THERE are hundreds of worried people at Oxfordshire County Council and thousands concerned at £90m of cuts, yet the silence from council leader Keith Mitchell is deafening.

On Thursday, Oxfordshire County Council slipped out its statement that it was planning to axe 500 jobs and cut £90m over the next five years on its website. Usually it sends out press releases trumpeting its successes.

Given the seriousness of the situation, you might have expected Mr Mitchell to answer some of the hard questions his worried employees and electors would expect asked.

Mr Mitchell, a Tory, is heaping a large amount of blame on the Government, its handling of the banking crisis and an expected cut in the grant the county will be getting, thus bringing an unmistakable political element to this.

Yet he refused to speak to this newspaper either on Thursday night or Friday.

We accept it is too early for him to give definitive answers on where the job cuts will fall and the effect of the service cuts. But there are other points he really should find the character to speak to you about, through the Oxford Mail.

Here’s three: 1. How much of the £90m will be covered by job losses and how much will be lost for services?

2. Does the council really think it is acceptable to be promising a low council tax rise when it is chopping 500 people’s livelihoods?

3. And, given we had an election just a month ago, were these feared cuts known about before people returned this Conservative administration with an increased majority?

It is time for a leader to show leadership, even if that means facing awkward questions.