Sir – There is an ongoing debate nationally about the rate at which to cut public spending to achieve a more balanced budget. This gets reflected in the allocations central Government give to local councils each year.

At the cabinet meeting of Oxfordshire County Council, the provisional out-turn for last financial year revealed that there was an underspend of £3,844,000 last year in a total budget of £385,745,000 — ie the council didn’t even manage to spend all the money it had collected in taxes, Government allocations etc whilst it was imposing cuts.

I discussed this underspend with Sue Scane, the chief financial officer for the county, and she made a number of important points including the following ones (this is my interpretation of what she said, not a verbatim report): l In normal times an underspend is in some ways as bad as an overspend.

l We are not in normal times so the sooner the county can start to make the severe cuts needed the better, and the resulting carry-over to this year will help out when considering what cuts to make this year.

However, I beg to differ with Ms Scane. When a council sets its budget for the year, it decides what it wants to spend and sets its council tax accordingly. Residents expect it to spend that money as promised, otherwise the tax rate set should be lower.

It appears to me that the council is being over-enthusiastic in making the necessary cuts. I am sure that councillor Mitchell will ‘put me right’ in a subsequent letter to this newspaper, but I urge your readers to remember a quote by Paul Valery: “Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.” I think they also try to confuse rather than illuminate as well, sometimes!

Les Clyne, Abingdon