THERE is nothing inevitable about the millions of pounds of county council cutbacks. If they go through the residents of my division will lose Grandpont children’s centre, see their roads fall into further decay and witness more people sleeping on the streets.

If Labour was running things we would have already introduced a workplace parking levy in Oxford to help pay for bus subsidies.

We would have sold off much more county property.

We would have reduced the numbers of senior managers and cabinet members.

The problem is the County Cabinet wouldn’t recognise business transformation if it jumped up in their soup. When I first joined the county council the budget was nearly a £1 billion a year. In a few years, with growing demands, it will just be over half that.

The county council no longer runs most local schools. But even now Mr Cameron and his cronies in Parliament could reverse the cuts.

They could stop this devastating vendetta against local government in general and Oxfordshire in particular.

If they don’t, expect worse care for elderly people, fewer buses, no children’s centres and many more cuts besides.

In affluent Oxfordshire the Tories will preside over public squalor. The gap between the excessively rich and the rest of us will continue to widen.

Cllr JOHN TANNER (Labour)
City Councillor for Littlemore & County Councillor for Isis
Sunningwell Road, Oxford