local council collections, I was astounded to be told that I could only use my recycling centre for one visit per month.

As my husband and I use a small works van (Astra) for private use, we have to obtain a permit from the council to declare that what we are disposing of is domestic waste and not commercial fair point.

This I did online on Tuesday evening on the council's website.

I had no reply within the three days as advised, so I rang the centre on Saturday morning to confirm that I could use the confirmation page that I had printed off.

My husband and I then had a good clearout in the garage and shed he is an excellent hoarder, loaded up the van and off to the recycling centre we went only to be told that anyone using a permit could only use the centre for one visit in the month.

I pay my council tax in full each month with no discounts for any reason, but when it comes to "being green" and recycling for which we are always encouraged to do by our council, I can only visit the centre once.

As we were unloading our waste into the various skips, there was a people carrier next to us with the seats in the down position unloading at least twice as much rubbish as ourselves.

What is the reason behind anyone with a permit, who pays full council tax, only being permitted to use the centre for only one visit per month?

This permit is valid for one month what's the point of that?

Maybe if the staff were a little more attentive in their work and actually checked what people were disposing of, there might be no reason for a permit in the first place!

This procedure in my view, is encouraging fly-tipping, exactly what the council is trying to combat. I was very tempted to dump my waste on the Town Hall steps.

Maybe a better option would be an ID car and a scanner for vans at the centre to prove that they are from a private address disposing of domestic waste.

JANE WINTER, Alderney Close, Livesey, Blackburn.