MANY people may have been frustrated by the bureaucracy involved in Oxford City Council’s ‘public meetings’.

But none more so, it seems, than an elderly lady who attended the south east area committee meeting on Monday.

The public was invited to speak at the meeting, during which the contentious issue of the proposed new Blackbird Leys Swimming Pool was discussed – but only if they had applied in writing before the meeting.

The great grandmother-of-four, who was ‘shushed’ for chuckling in derision at points during the session by chairman Antonia Bance lives 29 metres from the proposed new pool and wanted to have her say about the impact it would have on her life.

Eventually, frustrated by the whole process, the incensed lady stood up and shouted: “if this is democracy then you are all a bunch of ...!”

To save the lady’s blushes, The Insider has left the rest to your imagination, which we are sure will be able to fill in the gap as succinctly as she did.

Our mole tells us: “It was priceless. Antonia Bance looked somewhat shocked and I hope that all the councillors remember this in their quiet moments – and consider just what they are doing to peoples lives.”

A CRIMEWAVE in picturesque Bladon? Surely not! But the county council’s infrastructure boss Ian Hudspeth was hit by some smooth criminals this week, taking to Twitter to warn the public.

“A major crime has occurred in Bladon,” he tweeted, “somebody has stolen my recycling box!”

Maybe it was just The Insider rifling through councillors’ bins again to uncover his next scoop?

WITH top wags working through the night to come up with believable April Fools stunts, the Oxford Mail does pride itself on catching people out once a year.

And once again, a few readers did fall for our tale that competitors at the annual Pooh Sticks competition in Long Wittenham would next year have to use plastic twigs because of health and safety fears over splinters (see today’s letter from Harry Bonner, left).

But The Insider was surprised to receive an excited phonecall on the morning of April 1 from a certain news agency, desperate to follow up the tale and sell it to the national papers.

It would have been nice if we had played along and seen our own April Fool re-appear across Fleet Street on April 2, but The Insider just could not help laughing out loud down the phone.

A national television news service was also similarly fooled.