John Goddard does not provide all information he should in the figures he gives for councillors’ allowances (Issue, Oxford Mail, January 19).
He says that his allowance as a county councillor is about £8,000 (in fact, with his special allowance, it’s £8672) but he doesn’t mention that – like eight other councillors – he is also a city councillor, for which he gets an extra £6,481.
He also claims that things are “even more acute for... the leader of the council and the no more than nine others who are members of the cabinet”. He fails to mention that most members of the cabinet receive an extra £12,147 for their “special responsibility”, while county council leader Keith Mitchell gets an extra £23,528.
As Mr Mitchell notoriously said: “Everyone is in this together. Everyone will feel the pain”. But apparently our local councillors are exempt from feeling the pain.
Tony Augarde Carlton Road Oxford
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