I WAS fascinated to see councillor John Tanner’s attack on our county council budget, which is to be debated today.

My fascination is based both on his cloud cuckoo view of the dreadful state of the national finances and the inevitable impact on local government spending but, more specifically, on his statement as to how the county Labour group would go about setting a budget.

He concludes by observing: “with only nine Labour councillors and 52 Conservatives we are unlikely to get the choice”.

I can tell Mr Tanner his group is absolutely guaranteed not to get the chance to amend our budget because the Labour group had failed to submit any budget amendments by the 9am deadline on Monday morning specified in the council’s constitution.

I have to ask, what happened to Labour’s budget for the county? It would seem it is as lost as Labour’s chance of remaining in power after the General Election!

Keith R Mitchell, Leader of the Council, County Hall, Oxford