By Sean Woodcock

IF YOU are a regular reader, then you will have noted some changes in local government.

In Northamptonshire, we have seen massive financial incompetence. The financial problems there were known years ago but ignored by the controlling Conservatives.

This led to the Secretary of State, the aptly named James Brokenshire, decreeing that change was needed with unitary authorities the likely alternative.

Meanwhile, Northamptonshire residents have been told that unless the council legally has to do something, it won’t be done.

In Bicester, we are seeing different changes. Cherwell is jumping from one relationship, with South Northamptonshire, into another with Oxfordshire County Council.

As a Labour group on Cherwell, we supported this, as did the Labour group on the County Council.

For us, the issue was simple; there is a £2m deficit to plug as result of the loss of shared services arrangements with South Northants. We have a duty to protect staff but also to protect services by addressing that deficit.

For Oxfordshire County Council, the reasoning is very similar.

County Hall has faced year upon year of successive cuts, totalling hundreds of millions. This has led to children's centres closing, youth services ending and bus routes stopping, plus poor roads and increased pressure on social care.

The list goes on. And, believe it or not, Oxfordshire has done fairly well next to other parts of the UK.

As I have written previously, cuts in government funding here are a third per person to what they have been in the North East of England. And we have had twice the economic growth that they have had in Newcastle upon Tyne.

This situation is not sustainable. Other councils (Surrey, Somerset, Lancashire and Norfolk) are in similar financial circumstances to those that Northamptonshire was not too long ago.

Shared services, offices and staff can help but if local services are to survive then there needs to be proper funding of the providers of those services; local councils.

Income Tax and Corporation Tax may have gone down since 2010 but the Council Tax bill that you and I pay has only gone one way; up.

Despite this, councils are finding themselves able to do less and less.

This is not because they are all wasteful and incompetent. No, the real reason is that as more and more of us are living longer, more and more of us are needing social care.

At the same time, the demand for infrastructure increases as more cars are on our roads. Oxfordshire, again, has done OK here. As a ‘growth area’, the county and districts are being given some money in return for building more houses.

But this doesn’t address the problem, only delays it as once those homes are built, and residents find that they need to rely on council services.

Politicians are often accused of spin. So here is some straight-talking. If we want decent services and infrastructure, it needs to be paid for. So how about it?