I've only just moved to Bath, and I'm already being an annoying free software weirdo! Here's my email to Bath & North East Somerset Council:

Hi, please find attached my Direct Debit form for my Council Tax.

I noticed that the form was in the MS-Word format. Unfortunately this is a proprietary format that requires software from Microsoft to handle it properly. I don't have the Microsoft software but I managed to decipher it! I've also sent my reply in the Microsoft format (although I may not have been able to mimic their doc format accurately), and I've also sent my reply in the Open Document Format. This is an open format, and so can be read with a variety of word processors, such as LibreOffice or OpenOffice.

Can I make the suggestion that BANES publish their documents in an open format so that users have a choice of word processors to use, and aren't tied to a single supplier (Microsoft)?

Btw, I'm publishing this email on my blog, and hope to publish your reply, so let me know if that's not okay.

Thanks,

Tony.