Agenda item

Members of the public may submit an address or question in writing to the Scrutiny Panel, where full notice of the question or address is given to the secretariat no later than 17:00 on Tuesday 31 May 2022.  Questions and addresses submitted should be no longer than one side of A4 paper in Arial 12 font. The address or question will be circulated to the Panel and public speakers will be invited to speak at the virtual meeting. Written submissions may also be read out by the Chair or Democratic Services Officer where requested or if the person making the request for public speaking is not able to attend the meeting. A response may be given at the meeting or a written answer supplied. Questions and notice of addresses must be submitted to futureoxfordshirepartnership@southandvale.gov.uk

Note: This meeting may be recorded for live broadcast via the Future Oxfordshire Partnership’s YouTube Channel - at the start of the meeting the Chair will confirm the meeting is being filmed. By registering to speak you are consenting to being recorded and to the use of those video and audio recordings for webcasting.

The Scrutiny Panel considered two public questions.

Suzanne McIvor on behalf of the Cherwell Development Watch Alliance referred to the view that the submitted question highlighted the imbalance in resources between those who would benefit financially from growth in Oxfordshire and the many residents who believed that continuing high levels of growth were not compatible with wider objectives including the achievement of Net Zero Carbon emissions and the reversal of bio-diversity decline. Responding to statutory consultations on the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 was not a level playing field. There were too many documents and documents were too technical for the majority of the public to respond to.  There had been only 422 individual responses to the Regulation 18 Part 2 consultation. A response of a community group representing the views of all its members was treated in the same manner as a single response irrespective of the number of people it represented. The Panel was asked for its support in finding a mechanism whereby responses from community groups could be given more weight. Whilst this was recognised to be unconventional and challenging it was felt to be possible.

In the Panel’s discussion of the question, a range of views were expressed for and against the principle that Oxfordshire Plan 2050 public consultations responses from resident and community groups on behalf of their members, could and should, be given additional weighting based related to the size of their membership and not be counted or considered as a single response.

The Panel in acknowledging the requirements to follow appropriate legislation and guidance (including the NPPF), in the analysis of consultation responses, was concerned that the analysis of Oxfordshire Plan 2050 responses fully take account of both quantitative and qualitative factors and that the contributions of community groups, individuals or developers and others all be considered equally on their merits.

In addition, whilst acknowledging the need for the use of technical and legal language within plan consultation documents, Panel members also highlighted the need for documents to also be available that were aimed at the general public, such as abridged or plain English version and as well as being accessible on-line, documents should also be available in hard copy.

RESOLVED to recommend:

1.     That the Future Oxfordshire Partnership in its presentation of consultation responses include both qualitative and quantitative data as ‘not everything that matters can be measured’. This includes:

a.     The total number of responses to a particular question.

b.     The number of members an organization represents.

c.      Verbatim quotes extracted from consultation feedback received.

d.     A summary of the analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data.

e.     Acknowledgement in the analysis that there may be variations of opinion within groups, and that points made by small numbers of respondents are not of lower value.

2.     That in order to make Oxfordshire Plan 2050 formal consultation documents more accessible to the general public, the Future Oxfordshire Partnership also ensure the provision of documents in formats which are abridged and/or expressed in as much non-technical terms as possible.

3.     That in order to reach as wide a cross section of society, the Future Oxfordshire Partnership also ensure the availability of non online mechanism for the public to engage with and respond to future Oxfordshire Plan 2050 consultations.

David Young on behalf of Need Not Greed Oxfordshire, (NNGO) referred to the view of the NNGO that the Future Oxfordshire Scrutiny Panel should have a vital role in making the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 as good as it could be, but that the Future Oxfordshire Partnership was hindering the Panel’s work by avoiding or ignoring reasonable recommendations from it. The response given by the Partnership to the Panel’s first recommendation from its March 2022 meeting was considered to be a good example of this as in the view of NNGO, it ignored the overarching function of the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 in the Local Plan making process across Oxfordshire and seemed to imply that the Partnership itself was not an appropriate Forum for asking about the progress of the Oxfordshire Plan 2050.

Whilst NNGO wished to engage constructively, much work was being undertaken behind closed doors and greater transparency was needed, not least with regard to decisions relating to housing numbers, the outcomes of meetings between the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 Advisory Group and Leaders of Councils and the ‘six step process’ for securing consensus referred to in the notes of the advisory group. The Panel was asked to make clear to the Future Oxfordshire Partnership that the responses given to the Panel’s Recommendation 1 from the last meeting were unsatisfactory, ask for more detailed responses and ask for more details regarding the nature and output of the joint workshops referred to in the notes of the Oxfordshire Plan Advisory Group.

After seeking Member and Officer views on the remarks, the Chair commented that the Panel noted the specific points made by NNGO in their question, and that it was also noted that as the Oxfordshire Plan progressed, consultation responses would be incorporated into and help shape the final document. The role of the Panel in asking for an appropriate level of information of the Future Oxfordshire Partnership in relation to the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 was also acknowledged.

(The full text of the submitted questions can be found here)