Oxford councillors say May vote should go ahead
BBCLocal elections in Oxford should go ahead in May as planned, city councillors have said.
The Labour leader of the authority, Susan Brown, said she would write to government to set out views expressed in a meeting on Wednesday.
Ministers had offered councils undergoing reorganisation the chance to delay the vote because of "capacity issues".
A majority of members of Oxford City Council spoke out against a delay.
Oxford is one of 63 councils that received a letter from government saying ministers would authorise delays if there were "genuine concerns" about delivering elections alongside local government reform.
More than a third of eligible councils in England have asked to postpone their elections, affecting more than 2.5m voters.
Plans were announced in December 2024 that will see Oxfordshire's current two-tier system of councils abolished and replaced with one or more unitary authorities.
Brown said reorganisation was a "massive challenge" for councils.
She added: "In my letter I will be setting out council's view that elections should go ahead but also acknowledging the capacity issues we face, dealing with the biggest change in local government for 50 years."
A debate on postponing the election was held at a meeting of the city council on Wednesday.
Protesters, led by Anne Gwinett from the Independent Oxford Alliance, gathered beforehand to campaign for the vote to go ahead.
Gwinett said: "If there's an election, the people have a choice and whatever comes out of that, whichever way you voted, you live with the consequences.
"But for the elections not to happen is denying people the opportunity to have their say."
It was a sentiment echoed by the Greens and Liberal Democrats on the council, with both groups pushing to go ahead, while Labour was split on the issue.
Green group leader Chris Jarvis said: "It's about a matter of principle, which is that fundamentally the decisions that are made in this city should be made by people who are elected, who have a recent mandate and are elected in the most recently scheduled elections, which would be May this year."
Katherine Miles from the Liberal Democrats said it was "democratic backsliding" if elections did not go ahead in May.
West Oxfordshire and Cherwell District Council, who are also scheduled to have elections in May, have indicated they will go ahead as planned.
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