Agenda and minutes

To record apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from councillors Ed Blagrove, Sandy Lovatt, Chris McCarthy and Henry Spencer.

To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests in respect of items on the agenda for this meeting.  

There were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest.

To receive announcements from the Chairman. 

The chairman provided housekeeping information. At the proposal of the chairman Council agreed to suspend Council procedure rules 44 and 45 which restrict the length of speeches and when a councillor may speak.

To receive any questions or statements from members of the public that have registered to speak on the single unitary council for Oxfordshire item. 

No members of the public had registered to speak at this meeting.

At its meeting on 15 February 2017 Council agreed the following motion:

“This Council supports the principle of a new countywide unitary council for Oxfordshire but recognises that the One Oxfordshire discussion document currently being publicised by Oxfordshire County Council requires strengthening in order to maximise the benefits to, and influence of, local communities and to satisfy the concerns of residents about some aspects of the proposal including the need for more local decision making.

Council authorises the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, to work with other partner councils to develop the terms of a proposal for local government change in Oxfordshire and present a detailed report to Council in due course”. 

The Scrutiny Committee met on 27 February 2017. Any recommendations will be reported to Cabinet. 

At its special meeting on 6 March 2017 Cabinet will consider the report of the Chief Executive on the development of proposals for a single unitary council for Oxfordshire. The report, which Cabinet will consider at its meeting on 6 March 2017, and Cabinet’s recommendations, will be circulated to all councillors in advance of the Council meeting. 

Council considered the report of the chief executive on proposals for a single unitary council for Oxfordshire.  Council recalled that at its meeting on 15 February 2017, it had passed a motion supporting the principle of a single unitary council and authorised the chief executive and leader of the council to work with partner councils to develop the terms of a submission for local government change in Oxfordshire, and to submit a report to Council in due course. 

Since that meeting, the chief executive and leader had worked with the leaders of Oxfordshire County Council and South Oxfordshire District Council to improve the county council’s One Oxfordshire proposal to form a new submission ‘A New Council for a Better Oxfordshire’.  The Better Oxfordshire proposal was now presented to Council.  The proposal would be put before South Oxfordshire District Council on 10 March 2017 and Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet on 14 March 2017.

The Scrutiny Committee met on 27 February 2017 and its recommendations were reported to Cabinet that, in turn, met on 6 March 2017. The recommendations of both the Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet were set out before councillors. In supporting the recommendations Cabinet agreed an amendment to recommendation 7 to read (additional words shown in bold type):

“authorise the head of legal and democratic services, in consultation with the leader and the chief executive, to agree the terms of reference of the joint committee, which will include making recommendations regarding the initial functions of the implementation executive, and to make this council’s appointments to the joint committee”. 

Tabled at the meeting were three additional documents to provide clarification:

1.    A vision of a governance structure for the new unitary authority;

2.    A model of council tax in Oxfordshire; and

3.    A comparison of the Better Oxfordshire proposal with the One Oxfordshire proposal and the governance arrangements in Cornwall and Wiltshire. 

Council noted that the council tax modelling was based on figures published in the Oxfordshire districts’ and county council’s medium term financial plans, and assumed council tax increases across these councils in the lead up to the new unitary council being established.  The figures also assumed that there would be a new council for the city of Oxford, setting a precept of £150 in a new town council role.  The model showed that it would be possible to achieve levels of council tax no higher than would be expected under the current two-tier principal council system in Oxfordshire. 

The leader of the council introduced Cabinet’s recommendations, explaining that he had worked with the leaders of South Oxfordshire District Council and Oxfordshire County Council to improve the One Oxfordshire proposal and develop the Better Oxfordshire proposal.  This offered the opportunity for greater efficiencies and improved governance arrangements with some decisions being made by executive area boards and bespoke arrangements for Oxford city area.  The powers of these boards would be significant, with representatives of towns and parishes in a non-voting capacity. In addition there would be five local  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79.