THE leader of West Oxfordshire District Council has come out with all guns blazing following a report the county was planning a unitary takeover.

Councillor Barry Norton has slammed Oxfordshire County Council for considering a single council as a way of solving its financial woes.

Four district councils, including West Oxfordshire and Cherwell, would be directly affected by the suggestion and have united in opposition to blast county officials for using taxpayers' money to commission a report.

The report suggests a saving of up to £33 million a year could be made. It has been released as the Cabinet makes its budget recommendation for 2015/16 which requires more than £20 million of savings on top of the £265 million either made or already planned for 2016/17.

"There has been no consultation with the county council on this matter at all. They are just trying to claw their way out of the black hole they have made," said Councillor Norton.

"They have come up with figures that our financial officers have looked at and said are flawed. All they are doing is trying to blame others.

"We believe district councils, which are smaller, are more responsive to residents' needs and much better at making savings and balancing the books despite government cuts. It's something that the coalition government said it didn't want when it came to power. It said it didn't want any more disruptive or costly reorganised councils and that councils should get on and seek to work cohesively to make efficiency savings.

However, in Oxfordshire County Council's statement, leader Councillor Ian Hudspeth said: "We are beyond the point where further savings can be achieved by finding more efficiencies or "salami slicing" of services and we must find a different way of being able to provide essential services to our residents.

"This is now the start of a debate. I am sure all options in this report will be considered and examined in detail.

The county council said one council for Oxfordshire would be better able to plan for the expected growth in population by combining responsibility for housing, schools, planning and transport. This could all be done while reducing the council tax and reducing pressure on frontline services.

At a meeting of Chipping Norton Town Council on Monday, county councillor Hilary Hibbert-Biles said it was important the council look at savings for future balance.

"Half of our budget funds the needy which is two per cent of our population. If we make no changes it will rise to three quarters of our spending.

"This report is only at the embryonic stage and has been done to see if there is any appetite for it. The government doesn't want any unitary councils at the moment but you have to start somewhere," she said.

She went on to say that the county council was looking at deductions across the board and one area they were looking at was by reducing the number of councillors from 309 to 100.

"This would save a lot of money and would mean we would only have elections every four years instead of one a year. It would also reduce the council tax bills to the level of West Oxfordshire," she said.