The government is pushing to abolish Oxfordshire County Council and replace it with unitary authorities — a trend already seen in places like the West of England and Somerset. Oxfordshire is the nearest county facing change to Reading.
People in Oxfordshire have been offered three reorganisation options. One 'two council' plan would create an 'Oxford & Shires' council (Cherwell, Oxford City and West Oxfordshire) and a 'Ridgeway' council (South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse and West Berkshire). The Ridgeway idea would reunify towns such as Abingdon, Didcot and Uffington that were part of Berkshire until 1974.
A 'three councils' option would carve out 'Greater Oxford' — the city, its greenbelt and nearby villages from Cherwell, South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse — with Northern Oxfordshire made from the rest of Cherwell and West Oxfordshire, and a smaller Ridgeway council.
West Berkshire Council, already a unitary authority, said last year it wanted to unite with South Oxfordshire and the Vale. All three councils are currently run by the Liberal Democrats, and some say West Berkshire's administration has inserted itself into the Oxfordshire reorganisation because of its unitary status.
This matters for Reading's western suburbs. West Berkshire covers Tilehurst, Calcot and Purley — parts of Reading with no real separation from the town. If the two-council or three-council options are chosen, those suburbs could be moved into the Ridgeway council, uniting them with Henley, Didcot and Abingdon, or into a 'Greater Reading' unitary that Reading Borough Council's Labour administration has been pushing for.
If the third option — a single 'Oxfordshire Council' unitary — is chosen, Tilehurst, Calcot and Purley would stay in West Berkshire Council.
The decision will be made by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. There is a public consultation on the three options that closes at 11.59pm on Thursday 26 March.
James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter
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