Sir – I know that council leaders are supposed to bang the drum for their patch but councillor Price’s announcement of a self-governing city if Labour comes to power next year (Report, April 24) is delusional.
He is right that Oxford is capital of a city region — called Oxfordshire, but quite how adding Kidlington and Botley to the current city area constitutes a “city region” is a mystery.
More important, why does he think that the residents of Cirencester or Brackley would be happy to merge their councils with neighbours in another county, Oxfordshire, to indulge Oxford City Council’s ambitions? Has he asked their opinions?
The idea that a future Labour Government is really going to spend valuable legislative time reorganising local Government across three English regions (SE, SW and East Midlands) to indulge Oxford city’s self-centredness demonstrates a serious lack of political perspective.
Unitary councils are a good idea in principle. However, the logic of councillor Price’s own argument for an Oxford city region is to create something that looks pretty much a unitary Oxfordshire.
Anything else flies in the face of reality on the ground (eg the recent City Deal), and explains why Oxford has been so unsuccessful with its unitary campaigns in the past — and will be again this time.
Martin Stott, Oxford
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