WHEN a parish council sent a strongly-worded protest to US President George Bush about opting out of the Kyoto agreement on climate change, they were amazed by the reply.

The response to Pateley Bridge Town Council, near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, was simply an empty envelope.

So the council, which represents 1,640 electors, responded with a piece of straight-talk.

Council clerk John Leggett, empowered to take on the superpower, decided there was no point in beating about the Bush.

Mr Leggett wrote: "We had hoped for a more substantive reply! Could you give me a copy of what was supposed to be in the envelope?"

Several days later, the response did arrive, via the American Embassy, in London.

But town councillor Stan Beer, who sparked the protest, was more annoyed by the response than the empty envelope.

"I was very disappointed when their reply did come," said Coun Beer. "I think we should have had an individual response."

Some people had told the council it should not have got involved in the first place, but Coun Beer said there was considerable backing to make the voice of the minnow heard in the US corridors of power.

He won local support for his stance from US neighbours working at the nearby Menwith Hill intelligence station, now at the centre of the Son of Star Wars missile row.

The US answer to Pateley's anger about Mr Bush's decision to ditch the Kyoto agreement on reducing emissions consisted of statements by Christie Whitman, administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Mr Whitman pointed out Mr Bush had said the treaty would have adversely affected the US economy while exempting developing countries, including India and China, from taking action over emission reduction targets