Council considers bulk buy energy scheme (From Oxford Mail)

I'm so glad my wages haven't gone up in line with inflation these last 8 years.

'County Wide' or just Cherwell?

Another bit of poor reporting by the OM or part of a devious plan for Banbury to take over the world?

So long as the scheme is made inclusive, to enable those on low incomes access to it (as they are more likely to face fuel poverty), I would strongly support such a move, which harks back to the very best of the old cooperative and mutual societies that genuinely used their market position for local gain and public advantage. However, as well as electricity and gas, the County (and the Districts acting together) should also be looking at the bulk buying of heating oil for those many residents who don't have direct gas supplies, for example. This is exactly the sort of measure that fits in with any reasonable vision of the 'big society', and efforts should be made to get local people with the necessary skills and knowledge to give their time and abilities for free to promote the scheme. What it mustn't end up being is a way of guaranteeing business to councillors' cronies, as so often happens, and proper safeguards will need to be set in place. The sort of scandal that has so grotesquely marred West Oxfordshire District Council (also under Mr Neudegg's far from benign guidance), with the fiddling of their accounts to cover up serious misconduct (happily discovered by the District Auditor - though the full story of the shennanigans that led to the illicit payment remains suppressed) has cast a long shadow over public confidence in the accountability and integrity of our council leaders, and council taxpayers will insist on independent oversight if a scheme of this nature is to gain public trust and "buy-in". To put it simply, the evidence shows that councillors cannot be trusted to 'police' themselves, and have perverted the 'scrutiny' function so far from its original purpose that it no longer does the job it was intended to do.

Moreover, all too many of Cherwell's recent initiatives (as with the reform of blue badge parking) have simply been ill-disguised money spinning measures that have left the disadvantaged significantly worse off and dislocated from the places they need to stop (not where the self-interested petty functionaries from Mr Neudegg down want them to park - i.e. away from the areas reserved for their business chums - who no doubt show their support in the traditional manner).

In conclusion, with those necessary caveats, I would urge council officers from the districts and county to develop a workable and transparent model to be quickly put out for public consultation, with a call for suitably vetted volunteers to form a Steering Committee structure free of commercial influence peddling by councillors, and to take this idea forward ASAP.