In the case of the Peers/Academy wheeze, a coterie of rural Tories, with no representation in Oxford, privatises our local school.

In the case of the Peers Sports Centre, a coterie of north/north-east Oxford Lib Dems, with no representation in south-east Oxford, seeks to close a much-needed facility here.

Not a single councillor behind either decision can be held directly accountable for them.

There is a huge democratic deficit in this city which must be addressed.

Both consultations were a sham. The academy idea has generated little enthusiasm - indeed a majority of the few who expressed an opinion were opposed to it.

Doubtless the consultation over Rose Hill Primary will be equally bogus and the diocese will end up running that too.

They can't get the kids into church, so they're taking the church into schools.

The sports centre consultation? That was not about whether it should close or not, only about where else users could be accommodated. What a fraud!

New Labour do not come out of it all well either. In supporting the wretched academy, they made the centre a soft target for an early bath.

Andrew Smith MP understands this well enough. This is why he has been so unusually muted over this, the Peers' double whammy.

JOHN GREEN Rose Hill Oxford