UNDER Tory leader, Ian Hudspeth, the County Council is in a complete mess. Council tax is up by a record five per cent this year but services are getting worse and worse. Bus subsidies, libraries and centres for young and old, are threatened or gone completely. 

On May 4 we all have a chance to make things better for social care, support for our schools, and the state of the roads. The pot holes, broken street lights, and faded road markings are a disgrace in one of the richest counties in Britain. 

County Hall is in in trouble because the Tory Government is constantly cutting its grant. There is not enough cash to care for the elderly, people with disabilities and children in need. Cllr Hudspeth is taking money from the roads budget in a futile attempt to prop up social care. 

He has failed to make the business efficiencies long ago put in place by the Labour-run Oxford City Council. I hope all your readers will use their vote in the County Council elections and use it wisely. Another four years of Cllr Hudspeth is the road to ruin. 

Cllr JOHN TANNER (Labour)
Littlemore ward and Isis division
City Council Board Member for a Clean and Green Oxford
Sunningwell Road, Oxford