YOUR money has been used to send ‘blatantly political’ letters to 60,000 households by Oxford City Council, it can be revealed.

Bosses at the Labour-run authority have shelled out £27,000 on the printing and distribution of the letters, which urge people to oppose changes that would see it abolished.

The move sparked an outcry from opposition councillors, who claimed taxpayers’ cash had been used to put across only one side of the debate.

The letters claim Oxfordshire County Council’s proposal for a ‘super council’ amounts to a ‘takeover of our city’ that could put at risk social housing, regeneration projects and community facilities.

Addressing residents, city council leader Bob Price writes: “A unitary county council would mean the city would no longer be in control of its own destiny... I am writing to tell you why I think this would be a disaster for Oxford and to ask you to join our campaign.”

But Andrew Gant, leader of the city Liberal Democrat group, yesterday said using taxpayers’ money to fund the letters was ‘undemocratic’.

He said: “This is a blatantly political campaign that uses the resources of the city council to only put across one side of the debate.”

Mr Gant admitted city councillors from Labour and the Green Party had last month voted by majority to oppose the super council plan, but added: “That does not give them carte blanche to use people’s money in this way.”

According to budget papers submitted on Monday, the city council has set up a £75,000 war chest to fight the super council proposals.

A spokesman said yesterday said it had so far spent £31,377 on its ‘Hands off Oxford City’ campaign, which encourages people to sign a Change.org petition.

This included the cost of the letters mailed out, with £23,869 spent on distribution and £3,300 spent on design and printing.

The council also disclosed it had spent £4,208 on adverts placed in the Oxford Mail and its sister title The Oxford Times in recent weeks.

It was in addition to £100,000 already spent last year on a report looking at options for a council shake-up.

Councillor Ed Turner, city council deputy leader, said it was in response to the £200,000 ploughed into ‘propaganda’ by Oxfordshire County Council about the super council plans.

Mr Turner said: “We are running our campaign to protect Oxford on a shoestring, to safeguard services; our latest budget proposes no cuts in frontline services at the same time that the county council is busy closing day centres and children’s centres because it says it has no money.

“The best thing would be for the county council to end its costly and unnecessary bid to take over other councils and focus on doing the job it is meant to be doing.”

A county council spokeswoman said: “A year ago the city council backed a campaign for unitary government in Oxfordshire. Now they have launched a campaign to persuade residents two tier local government is better after all. No wonder residents are confused.”