So, Bob Price, leader of the city council, and his Labour administration colleagues are ignoring public opinion, and that of the opposition groups on the council, by abolishing area committees (Oxford Mail, April 13). No change there then.

Remember this is the same group that has shown contempt for the public before by totally ignoring a huge 10,500-name petition to save Temple Cowley Pools and who were responsible for the cancellation of an area committee to attend a beano with has-been Gordon Brown.

To add insult to injury, proposals to abolish area committees, award funds to councillors to spend as they wish, reduce accountability, and take away planning from the local areas are all introduced under the heading “democratic changes”.

No-one is fooled, councillor Price. These changes are being introduced to increase Labour’s stranglehold on the council, and to reduce contact with the nasty public, all under the guise of efficiency and cost saving, which is doubtful and I have yet to see evidenced. Representatives of parish councils and residents’ groups attend area committees regularly.

They do so on a voluntary basis in their own free time.

Councillors, on the other hand, receive an allowance, often inflated by special responsibility allowances, in order to represent their wards.

Perhaps in their quest for cost-efficiency, councillor Price and his colleagues should ask themselves if they, as individuals, are giving value for money in abolishing area committees, currently a prime interface between councillors and the public they represent (and who pay their allowances).

I must comment on the arrogance of councillor Price when he considers the results of the consultation as not being a fair representation of public opinion.

He suggests people had a vested interest in maintaining the current committees.

Absolutely right, that interest is called democracy.

Perhaps the Labour administration should get their dictionaries out and see what democracy means. Robert Mugabe would be proud of them.

Peter Wilkinson, Thames View Road, Rose Hill