WITHOUT being rude, there will be a lot of collective eye-rolling at Oxfordshire County Council and Oxford City Council over Ron Wyatt’s criticism about the transfer of soil from Blackbird Leys to Hinksey Park.

Mr Wyatt and his brother Mick, and their supporters, have fought a long and at times acrimonious battle over the dumping of material at their Waterstock golf course and can safely be said not to be popular figures with county council mandarins.

The dispute resulted in the brothers being jailed when a judge ran out of patience, because a court order to remove the material was not complied with.

Today Mr Wyatt is criticising the city council because it did not get planning permission to move 2,500 tonnes of soil from the site of the new Blackbird Leys swimming pool to fill in a ball game area at Hinksey Park.

And he has got grounds to raise this issue.

The principle here is not that the Wyatts were harshly dealt with, but that the city council did not bother to get planning permission prior to shifting the soil.

It is now going to have to seek retrospective planning permission, something it is likely to get, given it is applying to itself. But really it should have had its permission in place long before the first truckload of soil reached Hinksey.

The whole project to build a new pool in Blackbird Leys has long been mired in controversy, both with the Save Temple Cowley Pools protesters and residents in the Leys, so by cutting corners it is just opening itself up for more challenges and squabbles it could do without.

Surely we can demand our council – already with a tarnished image over its shabby handling of the Castle Mill student accommodation planning application – should not only be conducting its affairs properly but should also be seen to be doing so.