Just 111 out of more than 115,000 residents voiced their opinions on council plans to spend its £13.7m budget.

Vale of White Horse District Council asked for views on how its cash should be spent in a month-long consultation that ended last Wednesday.

But only 84 filled out an online questionnaire and 18 took part in a workshop. There were also nine other responses.

Government is expected to cut the Conservative authority’s grant from £5,598,000 to £4,820,500 for the next financial year.

And the move to provide two hours’ free parking in Abingdon, Wantage and Faringdon, is expected to cost £250,000 every year.

Last year the Liberal Democrat administration produced a draft budget and asked residents to comment but this year the Conservatives asked people which services they thought should be given priority before drawing up a budget.

Council leader Matthew Barber said: “I think we did it the right way round. We want people’s views to form our opinions.”

He also said the council had done all it could do encourage residents to take part in the consultation.

He added: “There is obviously an awful lot more we could do for consultation but it costs money and I think it is not worth it to pay vast amounts of public money if people aren’t interested anyway.”

Residents were asked to answer 17 questions online about how they thought the council should prioritise its spending.

A draft budget will now be prepared and looked at by the council’s cabinet on February 10 and a final decision could be made at a full council meeting on February 22.