Request for councillors to keep residents better informed (From Bicester Advertiser)

Everything a resident needs to know about forthcoming works is all available on both the city and county council websites.

The trouble is people, including councillors, have to take the personal responsibility to actually look at the website, look at the back of the newspapers, look at the signs attached to lamposts and understand what they mean.

You can communicate all you like, but you can't force someone to read.

Sadly, this is but another symptom of the deep malaise now affecting the whole of County Hall.

Feeble leadership (love him or loathe him, Keith Mitchell at least put in the hours, and was always to be seen "batting for Oxfordshire": Hudspeth has so far failed to make any mark at all; inept senior management (and indeed worse than inept when it comes to the Chief Exec, who typifies the collapse in competences across the authority); Legal Services who seem to get it wrong more often than not (they clearly have no mechanism for dispensing with grossly under-performing staff. Any head of service that had produced so much duff advice on a succession of crucial dossiers - viz the Cogges fiasco! - would have been given his marching orders in any half-way accountable administration; wrong-headed policy management across the board (have any of the hugely costly "integrated transport schemes" - to give but one example - produced even a scintilla of improvement?); a decision-making structure that delegates all key decisions in each policy area to the portfolio holder alone with no checks and balances; the total emasculation of the Scrutiny procedure, where selection of issues for review is in the sole hands of the ruling group chair! These are but a few of the more flagrant failings observed.

No wonder staff morale is so low, service so poor and value for money so dreadful.

The sad truth on the roadworks front in answer to Cllr Smith's plea is that - having let the maintenance contract to Atkins, E&E don't even know themselves what's going on (not much, truth be told), and certainly aren't in any position to tell either the public or even councillors.

If Hudspeth wants to have any chance of continuing to hold office come the next elections, he needs to get a grip. He should start by firing those members of the senior management team who have clearly shown that they are utterly incapable of delivering even a passable service.