IF YOU arrive home from work this week to a pile of unsolicited leaflets, there is a decent chance is they will have been delivered by district council election candidates who want your vote on May 3.

All voters in West Oxfordshire will be asked to cast their votes next Thursday, alongside residents in Oxford City, North Oxfordshire and other districts around the country.

Amongst the long list of hot topics for councillors on the campaign trail in this final week is that perennial favourite – the standard of roads.

Minister Lovell resident Dorothy Holloway has pleaded for paving slabs and potholes to be filled, especially in Witney.

Roads are actually the responsibility of Oxfordshire County Council – but Mrs Holloway said she wants whoever is returned to the district council in the early hours of May 4 to pile on the pressure to get things fixed once and for all.

She also complained that the infrastructure in her village has been notoriously poor and that increasing housebuilding will only ensure that it deteriorates further.

She said: "I am very, very distressed at the fact that they are building outside the Windrush along Burford Road.

"What worries me is a) the water and the electric; b) [how] the kiddies are going to try to get to school and c) where the traffic is going to go.

"We desperately need houses but you need to put the infrastructure in place before you build. You can’t just plonk houses down."

Another evergreen bugbear for district councils everywhere is business rates.

Rosa Ashby, who has run Rosa Flowers in Witney for 21 years, said her shop desperately needed council help after seeing its business rates increased by 42 per cent in just a year.

Mrs Ashby said: "Obviously business rates have rocketed: they have gone up by over 40 per cent and at the moment we are paying £770 for a month. That’s for 12 months, not for 10 months.

"We wrote two emails to James Mills (West Oxfordshire District Council leader) and another to Robert Courts (Witney MP) with no response so I’m not very happy with that, to be honest.

"They could do to support with small businesses so I’m not happy with any of them at this moment.

"Before we were paying £539 a month and it’s been an increase this year so if there is any help for small businesses, we haven’t seen it. They could have helped out but we haven’t seen it."

Struggles of independent traders are being felt by people in Witney and by other people across the country, she said.

“[Small businesses] need support.

“It is our livelihoods that are affected. We’ve built it up for 20 years. I don’t know what could happen next.”

Across Oxfordshire, 63 candidates are preparing to stand for election next week.

Following the publication of this story, Mr Mills contacted the Witney Gazette and Oxford Mail to say that he had in fact responded to Mrs Ashby.

He said he received an email on January 13 from Mrs Ashby regarding business rates. On receipt of the email, Mr Mills said he asked officers for further information before responding with details of what support was available five days later on January 18.

Mr Mills said that, the following day, Mrs Ashby responded and thanked him for his email. He said that she raised some other concerns but effectively concluded the correspondence. 

In West Oxfordshire there will be one seat filled in all 17 wards, except Freeland and Hanborough where two councillors will be elected (following the recent resignation of councillor Carol Reynolds there).

The person with the most votes in that ward will serve for four years until May 2022 and the candidate with the second most will serve until May 2020.

A total of 11 councillors are standing for re-election in the authority.

The candidates include 17 Conservatives, 17 Labour/ Labour Co-op, 17 Liberal Democrats, nine Greens and three independents.