Sean Woodcock January 25: On the future of local government

Wed 5 Feb, 15:29

Elections NOT cancelled in Oxfordshire.

In Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Thurrock, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Surrey elections postponed until May 2026.

Announced in House of Commons this afternoon.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/05/england-council-elections-postponed-local-government-shake-up

Sun 26 Jan, 11:56

This has all become rather pointless. Furthering my interest in Lonnie Donnegan's words of wisdom "Does your chewing gum lose its Flavour Overnight". This topic has lost its flavour for me.

Sat 25 Jan, 10:39 (last edited on Wed 29 Jan, 16:41)

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Sat 25 Jan, 10:16 (last edited on Wed 29 Jan, 16:42)

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Sat 25 Jan, 10:12 (last edited on Wed 29 Jan, 16:42)

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Sat 25 Jan, 10:08 (last edited on Wed 29 Jan, 16:42)

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Sat 25 Jan, 09:38

Liz, the Local Government Association has Oxfordshire as one of the counties that has submitted a request to delay the election. 

Sat 25 Jan, 09:19

I expect elected representatives to stand up for democracy, so when someone suggests cancelling the election, i expect them to say “no”. Not “maybe”, “if you insist” or “not up to me”. If the May election is cancelled it will be a scandal and a dangerous precedent, and it will mean voters never get to say at the ballot box what they think about scrapping the district. 

Fri 24 Jan, 16:07

Mr Stuart:

If all you have to offer to this site is an outright refusal to accept any civic responsibility, and a preposterous insistence on believing gibberish like "Oxford (or Oxfordshire) has applied to cancel ANY election" may I respectfully suggest the best place for you to live  would be Mar a Lago?. 

Here in West Oxfordshire we don't believe in wasting taxpayers' money so that people too fit  to qualify for WODC's Assisted  Bin Collection Service can be catered for at public expense. And no-one in the world - outside the parallel universe invented by Donald Trump and Elon Musk - would try to pretend he knew better than the Leader of his local Council what that Leader had just said.

Are you simply a figment of some AI delusion? And surely even an AI delusion would post a lot faster than you. So you're a figment of an Artificial Unintelligence machine - which lets Elon Musk out.

So you must be...

Fri 24 Jan, 14:26 (last edited on Fri 24 Jan, 14:41)

As the person who signed the letter to the government, Mr Stuart, let me make it 100% clear that Oxfordshire DID NOT apply to cancel the elections. You can't always trust what you read, even in the most respected of media but I can assure you that in this case I am the horse's mouth.  It may be that the government decides that we should postpone. If they do that information should be forthcoming next week.  If we do not hear from them next week the elections will go ahead in May. That is what we are planning for.

Fri 24 Jan, 10:15 (last edited on Fri 24 Jan, 10:16)

Geoffrey Stuart, I am not sure why these remarks are directed at me.

It's up to the forum administrators to decide who can and cannot participate. I simply pointed out that you live in Chilson. This is a more rural location with its own parish council than Charlbury which has its own town council. 

Questions about whether or not to pick up bins from their original location and return them to the same spot might well seem important to somebody who lives in a large house in a rural setting with a very long drive. Very few people in Charlbury are in this position, and my impression is that most residents of Charlbury are satisfied with -- and also very grateful for -- the rubbish collections provided by Ubico. We are also proud of the way that our recycling system works. We complain a lot about the provision of local tips, but that is a different issue.

This was supposed to be a thread about local government re-organisation which is an important topic. As such, it's important to avoid comments that mean that the thread would be banished to the Debate section of the Forum. I hope it can stay that way.

Fri 24 Jan, 09:14 (last edited on Wed 29 Jan, 16:42)

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Thu 23 Jan, 10:44

Helen, There's a slightly different email address and also a phone number for the surgery meetings. It's sean.woodcock.casework@parliament.uk

The phone number is 01295-981127

See here: https://www.facebook.com/SeanLWoodcock/photos/i-am-holding-surgeries-to-discuss-issues-with-residents-in-banbury-on-10th-janua/1018978863580896/

Thu 23 Jan, 09:37

Helen, you can book an appointment by emailing Sean's office: sean.woodcock.mp@parliament.uk

Thu 23 Jan, 09:33

I am trying to book a spot with Sean Woodcock on 31st January.  Can anyone help please.  Are you following this discussion on the Forum Sean?

Mon 20 Jan, 15:38

Ha, brilliant! and Melissa's post frankly deserves its much-liked status. I'm only annoyed my wife is one like higher in the chart than I am now.

Anyway, I'm going to return this thread to its origins. It feels quite hard to get to the crux of the wordy white paper on devolution – though this link (via the FAQ) is helpful. I wonder what this statement will mean in practice: 'The Government will also rewire the relationship between town and parish councils and principal Local Authorities, strengthening expectations on engagement and community voice.'

Mon 20 Jan, 12:28

Here’s the current list of posts with over 30 likes (with title, author, and count).

["Boris bopping the night away in Charlbury on New Year's Eve", "Melissa Midgen", 53],

["The kindness of strangers on a snowy night.", "Alison Nicholls", 53],

["AMARELO BISTRO - Open Wed to Fri this week", "marcia ", 51],

["Wilderness - beats still pumping at gone 1.15am!", "Paul D Jenkins", 47],

["AMARELO BISTRO - Open Wed to Fri this week", "Christopher Tatton", 46],

["Parking changes", "John Partington", 45],

["Tom Page", "Richard Fairhurst", 43],

["Congratulations to our new MP", "Sean Woodcock", 43],

["Rose & Crown", "Tom PAGE", 43],

["The Bull", "christopher edeson", 42],

["Celebrating the incredible resource that is this website", "Helen Holwill", 41],

["Wilderness 2021 - Update", "Dave Oates", 39],

["What’s going on at The Bull?", "The Bull", 37],

["Wilderness 2021 - Update", "Rosemary Bennett", 37],

["Cattle in field next to cemetery.", "Helen Chapman", 36],

["Dementia, ageing, or just forgetful + sleep help", "Suzie Williams", 35],

["Parking changes", "Richard Fairhurst", 35],

["Charlbury Cemetary!", "Deborah Longshaw", 35],

["Congratulations to our new MP", "Liz Leffman", 34],

["Town Council traffic topic", "Richard Fairhurst", 34],

["Wilderness Festival", "Liz Leffman", 34],

["Van broken into on The Slade in early hours", "Joshua Carvalho S", 33],

["Sean Woodcock January 25: On the future of local government", "Andrew Chapman", 33],

["Charlbury Community Works! heroes....", "Liz Reason", 33],

["Thanks to all those who have created and run this website", "Helen Holwill", 32],

["Congratulations to Andy Graham ", "Christopher Tatton", 32],

["The Bull - Garden Bar", "Dave Oates", 31],

["AMARELO BISTRO - Open Wed to Fri this week", "John Werner", 31],

["The Rose & Crown", "nikki page", 31],

["New Bistro for former Post Office", "marcia ", 31],

["Dementia, ageing, or just forgetful + sleep help", "Martin Ellis", 30],

["Dementia, ageing, or just forgetful + sleep help", "Miles Walkden", 30],

["Breakfast at the Bull ", "Rod Evans", 30],

["The Bull", "Catherine Ball", 30],

["The Bell", "Matt Bullock", 30]

Mon 20 Jan, 12:22

Sorry to nitpick but I seem to remember that Melissa Midgen got 53 likes for a "discussion" about Boris Johnson when he was seen celebrating New Year's Eve at the Bull a few years ago. That was a record at the time. Maybe 33 likes (currently) is a record for a post that has not ended up in the debate section (yet!)?

Sun 19 Jan, 22:11 (last edited on Mon 20 Jan, 00:38)

Apologies James, I misunderstood your post.  

Mea Culpa.  Must take more water with it.

By the way, at 32 "likes" I think Andrew has smashed the record. 

Sun 19 Jan, 21:01

Hannen, on the Forum, it is not possible to see who 'liked', if that is what you mean?

Sun 19 Jan, 19:20

I'm curious as to how anyone can see the owners of "likes".  

It seems a bit like "Big Brother" to me.

Is this what's called "data harvesting"?  If so, I shall stop "liking" anything.

Sun 19 Jan, 13:40

Congratulations, Andrew, on your 27 (at the time of writing) 'likes'! A Forum record?

This has been a most entertaining thread. Richard: could you possibly give us a laughing face emoji?

Geoffrey Stuart would make an excellent double-act with our long-standing king of comedy, Mr Adrian Lancini. (Or at least some inspiration for your next set, Adrian?)

Sun 19 Jan, 12:33

Here’s the actual letter. It’s a kind of fence sitting response on elections which basically says OCC doesnt object to this year’s election being cancelled if national government thinks it necessary . So pushing the responsibility to national level. 
https://mycouncil.oxfordshire.gov.uk/documents/s74623/Annex%201%20Letter%20to%20HMG%20FINAL%20on%20Letterhead.pdf

Sun 19 Jan, 12:20

Our Councillors have, to be fair, been put in a difficult position by the national government who have bounced them without giving them chance to really think through the implications or consult locally. The Government have also basically said that if the Council dont agree to form a unitary authority (or whatever they are calling it now) it will happen anyway. 

Sun 19 Jan, 11:25

The FAQs on the White Paper include Oxfordshire as one of the councils that has submitted a request to delay local elections. 

Sun 19 Jan, 11:21

There’s now a subscription paywall for those who want to read the Witney Gutsache and Oxford Mail’s alternative facts and Clarkson clickbait, indeed.

Sun 19 Jan, 11:19

OCC has in fact asked for the elections to go ahead - this is just a reflection of the state of accuracy of the Oxford Mail stable these days.  Read the Oxford Clarion if you want local news.

Sun 19 Jan, 10:46

OCC have asked to postpone the election, albeit on condition that the new merged authority would be complete in tine for elections in May 2026. Personally I would like to see councillors standing for election in May on a platform of “scrap the district” and see if voters want it. If they do then fair enough. 

https://www.witneygazette.co.uk/news/24856221.local-elections-letter-mealy-mouthed--oxford-councillor/

Sun 19 Jan, 08:17

Ah thankyou Emily - at last something relevant to the title of the thread.

Sat 18 Jan, 14:07 (last edited on Sat 18 Jan, 17:08)

FAQs on the white paper.

Sat 18 Jan, 10:25

And, since Mr Stuart's earlier posts on this forum show that he doesn't live in Charlbury but in Chilson, the relevance of any similarities between Islington Dustmen and West Oxfordshire Waste Operatives who operate in Charlbury (and who do a wonderful job!) is even more tenuous.

Sat 18 Jan, 09:30

Stephen, it may help if you sing it to a different tune, such as "Whiter Shade of Pale", or "Pinball Wizard" (both fit perfectly).

Sat 18 Jan, 09:02

I am left wondering what the 'dustmen' of Islington have to do with with 'the Recycling Operatives' of West Oxford. I have listened carefully to Lonny Donegans 'My old Mans a Dustman' and still can't see a connection

Sat 18 Jan, 07:33

When did Oxford (or Oxfordshire)  "apply to cancel" ANY election?

That may be the kind of claptrap nonsense the Daily Mail likes to churn out. But, as so often, the BBC's the medium people with brains trust 

Incidentally, for anyone following this Clochemerle aux Cotswoldsyarn: In any fight with Susan Brown and Liz Leffman in one corner and Keir Starmer (and most of  the Labour Party) in the other: my money's on Starmer - to get utterly trashed..

Sat 18 Jan, 00:10 (last edited on Sat 18 Jan, 00:13)

Oh dear. Clochmerle over bins now.

Fri 17 Jan, 18:11 (last edited on Wed 29 Jan, 16:43)

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Fri 17 Jan, 17:54

Who is paying whom? All of us are paying some already jolly hard-working binmen. If someone who calls the world's finest small town  "down here" wants bins collecting from his house, all of us are entitled to expect him to pay for that himself. 

And it's not difficult. Put an ad into the Forum (free). Offer the going rate for someone to make their way up (or down) to Mr Stuart's house, push the bin 50 yards or so at night - and then come  back the following morning to do the same in reverse. Shouldn't cost more than £75 a time (£4,000 a year). A solution that everyone else taking their ideas from the Daily Mail would thoroughly agree with. Free Market at work. Simples. 

Fri 17 Jan, 17:29 (last edited on Fri 17 Jan, 18:01)

Picking up Claire's point, OCC does not have a budget deficit and is in no risk of going bankrupt. It is in a far stronger position than many other county and unitary authorities. The reason that WODC's council tax is low is not because they have lots of assets and investments (any more than any other council) but because the previous administration chose to keep council tax very low but in doing so depleted reserves, which means that WODC is not in a particularly strong position financially. However it is very far from being bankrupt too.

Along with the leaders of all of the district councils in Oxfordshire,  as the leader of OCC I am in favour of becoming a unitary authority. We have written to government to confirm this with the consent of WODC, South and Vale, Cherwell and the City.  The savings that we can make on, for example, bin collections are considerable if we join forces across the county rather than having four different providers, and employing four different teams to manage them in four different offices.  WODC is already looking at combining forces on bin collections with other districts and published a paper that went to the scrutiny committee last week which demonstrated that to do that would be much more efficient and a lot less expensive. There are only 21 counties in the country now that retain the two tier system.  The White Paper makes it clear that the government expects all second tier authorities to be merged into unitaries by the end of this parliament

And by the way, most unitary authorities have localised planning committees so there will be no need for people to go into Oxford for a planning meeting. Plus town councils may also be given greater powers.

I am less convinced about the value of a Mayoral Strategic Authority, but we are working with other counties, in particular Berkshire, to form one.

Fri 17 Jan, 16:59

It was only a few years ago a lot of the services of West Oxfordshire, Cotswolds and Forest of Dean district council services were merged. They were recently split again. Now there'll be new merging. I'm no expert but it seems each district council makes up its own rules. Surely there has to be a potential for cost saving here. Also, it could not be beyond the wit of man to both merge and keep localism.

Fri 17 Jan, 15:15 (last edited on Wed 29 Jan, 16:43)

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Fri 17 Jan, 14:10

You cannot expect the bin service here to be the same as in london. Most people in central London do not have space for wheelie bins, and it would cause chaos if the pavements were covered in wheelie bins. They also cannot have bin lorries crawling down the main road stopping at each house as it would gridlock the whole city. The whole system works differently.

Fri 17 Jan, 13:33

"Doesn’t one’s rubbish and what is optimistically called recycling end up in the same place?"

That WAS the case in Islington when I lived there 25 years ago. It most certainly ISN'T in Oxfordshire now.  The stuff in grey bins goes to an Energy Recovery Facility, where it's turned into energy for about 60,000 homes - diverting about 95% of what would otherwise have gone to landfill. The stuff in blue or green bins goes to a number of destinations  to be composted, reused or recycled. Having weekly collections, while retaining our impressive recycling record, would be almost criminally inefficient. 

Fri 17 Jan, 13:33

That may depend on where you live. I put my bin outside my gate for them to empty, they put it back in the same spot give or take a couple of feet. In most streets in charlbury it's the same, unless you live for example down an alleyway off market Street, when you have to take the bin to the "main road". Likewise where my parents in law live in Staffordshire, you live off the road, you transport your bin to the road. 

Fri 17 Jan, 13:20 (last edited on Wed 29 Jan, 16:44)

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Fri 17 Jan, 10:45 (last edited on Fri 17 Jan, 10:46)

I agree Claire.  Each time there's a change of government, they want change for change sake, nothing to do with benefitting the local populations. 

Fri 17 Jan, 09:26

Just to clarify my understanding of your statement. Rubbish collections in Islington are weekly, unless you live above a shop or a restaurant in which case it is daily. Is that right?  I imagine that not everyone who lives in Islington is blessed with the good fortune to live above a shop or a restaurant so they may have to make do with a weekly collection instead? 

Fri 17 Jan, 09:19

I dont think it’s in our interests to merge the district and council tiers, because West Oxfordshire has the lowest council tax in the county. If we are merged, our tax will go up. Obviously the Councillors of high paying areas want this to happen because it will mean their residents pay less. 

West Oxfordshire has lots of assets and investments which help it keep Council Tax low. Whereas OCC has a massive budget deficit and is at risk of going bankrupt. If the tiers are merged all West Oxfordshire’s assets will presumably  go into this black hole. 

When there are controversial planning applications in Charlbury someone from the Town Council often pops over to Witney to speak at the planning committee, which happens in the middle of the working day. Are our unpaid councillors going to want to go to Oxford to do this?

I cant see any benefit to us at all.

Fri 17 Jan, 07:25

How would daily bin collections here help? It would be absurdly inefficient across a wide rural area, and encourage more waste. Also, the population of the Borough of Islington is twice that of West Oxfordshire. Seems an odd thing to complain about in a rural setting. I imagine Islington has more branches of Nando's, too.

Thu 16 Jan, 21:11 (last edited on Wed 29 Jan, 16:44)

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Thu 16 Jan, 21:10 (last edited on Wed 29 Jan, 16:45)

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Wed 15 Jan, 08:38

Here is a link to the English Devolution White Paper for anyone who wants to find out more about the plans and how they will work.

Tue 14 Jan, 19:07

Dear Mr Woodcock

Please could you answer my emails to you dating back to September?

There's a Cas to be made for devolution, and for unitary authorities.  However you cannot devolve power by making it more remote from people.  Why are you replacing district councils with a remote combined authority that nobody wants?

Mon 13 Jan, 19:05

If you think power is too centralised why do you want to get rid of the district? 

Mon 13 Jan, 15:58

As a councillor for 13 years, I know just how hard those involved in local government work for their residents. But local government is not working

For 14 years councils were starved of the funds that they need to provide the services that their communities rely on. The result is…

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