Oxford residents will now be all too familiar with Councillor John Tanner’s doublespeak.

Where we once had a refuse collection service, we now have ‘recycling’.

Now service withdrawal is to be rebranded as ‘prioritising’, with residents left to sort out enforcement of noise pollution regulations themselves where they have a problem with rowdy, antisocial or inconsiderate neighbours.

Many Oxford residents find themselves in streets with a large transient population, whether it be students or other residents housed temporarily.

One knock-on effect of this is the growing lack of reciprocity in our communities, and, in some cases the shared acceptance that loud parties and music make lives a misery for others living nearby.

Soon it seems, residents will be left to fend for themselves, although anyone who has had to use Oxford City Council’s noise control service in recent years, as with some of their other enforcement services, knows that it can be easier to get all the proverbial cherries lined up on several adjacent rusty fruit machines than to get the council to pin down and prosecute these offences, either through the very demanding requirements of national legislation, or health and safety rules that seem to deter council officers attending incidents.

But soon these vagaries will matter no more, as this service gets withdrawn.

Civil action in the courts will be beyond the means of most. It seems to be evidence again that this council administration cares little about the needs of the hard-working, tax-paying, long-term residents of Oxford.

DR CHRIS CLIFFORD, Windmill Road, Headington, Oxford