I was the Conservative candidate for the Wolvercote ward in the Oxford City Council elections and I sympathise with the disappointment of Mr Hughes-Jones that no Conservative councillors were elected to the council, despite winning almost 13,500 votes across the city (Oxford Mail, May 16).

However, I would gently disagree with his view that the solution is proportional representation.

Our current system of voting is simple, direct and more likely to produce clear-cut results.

Small two-member wards make councillors directly accountable to the people who elected them.

They can also be challenged by local people if they don’t perform.

Most forms of proportional representation blur that link, with larger multi-member wards and a political class of councillors that may work more for their party than for local people.

The Conservative vote in Oxford almost doubled from its lows in 2006 and in some wards we are closer to winning city council seats.

In the north and west of the city, we were also lucky to be able to work towards Nicola Blackwood’s, marvellous and well-deserved election result as Oxfordshire’s first woman MP.

We were very grateful for the thousands that voted for us, but we must humbly recognise the direct message of many more that didn’t.

We don’t need a change in the voting rules to win more representation.

We do need to listen, change and campaign on the local issues of the environment and services that matter to the people of the city if we are to deserve their vote.

We intend to do just that in the future.

JONATHAN GITTOS, Wolvercote, Oxford