Agenda item

To consider the revised Strategic Vision, which is due for endorsement at the Growth Board meeting on 22 March.

The Panel considered a final version of the Strategic Vision for Oxfordshire’s Long Term Sustainable Development (the Vision, a cover report and a summary of the public engagement exercise undertaken on the previous draft version. The Growth Board would consider the Vision at its meeting on 22 March.

In presenting the Vision, Paul Staines, Interim Head of Programme, highlighted that:

·           The public engagement process was positive in terms of the scope and scale of response received (particularly considering the limitations imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic). The majority of responses had been positive, and even those that disagreed with the Vision’s narrative were often positive about it as a concept.

·           Whilst the core components of the revised Vision remained intact, reflecting the support offered, numerous changes had been made as a result of the public engagement exercise.

·           In considering the Vision, it was important to be cognisant of the fact that it had been designed to be wide ranging with a much broader reach that that of the Oxfordshire Plan 2050. Although the Vision was strategic in nature, it had been developed to meet the narrative challenge of providing enough data to be tangible to residents as a statement of intent for Oxfordshire’s future. 

·           Every effort had been made to draft the Vision in a balanced way and thus provide a strategic umbrella under which specific interests could be articulated and developed in more detail.

·           In addition to the full Vision document, there was the intention to produce a short summary version. Consideration would, therefore, need to be given as to how the Vision could most effectively be presented.

·           For the Vision to inform the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 Regulation 18 Part 2 consultation, it had to be approved by Oxfordshire’s five planning authorities before the commencement of the Regulation 18 Part 2 public consultation. 

In discussion, the view was expressed that it was important that the Growth Board established the consequences of its actions in terms of carbon inputs and outputs. Concerns were raised that para 2.2 of the Vision could be misunderstood as a justification for using a narrow definition of growth. It was, therefore, suggested that a wider, more holistic, definition of growth would be more reflective of what the vision was seeking to achieve. It was also felt that it would be helpful to move the definition to earlier in the document. This would help to give readers a greater understanding of what was implied by future growth in Oxfordshire. 

Whilst acknowledging that the Vision would have a range of audiences, the Panel fully supported the drafting of a shorter and more user friendly summary. 

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

1.      take steps to ensure that the Strategic Vision is supported by a communications strategy containing appropriately concise and engaging literature especially summarising the vision in a one-page format and user-friendly language.

2.      recognise that the following statement contained within the Strategic Vision could be misunderstood as a justification for using a narrow definition of growth: “Growth can be defined narrowly in terms of expansion in numbers of homes and jobs and economic output.” The Panel recommends that this is revised to assert that growth can and should be defined in a more holistic way (as intended through the “good growth” definition set out in the Vision). Consideration should also be given to whether the definition of “good growth” can be moved to an earlier position in the document, and whether mentions of prosperity and clean growth can be more frequently referenced.