Don Seale, the county council cabinet member for social and community services, is good at pointing out the damage the Labour Government is doing to people in Oxfordshire who need health or social care (Oxford Mail, March 22).

He ignores what he and his Conservative colleagues on the council are doing. They have passed a phoney budget with a huge hole in services for older people with severe disabilities.

They admitted removing £1m. They fund the rest with income they won't receive and efficiencies that can't be realised.

The cuts are bad the hidden ones are worse because they will be made without planning.

The Tories claim to save £1.5m by private companies providing residential and home care when the council won't pay the costs of inflation.

These companies won't provide services for which they are not paid. Who will pay?

The older people stuck in hospital waiting for a nursing home place; other patients waiting to get into hospital; those who will get less care than they need to stay safely in their own homes; the relatives who will be blackmailed into paying top-up fees.

They claim £792,000 in extra charges. Their arithmetic is wrong, the sum fictitious. They won't raise £200,000.

They count on saving £500,000 by using new technology to replace care workers, but haven't tested a single item and are unlikely to save a penny.

The Conservatives are up to their old tricks. They have always solved their budget problems on the backs of the poorest and neediest.

Compassionate Conservatism? Hah!

Larry Sanders Leader, Green Group Oxfordshire County Council