Councillor Mitchell’s claim that “Greens and lefties are responsible for cuts in social services” is bizarre.

The county council’s cuts in services to people with severe disabilities is entirely the responsibility of the Conservative Party at both county and national levels.

The basis of these nasty cuts is the reduction in government funding.

Councillor Mitchell asked for those cuts, supported those cuts, and is enforcing those cuts.

The Green Party and many others said that making large numbers of people unemployed in the midst of a deep recession would be bad for the economy and would increase the national debt.

We are being proved right; the national debt is rising dramatically, rising month by month, as is unemployment. Oxfordshire Green Party county councillors proposed amendments to the February budget that would have kept all the libraries fully staffed and open and would have added millions of pounds for social care.

The feasibility of our proposals was supported by the county finance officer.

Councillor Mitchell has spent his entire political career arguing for a “small state”, which just means fewer libraries, care workers, youth workers etc.

He is getting his wish but hundreds of hard-working people have been sacked, with more job losses to come and already thousands of people have had their services damaged.

CLLR LARRY SANDERS Green Group Oxfordshire County Council