Just got another piece of paper through the letterbox supposedly from David Leigh-Pemberton(DL-P). It seems "he" has deemed it time to take the gloves off in the contest with Bethia Thomas. Funny, he seemed a sort of decent cove, so I suspect the Tory spin-doctors are baring their Rottweiler fangs.

I wonder how many of the claims being made on this leaflet will be fulfilled? I wonder how many of them will be specific to our beloved Faringdon? Would I be being naïve to expect there is a detailed plan behind the assertions that we can hold their feet to the fire with during the next term. Apparently DL-P is "The Only Candidate Standing up for Faringdon & the Villages (their caps)". How on earth will he substantiate that?

Certainly not by referring to the previous incumbent's performance. 

Show us the plans with a few penalty clauses for failure to deliver and you may have a bit more credibility. I Have a few examples of why I am sceptical. I'll roll these out in the next few days ...

We frequently hear exclamations such as "What is the Council doing about this?" It is more complicated than that. There are three councils and a central government that serve Faringdon.

Broadly the councils' services are split between the Town Council, the District Council and the County Council. If you live in one of the villages you can probably substitute a parish council for the town council. In our case we have the Faringdon Town Council and then various services allocated between the Vale of the White Horse District Council (ain't that a mouthful and a bit of local colour at the same time) and the OCC.

We, the burghers of Faringdon, pay Council Tax that is distributed between the three. OCC councillors received remuneration of  between £10,719.00 and £41,805.00 in 2019-2020. That is before they are paid for extraneous expenses, which in some cases go into thousands of pounds in a "normal" (non Covid) year.

​The difference between the basic and the top rate are accounted for an added "responsibility" allowance allocated to roles such as "cabinet ministers". With one exception, the top 20 allowances in 2019-2020 were paid to Conservatives.

This would be for senior roles in the management of:  Roads and transport; Leisure and culture; Social and health care; Fire and public safety; Environment; Community and living; Children, education and families; Residents. A more detailed description of these categories is shown below, together with a breakdown of the OCC councillor remunerations obtained from the OCC website