I enjoyed Kate Morrison's double-page tribute to the history of Hollingdean depot and the hard graft of its workers, past and present (The Argus December 7).

I salute, too, the efforts of today's depot workers in trying to handle the rising tide of refuse we produce.

The article also made two important points.

First, that when it operated as a dump and an abattoir - which was when it also first had its own incinerator - it was on the outskirts of town. But then there was no infant school or busy, inner-city community clustered around it.

Secondly, it is a hard truth that every member of our throw-away society needs to take responsibility for the waste each one of us creates.

What a shame, then, that successive councils over the years never took the latter point to heart, choosing instead to ignore the problem of waste.

The current city council is trying to solve the problem by shoving it under the carpet. Meanwhile, it continues to ignore the former point, as it tries to force through plans to ship all our waste, via Hollingdean, to an incinerator in Newhaven.

We have a waste problem and landfill is running out, so we have to act. But no one has yet managed to explain why this means Hollingdean must suffer the consequences of the political failure to deal with it effectively.

Perhaps the honest answer is: "We have to build a dump at Hollingdean because we haven't got a better idea and it's too late to try anything else."

If the council had used focused public consultation on this issue in the past, rather than offering journalists from The Argus guided tours of its facilities in a bid to convince readers of the value of its plans, we wouldn't be in this mess.

-Maggie Clune, Brighton