OVER the past four years, Liz Brighouse says devastation has been wrought on local services by government cuts.

But the Labour councillor, leader of her party's group on Oxfordshire County Council, says it could have been much worse.

From the opposition benches, she has railed against decisions to pull funding from children's centres, bus subsidies and day centres for the elderly and disabled – but acknowledges there are few easy options left to save cash.

After the most recent budget was passed in February, the county council has now committed to almost £380m of cuts between 2010 and 2020.

Labour's mission, Mrs Brighouse says, has been to hold the ruling Conservatives to account.

The party's slim majority on the county council – owed now to just two independent councillors – has left it vulnerable ahead of controversial votes in County Hall – and therefore open to compromise.

A deal to soften cuts to children's services by £2m in 2016 and use some of the cash to provide 'transition funding' for under-threat children's centres was one example of this, Mrs Brighouse claimed.

She added: "The number that are staying open now it is going to be 34, instead of just eight. There is also going to be transition funding and that is in there because of Labour.

"A Labour administration would build the services back up and provide open-access services again. At the moment we have managed to keep these buildings open but they are just waiting for a revival."

The party has also led calls for social care to be brought back in-house at the county council, and away from private companies, which Mrs Brighouse says will mean better pay for staff and better care for the elderly.

She said: "It is great to have free markets in some areas but with services like this we should be focused on making sure people are able to get out of bed in the morning – not ensuring shareholders get their profit."

Labour has also backed called for a workplace parking levy in Oxford, as well as more controlled parking zones.

It says these are needed to deter people from driving into the city and making traffic jams worse, with the levy – controversial with businesses – also key to bringing in more cash for transport schemes.

Mrs Brighouse added: "A levy in Nottingham has been very, very successful. It is something we have got to look at here."

She is sanguine about her party's national leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and whether his dismal ratings will affect the vote in Oxfordshire.

She said: "Jeremy is not on the ballot paper, local candidates are. They will represent local people in local issues – for instance our campaigning to provide a community bus to people in Witney who lost their subsidies services.

"Campaigning on those issues is actually something Jeremy Corbyn believes in very much as well."

Labour is fielding candidates in every county council division.

p For a full list of candidates,

see the Oxford Mail on Tuesday.

p In Monday's paper, we

speak to the Green Party and UKIP about their manifestos.