A NEW plan that would see the county council and Cherwell District Council work together to provide services has been backed.

The county council and Cherwell District Council have said they want to look into whether joint working would work ‘where doing so is in the interests of residents and represents value for money’.

The county council’s cabinet said it supported an initial study yesterday.

The first move – subject to approval by both authorities – is likely to see current Cherwell council chief executive Yvonne Rees appointed the chief executive of both councils. Current county council boss Peter Clark would then step down.

Other details remain vague, but the authorities have said the arrangement would look to take advantage of the ‘considerable cross-over’ in service areas.

For example, the county council deals with waste disposal and Oxfordshire’s district councils deal with waste collection.

The current proposal has been hastened by significant local government reorganisation in Northamptonshire. Its county council will soon be scrapped and two unitary authorities will take its place.

As part of that, its district councils will be swallowed up. One of those, South Northamptonshire District Council, has been working jointly with Cherwell District Council since 2010.

County council leader Ian Hudspeth said: “Obviously Cherwell and South Northamptonshire District Councils have worked well together.

“It is a difficult situation for Cherwell because they’ve got a decision to make: do they become part of the new unitary [authority in Northamptonshire], do they sit alongside it?”

Mr Hudspeth said Ms Rees’ possible appointment was the ‘first step’ into the new arrangement and would allow the two councils to ‘oversee [it] from the top…to make sure this works’.

Ms Rees’ appointment would be subject to a full appointment process.

Liz Brighouse, Labour group leader, said she supported the move in principle but that all councillors from both councils need to be involved in discussions.

She said: “We need to ensure absolute clarity, absolute engagement and absolute transparency from both councils.”