We hope we live in a democracy. Part of democracy is being able to hold decision makers to account. Which means having the opportunity to do so.

Oxfordshire County Council normally has six meetings of the full council every year, when the public and members can ask questions of the administration.

This year the county elections will be a month later than usual, on June 4 instead of May 7.

There was to be a meeting of the full council on June 23 and another on September 8. The Conservative administration proposed to cancel the June meeting, leaving three months after the elections before public or members could challenge the administration.

The Liberal Democrats proposed that the council meets on July 21 instead of June 23, but the Conservatives rejected this eminently reasonable amendment to the dates, on the grounds, among others, that “new members would need time to get to know their divisions”!

How could they get elected to represent a division if they did not know it? Might they not, on the contrary, have discovered issues that needed to be followed up – which is best done in a full council meeting?

I fear we may not live in a democracy after all.

LESLEY LEGGE, Oxfordshire County Councillor, Abingdon East Division, County Hall, New Road, Oxford