St Clement’s Ward pavements must be the worst maintained in Oxford – a disgrace that must be put right, Graham said in his 2010 election campaign. ‘You couldn’t find a better illustration of Labour’s apathy and complacency, and of the Green Party’s limited capacity to influence decision-making in the City in the years of controlling all three East Oxford wards.’

Moreover, he said, it’s ironic, and a further cause for Labour’s shame, that some parts of St Clement’s ward have some of the poorest housing in Oxford – housing the very people that the Labour Party was set up to champion.

‘Lack of pavement repairs in this ward is a scandal. Currently there is a £24 million backlog of minor street and pavement repairs but the Conservatives on the County Council are only paying the City Council £1 million a year. So it will take a generation for Labour and the Tories between them to catch up.’