FOR a number of years, area committees have distributed money locally, made planning decisions and served as a conduit for local people to the city council.

Now, shamefully, the Labour group has chosen to abolish them.

Even more shameful, however, is the waste of public money involved in their sham consultation on the issue.

As with so many consultations from the ruling group on the city council, it clearly existed simply to tick a box, rather than provide any meaningful opportunity for local people to have their say.

Labour proposes that the budget once held by area committees, and deliberated over in public, should now be given to individual councillors to spend in their areas.

Only 29 per cent of the public agreed with this idea, with 57 per cent disagreeing.

As for planning, Labour proposes setting up only two committees for the entire city, replacing the more localised area committees.

When asked about this, only 14 per cent of the public consultees agreed, with a massive 81 per cent disagreeing.

I asked the leader of the city council how he could justify ignoring this public reaction at the latest executive board meeting.

His reply ran to one sentence: “The reasons for the proposals are set out in the papers that are before the executive board.”

I wonder if he could tell us whether any level of public opposition would deter him. And, if not, what was the point of having a consultation in the first place?

MATTHEW SELLWOOD, Green Oxford city councillor 2004-8, London Road, Oxford