Martin,
Thanks for the reply.
I probably was fixing the problem the 'hard way' but the last time I used WinSCP with these sites there was no 'recycle bin'.
As I did not wish to risk changing something which 'breaks' the current setup I did not edit the settings for the sites.
(I visit the sites very infrequently, approx 1 times per 12-18 months)

I really should spend a little time getting up to speed with the latest version of WinSCP. :)

If the original question is confusing or with hindsight is a 'non-problem, due to PEBCAK' please feel free to delete it. :)

I'm not sure what you were trying to achieve. The "Delete to recycle bin" is disabled by default.

Did you want to change the settings of your stored sites (which have the option enabled)? Do it in the GUI.

Or did you change the defaults? You can change the default in GUI too:
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/ui_login#defaults

If you set DeleteToRecycleBin=0 WinSCP deletes the 2 lines itself from the .INI when next read in by WinSCP !!!

Indeed, because DeleteToRecycleBin=0 is the default, so it is not stored in the INI file. After all, that's why the deleting of the setting did what you want, because 0 is the default.

I know it is bad form to reply to my own question .... but figured out how to do it, once I had posted the question. :)

Exported the configuration to an .INI file and edited the appropriate session(s) as follows:
Delete the lines:

(FYI: If you set DeleteToRecycleBin=0 WinSCP deletes the 2 lines itself from the .INI when next read in by WinSCP !!!)

Import the .INI back into WinSCP or use /INI commandline option.

i.e. winscp.exe /ini="C:\Users\martin\Documents\myconfig.ini"

Is it possible to stop the default use of a recycle bin when deleting files on a remote system.

I know you can use ctrl-shift with delete command but would prefer not to have the recycle bin at all.

Thanks for your assistance.