I am sorry that county council leader Keith Mitchell found the letter to John Jackson from the Save Oxfordshire Libraries alliance, ambiguous.

To make our position precisely clear: Fifteen libraries have rejected the idea of applying to the Big Society Fund.

Two other communities were so afraid of losing their libraries that they felt they had to retain the option of applying to the fund if all else failed, but were still totally behind the campaign to keep a publicly-funded, county-wide service.

Dr Judith Wardle, Save Oxfordshire Libraries