AS one of the Labour councillors who attended the dinner with Gordon Brown (Oxford Mail, February 22), I would like to make some points in response: Councillors who chose to attend the dinner paid for it entirely out of their own money.

I myself only decided to attend the dinner when I had seen the area committee agenda and knew that there were no Marston-specific items on the age nda. Had there been, I would not have attended the dinner.

Labour councillors value the north east area committee and have a high attendance record. It is ironic that it is the Lib Dems who criticise us. After all it was one of their number, Lib Dem councillor Patrick Murray who failed to turn up to five consecutive north east area committee meetings last year.

It is nonsense to claim that Labour councillors do not care about local democracy.

While area committees form an important part of local democracy, they form only a small part of a councillor’s work on behalf of the people they represent. We hold surgeries all year round, and deal with a heavy load of email and written correspondence as well as attending meetings with local police, residents and parish councils.

It is often through this more low profile work that we achieve the most improvements for our voters and engage with the greatest number of them, rather than in wider public forums.

Mary Clarkson, Marston Ward, Oxford City Council