One-tier council debated

From the archive, first published Monday 6th Feb 2006.

The abolition of Oxfordshire's five district councils has moved a step closer with the Government opening talks about axing two-tier authorities.

Council chiefs across the country are being invited to face-to-face meetings with ministers.

It follows the announcement last year that communities minister David Miliband was keen on scrapping the present district and county council set-up.

Council leaders will be given the opportunity to make the case for change at eight regional roundtable meetings with representatives from John Prescott's office.

But Oxfordshire County Council leader Keith Mitchell, who publicly resists change to the current two-tier set-up, claims he knows nothing about these meetings.

Councils will be asked to suggest proposals for the shake-up, paving the way for firm Government proposals in a summer White Paper.

City council leader Alex Hollingsworth said: "This will be a good opportunity to make the case for change -- and it's long overdue."

Mr Miliband said no decision had yet been taken on the way forward, but in a

leaked memo last year he insisted only unitary councils could provide "strong, strategic leadership and accountable, cost-effective services".

Mr Mitchell said: "As I said to Mr Miliband when I met him recently over dinner, he is probably too young to have been through a divorce yet but -- if and when he does -- he will soon understand that to put a husband and wife together in a room and to leave them to agree an amicable dissolution demonstrates a worrying level of naivety.

"To expect local government to agree a mutual re-structuring is equally naive. If Mr Miliband believes such change will benefit citizens in two tier areas, he must provide the leadership we are entitled to expect from central government."

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