Should Southern Oxfordshire look north to the rest of the county or south to Berkshire? And will the public be asked?

The big issue local politicians are talking about at the moment is “devolution”, but what is it and should anyone in the real world actually care?

Some parts of the country already have Combined Authorities (groups of councils working together) and directly elected mayors (usually with additional powers and money from central government). In places like Thames Valley we have a mixture of large unitary councils (Buckinghamshire), very small unitaries (like Berkshire), and two tier council areas (in Oxfordshire). 

Just before Christmas the Government published a White Paper on Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation. Their intention is to create larger unitary councils where they do not already exist (minimum 500k population) and then push most areas into some form of combined authority or mayor - referred to by many as “regional government”.

Councils are in the process of making bids to government, some hope to postpone elections due in May this year, and as well as council services this could have implications for policing, fire and NHS services too.

One big question is whether anyone will actually ask the public? At the moment plans are being drawn up behind closed doors, and changes many miles away could have knock on effects elsewhere. 

A good example of this within Thames Valley is Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire districts - together the southern half of Oxfordshire. Some years ago when I served as Leader of Vale of White Horse we worked on a whole range of proposals for unitary councils. The only one that worked then was a single council for Oxfordshire. There’s now a new proposal being discussed. That is to move south and merge Vale of White Horse, South Oxfordshire and West Berkshire together into a new council. This would still fall short of the 500k minimum population size set out by the Government. 

There are arguments both for and against these idea - something I’ll delve into in a later article - but one thing that is missing so far from the debate is local residents. How many people even know these discussions are going on, let alone have been given a voice?

Of course many people will say they don’t care. Indeed a lot of the details are technical and tedious, but the shape of local government and the way people are elected to represent us does matter. 

I approach this on the basis that it is going to happen. The Government will make these changes whether people like it or not. So I’m moving past argument about IF, in order to look at HOW. 

What is the best way to deliver a unitary council in towns like Wantage, Didcot, Wallingford and Thame? How do we live our lives? Are the natural connections of work, school, shopping, leisure and the wider economy to the north, into the rest of Oxfordshire - or to the south into Berkshire?

Of course the Vale of White Horse used to be part of Berkshire; but that was 50 years ago and most of the South Oxfordshire District has always been part of the county of Oxfordshire. 

So whilst the technical arguments matter, so does sentiment. How we feel about the place we live and how we decide who represents us. Local and regional government can have a real impact on our communities. Good transport - or not. A strong economy - or not. A clean environment - or not. Things that make a tangible difference to how we live, do it’s important that the public have their say. Local government exists to serve the people. Therefore the public must be at the heart of the discussion. 

Send me your views by email to matthew@matthewbarber.co.uk or share your view in my Facebook poll.