Oxford City Council hopes to move one step closer to self-rule tomorrow by backing the idea of becoming a unitary authority.
Unitary status would mean the Town Hall taking over functions currently provided by Oxfordshire County Council, including social services and education - effectively providing all local council services under one roof. Political leaders and the public meet tomorrow to discuss what to include in the authority's three-year corporate plan - and top of the list will be lobbying for unitary status.
A firm commitment to breaking away from the current two-tier structure would mean lobbying the Electoral Commission to press ahead with change because no reorganisation has happened in England or Wales for eight years. Oxford City Council leader Alex Hollingsworth said: "It's an obvious step to take because it would lead to more accountability and make for better engagement with the public. The overwhelming argument is one of democracy - at the moment if someone is unhappy with the state of schools in the city, what can they do? There is no-one to hold to account because you have to go a long way out of Oxford before finding a Tory councillor."
While the county council is dominated by Tory councillors - none of whom lives in Oxford - the city council does not have a single Conservative representative, yet County Hall controls schools and transport. City council Liberal Democrat group leader John Goddard said: "Personally I have thought a unitary authority has long made sense for Oxford - five district councils and one county council is simply too many local authorities. "There is already tension between urban and rural and I think two layers of local government are thoroughly confusing. For example, people who live in Botley are under the administrative control of the Vale of White Horse District Council, when most of them probably work and shop in the city - the existing boundaries do not coincide with real communities."
Independent Working Class Association group leader Stuart Craft said: "It would be much more democratic to be a unitary authority and in principle, the IWCA supports the idea."
If unitary status is granted, there are realistically two options - a greater Oxford unitary authority incorporating Oxford and Abingdon with unitaries in the north and south of the county, or an Oxfordshire unitary authority. County council leader Keith Mitchell said: "If were starting with a clean bit of paper, then unitary authorities are the type of government we would invent, but we are not and I don't think the time is right to be having this debate."
Tomorrow's meeting starts at 10am at the Town Hall, in St Aldate's.