AS usual, Keith Mitchell, Conservative leader of the county council, trots out the excuse for the unnecessarily draconian cuts the coalition Government and his own administration are making (Oxford Mail, August 16).

According to his strange view, it is the “profligate” last Labour government which apparently wasted money on schools, roads, and the NHS.

Presumably the Conservative line is that it is nothing to do with the £850bn that the Labour government had to dole out to rescue the banks.

Interestingly, his party, when in opposition, was happy in the main to support, or ignore commenting on, Labour’s governance.

If Mr Mitchell’s administration was truly even-handed, we would see the abandonment of free on-street parking in Oxford’s centre at evenings and weekends – a potential revenue earner from the better off that could contribute to the rescue of one or more of the cuts he proposes.

John Sanders (Labour), Oxfordshire County Councillor