With Council’s agreement this motion was moved to be taken third in the debate.

Councillor Simmons proposed his submitted motion, seconded by Councillor Wolff.

Councillor Gant, having submitted an amendment, withdrew this on the advice of the Monitoring Officer that it would negate the spirit of the original motion.

After debate and on being put to the vote, the motion was declared carried.

Council resolved to adopt the motion as set out below:

This Council notes the One Oxfordshire proposals recently published by Oxfordshire County Council which make the case for a single, countywide unitary authority. This will involve the abolition of Oxford City Council. 

This Council has just completed its own cross-party scrutiny review (Devolution Working Group) which looked at both local government reorganisation and devolution.

All these scrutiny recommendations have since been accepted by the City Executive Board.

This Council believes that the recommendations from the scrutiny review group remain relevant and should form the basis of a robust response from the City Council opposing the One Oxfordshire proposals.