Oxfordshire County Council has been branded a “slow coach council” for failing to publish its spending data.

Six months ago, local government secretary Eric Pickles wrote to all councils calling on them to open their files to make local government spending more transparent.

They have until the end of January to make all spending data over £500 available online.

But to date, less than half of all authorities have done so, including Oxfordshire County Council.

Mr Pickles said: “The slow coach councils only have a month to go before serious questions will be asked about what they’ve got to hide. The taxpayer has a right to see where their money is being spent, to point out waste and decide local priorities.”

Yesterday, Keith Mitchell, leader of the county council refused to answer the Oxford Mail’s questions and hung up, saying “not while I’m on my holiday”.

However in August, he wrote: “I am fully in favour of accountability to the public to show how national and local government spends the money we take from taxpayers.”

But Mr Mitchell also raised concerns about the £500 threshold. He said: “I’m not sure how we can make a listing of that size meaningful and I’m worried that our army of armchair auditors in Oxfordshire will be firing off so many questions that we will have to employ quite a few additional council officers to answer their questions.”

All other Oxfordshire councils have already published the required data.