Sir – Chris Fox (Letters, August 5) may be hoping to cause some mischief with his suggestion that moving to unitary local government would help in the search for savings.

While he is undoubtedly right about potential savings, the present government has ruled out any structural change in local government for the current parliament.

That gives us five years to deal with the savage cuts in public spending to rid ourselves of Labour’s debt mountain and to demonstrate that co-operation between county, district, town and parish councils can lead to lower costs and better services without the dislocation caused by major reorganisation. If he thinks three unitaries in Oxfordshire would be the solution, he needs to ask people in Berkshire whether the six unitaries there have led to better local government.

I am afraid the Berkshire unitaries are just too small to deal with the strategic issues we all face — as would be three unitaries in Oxfordshire.

Keith R Mitchell, Leader of the council, County Hall, Oxford