A ROW about cutting the number of councils in Oxfordshire resurfaced tonight as leading figures broke their silence to denounce plans for a single authority.

In a joint statement, leaders of the five district councils accused the county council of pursuing a merger because it was “unable to manage its own budget properly”.

They said plans for a single, ‘unitary’ authority covering all of Oxfordshire would “shore up its own financial position at the expense of local residents”.

Their comments infuriated county officials, who insisted the local authority had been forced to bear the brunt of government cuts while district councils were “sheltered”.

It came as county councillors held a debate about the possible reforms, which the Government has said will not happen unless a broad agreement between all parties is reached.

But in the discussion at County Hall, scrutiny committee deputy chairman Steve Harrod said the district councils’ statement “slagging off the county council” was “not helpful”.

The statement said: “The county is unable to manage its own budget properly and following several cuts to frontline services, it is clutching at straws to try to shore up its own financial position at the expense of local residents.

“A monolithic, unitary council would flounder. It would be unable to manage the needs of the county’s different communities and would impose blanket solutions to problems that would make no one happy. “

The district council leaders called for a three-council model, with authorities for the city and the north and south of the county.

But county council leader Ian Hudspeth said it would be “a dereliction of duty” to walk away from the possible £100m of savings that a single council could lead to by 2020.

He added: “Finance is clearly not the only thing to consider.

"Any single new unitary council would need to be set up to meet the different needs of all Oxfordshire communities and be locally accountable,.

“We remain very interested in finding consensus.”

This afternoon county councillors called on the cabinet to look at one option that would see a single authority created with so-called ‘area boards’.

These could have some delegated powers, including tax-raising responsibilities.

West Oxfordshire District Council leader James Mills, who is also a county councillor and attended today's debate, said he would not rule such an option out but added: "The devil is in the detail."

Possible options for local government reform were examined in two separate reports that cost taxpayers £200,000 in total. They were published last month but until now council leaders have refused to officially comment on their findings.