WHEN Oxford City Council next bleats about social cohesion or community togetherness, take it with a large pinch of salt.

Today’s news that the popular Oxford Mela will not be taking place this summer has something of the inevitable about it.

After the Cowley Road Carnival – another event that has been drastically scaled down this year – the Mela is seen as the city’s premier multicultural gathering.

Last year it attracted 5,000 people to Cowley Marsh on a gloriously sunny day. However, the crippling state of the council’s finances have put paid to this year’s gathering.

And for a Labour-run council that has tried to portray itself as a champion of social inclusion, that is nothing short of a disgrace. It is also a huge embarrassment.

The city council has blamed the cancellation of the Mela on the fact its social cohesion officer left the council’s employ and there was a recruitment freeze in place.

For the record, the officer in question left in autumn last year – ironically during a time when the cultural strategy was being written. It is now April.

Is it really saying that no one else could organise the Mela?

Antonia Bance, the councillor in charge of social inclusion and young people – and coincidentally the politician most keen on the words “social” and “inclusion” – has moaned about how tight finances are at the council.

We know, Antonia. Presumably that is why our council tax went up by 4.5 per cent in February and charges at city council car parks were cranked up by an average of 15 per cent.

It is all too easy to blame the economic crisis for a lack of cash. But Oxford City Council finds it increasingly difficult to organise a booze up in a brewery.