The Insider (From Oxford Mail)

The Insider

4:04pm Wednesday 31st October 2007 in

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Staying true to her working class roots, city councillor Jane Lacey has just returned from a trip to the Big Apple.

And she must have clocked up some air miles - it was her second trip to New York this year.

But this latest trip was something of a bonus.

Earlier this year, while returning to Luton in first class on executive airline Silverjet, Mrs Lacey, the Independent Working Class councillor for Northfield Brook, was overheard complaining that her soup was cold.

Luckily for her the man who overheard her protestations was none other than Silverjet CEO Lawrence Hunt who gave her two free tickets for her inconvenience.

She also met former heavyweight boxing world champion Lennox Lewis while she was in town, so a successful trip all round we'd say. Vive le proletariat!

It is well documented that Oxford City Council is struggling to plug a £5.2m black hole in its budget.

But residents can sleep easy, safe in the knowledge that no stone will be left unturned in the Town Hall's hunt for extra savings.

Finance chiefs have clearly heeded the old proverb 'if you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves' and identified a bumper £25 saving to be had from taking a 'selective look at supplies and services' ... so that's the paperclips gone next year then.

Hands up who said the city council couldn't deliver value for money?

Sharon Cosgrove, the city council's leisure supremo, deserves a pat on the back for cycling to work - especially in a fetching hat - and we only wish more would follow her lead.

However, we feel it only right to point out that cycling in Cornmarket Street is a risky business and one that could even lead to a fixed penalty fine from the police at certain times of the day.

We only know it was Ms Cosgrove because yours truly cycled past her at the time.

Whoops!

Talking of which Craig Simmons, the pro-cycling Green city councillor, was overheard revealing some startling information after a meeting in the Town Hall this week.

As he was about to make his way home in the pitch dark (on bike), he let slip he had forgotten his lights.

Tut, tut indeed Craig. We hope you walked back to East Oxford.

Full marks to Antonia Bance, the lefty Labour city councillor, who completed the triple crown of attending the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative party conferences this year (for work).

After that, she fully deserved a short break in Istanbul, Turkey.

The trouble is, she didn't. Her holiday was marred, in part, by "constant harassment".

Lucky thing.