Sir – Keith Mitchell is foolish to compare the democracy of the county council with that of Bodicote Parish Council (Letters, December 22). What he calls ‘the county council’s … democratic decision to allow the diversion’ of the public paths at Bodicote Mill was taken by the council’s planning and regulation committee on February 15, 2010, after a vote (13 to two on party lines) and with encouragement from Mr Mitchell who attended the meeting.

By contrast the Bodicote Parish Council was challenged a few months later by electors at its annual open meeting (April 27) to oppose the diversion and, after consideration at two committee and two full council meetings, decided nem con to do so. (Two of those meetings were addressed by Mrs Weston, who lives at Bodicote Mill and wants the ancient path closed where it crosses her property.) Mr Mitchell says that I gave ‘active encouragement’ to this process which he calls ‘a clear case of a tiny tail wagging the dog’. This is rubbish. I knew nothing of the parish council’s proceedings until they were over when the council invited me to present its case at the public inquiry, which I did.

The council needed and received no encouragement from me.

In fact, it is hard to think of a more transparently democratic procedure than that employed by this locally elected body whose members, unlike Mr Mitchell, knew the paths in question intimately.

Mr Mitchell accuses me of being ‘economical with the truth’. This is a tired cliché and obviously he should think very carefully before using it again.

Chris Hall, Oxfordshire representative, Commons, Open Spaces and Footpaths Preservation Society Henley-on-Thames