Oxfordshire County Council along with our wonderful, public spirited councillors, have spent months, and no doubt thousands of pounds looking into ways to save money and where to make cuts that affect the most vulnerable. Now, thanks to a Freedom of Information request we find that the council has spent £4,500 for an overnight stay at Heythrop Park.

After being caught out, our wonderful council leader said it won’t happen again.

But what I, and I’m sure thousands of council taxpayers are saying, is it should not have happened in the first place.

The council’s deputy director for highways made the excuse that it was for the team to get to know each other. But if they want to get to know each other, why not have a day clearing out road gullies and ditches or just sweeping the streets, like council taxpayers have been doing?

If they did, it would be very interesting to see if officers even know which end of a shovel to use, because when we had the snow last December we did not see them doing a lot to clear it – apart from standing in front of a camera making excuses and blaming everyone else.

Keith Brooks, Gateley, Horspath, Oxford