Magento local.xml head updates not working

Question

I'm using Magento CE 1.9.2.2 and I thought I was getting the hang of using a local.xml file to add/remove/update items from layout files but I've gotten stuck trying to update the head css/js from page.xml.

If I make the changes directly to page.xml in my package then it works fine. But if I move the changes to my local.xml file and remove page.xml the changes in local.xml have no effect. My local.xml is located here:
app/design/frontend/{MY_PACKAGE}/default/template/layout/local.xml

Other changes in local.xml for different pages work fine.

The working code in my page.xml would look like this(only showing relevant code):

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="0.1.0">
    <default translate="label" module="page">
        <block type="page/html" name="root" output="toHtml" template="page/3columns.phtml">
            <block type="page/html_head" name="head" as="head">
                <action method="addCss"><stylesheet>css/style.css</stylesheet><params>media="screen"</params></action>
                <!--<action method="addJs"><script>scriptaculous/builder.js</script></action>-->
            </block>
        </block>
    </default>
</layout>

The code I'm using in local.xml is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<layout>
    <default>
        <reference name="head">
            <action method="addCss"><stylesheet>css/style.css</stylesheet><params>media="screen"</params></action>
            <action method="removeItem"><type>js</type><name>scriptaculous/builder.js</name></action>
        </reference>
    </default>
</layout>

Am I missing something obvious here?

Answer 1

Replace your code in file local.xml

from

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<layout>
    <default>
        <reference name="head">
            <action method="addCss"><stylesheet>css/style.css</stylesheet><params>media="screen"</params></action>
            <action method="removeItem"><type>js</type><name>scriptaculous/builder.js</name></action>
        </reference>
    </default>
</layout>

To

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="0.1.0">
    <default>
        <reference name="head">
            <action method="addCss"><stylesheet>css/styles.css</stylesheet><params>media="screen"</params></action>
            <action method="removeItem"><type>js</type><name>scriptaculous/builder.js</name></action>
        </reference>
    </default>
</layout>

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