Oxford City Council has failed to secure unitary status, it was confirmed this morning.

As expected, an announcement in Westminster put paid to any lingering hopes the Town Hall and the other district councils, after merging in the north and south, of taking over the services run by the county council.

The city council, under the stewardship on interim chief executive Brian Dinsdale, claimed that conferring unitary status would be the only way to bridge a so-called "democratic deficit" in Oxford.

Its bid, delivered earlier this year, played on the fact Tory-run Oxfordshire County Council had no representation in the city and little empathy with its needs.

Although the bid was said to have been one of the strongest the Government received, it was considered too costly.

Creating an Oxford city unitary - and one for the north and south of Oxfordshire - would have cost £27m. This was believed to have put ministers off.

County Hall, which had tried to scupper the city's bid since the start of the unitary, debate said it wanted an "enhanced" system of the current set-up.

The question now is how can the two authorities work closely together having been involved in such a public slanging match?