IT is a little knee-jerk to demand any sort of rebate or change to council cuts because Oxfordshire County and Oxford City have managed to save (or under spend) £6m.

No one likes paying increasing amounts of Council Tax each year and very few people will embrace the cuts made to services by our local authorities.

But to criticise either council is rather short-sighted when, in fairness, they are actually deserving of praise.

There may be a superficial argument to be had that if we have arrived at a combined under spend of £6m, was the rise last year really worth it or could x, y or z cut not have been made?

But that is all with the benefit of hindsight. And hindsight is rarely wrong.

What the officers and councillors of each authority had to deal with, though, was the pressing need to find savings or keep costs to a minimum in a tough economic climate. We don’t know of anyone who has been sat in the Town or County halls gleefully sharpening their knives and slashing away at services.

If anything, council taxpayers should feel a measure of reassurance at this result because it shows that the councils have been able to work to a financial plan.

It’s easy to imagine the flak they would be copping if they had blown their budgets and were demanding greater tax hikes to fill the financial void, so there must be a feeling of damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

This financial performance makes it reasonable to give both councils the benefit of the doubt that over time they are able to steer a smoother financial course rather than lurching from disaster to disaster.