Agenda and minutes

Venue: Didcot Civic Hall, Britwell Road, Didcot, OX11 7JN

Contact: Steve Culliford  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

86.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Councillor Will Hall had sent his apologies for absence. 

87.

Declaration of disclosable pecuniary interest

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

Minutes:

None

88.

Chairman's announcements

To receive announcements from the chairman.

Minutes:

None

89.

Public participation

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

Minutes:

Two members of the public had registered to speak at the meeting. 

 

(1)       Mr Phil Davies addressed Cabinet on the Didcot Garden Town proposals.  Over 700 negative comments and a petition containing over 2000 signatures opposed the proposed location of a technology campus on green space at Ladygrove in Didcot.  Mr Davies asked Cabinet to instruct the council’s officers to stop the proposal to build on this park and to find another location.  He believed that there were some good elements in the Garden Town proposals but the proposal to build on open space at Ladygrove was not one of them.  There were other more suitable vacant locations nearby, some already owned by the council.  He urged Cabinet to remove the technology campus from the Ladygrove open space before commencing the public consultation on 22 March.  Rather than being the sacrifice, Ladygrove Park could become the centrepiece of the Garden Town proposals. 

 

(2)       Mr Simon Hewerdine withdrew his request to address Cabinet. 

 

The chairman thanked Mr Davies and Mr Hewerdine.  Cabinet noted the comments made.   

90.

Unitary authority proposals for Oxfordshire pdf icon PDF 352 KB

At its meeting on 16 February 2017 Council agreed the following motion:

 

This council supports the principle of a single unitary authority in Oxfordshire and authorises the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, to work with other partner councils that support the same proposal for reorganisation to develop the terms of a submission 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 at its meeting on 10 March – report to follow. 

 

Scrutiny Committee was due to meet on 2 March 2017 to consider a report and make recommendations to Cabinet. 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cabinet considered the report of the chief executive 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 meetings on 2 and 9 March 2017 and made the following recommendations to: 

1.    ask Cabinet and Council to note a number of concerns raised on matters of detail; and

2.    support the proposal for the future organisation of local government in Oxfordshire as set out in the chief executive's report to Cabinet and the “New Council for a Better Oxfordshire” proposal.

Cabinet welcomed Scrutiny Committee’s input. 

 

Three documents were tabled at the meeting to provide clarification on the proposal:

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 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 report set out the options open  ...  view the full minutes text for item 90.

 

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