In his letter to the Guardian on March 15, Conservative MP, Chris Grayling, suggested he was "setting the record straight." In fact he has done exactly the opposite!

All three Stoneleigh Ward Residents' Association councillors have been at the forefront of the campaign to stop Conservative-controlled Surrey County Council disposing of the Grade II-listed Mansion House in Nonsuch Park for commercial development'.

SCC also removed the administrative and operational control of Nonsuch Park and the Mansion House from the respected Nonsuch Park Joint Management Committee (JMC), which is comprised of representatives from both Epsom and Ewell Borough Council and London Borough of Sutton.

What Mr Grayling did not tell your readers is that ever since Surrey County Council purchased the freehold of Nonsuch Park at a very special concessionary price 70 years ago, the JMC has administered the Park and Mansion House and, through the local council taxes of both boroughs, it has funded every penny of the park and mansion house's upkeep during that entire time.

No wonder he omitted to inform your readers of that fact!

I was an invited speaker at the executive committee meeting on February 27, along with Mr David Smith, Chief Executive of Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, who is also clerk to the NPJMC, RA County Councillor Nigel Petrie MBE, and Sutton and Cheam's Liberal Democrat MP, Paul Burstow.

All four speakers urged the Executive Committee to reject the planned disposal of the Mansion House and return the administration and operational control of the Park and House to the JMC.

After a lengthy discussion in private, the executive committee voted unanimously to drop the proposed Mansion House sell-off, opting instead for a "two month consultation period" which will take the process just past the local borough council elections on May 3 2007 - how very convenient!

What is very disconcerting - and evidence of the Conservative-controlled County Council's duplicity is that nowhere in the minutes of this executive committee meeting was there any mention of the decision to drop the proposed disposal of the mansion house.

One thing is certain, Stoneleigh and Auriol Residents' Association (SARA) will continue to fight Surrey County Council's plans to sell off Mansion House, as vigorously as it will fight to restore the management and administration of the Park to the JMC - whether Mr Grayling likes it or not.

BILL SLAUGHTER Chairman, SARA