Agenda item

To review a report to the Growth Board proposing the endorsement of an approach for setting a Strategic Vision for Oxfordshire. (To follow)

The Panel considered a report to the Growth Board introducing a draft Strategic Vision for Oxfordshire’s long-term sustainable development. The report set out the purpose of the proposal, the scope and content of the Vision and the benefits of wider public engagement and future Growth Board endorsement.

In presenting the report, Bev Hindle, Growth Board Director, highlighted that the Vision was important to the future of Oxfordshire, but stressed that the draft included in the Agenda was the basis for public engagement and not a final product. An objective of the developing the Vision was to gain greater clarity of Oxfordshire’s shared future ambitions to help inform and support wider strategies including the Oxfordshire Plan 2050, but it was not a formal statutory planning document and its remit went beyond questions of land use to include questions around the kind of places residents wished to live in. It was also designed to precede the Oxfordshire Plan 2050. It was intended that public engagement on the Vison would take place prior to Christmas and once the results of this had been taken into consideration to present an updated draft to Growth Board for endorsement in the New Year.

In discussion the Panel was generally supportive of the draft Vision and of the planned public engagement exercise whilst raising several questions of clarification and comment.  The links and relationships between the Vision, Oxfordshire Plan 2050 and sub-regional strategic documents including the Oxford to Cambridge Arc Economic Prospectus were explored. It was felt by some members of the Panel that there were some apparent contradictions in the draft Vision between a stated aim to remain Oxfordshire focussed and other parts of the document that referred to sub-regional and external influences. The Panel was informed that Vision aimed to strike the right balance between local issues and the wider context which also needed to be taken into consideration.

The view was expressed that there was a need for clarification and correlation between existing forward looking local planning documents and policies and the Vision. There was also felt to be a tension between the reference to historical documents in the Vision, (many of which were considered to now be outdated, particularly around climate change and bio-diversity), and the aim of the Vision to be forward looking and based on the most up to date information.

Discussion of the engaged engagement exercise focussed on the Panel’s view that participation amongst younger people was crucially important given the long-term nature of the Vision. The Growth Board, particularly its local authority Leader representatives, needed to do all they could to engage with all their councillors around the Vision and to use their wider community network as much as possible to encourage as wide a possible response.

RESOLVED: That the Scrutiny Panel recommends that the Growth Board:

1.      be requested to acknowledge that the timescales in the final version of the Strategic Vision running from the year 2021 and its content may not necessarily align with existing forward-looking policies, plans of individual councils and partner organisations running up to the year 2030 and with this in mind the Growth Board ensure that continuity between this Vision and other policies & plans is carefully considered.

2.      be requested to ask Council leaders to ensure there is clear visibility of the Strategic Vision public engagement exercise to the elected members of their respective councils and guarantee that they would be given the opportunity to read and comment on the text.

3.      be requested to ask Council Leaders to encourage their wider networks and the public to engage with the Strategic Vison engagement exercise.

4.      be requested to ensure that the public engagement exercise actively targets engagement with younger people (who are traditionally underrepresented in local government consultations) as part of a wider effort to ensure that views are sought across Oxfordshire’s demographic.