Sir – Instead of providing the services Oxford residents need and doing that economically and efficiently, our administration is prioritising reducing costs of a few hundreds of thousands of pounds.

It will then spend £9m on a prestige ‘white elephant’ project, the proposed Blackbird Leys Pool, something very few Oxford residents, even those in Blackbird Leys itself, would prioritise.

In a city with a critical need of affordable housing we leave city-owned housing blocks like Grantham House and Newman Court empty for years before selling them off. We continue selling off council-owned houses.

We own 44 fewer housing units this year. The new plans for Westgate promise fewer houses but more shops.

Despite increasing rat incidents, we have privatised the pest control services. Many public toilets are closed, others close early. One hundred council workers have been made redundant. Those that are left are expected to cover those gaps in proper service.

The Labour administration would like to blame all this on the National Coalition cuts but the reality is that they have held back many more millions than required, as contingency funds. The reserves now stand at £5.2m. This is on an annual spend of £28m. Most local authorities keep seven to eight per cent in reserves, ie about £2.3m — not 20 per cent as we are doing.

Now that we will recover the £3.7m that was held by banks in Iceland, can we not put some of our over £10m reserves into building affordable and environmentally-friendly housing close to the city centre in the Westgate and the West End and save £6m of that £9m by just upgrading environmentally Temple Cowley Pool?

This will be the best investment for the future and support an environmentally-skilled building force in the city.

Nuala Young, Oxford