As the target of the latest Mike Lyon broadside (letters, October 12), I reserve my right to reply to a letter which truly exposes his true colours and contradicts what both he and the Liberal Democrats have been claiming for the past two years.

Our campaign has been positive from day one. I believe it was always a positive thing to expect of a council to respond by giving us a decent rubbish collection service.

Mr Lyon would perhaps be taken more seriously if he were asking his Liberal Democrat colleagues why they have spent the last 24 months in denial, telling residents it would cost £750,000 and thereby frightening them into believing essential services would be under threat because of it.

If Mr Lyon wants to pontificate on the war on waste, perhaps he should channel his energies into a war on the waste of council taxpayers money.

The most revealing parts of his letter, however, come when he states that when he was a councillor, no party ever suggested council officers provided flawed data. Well his party the Lib Dems is doing just that right now.

It is, as usual, passing the burden of blame and then plans to hoodwink the public in a couple of months time with a whitewash of an inquiry which will not be conducted by an outside source.

His intolerance of any other mode of thinking is further exposed when he openly states that snoopers were employed to check green bins, something the council had always denied, less larger bins should be distributed (never mind more than 4,000 households have been waiting months for something they want).

And most breathtaking and arrogant of all, that those unfortunates who have to use black sacks because the frequency of collections is still inadequate should not have their rubbish collected!

All this from a caring, environmentally friendly Liberal Democrat makes me realise how lucky we were to have won our battle just in time.

DAVID J PICKLES

Chairmanof Sutton Campaign on Wheelie Bins