Councillors have not held back in a dispute over attendance with the Oxfordshire cabinet member for Highways Management saying his Labour counterpart has "basically moved out".
The Oxford Mail previously reported that Highways chief and Liberal Democrat politician, Andrew Gant, had a city council attendance record of 11 per cent - joint lowest with Labour councillor Diko Walcott, who represents Blackbird Leys.
Liberal Democrats had circulated a flyer calling on Labour councillor Tom Hayes, of the St Clement's ward, to stand down due to "missing over half of council meetings in 12 months".
Mr Hayes responded that his three missed attendances were "owing to Covid and a very sad bereavement".
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Mr Hayes added: "Councillor Andrew Gant should not be able to have his cake and eat it - serving in a substantial role as transport lead for the County Council, making a mess of the county’s transport—and be a city councillor, attending just 10 per cent of meetings."
Mr Gant told the Oxford Mail: "Nobody who follows local politics could accuse me of being absent on key issues or not putting in the hard yards for Oxford and Oxfordshire.
"Councillor Hayes by contrast has basically moved out.
"He should have done the honourable thing, as his colleague former councillor Marie Tidball did, and resigned to fight a parliamentary seat at the other end of the country."
Responding to Mr Gant's comment, Mr Hayes retorted: “With a 10 per cent attendance record Andrew Gant is the last person to be sanctimonious.
"He could have used his time to help people.
"Instead, he woke up and heartlessly sought out an opportunity to attack a fellow councillor for unavoidable absences.
"Anyone who knows me knows my commitment to public service."
Councillor Tim Bearder, who is the Liberal Democrat County cabinet member for adult social care, as well as a district councillor for Forest Hill & Holton, has a district council attendance record of 23 per cent from May to November - though, a higher county council attendance record from February to date of 91 per cent.
When asked whether he thought the split responsibilities across county and district council might have affected his work, Mr Bearder said: "We’re in a very lucky position on the district council in that we have a large group and the votes are not necessarily on the wire.
"I'm content that my voice is being heard on that council.
"A lot of the work on the county and district council is interlinked."
Mr Bearder added that there was a lot of different ways a councillor could contribute beyond attending meetings.
Labour councillor Diko Wilcott was also contacted for comment but the Oxford Mail did not receive a response.
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