YOU may well be witnessing pigs flying across the sky today because, for once, my sympathies go to Bucks County Council and its various members. I believe they have had a very poor deal indeed and, for once, are victims of the ridiculous local government system perpetuated in Bucks.

You see, whatever you may think of our county councillors, they are all elected and they do, at present, preside over vital services and have enormous responsibility.

Contrast this with our plethora of parish councils, present in virtually every hamlet and town in Bucks, apart from bizarrely High Wycombe itself.

These councils are so small that sometimes members don’t even need to be elected but are co-opted instead. Fair enough, I hear you cry, because their responsibilities include maintaining grass verges, parks and bus shelters. Hardly the stuff of epic elections.

Yet, under the rules of the new coalition government, county and district councils have had their council tax frozen Again, fair enough because we are all paying too much. But wait a moment, parish councils are, by contrast, allowed to increase their levies – which many have just done.

These rises may be tiny – £1 to £2.50 per house per year. And parishes don’t get the same subsidies to allow a freeze.

But that’s not the point, because this anomaly has allowed the following principle to exist: elected county councillors aren’t permitted to raise tax to save day centres or libraries – while unelected parish members can put up your charges to pay for the grass to be cut.

Yes – we’ve all officially gone mad.