COUNTY Hall has charged itself with finding savings worth tens of millions of pounds in anticipation of Government cutbacks.

The task is mammoth and could result in hundreds of people in Oxfordshire losing their jobs.

It was in the light of these severe cuts that the Oxford Mail requested the figure for how much it was costing to police the former flytipping site at Redbridge Hollow on the southern outskirts of the city.

Of course, the figure — £130,000 a year — is a fraction of what the council is required to save over the coming months and years, but within the context of the new Government’s enforced spirit of thriftiness and ‘every little helps’ philosophy, can the county council really justify the expenditure?

Within two years, the cost of the 24/7 security will have nearly matched what it cost to clean up the 3,000-tonne ‘superdump’ that took 20 years to grow.

It is also worth remembering that the council chose to pay for guards instead of installing CCTV after travellers camped at Redbridge Hollow said the cameras would invade their privacy.

That argument seems strange.

Anyone who has visited the travellers’ site at Redbridge will know that it would be perfectly feasible to install cameras so they simply monitored the flytipping sites near the entrance, rather than any of the travellers’ homes.

Moreover, surely a couple of strategically placed CCTV cameras be more economical that 24/7 security – coupled with a zero tolerance prosecution policy.

Magistrates are only to happy to dish out hefty fines to flytippers when councils have photographic evidence.

Given all this, it seems difficult to justify continuing to spend such a large sum each and every year.