Protecting Democracy in Oxford

As you know, a major part of our Mission is to instigate a return to genuine democracy, putting the majority public voice front and centre in all decision-making.

So, you can imagine how concerned we were when the Government gave Oxford City Council the opportunity to postpone (which really means cancel) the elections planned for this May; even more so when we observed that the Labour leadership of Oxford City Council were keeping very quiet about their intentions.

So, we sprung into action, and this took up a lot of our time and attention in January.

Here is a summary of what happened.

On 18 December, the Secretary of State wrote to all 63 Council Leaders where the council was scheduled to hold local elections in May 2026 and where the council is about to be involved in local government reorganisation.

The letter offered councils the opportunity to indicate if they felt that cancellation of their elections in May 2026 would release essential capacity to deliver the local government reorganisation (LGR).

The deadline for their response was Thursday 15 January 2026.

There was no public comment from Oxford City Council, nor apparently any plans for a full council discussion on the issue. The Labour leadership at City Council appeared to be trying to avoid any debate as to whether or not the elections should go ahead.

This prompted IOA action!

All the letters referenced below, can be found by clicking on the links provided.

David Henwood, leader of the IOA group on the council, worked alongside other opposition group leaders to try to force a special meeting of the full Council

Simultaneously, on 5 January, the IOA wrote a letter to Susan Brown, Leader of Oxford City Council, copied to all other members of the council’s Cabinet, setting out the arguments for holding the elections as planned, and urging the City Council to do the right thing by confirming to the Government that the elections should go ahead.

As a result, on 6 Jan, Susan Brown confirmed that a special meeting of the city council would take place at 5pm on Wed 14 January, immediately before the Government’s response deadline of 15 Jan.

On 9 January, the IOA emailed a letter to every councillor on Oxford City Council, setting out the reasons why elections should go ahead and urging them to use the opportunity, at the meeting on 14 Jan, to influence the decision and ensure that democracy is observed through the elections going ahead.

When the agenda for the meeting on 14 Jan came out, it was apparent that there was no motion, and therefore no vote, planned for the meeting.

The accompanying briefing paper recommended that “Members consider and debate the issues set out in this report in relation to the Oxford City Council 2026 local elections”. This falls far short of the Council reaching a decision, let alone recording in a vote the strength of views.

We considered this to be totally unsatisfactory – effectively setting the stage for the decision to be taken OUTSIDE the Council chamber.

So we wrote another letter.
On 12 January, IOA wrote to the Council’s Chief Executive, Caroline Green, and the Monitoring Officer, Emma Jackman, raising procedural concerns about the meeting and the lack of a vote, and making specific reference to the Council’s own constitution.

Caroline Green (CG) replied on 13 January, arguing that all was OK, and that “there is no decision (key or otherwise) for the council to take”.

The IOA emailed both local MPs, Anneliese Dodds and Layla Moran with a copy of our letter to the Chief Executive, pointing out that we had received an inadequate reply, and asking them to get involved.

Layla Moran’s office responded saying she could not respond to anyone other than one of her constituents, even though we made it clear we were writing on behalf of her constituents in Oxford.

There was no reply at all from Anneliese Dodds or her office.

The IOA responded to CG’s reply on 14 January, challenging several aspects of her argument.

CG responded by email on 14 January, assuring us that the response sent to the Secretary of State would “reflect the comments of councillors made in the chamber”; and refusing our request for IOA councillors to “see a copy of the response to be sent to the Minister before it goes”, saying that they could not commit to this “given the timelines involved in terms of a need to reply by Thursday this week”.

Meanwhile, our councillor David Henwood, along with other opposition councillors, was still pushing for councillors to have a vote at the meeting. The request was denied again on the afternoon of the meeting.

On the afternoon of the meeting (14 Jan), IOA led a protest outside the Town Hall, which was reported in the Oxford Mail and on the BBC. Several IOA members observed the meeting from the public gallery.

A significant majority of councillors spoke in favour of the elections going ahead, complained at there not being a vote at full council, and asked that their comments be included in the minutes.

When the letter was shared with councillors (after it had been sent on 15 Jan) it became apparent that it under-played the strength of feeling of councillors at the meeting, and over-emphasised concerns about capacity issues; and it did not give a clear answer as to whether the elections should go ahead.

It was a clear attempt to facilitate the Government postponing the Oxford elections on capacity grounds, whilst also being able to say that the letter reported the full council’s preference for elections going ahead.

IOA then sent directly to the Minister of State, a letter signed by all four of our city councillors, pointing out that the letter from the Leader of the City Council did not reflect the strength of feeling of the Council, and that it over-stated capacity issues. We further highlighted that three claims made regarding capacity issues were incorrect or illogical. In the accompanying email the IOA requested that the letter be brought to the attention of both the Minister of State and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, who would be making the decision.
On Monday 19 Jan, the Secretary of State wrote to Cllr Susan Brown, pointing out that her response had not been clear whether or not it was requesting that elections be postponed. His letter explicitly stated that he was taking account of her representation “and the other representations I have received” in coming to a final decision.

It was later confirmed that Oxford City Council elections will go ahead.

We believe that the energy and persistence we put in to this has contributed to the elections going ahead in May.

Meanwhile, we have also continued to shine a light on other issues, and to prepare for May elections.

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