"The Oxfordshire fields at the centre of Labour’s land grab"

Thu 26 Mar, 18:56

Getting rid of district councils is a national government policy, so it isn’t quite true to say that OCC “want to get rid” of them. The local councils are trying to figure out the best way of merging county and districts, ie should it be one big council across oxfordshire, or a number of smaller councils. If it’s smaller councils then the services that are currently county-wide - like education, transport and social services - will have to be broken up into smaller pieces. In theory they could still work together across the county, but that’s going to be tricky if one authority is lib dem and another is reform.  

Thu 26 Mar, 16:46 (last edited on Thu 26 Mar, 16:48)

The gift link didn't work, Katie, but googling the headline brings up the article.

As far as I am concerned, it's a very odd piece. To make these fields where housing is proposed the heart of Oxford City Council's "land grab" seems very simplistic. 

The northern part of Kidlington ("old Kidlington") where the main campaigner against the housing development lives is very atypical of Kidlington as a whole. Most of Kidlington is not rural, although that small patch of Kidlington is. The main campaigner against the development is a friend, so I do understand how fraught the issue is for her and her neighbours. It's a lovely part of Kidlington, but I suspect most people don't know that "old Kidlington" even exists.

Also, although Kidlington itself is represented by Lib Dems and Green Councillors, that's certainly not true of Cherwell District Council as a whole which is under no overall control. The article also doesn't make that clear. In terms of numbers, the Lib Dems make up the largest group on Cherwell District Council, followed by the Conservatives, then Labour, then Greens, then Independents who are mostly linked to either the Conservatives or the Greens. It's possible that some of the Conservative areas will vote Reform next time round, and I'm not sure how the protesters might feel about such an outcome ...

 In any case, whatever happens in the reorganisation, the boundaries for the various councils will inevitably be quite radically re-drawn. There are 3 possible models for local government on the table, not 2, and the article also doesn't make that clear. 

Thu 26 Mar, 16:10

Thanks Liz. Just out of interest, could someone from the Town Council say what the outcome of the extraordinary meeting was please?

Thu 26 Mar, 14:19

See the article in the News section posted on March 13th

Thu 26 Mar, 11:13

https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/0a80e028-d637-4d33-97ad-0090c669bb65

I read this in the FT today and I have so many questions. Is it really true that OCC want to get rid of district councils in Oxfordshire and have one council? The article overall seems a bit biased to me, this paragraph in particular seems odd: 
"County council leaders suspect Labour’s city expansion is a partisan move to ensure control of the new, larger councils where it might otherwise be drowned out by rural voters. They also say that the proposals will lead to smaller councils that will be less able to manage services for vulnerable children and adults requiring social care." 

Hoping others know more than me on this topic?