LIBERAL Democrat Cllr. David Harrison’s selective, misleading and bad tempered remarks directed at New Forest District Council (Letters, March 3) does him no credit whatsoever.

Examining just two or three of his criticisms shows just how out of touch he and what is left of the Liberals in the New Forest really are.

NFDC has no “debts” arising from the so-called slippery floors issue. Nor is it true to say that the council has a poor record on recycling.

In fact, it has one of the highest rates of recycling in Hampshire.

Other councils appear to out-perform us only because they have taken measures to reduce residual waste such as cutting back on the weekly rubbish collections, reducing the size of wheelie bins and refusing to collect bins where lids are not closed.

Only eight per cent of municipal waste in Hampshire goes to landfill and NFDC is among the best performing authorities in the country.

To take one more example from Cllr Harrison’s list of scurrilous aspersions, he wrongly accuses the council of refusing to pay staff a living wage.

Actually NFDC decided that this matter should be further considered by the Industrial Relations Committee.

It is certainly not something to be settled by a last-minute off-the-cuff decision at an annual budget meeting.

Far from New Forest District Council – independently assessed as doing an excellent job – being let down by the Conservatives, the let-down centres on unfounded remarks from a dysfunctional rump of an opposition which seeks to gain political advantage by blackening NFDC’s reputation and that of its hard-working staff.

I doubt if this negative approach will find favour with the voters.

CLLR. DI BROOKS, Totton (Conservative)