Sir - How kind of county councillors David Robertson and Keith Mitchell to make the differences between political parties so glaringly obvious.

Anyone trying to do something about the appalling state of air pollution in Oxford, or in pushing for protection and safety for cyclists, will already know about the county council's awful record on such matters, but it is good of two senior Tory councillors to put it on record for us.

Mr Robertson refuses even to countenance a scheme of congestion charging - biased against anything which would restrict the rights of drivers to pollute as much as they possibly can.

At the same time, the county council continues to frustrate attempts by city councillors to increase the amount of cycle parking in the city centre, thereby discouraging residents from switching to a healthier, non-polluting travel alternative.

This Liberal Democrat and Conservative administration has been absolutely deaf to any call for improvement in air pollution in Oxford, as can be seen by their reaction to the latest joint review of the matter - and they don't seem to have any alternative solutions.

Their answer is to continue with the status quo and hope the problem goes away.

I'm afraid that just will not work.

I also find it interesting that the Liberal Democrats seem content for Mr Mitchell to address these questions, despite the fact that he represents a political group with NO councillors in Oxford.

It seems that on the county council, the Liberal Democrats are the junior (and very silent) partners of the Conservative status quo.

This is disappointing, but hardly surprising given the record of all 'mainstream' parties on this issue.

The only politicians in Oxfordshire with a coherent and radical plan to deal with air pollution are the Greens.

I trust your readers will take this into consideration when choosing their county councillors in 2005.

MATT SELLWOOD (Councillor)

Deputy Leader

Green Group

Oxford City Council