Sir, Regarding your well-written item “Hike in councillors’ ‘pay’ “ (Herald, May 20). To help control the district council budget, for many years the council kept their expenses very low and now have nearly the lowest in South East England.

District councillors often have to take time out of work with loss of pay to conduct council business and I am sure you will agree that they should not be out of pocket. They now need to catch up.

I can relate to this. As an employee my pay was determined by an independent review.

Every time the recommendation would be rejected and a much lower figure paid. This would go on for many years until, not surprisingly, the staff needed could not be recruited. This resulted in a larger pay rise. Many of you will also relate to this.

Your councillors are a dedicated team who have looked after your council tax very well.

During the last five difficult years, South Oxfordshire District Council’s share of what we pay as council tax has changed as follows.

In 2010/11 the bill changed by 0.0 per cent, in 2011/12 0.0 per cent, in 2012/13 -2.5per cent, in 2013/14 -2.5per cent, in 2014/15 -2.5per cent, in 2015/16 -3.0 per cent.

So for the first two years the tax remained the same and has fallen every year since. This can be verified by looking at the letter we all receive each March from South Oxfordshire District Council.

Michael CE Walker
Freeman Road, Didcot