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Councils look set to end their partnership arrangement
18/01/2022
The County and District councils are in discussions to end the relationship that sees some roles and tasks shared
The partnership agreement which sees a number of functions shared between Cherwell District Council and Oxfordshire County Council is set to come to an end. The two authorities are in discussions to conclude the arrangement.
This will result in the joint chief executive Yvonne Rees returning to her role as CEO for Cherwell District Council alone. Recruitment would then take place for the post of chief executive for Oxfordshire County Council.
It remains unclear how the decision will affect the current budget planning process at Cherwell District Council. A number of the proposed savings were based on increased closer working and task sharing with the County Council.
The arrangement between the two councils has been in place since September 2018. At the time both authorities were under the control of the Conservative Party. Following last year’s local elections an alliance between the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Greens took control at the County Council.
Leader of Cherwell District Council Cllr Barry Wood said: “The partnership has served the councils and our residents very well for the past three years and enabled us to deliver high-quality cost-effective services. But it is now time for us to explore other opportunities.
“Our focus will remain on delivering high-standard services for all our residents and communities and we will continue to work closely with all our local authority partners in Oxfordshire to do so.”
Leader of Oxfordshire County Council Cllr Liz Leffman said: “During the pandemic, we have worked very closely with all our local authority partners to support our most vulnerable residents and deliver much-needed services. What we want to do now is to capitalise on this and focus on the opportunities that broader partnership working gives us so that we can best serve the residents of Oxfordshire.”
Both Councils say the intention is that joint services will remain in place while new arrangements are finalised.
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam
Edward Horton On 19/01/2022 at 9:54 am
Despite the fine words of the politicians the arrangement clearly wasn’t working. Another ‘good idea’ fallen by the wayside. And how much did it cost us to set up and how much will it cost us to go separate ways again.
Shouldn’t we know whose idea it was in the first place and more details of what went wrong.