I WANT to take issue with your correspondent’s comment that the Lib Dems had their ‘two pennyworth’ with their insistence on a consultation on future Unitary Government for Oxfordshire as a condition of supporting the county’s amended budget.

The Labour budget proposals offered us more time to find a long-term solution to OCC’s woes, but it is no more than a short term fix.

We all know that, unless there is a dramatic shift in Government thinking, we will all be back at the table managing the council’s finances inside 12 months. Recent history suggests that arguing with Westminster and our MPs is not going to persuade them that Local Government is seriously under-funded. Oxfordshire desperately needs its own solution – no-one else will provide one.

The new commitment to consult residents on unitary government for the county is, in the view of the Lib Dem group, the only idea which could fix the problems long term and save many, if not all of the services currently under threat.

That is why we insisted it should be part of the budget proposals. The LibDems ‘two pennyworth’ is potentially worth, in reality, many millions per annum and could save all those things we really care about once and for all.

Cllr RICHARD WEBBER
Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group
Oxfordshire County Council