JAMES McGee, who, at 20, is one of the youngest councillors in the country, has had his first council appointment.

Vale of White Horse district councillor Mr McGee will sit on the Grove Development Forum, which is charged with ensuring that housing development has sufficient infrastructure to support the planned 2,500 new homes on the old airfield.

Mr McGee and fellow Conservative district councillor Bill Melotti branded comments in The Herald by Liberal Democrat councillor Zoe Patrick about lack of consultation on the development as an "own goal".

Mrs Patrick's comments came after a survey she carried out in Grove. Just over one per cent of questionnaires were returned and of those, most indicated there had not been enough residents' consultation.

Mr McGee said: "I am delighted to sit on the forum and work as hard as possible to secure the best for the people of Grove.

"I was surprised to see Mrs Patrick's attack on the forum. It is clear from the low response that people are fed up with meaningless Lib Dem surveys.

"However, her comments are spot on. The district council - which her party is running - has not been listening to the people of Wantage and Grove."

Jeff Bishop, the independent organiser of the public consultation programme undertaken by the council and Persimmon Homes, developers of the former airfield site, said it was always disappointing to learn that no matter how many meetings were arranged and how many newsletters delivered, there were always people who said they were not aware of consultations.

He said: "Although the response to Mrs Patrick's survey was too small to be representative, she is right to insist that local people know what is being proposed and have their say.

"That's exactly what the consultation programme offered the people of Grove and Wantage. It was highly detailed and wide-ranging, well beyond expected national standards, and provided so many opportunities for people to be involved at whatever level suited them."

He said the Grove Development Forum was a representative body, not a decision-making one. It was set up by the council, in association with the county council, Grove Parish Council and Wantage Town Council, to provide guidance and support.

Mr Bishop said: "From my side, the public in Grove and Wantage has been kept up to date with forum meetings and the progress of the consultation through the three Grove Airfield newsletters I produced in March, June and November last year, and on the Grove Airfield website."