Sir – In your report (November 22) of the county council scrutiny committee meeting at which progress against energy saving targets were discussed, you correctly stated that I “launched a scathing attack on the council claiming the programme had failed”. In 2007, the county council staged an extravagant event for the press in Oxford Castle, complete with David Cameron and a large number of helium-filed balloons. Opposition members of council were not invited, but it was well covered by your paper and by TV. A target of 18 per cent energy savings within five years was announced. We have now been told that the council has actually reduced energy consumption by just seven per cent over that five-year period, measuring like-for-like against the original target. And during that same period, the number of employees of the council has reduced by at least 11 per cent. You would have to be particularly incompetent not to achieve some reduction in energy consumption with a reduction of that order in the number of people you have to accommodate.

In fact, on these figures, the energy consumption per employee of the council has actually increased during the last five years. That has to be described as a failure, by any standard. I wonder what Mr Cameron thinks of his county council’s achievements.

Alan Armitage, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Oxfordshire County Council