IGATHER that I was not the only aggrieved householder to have telephoned the county council offices last week to find an outlet for my wrath at the sudden arrival of a height restriction bar across the entrance to the domestic waste disposal site in Wycombe. The facility is called High Heavens. I have never yet been able to ascertain whether it was called that before it was chosen to be the lucky recipient of our rubbish or afterwards. In either case I detect the mischievous hand of a kindred spirit in the mists of local history.

I am a regular visitor to the tip. We have four children, an elderly pony and goats. Between them waste is generated beyond the capabilities of our wheely bin and every week I load the back of our Shogun with black plastic bags and head off towards High Heavens.

I did so last week and found that a metal bar had been erected over the entrance five feet nine inches above the ground.

I am not alone in not liking it. The contractors who pay the council for the privilege of operating the site do not like it as they are in the front line and have to deal with the wrath of 4x4 owners like myself, who acquired their vehicles partly because they are ideal for the conveyance of large plastic bags of rubbish to the tip.

I learned that one man who rang the council offices to complain was told that he would just have to buy a vehicle with a lower roof - and presumably take the environmentally friendly approach of making five return journeys instead of one! Another suggested to the official supervising the installation of the bar that an increase in fly tipping would be the inevitable result if there was no legal place to dispose of rubbish.

The aforesaid jobsworth replied that as that was not his department - it was no skin off his nose.

I saw one elderly gentleman park his Discovery outside the facility and carry a series of heavy items up the ramp into the site, admittedly with the assistance of the very helpful contractors' staff.

This is apparently acceptable. We can park our vehicles 50 yards away and carry our rubbish to the skips.

Yet again the sledgehammer and the nut find themselves in close proximity. And the sledgehammer gets bigger and is wielded with ever decreasing accuracy.

I telephoned the waste manager at Aylesbury. His ability to deal with my questions, it appeared, had been made easier with practice in the few days since operation limbo driving had been initiated.

He reminded me of the £15 million shortfall in the Bucks Budget. He had been instructed to save £100,000 per annum by reducing the level of service.

Trade waste attracts a charge to the tipper, so many tradesmen avoid the charges by tipping in the domestic waste sites using transit vans and the like.

The 4x4 drivers have quite simply been swept up in the transit net, designed to catch the recalcitrant trade tippers.

I pointed out that I have been prevented from using a service for which I pay Council Tax (or whatever this week's name for 'rates' is). I was, he suggested, now in the same position as all those ratepayers who have no cars at all.

As always in these situations I was talking to the man charged with the responsibility of implementing a policy formulated by others and with which he may or may not have personal sympathy. It is our elected representatives who have taken this decision.

Anyone sharing my frustration should write forcibly to Councillor Rowlands at County Hall rather than succumb to the beguiling temptation of depositing their rubbish on the steps of County Hall together with instructions as to where it should be put.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.