D Wheatley (Letters, Chronicle, May 8) bemoans the pensioners' lot, in particular the council's collection charge of £25 for five bulky items of rubbish and lack of information on it.

If he had read Hounslow Matters, page 14, April 2008, he would have learned about it, namely that one free Tidy Town collection a year is available to those on, for example, pension credit. Some people had been exploiting the previous system, hence the need for reform.

The article also gives details of the Hounslow Furniture Recycling Project (020 8831 2225) under which furniture in good condition is collected free for re-sale to residents on low incomes. The council is pressured to increase recycling in order to reduce the disposal of waste as Labour's landfill tax is rising. (Hounslow Matters, February 2008).

Mr Wheatley is adept at omitting salient points. Scaremongering is unworthy apropos of day centres ("Cuts target the most vulnerable," Chronicle, May 1). As the council leader Peter Thompson says in that article "Home care services will not be cut and there will be no reduction in day care hours."

Initial problems of the new meals-on-wheels service (Pensioners' abysmal food regularly late," Chronicle, May 1) have been resolved and food is being delivered hot. On the Freedom Pass, one of Boris Johnson's pledges in his leaflets is to "Protect and extend the Freedom Pass for older Londoners, working with local councils who fund it to make it operational 24 hours a day."

Why have other issues affecting pensioners been omitted? What about Labour's abolition of the 10p tax band which is NOW causing hardship to thousands of pensioners, including many ladies, with no cast-iron guarantee of full redress for each of the 5.3 million affected?

What about the high tax on fuel plus the punitive rises in vehicle excise duty which affect pensioners with or without cars, as the increases percolate through to the cost of food in the shops? What about the closure of post offices (three in the constituency of Brentford and Isleworth in the latest list), a vital resource for pensioners?

It is the Labour Government which is "clobbering OAPs."

LIZ MAMMATT Engleheart Drive, Feltham.