THE ennui-inducing General Election on June 8 must not be allowed to overshadow the crucial county poll five weeks earlier.

Oxford is facing an existential crisis. The wretched ‘One Council for Oxfordshire’ plan and the fate of Oxford City Council is now on the desk of a Tory cabinet minister, having been sent to him with the approval of all the Tory, Lib Dem and Labour county councillors facing re-election on May 4.

I’m appalled that the four Labour dual (city and county) councillors support a ‘Super Council’, especially as their city colleagues are bitterly opposed to it. Councillors Azad, Lygo, Pressel and (Gill) Sanders represent Oxford city seats and county divisions within Oxford. They have sold the city short.

Green leader David Williams (Oxford Mail, April 20) says that the opposition parties are not raising the issue on the doorstep. Of course not. They know how badly it plays in Oxford and Labour is concealing its divisions over this with some of its county candidates being pro-city. Let’s hear it from them!

It beggars belief that Oxford folk could soon find themselves living under a Tory-dominated unitary council in perpetuity, when we have not put a Tory in the Town Hall since the year 2000.

It is incumbent upon us, indeed our civil duty, to send the strongest message of opposition to the ‘Super Council’ plan. This means voting only for those candidates implacably opposed to it. Voting for those amongst them best placed to win. This issue transcends strict party politics. Oxford is more important than that.

JOHN GREEN
Risinghurst, Oxford