Sir, Liberal Democrats are determined to make Oxford into one of the best recycling councils rather one of the worst.

John Tanner (Letters, September 15) implies that we are only doing what Labour would have done. He welcomes the Liberal Democrat extension of the green bag scheme across the city this month, omitting to mention that this would not have happened so soon under Labour's plans. His criticisms of our scheme, which is actually going to achieve more diversion of waste from landfill than Labour's, smack of desperation.

I have publicly thanked him for proposing and budgeting for the new scheme; can he not thank us for making it even better within the same budget? Labour wanted to impose wheelie bins on everybody, as well as fortnightly collections.

We listened to people's concerns and are offering special sacks instead to those properties who cannot cope with a wheelie bin, as well as a choice of size of bin. We have taken advice from other councils such as Cherwell and Eastleigh, among others, on how to advise residents on coping with fortnightly collections. Neighbouring Cherwell had an almost 90 per cent satisfaction rate with their scheme in a recent survey.

Am I being cynical in thinking that Labour do not want the scheme to succeed, just because they are not in the driving seat? There was cross-party consensus on the proposals before the May elections; let us keep it that way. We are open to any helpful suggestions from Labour or anyone else.

Jean Fooks, Liberal Democrat executive member for a cleaner city, Oxford City Council