CHRIS Robbins has his facts wrong about the Liberal Democrat position on the incineration of Oxfordshire’s waste (Oxford Mail, February 3).

When we were in a joint administration with the Conservatives, although we were the junior partner, we managed to have some influence over the administration’s policies.

It was due to councillor Anne Purse’s determination that no particular technology should be prescribed that the ‘technology neutral’ procurement process was agreed.

Had she not persisted with this approach, members of both Labour and the Conservatives would have been happy to require only incineration.

Ms Purse also, along with Lib Dem colleagues, proposed that the solution adopted should be the one with least environmental impact.

As portfolio holder on the city council, I too proposed that the best environmental option should be the one chosen.

I and my city colleagues supported a motion vowing to oppose any application which would damage the health of Oxford’s residents.

As a matter of fact, the only technology offered to the county council by any applicant was energy-from-waste or incineration.

Since the procurement process began, new evidence has emerged suggesting that there could be hitherto unexpected damage to health and the environment from incineration.

That is why Liberal Democrats at the county council called for an independent assessment of the risks before any final decision was taken. Regrettably this call was refused. To rely only on the statutory bodies seems unreasonable to us.

The public needs to know that the county council takes their health and the county’s environment rather more seriously than appears at present JEAN FOOKS, Oxfordshire County Councillor, County Hall, Oxford