At last week's Liberal Democrat Party conference in Bournemouth, their leader, Nick Clegg, sought to change the image of the Liberals as a high-taxing, high-spending party to a tax-cutting party, with proposed cuts to the Labour Government budget of £20bn.

Here in Oxfordshire, it rather looks as if our local Liberals were either not at their conference or, at least, did not hear their leader’s policy change.

The county council has recently received a windfall gain of £309,000 from a business incentive scheme.

The cheque had barely been banked when the Oxfordshire Liberals were itching to spend it on a cobbled-together list of one-off projects.

We prefer to wait a while and to take a measured approach to next year’s budget where finances may be tight.

It just goes to show you can change a Liberal Party headline, but you can’t hide the fact that they remain the high-spending party — at least in Oxfordshire.

KEITH MITCHELL Leader Oxfordshire County Council