Calum Miller MP Responds to "blatant political gerrymandering" on Local Government Reorganisation

Responding to the recent news that Oxfordshire will be divided into three new unitary councils, Calum Miller said:

"This is blatant political gerrymandering. The Government has cast aside its own criteria to impose the arrangement that it thinks best suits the Labour Party.

"I am flabbergasted that Kidlington and many villages will be ripped out of Cherwell and swallowed into a Greater Oxford authority without the consent of local people. They will lose their distinct voice and their physical separation, with decisions instead taken by a council dominated by the city and the erosion of the green belt.

"The prioritisation of Oxford city has also left the new Cherwell/ West Oxfordshire in a very vulnerable financial position - against the rules the Government originally set. Local taxpayers will end up footing the bill for Labour's self-interested decision.

"This is not reorganisation in the interests of residents. It is a nakedly political carve-up, rushed through on the last day that many ministers will be in these roles: they should be ashamed."