I READ with interest the cancellation of local Walking Day events due to cost factors.

The bin collection day for Penketh is on a Friday and the bins are ticketed each year to inform us that they will be emptied on the day following Walking Day, Saturday.

So, not only do the refuse collectors get a paid day off, they get overtime the following day at enhanced rates.

What Walking Day has to do with Penketh (a three-mile distance from the walks) causing cancellation of the bin collection, obviously means that this traditional extra paid holiday given to all Warrington Borough Council employees is still alive and kicking.

When I worked for Warrington Borough Council from 1975 to 1993, all employees were given the day off as a paid holiday and for those who were required to work that day, they were allowed a paid day in lieu.

Now that Warrington has unitary status with a vastly increased number of employees, now including education and social services, is this extra day still paid to all employees over and above the annual holidays?

I am presuming this to be the case.

The day was often used, not to witness the walk, but for out- of-town shopping outings, or a trip to Blackpool etc (due to the traffic chaos in Warrington).

Could someone from the Borough Treasurers Department enlighten us, the council taxpayers of Warrington, as to the total cost of Walking Day purely in payroll terms.

The money saved, if employees were forced instead to use one of their annual holidays, would pay for an army of police for the Grappenhall Walking Day procession.

If nobody is willing to provide this data, then I'm sure that the information will be available to the Guardian via the Freedom of Information Act.

P SYMES

Penketh