Districts won't consult public over local government review

• The proposal rules out the possibility of a single county unitary before the study has been conducted. The county council has always said that there should be a public debate about all the options. Why have the districts pre-judged their own report by ruling out a single council for Oxfordshire?
• We have written to the districts twice asking them to discuss terms of reference for a joint study, with the public also given a chance to comment. They made it clear they weren’t prepared to do that. The districts have now issued a tender document without any public discussion. Why have the public been excluded from this discussion in the rush to appoint management consultants?
• The government’s advice is that unitary areas need to have a minimum population of 300,000 to be viable. None of the four options put forward by the districts are big enough. Why are the districts ignoring this advice?