REFERENCE ?Sort it out before next Christmas? (Letters, January 12): As pointed out in the letter, households in West Devon whose refuse day is a Friday were asked to keep their Christmas rubbish for an extra week this year. In response to Mr Crofton?s question why the refuse service does not gear up to meet demand at Christmas by employing extra staff as do retail and entertainment businesses, there are two reasons. Firstly, the large additional tonnage of refuse we create at Christmas results in extra cost for the council taxpayer, not increased income. Secondly, the number of vehicles and contractors? staff devoted to the service cannot be increased for a week a year without further increased costs. Household refuse collected has to be disposed of on the same day. It cannot be stored by the council that collects it and it cannot be accumulated in skips in public places awaiting future collection. Ongoing public health is the prime reason for this. Refuse collected in West Devon is hauled via Crowndale in bulk lorries each working day either to Newton Abbot or into Cornwall for disposal at landfill. The landfill sites operate all year round, including weekends, but are not licensed to operate on Bank Holidays. Therefore refuse cannot be collected on those days and clearly there has to be some form of catch-up on a different date. We do appreciate that our practice does cause inconvenience for some residents and we do issue advice each Christmas to minimise the problem. Finally, with the Christmas Bank Holidays being on different days each year the inconvenience may not fall on the same residents every year. Jill Skelton Waste Contracts Manager West Devon Borough Council