Councillors Rik Willis and Mark Ralph have been accused of stealing credit for a duck crossing which was in fact the result of community action. Local residents are said to be incandescent after the Tory flyboy and his chum were pictured in the Reading Morning Post next to a duck crossing sign.

Cllr. Richard Willis told us: "It's not true that local residents had anything to do with the scheme. Councillor Ralph and myself thought it all up all by ourselves. We had no idea that it had already been adopted by former councillor Annette Hendry and the local residents' association. It was all our idea I tell you. Just like the super fantastic MP for Reading East, Rob 'Dream Boy' Wilson, came up with the brilliant Reading station upgrade all by himself."

This is not the first time the Tories have been accused of taking the credit for things they hadn't done after Councillor Willis previously claimed he was responsible for the fall of the Berlin Wall, averting the Cuban missile crisis, leading the Dambusters' raid on the Ruhr dams and the signing of the Magna Carta.