JUST a fraction of money allocated to a controversial county council plan has been spent by councillors so far.

In February, the council agreed to set aside £945,000 in its budget for the Councillor Priority Fund.

Each of the council’s 63 councillors have been given £15,000 to spend in their divisions over a year, with residents who run groups encouraged to lobby members for funds. If required, they can roll that money over into next year’s to fund projects.

But it was criticised by Labour, with its councillor Laura Price saying it was as if the council had found the ‘magic money tree’.

So far £134,318.70 has been spent of the £945,000 kitty – about 14 per cent of the total.

The plan was introduced after the success of the county council’s Communities Fund.

Liz Leffman, the Lib Dem councillor for Charlbury, has been the keenest councillor so far. She has allocated £19,973.97 to six groups. Wychwood CE Primary School has been given £10,000 and West Oxfordshire Community Transport Limited has been given £5,000.

Mrs Leffman has also allocated £1,100 to Shipton under Wychwood Wild Garden and Woods and another £700 to Charlbury Day Centre. The Thomas Gifford Trust has been given £3,000.

West Oxfordshire Community Transport Limited has also been allocated £2,000 by Ms Price.

Helen Evans, who officially resigned as a Labour county councillor on Thursday, allocated £11,348 to groups in her former Iffley Fields and St Mary’s division. She allocated £5,000 to county council spending – which could be used on roads or other things owned and operated by the council.

Another £848 has been given to Oxfordshire Breastfeeding Support, £4,000 to Donnington Doorstep and £1,500 to the Bridging Donnington Over 50s Group.

Her successor – likely to be selected in October – will have £3,652 to spend until the start of the next financial year because the money is officially allocated to divisions, not councillors.

Jamila Azad, the Labour councillor for St Clement’s and Cowley Marsh division, has allocated the whole £15,000 amount for her 2018/19 budget towards financing a crossing for Morrell Avenue.

She said she will use the money with other funds with her fellow city councillor for St Clement’s, Tom Hayes, for that facility in the future.

And Liberal Democrat Jenny Hannaby, Grove and Wantage councillor, has so far allocated £13,628.

Of that, £7,628 will be allocated to spending on the county council project itself.

Another £1,100 will go to the Sweatbox Youth Centre and £5,000 to the Friends of Stockham School.

Amongst other notable contributions, the council’s leader, Ian Hudspeth, has so far allocated £6,454.

He has agreed to give £5,000 to the OurBus Barton project, which operates through his Woodstock division, and another £1,454 to the Woodstock Youth Centre.

When the policy was agreed by councillors earlier this year, Mr Hudspeth said: “It would be each councillors’ decision how their £15,000 would be spent. They know best what the priority is on their own patch.

“I am sure many will view highway maintenance and repair as important, but others might choose to put funding into community buses, libraries or children’s centres.”

His deputy, Judith Heathcoat, has given £1,000 to the Oxfordshire Play Association but has another £14,000 to give away.

Amongst other councillors’ spending, Suzanne Bartington, has given £5,000 to the Madley Park Residents’ Association and another £3,000 to the Witney Mills Cricket Club.

Other councillors who have a significant chunk to give away include Labour’s Sobia Afridi, who has allocated just £1,471 – with all of that going to Film Oxford.

When the plan was accepted to give the special fund to councillors, the council also agreed to implement a 5.99 per cent increase to council tax.

The Government announced at the end of 2017 that councils would be able to increase council tax by a maximum of 5.99 per cent after previously being told it would only be able to increase by 4.99 per cent.

A total of three per cent of the tax increase must be spent on adult social care under Government rules. The county council decided earlier this year that an extra one per cent would be spent on children’s social care.