Cllrs Chris Naylor and James King should be ashamed of their letter last week (Housing programme account inaccurate, H&H letters October 9). Their response to my assessment of housing and community safety policy (View from the chamber, H&H October 2) was

Cllrs Chris Naylor and James King should be ashamed of their letter last week (Housing programme account inaccurate, H&H letters October 9). Their response to my assessment of housing and community safety policy (View from the chamber, H&H October 2) was a barrage of inaccurate political mud-slinging which does nothing to help residents.

I really don't like juvenile tit-for-tat, but the inaccuracies and innuendos peppering their letter require a response. For example, Cllr Naylor refers to the Kiln Place heating system. It is absolutely clear that this would not have been fixed had myself, Cllr Lulu Mitchell and Cllr Keith Sedgwick not insisted on it being top priority.

Residents had already been waiting 10 years when we got involved on our election. We attended numerous meetings at which the project plan was gone over to make sure it happened as fast as possible.

Cllr Naylor has a cheek to mention leaseholder charges. Lulu, Keith and I aggressively lobbied to have leaseholder charges waived, reduced or defrayed in this special case. What Cllr Naylor forgot to mention in his letter was that the person who refused these repeated requests was... Cllr Naylor!

It's also rum to blame the previous council for poor repairs when Cllr Naylor has been running the department for two and a half years. At what point does he propose to accept responsibility?

Their letter also mentioned the new street wardens in Gospel Oak, which are very welcome. I'm the first to say "thank you and well done" when it's due, irrespective of party politics. But they did not find space in their letter to mention that it was their colleague who ran the department which cut the funding for Queen's Crescent Community Centre in Gospel Oak, potentially increasing the ASB problem.

My advice to Cllrs Naylor and King is to concentrate on fixing these very real issues (I am happy to help) rather than slinging mud. Politics should be about helping our neighbours, not personally attacking members of other parties.

Cllr Chris Philp

(Cons) Gospel Oak Ward