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I live in Basingstoke (RG21) , Hampshire. My friend who is naturalized recently here is frustrated to find that the next available ceremony date is 3 months from now . I am applying for naturalization by end of next month (ie, May).

I have personal reasons to grab British passport at the earliest possible date and can't wait 3 months for the ceremony.
Is anybody aware of councils in the area or London which have frequent private ceremony easily bookable in ,say a weeks time. I will be paying for the private ceremony as it is always faster than the public one.

Anybody have experience with Reading/Farnborough/Fleet/Woking/Salisbury/Southwark (or any council in the region or London) ? Any recommendations ?

Suggest you look for a council that is offering the joint form AN and passport application. They seem to be processed a bit quicker.

Thanks for the suggestion CR001. I have already made an appointment with Southwark for JPAC . But I am afraid that once approved my application might be delayed as my home council is Hampshire . So I want to take ceremony in a different council with a frequent private ceremony by filling its details on section 1.21 of AN form. Any suggestions?

You will need to phone around to find out which one would be best for you.

A bit of a different question, but to avoid openinng multiple topics...

I got my letter of invitation for the ceremony - at my local council.
Same problem - looong wait for public, and they do not offer private at the moment

So when i looked around and fancied myself a couple of other councils, on one of their website it said I needed to contact Home Office first, to obtain an invitation letter to a different council before i could make such a move.
Are they just being jerks or is it really the case that one MUST go with the local council even if the latter are dumbnuts?

PS> if it is worth anything, i applied for citizenship at a different council, not my local

That is exactly the case. In fact my husband was allocated a different Council than he requested in his application, but to change it (even though the fault of the HO), would have taken several weeks. He opted to stay with the Council he'd been given.