Sir, The Lib Dem pledge to introduce garden waste collection from every home in Oxford (Report, May 12) is not worth the paper it's written on. The Greens had already extracted an agreement from the Labour-run council to do this in the three-year budget settlement of February 2005. It now looks as if the Lib Dems will not deliver on the doorstep collection of plastics, also planned last year.

It is difficult (no, impossible) to see how they will increase the level of recycling without limiting the amount of normal landfill waste, or if they do not have some sanction, such as fines for those who persistently refuse to recycle. The pledge should read: "Lib Dems promise to scale back city recycling plans".

As a consequence of the Lib Dems go-slow on recycling, Oxford's citizens face an unwelcome choice between (a) fines from the government for sending too much waste to landfill, and (b) the prospect of an incinerator within Oxford's city boundaries neighbouring district councils will certainly not want it.

An incinerator will produce toxic pollution from its chimney and in its ash. Incineration undermines recycling and, contrary to the noises that are sometimes made about getting heat or power from the process, produces little usable energy.

We fear that the Lib Dems are secretly sympathetic to incineration as the lazy option: last year Oxford Friends of the Earth surveyed all county council candidates concerning incineration. The response from Lib Dem candidates was telling: 49 didn't bother to respond, 16 responded without expressing an opinion, three openly supported incineration, and only four (out of their total of 72 candidates) opposed it.

John Coleman, Oxford North Green Party