I was very pleased when I arrived home to find a new recycling box on my front path.

All too soon, my pleasure was turned to disappointment when I found out the scheme was only going to recycle paper and does not include cardboard.

For about two years, I have regularly contacted the recycling department to ask how to get rid of cardboard.

The bin for it at Preston Park, Brighton, was removed over some whinge about traders abusing it. "We are about to organise a kerbside collection" was the proud boast I was fed more than 15 months ago.

Well, it seems Brighton and Hove City Council hasn't even managed to keep that promise.

What about other recyclables - bottles, cans, batteries, foil and plastics? How long do we have to wait before we get those collected?

Council publicity states 2004 for 20 per cent of household waste. Is it worth placing odds on this being achieved? I doubt it.

I guess I will have to go on shelling out for Magpie to collect these items.

Presumably its business will be adversely affected by the council's scheme. Why does the council not take Magpie under its wing and build on their experience rather than launch a competing scheme? And why should it be the conscientious recycler that pays for Magpie while the wastrels get off scot-free?

I am extremely disappointed by this half-hearted attempt by the council to take up its responsibilities.

Please don't let's see lots of self-congratulatory publicity for this pathetic scheme in the council's smug City News.

And let's not have any holier-than-thou lectures on the right way to deal with waste. We citizens have been telling the council for years.

-Ian Lawes, Waldegrave Road, Brighton