THE Government looks to have buried lingering hopes of any wholesale reorganisation of councils in Oxfordshire.

A White Paper says that councils wanting to create unitary councils have only until January 25 to submit proposals.

The 12-week deadline leaves those wishing to see Oxfordshire County Council scrapped facing a near mission impossible to prepare the case for reform.

Oxford City Council, the Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire district councils have all expressed interest in seeking unitary council status.

The city council wants to run all the services in Oxford, while the Vale and SODC say there is a case for a single unitary council covering the whole of southern Oxfordshire.

But the Lib Dem Vale leader, Jerry Patterson, said the White Paper showed that Tony Blair's Government had no real appetite for change.

With David Miliband no longer driving the agenda for local government and Ruth Kelly now the Communities Secretary, he feared the momentum for reform had come to a grinding halt.

Mr Patterson, a strong supporter of unitary councils for Oxfordshire, said: "This makes it extremely difficult for those pressing for unitary councils. It would require us not only to come up with a business plan for ourselves. We would also have to construct a business plan showing how we could move to unitary councils across the whole of Oxfordshire, including the sharing out of resources and responsibilities. No district council is capable of doing that in 12 weeks."

John Goddard, the Lib Dem leader of Oxford City Council, said the city had to recognise there was just a small window of opportunity to bid for unitary status.

He said he would be seeking talks with other parties at the Town Hall, along with representatives of Oxfordshire councils about the best way forward,.

He said the city council had already done much work behind the scenes, which would hold it in good stead.

But Mr Goddard was dismissive of the Government's new 'Pathfinder' initiative unveiled in the White Paper, as an alternative to unitary councils.

The White Paper invites councils to pioneer new partnerships between county councils and district councils, allowing them to work more closely together in delivering services.

Mr Goddard said the city council and County Hall were already working together in areas such as waste and the redevelopment of the West End, where joint offices were being planned.

He warned: "What I and the city council do not want to see is any further increase of county council dominance. But what the Government has in mind is not a bit clear."

South Oxfordshire leader, Ann Ducker, said: "The Government has made things so complex and expensive. We cannot go forward with it."

Oxfordshire County Council leader Keith Mitchell believes the city council, would "struggle" to meet the January 25 deadline. He also considers it unlikely that Oxfordshire councils might pull together in time to bid to be among the first wave of pioneering 'pathfinders'.