Change Afoot in Northern Oxfordshire
I did say I’d be back with more thoughts on the creation of the Northern Oxfordshire Council alongside Greater Oxford and the Ridgeway. And here I am.
Having had three options on the table, with each having strong and very vocal backers, no choice was ever going to get unanimous cheers – there are simply too many knock-on effects for that sort of unanimity. But sometimes you have a situation where a call must be made, and this was one of them.
IMO, pulling Banbury out from the administrative shadow and the massive tourist gravitational pull of Oxford is more positive than negative.
I don’t imagine that the adjustments and shifts will all be smooth. It’s not going to be a walk in the park. There will be plenty of serious administrative heavy lifting, new strategic alignments, a complete rethinking of how local services and budgets are managed, and political wrestling behind closed doors (and occasionally in the headlines).
Now, given what I’ve spent the last two years doing, it won’t surprise anyone to know I’ve looked at some of this through a visitor economy lens. Not exclusively, but it’s where my head is these days.
