I hope everyone will use their vote in the Oxford City Council elections on Thursday, May 1.

I know some postal voters already have. Every single person's opinion counts.

City council elections help to decide your council tax, car park charges, how often your streets are swept, how your local park is run and what the police do in your area.

Your vote decides traffic speed limits, youth facilities, low-cost housing, planning developments, what we do about climate change, and on and on.

In my experience, nearly all the candidates, of whatever party, want to makes things better for Oxford people.

But it is the voters who will decide who is likely to do the best job - not councillors and certainly not the Lord Mayor.

Democracy may be an annoying system, but it is infinitely better than anything else.

And if you don't vote, you can't really complain, can you?

JOHN TANNER Lord Mayor of Oxford