I've always been in favour of unitary authorities. These are councils that do all services locally. The current system of multiple councils — Town, District and County — is far too complicated and unwieldy. Residents often don't know which council to go to for a local service. So I was delighted when I saw that the UK Government wanted to reorganise our local councils. Going by the Government's own specification, there was only one option that could possibly fit the bill: a single council for the entire county, preserving the ceremonial boundaries of Oxfordshire and making best use of current structures. However, this isn't going to be.

On 16 July 2026, the UK government shared its plan to create a three-unitary council system for Oxfordshire and West Berkshire. This means we will be saying goodbye to the current seven councils, and the new system will kick off on 1 April 2028. The area will be split into three councils: Greater Oxford Council, Northern Oxfordshire Council and Ridgeway Council.

• Greater Oxford Council: This council will cover Oxford and its immediate area, including some parishes taken from nearby districts.
• Northern Oxfordshire Council: This council will comprise most of Cherwell and West Oxfordshire.
• Ridgeway Council: This council will bring together parts of South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse with West Berkshire.

• May 2027: Elections to set up shadow authorities for the new councils.
• 1 April 2028: The current county, city, West Berkshire unitary and district councils will disappear, and the three unitaries will officially start running things.

The cost of changing local government in Oxfordshire depends on which plan we go with. A single unitary authority model is expected to cost £21.9 million, while a three-unitary structure is projected to cost £36.2 million.

The Government has turned down this proposal, even though it is the most cost-effective and the only one that fits the Government's own rules.

The transition costs are expected to be a one-off £21.9 million. It should take about 1.3 years to recoup the costs. By Year 5, this proposal is expected to bring in £63.3 million in annual savings — £30.1 million from reorganising and £33.2 million from ongoing changes.

This is the option that I thought was most sensible and affordable. Instead we will now see three lots of highly paid chief executives, directors of Social Services, finance directors, directors of children's services, directors of public health and monitoring officers as well as all of the other service managers. The Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service will probably move its HQ to Reading. I feel an increasing level of concern the more I think of what will be lost and the money that is going to be wasted.

The three-unitary project will be funded by a £10 million council reserve pool and improvements within the organisation. Transition costs are estimated at £36.2 million, based on modelling that Pixel Financial has reviewed. The changes are expected to pay for themselves in about four years.

So, this is the one that the Government has mysteriously chosen for Banbury and the rest of this part of Oxfordshire. My county electoral division is likely to have three councillors representing it, instead of one at present.

I genuinely want the new arrangements to work, but I honestly can't see how a single council the size of the one proposed for North Oxfordshire can be viable and be able to deliver the services that it will be expected to. For one thing the population isn't big enough, therefore there won't be enough Council Tax collected to fund it. I hope my concerns are unfounded, but somehow I don't think they will. The elections to the Shadow Authority that will form the new council and take over the following year are probably the most important elections we've had for some time. We need to elect capable, sensible people who will work together for the public good, rather than the usual party political bun fighting.

Paul-Austin Sargent is the County Councillor for Banbury Grimsbury & Castle. He sits on the various Health Scrutiny committees and the Planning & Regulation Committee.