THE news that Essex County Council is to give a trial to a debt collection company that specialises in reclaiming unpaid library fines will come as a surprise to many readers of the Gazette.

The individual charges for late returns of books, CDs and DVDs are, at first glance, rather modest, yet they all add up.

For example, in 2010/11 alone, £648,341.69 was recouped in late fees from Essex's 73 libraries (for a breakdown of the figures, see pages 4 and 5).

The amount that the county council has not yet been able to reclaim is not known, because the authority said it was "not held".

Neither would the council tell the Gazette how much it was paying the debt collectors – a US firm called Unique Management Services – hiding behind the old defence that it is "commercially sensitive" information.

However, if we look over the other side of the Thames, we can see that Kent County Council is owed more than £100,000 in late fees – a figure likely to give us at least an indication of the scale of the problem in Essex.

With a lack of information about how much the council is owed it is difficult to judge whether this initiative will spend taxpayers' money wisely.

Where local authorities are facing significant cuts in funding from central government, any efforts to increase income should be welcomed.

However, such initiatives need to be implemented properly, otherwise the promise of additional income will come to nothing.

In this instance, only time will tell whether the money the council forks out on UMS will prove to be well spent.

THE concept of bestowing New Year's Honours on folk who work for the greater good of society in the name of the British Empire may seem a bit antiquated, but it's actually relatively new.

Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, or MBE, sounds old-fashioned now, belonging to a time when children began their school day with a rousing chorus of Rule, Britannia!

The system is in fact only four years older than Prince Philip.

Obviously Britain no longer has an empire in 2012, so the awards are perhaps misnamed, but let's put that to one side for now.

Perhaps in the future the Cabinet Office can look at rebranding, but right we should be looking at the most important point to emerge from all of this.

Three people from Brentwood and one from Billericay are to be invited to Buckingham Palace later this year to be recognised for years of effort in their fields of charity, counter-terrorism and teaching.

Our warmest congratulations go to each of you, from all at the Gazette.