Agenda and minutes

To adopt and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 17 July 2014.

To receive any announcements from the chairman.

The Chairman reported that the Chairman of Vale of White Horse District Council, Councillor Badcock, had asked her to advise councillors that his charity dinner in aid of the Royal British Legion and the National Eczema Society would take place on Friday 7 November at Dalton Barracks, Abingdon.

Prior to the Council meeting representatives of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community had visited her and the vice-chairman. The community worked to promote understanding, respect and peace between all people. As part of their centenary celebrations the community had raised half a million pounds for British charities including the Poppy Appeal, carried out a national blood donation drive to save lives, embarked on a feed the homeless programme to provide 20,000 meals this year and initiated a national environmental campaign to plant 50,000 trees. The community had donated £500 for one of her charities, the Royal British Legion Woman’s Section. Complimentary copies of ‘Life of Muhammad’ and ‘World Crisis and Pathway to Peace” books were available for interested councillors.

The Chairman reported that £560 was raised for her charities in a recent bowls match. She reminded councillors of the chairman’s dinner on 20 March 2015.

To elect a leader of the council until the day of the annual Council meeting in May 2015.

The leader of the council will report on:

·         the appointment of the deputy leader of the council

·         the membership of the Cabinet and the allocation of portfolios

·         the executive scheme of delegation

RESOLVED: to elect Mr J Cotton as leader of Council for a period ending on the day of the next post election annual meeting.

Mr Cotton appointed Rev’d A Paterson as the deputy leader of Council and Mrs A Badcock, Mr D Dodds, Mrs E Gillespie, Mr W Hall, Mrs L Lloyd, Mrs J Nimmo-Smith, Mr B Service and Mr R Simister with the portfolios as follows:

Mr Cotton: Corporate Strategy, Economic Development and Wallingford

Rev’d Paterson:  Deputy Leader, Planning Policy and Customer Services

Mrs Badcock:  Housing

Mr Dodds:  Waste and Thame

Mrs Gillespie:  Development/Building Control, Grants and Northern Parishes

Mr Hall:  Finance and Henley

Mr Service:  Leisure and Didcot

Mrs Lloyd:  IT, HR, Legal and Democratic Services

Mrs J Nimmo-Smith:  Health, Community Safety and Central Parishes

Mr R Simister: Property, Technical Services and Southern Parishes

Any changes to the scheme of delegation would be brought forward in due course.

(Cabinet member responsible: Mr D Dodds)

Cabinet, at its meeting on 9 October 2014, will consider a report on the outturn performance of the treasury management function for the financial year 2013/14.

The report of the head of finance, which Cabinet will consider on 9 October, is attached.

The recommendations of Cabinet will be circulated to councillors on Friday 10 October 2014.

Council considered the Cabinet’s recommendation, made at its meeting on 9 October 2014, on the outturn performance of the treasury management function for the financial year 2013/14 and the approval of the actual 2013/14 prudential indicators in accordance with the requirements of the CIPFA Treasury Management Code of Practice and Treasury Management Practice 6.

In introducing the item Mr Hall, Cabinet member for finance, reported that investment income was higher than predicted in the 2013/14 budget and the Audit and Corporate Governance Committee, at its meeting on 29 September 2014, had welcomed the report and was satisfied that the treasury activities were carried out in accordance with the treasury management strategy and policy. 

Mr Hall undertook to provide Mr Turner with a written response to his questions on why the council did not make a lump sum contribution to the Oxfordshire County Council pension fund this year and what guidance the government had provided to local authorities to mitigate against a repeat of the Icelandic bank investment defaults.

RESOLVED: to

1.    approve the treasury management outturn report for 2013/14;

2.    approve the actual 2013/14 prudential indicators within the report of the head of finance to Cabinet on 9 October 2014. 

None.

To receive notices of motion under Council procedure rule 41.

Motion to be proposed by Mr David Turner, seconded by Mr Mark Gray

Council regrets and apologises to all residents involved who received letters about postal voter registration which in addition to the letter to them had a copy of a similar letter on the reverse side to another resident.  Council regrets what was a breach of privacy and assures residents that the software problems which resulted in this unfortunate incident have now been resolved.  This is a second problem with postal voting that SODC has experienced and Council seeks assurance that it will be satisfactory for the General Election and SODC elections in 2015.

Mr Molloy addressed Council on the motion. He expressed concern that his personal data had been passed to another elector, referred to the postal voting issues experienced at the 2011 elections and the fact that the council appeared to experience further postal vote problems and sought an assurance that postal vote electors’ votes had been counted. 

Mr David Turner moved and Mr J Cotton seconded the following motion:

Council regrets and apologises to all residents involved who received letters about postal voter registration which in addition to the letter to them had a copy of a similar letter on the reverse side to another resident.  Council regrets what was a breach of privacy and assures residents that the software problems which resulted in this unfortunate incident have now been resolved.  This is a second problem with postal voting that SODC has experienced and Council seeks assurance that it will be satisfactory for the General Election and SODC elections in 2015.

In supporting the motion a number of councillors noted that at its 2 December 2014 meeting the Scrutiny Committee would consider a report on preparations for the 2015 district, parish and parliamentary elections.

RESOLVED:

That Council regrets and apologises to all residents involved who received letters about postal voter registration which in addition to the letter to them had a copy of a similar letter on the reverse side to another resident.  Council regrets what was a breach of privacy and assures residents that the software problems which resulted in this unfortunate incident have now been resolved.  This is a second problem with postal voting that SODC has experienced and Council seeks assurance that it will be satisfactory for the General Election and SODC elections in 2015.