The county has sent ministers a pre-action letter seeking the evidence behind the three-council plan. Oxford's leader objects to spending public money on it.

Oxfordshire County Council has sent the government a formal legal letter, the step that comes before a judicial review. It wants to see the evidence behind the July decision to split Oxfordshire and West Berkshire into three new councils, one of them a Greater Oxford Council.

Oxford City Council, which designed the three-council model, says the county should not be spending public money on a legal challenge.

What the county has done

The county announced the move on Wednesday afternoon. It says it has been asking the government for “the evidence and analysis that informed its minded-to decision in July”. It has had no answer.

So it has now issued a pre-action protocol letter. The county describes this as the letter “that provides the legal basis for requesting the evidence and documents underpinning the government’s decision-making” (Oxfordshire County Council, 14 October 2026).

A pre-action letter is not a court case. It sets out a proposed claim and gives the other side a chance to respond before anything is filed. The county’s own words are that it is “ahead of a potential judicial review”. It has not published the letter, and it has not said what the legal work is costing.

Councillor Tim Bearder, the county council’s leader, explains the decision in a video on the county’s announcement. The written release adds that the council “remains ready to engage constructively with the government on the review”.

The city’s reply

Oxford City Council issued a three-paragraph statement the same day. Councillor Susan Brown, its leader, said:

While I understand the leadership at Oxfordshire County Council was disappointed by the Government’s preference for three unitary councils, I don’t think it should be spending public money on a legal challenge.

She said the city looks forward to the government finishing its review of the July decision “so that all councils can get back to working together”. She repeated the city’s case that the three-council model “will give Oxfordshire and West Berkshire the tools needed to tackle the housing crisis and create well-paid, secure jobs” (Oxford City Council, 14 October 2026).

The city published its housing register figures on the same afternoon. That release closes by arguing for a Greater Oxford Council as the way to cut the waiting list: see Oxford’s housing register passes 4,000.

How we got here

The county has been building towards this since the summer.

  • 16 July: the government announced a minded-to decision for three unitary councils from 1 April 2028: Greater Oxford, a northern council and Ridgeway. Councillor Bearder said he was “deeply disappointed”.
  • 7 September: ministers paused all 14 July decisions for a review of the whole programme, and told councils to stop implementation work. The county welcomed the pause. The city was “disappointed”.
  • 7 September: Councillor Bearder wrote to Baroness Taylor of Stevenage. He said it would be “undesirable” for Oxfordshire “to have to resort to a Judicial Review simply to obtain the civil servants’ advice underpinning this once-in-a-generation decision”.
  • 14 October: the county issued the pre-action letter.

We covered the pause and that September letter in full: Oxford council reorganisation paused.

The county says the government “is yet to update on the scope or timetable” of its review. Five weeks after the pause, nobody in Oxfordshire knows when the review will end.

Why the county wants the evidence

The county has opposed the three-council model from the start. In July Councillor Bearder said it “offers the lowest cost savings of all the proposals”.

The government’s own analysis of the consultation gave it ammunition. Across 4,676 responses the chosen plan scored 37% positive and 50% negative. The councils, health bodies and police formally consulted ranked it last of the three options. Our August report has the detail: Greater Oxford Council: 50% of replies opposed it.

What the county does not have is the civil servants’ advice to ministers. That is what the letter is trying to get.

What it means for you

Nothing changes to your council services while this goes on.

The cost is the open question. Both councils are funded by Oxford council tax payers, and both are now spending staff time on a reorganisation that is on hold. If the government hands over the documents, the matter may end there. If it refuses, the county will have to decide whether to go to court.

We will report the government’s reply, or any claim filed, from the documents themselves.

Sources