I MET a chap from Queensway the other day with a tale to tell about a fridge-freezer. He d recently bought a new one and, what with CFC gasses and the ozone layer and all, he thought he had better get rid of the old one in the correct manner. Who better t

I MET a chap from Queensway the other day with a tale to tell about a fridge-freezer. He'd recently bought a new one and, what with CFC gasses and the ozone layer and all, he thought he had better get rid of the old one in the correct manner. Who better to talk to than the local council? So off he goes to The Grange to arrange for it to be picked up. No problem, but there is a charge of £20. So, out comes a banknote and then he is told that the district council does not accept cash and it has to be a plastic transaction. This slightly miffed my acquaintance, as he didn't have any bank cards with him. Luckily his wife had hers and the deal was concluded. What really annoyed our friend, apart from the inability of the council to take money, was the 40p charge for using a bank card. Let's be fair, 40p is neither here nor there, but if you insist on something being done in a certain way and then penalise people for doing it that way something's wrong somewhere.