A district councillor said proposals to cut councillor numbers do not go far enough and the whole tier of local government should be scrapped.

Margaret Davies, the only Labour member on South Oxfordshire District Council, said after nine years as a serving member she still did not know what the body was for.

Mrs Davies said millions of pounds would be saved if district councils in Oxfordshire were scrapped and their powers handed to the county council.

She said: “I’ve been there quite a few years, and I don’t know what district councils are for.

“The work they do has been reduced, and they now have very few statutory duties: planning, district burials, waste collection but not waste disposal.

“We don’t do council housing, and the leisure centres run themselves.

“Of the 48 members of South Oxfordshire District Council, very few of them regularly turn up to meetings because there is no point. There is nothing to be decided.”

She added: “I have honestly wondered for many years now, what is it for? It’s a waste of taxpayers’ money.

“You just need people to monitor contracts, and that can be done anywhere.”

Mrs Davies spoke out after the district council’s leader, Conservative Ann Ducker, called for the number of councillors to be reduced by 40 per cent, from 48 to 30, to save £50,000 a year.

At a meeting on Thursday, councillors agreed to ask the Boundary Commission to consider the idea.

Mrs Ducker said: “When you think we are reducing the number of staff, do you not think we should look at ourselves too.”

But Mrs Davies, who has been involved in local politics for 15 years, said millions more could be saved by merging the county’s five councils, including Oxford City Council, and Oxfordshire County Council.

Few voters understood the differences between the different authorities now, she added.

She said: “My vision is that within 10 years, there will be one unitary countywide authority, with more powers given to parish and town councils at the grassroots level.”

Mrs Davies said Oxfordshire should have applied to become a unitary authority alongside Wiltshire, Cornwall, Durham, Northumberland and Shropshire in 2009.

South Oxfordshire’s deputy leader Rodney Mann said the districts and the county council had distinct responsibilities and it was not a case of saving money through combining similar services.

He added: “A more effective way is to combine, as we have done, with Vale of White Horse District Council, on things like waste collection to cut costs.”

County council deputy leader David Robertson said: “It’s an interesting approach.

“If it was the will of local people then it is up to councillors to consider it.”

Leader of the Labour-controlled Oxford City Council Bob Price said it was the county council that should be scrapped and three unitary districts set up in the north, central and southern areas of Oxfordshire.

He added: “The county council is doing decreasing amounts.

“Education is largely funded direct from Whitehall and the amount of money into highways is very small.

“The county only does social care these days.”