Vale of White Horse District Council

Vale of White Horse District Council is the local authority for the Vale of White Horse, a non-metropolitan district in the south-west of Oxfordshire, England.

Vale of White Horse District Council
Type
Type	Non-metropolitan district council
History
Founded	1 April 1974
Leadership
Chair	Oliver Forder, Liberal Democrat since 14 May 2025[1]
Leader	Bethia Thomas, Liberal Democrat since 7 December 2022
Chief Executive	Mark Stone[a] since 2017[2]
Structure
Seats	38 councillors
Political groups	Administration (32)   Liberal Democrats (32) Other parties (6)   Green (4)   Independent (2)
Length of term	4 years
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post, Whole council elected every 4 years
Last election	4 May 2023
Next election	6 May 2027
Meeting place
Abbey House, Abbey Close, Abingdon, OX14 3JE
Website
whitehorsedc.gov.uk

History

The non-metropolitan district of Vale of White Horse and its council were created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The new district covered the whole of four former districts and part of a fifth, all of which were abolished at the same time:^[3]

• Abingdon Municipal Borough
• Abingdon Rural District
• Faringdon Rural District
• Wantage Rural District (parishes lying generally north of the Ridgeway only; rest went to Newbury District)
• Wantage Urban District

The new district was named Vale of White Horse, an old name used for the area around the Uffington White Horse.^[4] The whole area had been in Berkshire prior to 1974, but was transferred to Oxfordshire as part of the reforms.^[3]

Governance

The council provides district-level services. County-level services are provided by Oxfordshire County Council. The whole district is also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.^[5]

Since 2008, the council has shared staff with neighbouring South Oxfordshire District Council.^[6]

Political control

The council has been under Liberal Democrat majority control since 2019.^[7]

The first election to the district council was held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until it came into its powers on 1 April 1974. Political control of the council since 1974 has been as follows:^[8][9]

Party in control		Years
	Conservative	1974–1995
	Liberal Democrats	1995–2011
	Conservative	2011–2019
	Liberal Democrats	2019–present

Leadership

The leaders of the council since 2004 have been:

Councillor	Party		From	To
Jerry Patterson		Liberal Democrats	2004	21 May 2008
Tony de Vere[10][11]		Liberal Democrats	21 May 2008	May 2011
Matthew Barber[12]		Conservative	18 May 2011	May 2018
Roger Cox[13]		Conservative	16 May 2018	May 2019
Emily Smith[14]		Liberal Democrats	15 May 2019	7 Dec 2022
Bethia Thomas[15]		Liberal Democrats	7 Dec 2022

Composition

Following the 2023 election and subsequent by-elections and changes of allegiance up to July 2024, the composition of the council was:^[16][17][18]

Party		Councillors
	Liberal Democrats	32
	Green	4
	Independent	2
Total		38

The two independents sit together as the 'Independent Voice for Vale' group. The next election is due in 2027.^[18]

Elections

See also: Vale of White Horse District Council elections

Since the last full review of boundaries in 2015, the council has comprised 38 councillors representing 24 wards, with each ward electing one or two councillors. Elections are held every four years.^[19]

Premises

The Beacon, Wantage: Used for full council meetings

Full council meetings are generally held at The Beacon in Wantage. The council's main offices are at Abbey House in Abingdon, which is also used for committee meetings.^[20]

The council was initially based in a number of offices inherited from its predecessor authorities across the district. In the early 1990s the council built itself a new headquarters in Abingdon called Abbey House (or "New Abbey House" to distinguish it from the neighbouring building formerly also called Abbey House, which was renamed "Old Abbey House").^[21]

In 2014 the council largely vacated Abbey House, retaining only a small presence there, with most of Abbey House since 2014 being occupied instead by Oxfordshire County Council. Vale of White Horse moved most of its staff to share the offices of its neighbour South Oxfordshire in Crowmarsh Gifford, but in 2015 that building was destroyed in a fire following an arson attack. From 2015 until 2022, Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire shared temporary office accommodation at Milton Park near Didcot.^[22] The two councils returned to Abbey House in 2022 as a temporary measure, with the intention being to build a new shared headquarters in Didcot.^[23]

See also

• List of electoral wards in Oxfordshire