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Statement from Cherwell District Council Green Group on plans for local government reorganisation
More details of the Government’s decision on Local Government reorganisation in Oxfordshire were confirmed late last week in a letter concerning the Structural Change Order that will formalise the way local government will operate across the county from April 2028.
As already announced, they have chosen the worst of all options, particularly for Cherwell. Not only was the ‘Greater Oxford’ unitary proposal the least favoured and supported by councillors and residents in Cherwell and beyond, it also goes against nearly all of the government’s stated aims to rationalise local government structures and reduce costs. It will do the virtual opposite by requiring 3 duplicate sets of officers and councillors resulting in the least financial savings in all of the proposed scenarios.
The Greater Oxford proposal was until recently regarded as an outlier, not only because of the difficulties in defining its boundaries, but also because it went against the government’s requirements on population sizes. However the establishment of the Greater Oxford development corporation earlier this year suggested an indication of the direction of travel. Given that the unitary proposal with virtually the same name encompassed most of the potentially developable Green Belt around Oxford it seemed obvious that we were witnessing a predetermined outcome aimed at even more large scale development across Oxford’s green hinterland. Essentially a land grab by the City Council.
It seems Westminster had more of an eye on electoral engineering than any genuine interest in devolution in Oxfordshire. The final outcome seems driven more by a desire to gerrymander the Oxfordshire political landscape than by what’s best for residents. This has resulted in a largely disorganised reorganisation and reinforces the suspicion that other options were never seriously considered beyond a desperate attempt by the City Labour Party to cling on to power at all costs.
To enable that prospect, Cherwell is to be unceremoniously carved up in an attempt to make the population statistics stack up. Towns like Kidlington and surrounding villages such as Yarnton, Begbroke and Gosford will wake up in April 2028 to find themselves living in a city suburb. Very few, if any, of those residents ever wanted that. Yet details of warding arrangements or boundaries, some of which currently divide existing communities remain unclear. The government is still expecting councils themselves to work out the details for them whilst having no say in the final outcome.
Whilst I understand that many City councillors regard this result as favourable for their residents, they should remember that out of the 27 county divisions that make up the current area of Greater Oxford, 11 of them are outside the current city boundary. That makes for a huge shift in political and cultural dynamic. City councillors will understandably be focused on city issues, but those in rural areas being forcibly subsumed into this new Frankenstein council will have very different priorities. The current City Council leadership will need to learn that rural districts are not just potential building sites to serve their needs, but places with their own unique characters, communities, problems and opportunities.
All councillors must therefore work constructively together across the county to ensure the services we already work so hard to maintain can continue to operate efficiently for the benefit of the residents who elected us. But now, more than ever, rural areas will need strong representation on any future council in and around Oxford to ensure their interests are robustly represented.
I and the Cherwell Green Group will play our part in that process as details hopefully become clearer over coming months. There’s also still a chance to fix the worse aspects of this baffling decision and create a more representative and efficient outcome that respects existing communities rather than seeking to divide them. I hope ministers will genuinely engage in that process before it’s too late.
Cllr Ian Middleton – Leader of Cherwell District Council Green Group