Sir -- When six Tory county councillors attack me in your columns (Oxford Mail, August 27), I know I must be doing something right.

This time it is about the stark fact that as rural bus subsidies increase, rural bus usage declines, and it is my commonsense view that we should not keep throwing good money at them.

I have stated this view openly and consistently for three years.

How on earth can a Tory-led council force up our council tax by more than seven times the rate of inflation over the past two years, yet persist with this failed, expensive policy?

Council officers reported two years ago that against a 24 per cent increase in subsidies, there had been a 1.7 per cent increase in bus usage.

Yet still the rural Tories pursue these policies, and they are able to do that by attacking urban services.

The closure of Oseney Court old people's home in Oxford to save £410,000 on a £93m budget was one such attack.

The last four elderly people's homes to close in this county have all been in Oxford. We have also seen the closure of our middle schools, and the failure to maintain our footpaths and towpaths, yet we have an elaborate system of maintaining bridlepaths in the rural areas.

This is compelling evidence of a rural majority imposing policies on an urban minority.

But when a representative of that urban minority points out the unfair allocation of resources, he, or she, is to be condemned as a rural wrecker. I will have none of it and would welcome an independent public inquiry into this misuse of public funds.

JOHN POWER (Councillor)

Oxfordshire County Council

Ferry Hinksey Road

Oxford