FOR many people Martin Young does not cut the most sympathetic of characters, but once again he has managed to get the better of Oxford City Council, incurring more unnecessary cost to the taxpayer in the process.

As we report today, the council was forced into a climbdown after it tried to talk the talk over Mr Young’s eyesore of a property in Old High Street, but humiliatingly could not walk the walk.

We fully support the council in its bid to finally get that building either demolished or repaired because it is a blight on its neighbours. But the way this has backfired so spectacularly raises serious questions over the authority’s planning and legal departments again, following on as it does from the Castle Mill student flats fiasco.

Mr Young may well have played the system, but it is staggering that the council launched a prosecution against him almost two years after it was legally entitled to.

Having wasted £10,000 of our money in doing so, its refusal to apologise adds insult to financial injury.

To err is human and perfection for our council tax pound is too much to expect.

But this is a blunder too far and a very expensive one at that.