I REALLY do not understand how Gavin Smithers has the cheek to attack me through your Letters Page (June 27).

He states: "If democracy in Redditch is not to be made a laughing stock we cannot tolerate this sloppiness."

He should know it is the Conservative Party who have made democracy in Redditch a laughing stock by their single issue campaigns, their failure to hold the Redditch Labour Party to account and bandwagon politics - all of which left them humiliated at the polls.

It is the Independents who have taken Labour to task on many local issues. The Conservatives are an opposition in name only.

My entire campaign costs were paid out of my own pocket, and yes, it's true a small number of leaflets were delivered containing the incorrect date.

The Labour Party was delivering leaflets on May 3 urging people to vote Labour on June 5, yet we hear absolutely nothing from Gavin.

If Mr Smithers wishes to pay for and deliver leaflets for residents of Lodge Park, then good luck to him.

They want action not words and I would rather get on with keeping the promises I made during the campaign.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the residents of Lodge Park and Lakeside who have supported my campaign for a community centre.

I will continue to lobby the county council because it is a facility that is desperately needed and sadly lacking at present.

May I also set the record straight - I am not a member of any political party and firmly believe that party politics has no place in local government.

I was an Independent candidate who was offering the electorate a real choice, and Gavin is showing how worried the Conservative Party is of an Independent contesting the Lodge Park Ward council seat in 2002.

So I will now have 11 months of smears and dirty tricks to look forward to just for standing up for my beliefs.

Scott Preston

Winyates Centre

Winyates