Agenda and minutes

Venue: Meeting Room 1, 135 Eastern Avenue, Milton Park, Milton, OX14 4SB

Contact: Steve Culliford, Democratic Services Officer. Tel. 01235 422522 Email:  steve.culliford@southandvale.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

87.

Apologies for absence

To record apologies for absence. 

Minutes:

Councillor Mike Murray had sent his apologies for absence. 

88.

Declarations of interest

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

Minutes:

None

89.

Urgent business and chairman's announcements

To receive notification of any matters which the chairman determines should be considered as urgent business and the special circumstances which have made the matters urgent, and to receive any announcements from the chairman.

Minutes:

None

90.

Public participation

To receive any questions or statements from members of the public that have registered to speak. 

Minutes:

Councillor Debby Hallett had registered to address Cabinet on the unitary authority proposals for Oxfordshire but was unable to attend the meeting.  Instead, Councillor Hallett submitted written comments to Cabinet. 

 

The leader reported that he would respond in writing to Councillor Hallett.  Several of her comments could be answered by reference to the report.  With regard to Councillor Hallett’s question on how many staff would face involuntary redundancy, the leader referred to the forecasts by Grant Thornton and PwC in their previous reports that the expected level of redundancies was less than the current level of staff turnover. 

91.

Unitary authority proposals for Oxfordshire pdf icon PDF 344 KB

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”. 

 

In light of the above motion Cabinet is invited to consider the report of the chief executive on the development of proposals for a single unitary council for Oxfordshire and to make any recommendations to Council for consideration on 8 March 2017 – report to follow. 

 

Scrutiny Committee was due to meet on 27 February 2017 to consider a report and make recommendations to Cabinet. 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cabinet considered the chief executive’s report on proposals for the future organisation of local government in Oxfordshire.  The report updated Cabinet on the joint statement by the leaders of Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire district councils and Oxfordshire County Council relating to the One Oxfordshire engagement proposals and on the current position on negotiations regarding the One Oxfordshire discussion document. 

 

Cabinet noted that since the publication of the One Oxfordshire proposal, the leaders and chief executive of the Vale and South Oxfordshire had entered into dialogue with the leader of Oxfordshire County Council to improve the One Oxfordshire proposal and to promote the ‘A New Council for a Better Oxfordshire’ proposal.  The Better Oxfordshire proposal, based on feedback from the public engagement, included executive area boards for decision making at a more local level and bespoke arrangements for Oxford city area.  The proposal for executive area boards included:

·         Localised decision making and budgets

·         A membership of unitary councillors with voting powers, together with non-voting parish/town council representatives 

·         The number of executive area boards would be determined by the further work of a new joint committee

·         The executive area boards would be formal committees of the unitary council with significant devolved powers, decision making and resources, the detail to be developed by the joint committee

·         Local engagement on unitary-wide matters such as consultees on the budget and formulation of policy

·         Creation of dedicated ‘area’ plans to target resources and direct activity

The Better Oxfordshire proposal also included five local planning committees and a strategic planning committee. 

 

The Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 27 February 2017 and made the following recommendations: 

(a)       That, in order to ensure that decisions are made at a local level, careful consideration be given to the number and structure of executive area boards:

·         that the submission should include a clear statement on the future of Oxford City’s housing stock 

·         that the submission should propose two councillors for each division

·         that the structure and scheduling of unitary authority meetings should reflect the needs of the community 

(b)       That the chief executive’s report to Cabinet and Council should include:

·         indicative figures on the impact of council tax harmonisation based on current budgetary arrangements

·         clarification of the process by which council functions can be delegated to town and parish councils 

(c)       To note that Oxfordshire County Council’s public engagement exercise has not been completed at this time. 

 

Cabinet welcomed Scrutiny Committee’s input.  In response, and to assist Cabinet, three documents were tabled at the meeting for clarification:

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

2.    An indicative model showing projected council tax levels in Oxfordshire; and

3.    A comparison of the Better Oxfordshire proposals with those of the original One Oxfordshire proposals and the governance of Wiltshire and Cornwall. 

 

Cabinet 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  ...  view the full minutes text for item 91.

 

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