My recent piece for the Oxford Mail... We’re all in this together. Some people may be getting bored of hearing that, but it’s never been more true. Everyone in the public and private sector must look to cut costs and improve efficiency. We’re all doing it at home, why shouldn’t our Councils be the same? Now don’t get me wrong, councillors provide great value for money. We get paid an allowance, but a lot less than most people think, in the case of Oxfordshire’s district councils an average of less than £4,000. They give up their spare time to fit in council duties around their work and family lives. The question is, do we need as many of them? In every other area of council activity, we councillors rightly ask our staff to work with the minimum resources required to provide a good service. Each council is different, and each community has different needs, but in general we should look at how many councillors are needed to run the Council well. Much of the concern will focus on the ratio of councillors to constituents. How many people can a councillor represent? It is an undeniably bigger job to represent 5,000 people rather than 2,000 – but there is no magic number. For example in my own ward of Faringdon & The Coxwells, why do we need to have three district councillors, when there is only one county councillor covering the same area. There is no formula that can be applied to every council. Each local authority must come to its own conclusion on what is best for the people it represents. Above all we must preserve effective democratic accountability of our councils, but there is nothing wrong with following the Government’s example and trying to reduce the cost of democracy.