Council says no to neighbour's 'land grab' plans

A council has described a neighbouring authority's bid to expand its borders as a "hostile act".

Reading Borough Council wants permission from the government to let it swallow up five villages on its western fringes.

People in Calcot, Tilehurst, Purley-on-Thames, Pangbourne and Theale currently have their bins emptied, schools run and potholes filled by West Berkshire Council.

That may change though as the two councils jockey for both position and power as part of a wider shake-up of local government.

It will be several years before anything actually changes in the Royal County but the cracks are already starting to appear in what appears - to outside eyes at least - to be the rather genteel world of local authorities.

It all started back in the spring when West Berkshire Council announced - out of the blue - that it was looking to join forces with the Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire to create a new bigger, combined council.

The government says many local authorities are too small to deliver services cost-effectively and should merge to form larger councils that represent more people.

West Berkshire had not been instructed to merge with any other local authorities.

However, with the government considering wider reorganisation, it said now would be a good time to join forces with the Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire.

So it proposed bringing the three predominantly rural councils together under what would be known as Ridgeway Council.

For months Berkshire's other councils stood on the sidelines, saying nothing - in public at least.

That was until Reading stepped out of the shadows saying it wanted to absorb the five West Berkshire villages into its own authority.

It argued that many of the people living there already spent much of their time shopping, having fun and working in Reading.

But their neighbouring authority responded by calling the move an “unsolicited attempted land grab".

Speaking on BBC Radio Berkshire's breakfast show, West Berkshire Council's leader, the Liberal Democrat Jeff Brooks, bristled at the idea that people would be happier being looked after by Reading.

He said his staff planned to go door-to-door to see how people really felt about the idea.

"It's a hostile act," he said. "It's unwelcome to all the people in those parishes and it's all part of this ambition of Reading to be a city, the 'Greater Reading' they want it to be.”

He added: "What happens next? Do Reading then say 'oh, we'll have a piece of Earley as well?’”

His counterpart in Reading, Liz Terry, had already told BBC Radio Berkshire the council only started to think about expanding its western borders after West Berkshire made its move in March.

She said: "Our belief is that Oxfordshire's final reorganisation proposals for the creation of a new Ridgeway Council should be considered by the secretary of state in conjunction with a review of existing boundaries between Reading and West Berkshire, because one markedly affects the other."

This may seem trivial to some.

The fact that two Berkshire councils have both appeared on their local radio station on consecutive days to make the case that they are the most natural fit for their current residents is not exactly earth-shattering news.

Then again, a couple of years from now people could well find themselves saying "hold on a sec, why are I am paying more council tax to a local authority I didn't even know existed until a few months ago?"