Agenda and minutes

To elect a chairman of Council for the municipal year 2015/16.

Mrs Midwinter reviewed her year as Chairman of the council, thanked councillors for all their support and her escort, vice-chairman and Mr Hewer for their assistance during the year. She paid tribute to officers for their continued resilience in the aftermath of the fire at the Crowmarsh offices in January and led Council in showing appreciation with a round of applause.

Mr Cotton and Mr Turner paid tribute to Mrs Midwiner in recognition of her work as Chairman of the council during the past year.

Mrs M Turner was nominated as Chairman.

RESOLVED:  to appoint Mrs M Turner as Chairman of the council for the ensuing year.

Mrs Midwinter presented Mrs Turner with the chain of office. 

Mrs Turner signed her declaration of acceptance of office, presented Mrs Midwinter with the past Chairman’s badge, Mr Turner with the escort’s badge and made an acceptance speech.

Mrs Turner in the chair.

To appoint a vice-chairman of Council for the municipal year 2015/16.

Mr Harrison was nominated as Vice-Chairman.

RESOLVED:  to appoint Mr Paul Harrison as Vice-Chairman of the council for the ensuing year.

The Chairman presented Mr Harrison with the vice-chairman’s chain of office.

Mr Harrison read out the oath of office, signed his declaration of acceptance of office and made an acceptance speech.

To adopt and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 19 February 2015.

RESOLVED: to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 19 February 2015 as a correct record, subject to the inclusion of Anna Badcock in the list of apologies for absence, and agree that the Chairman sign them as such.

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

None.

The chairman reported that her charities for the forthcoming year were the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity, which provides emotional and practical support for families who have a child with a life threatening or terminal illness, and Dementia UK Admiral Nurses, which provides specialist dementia nurses who give much-needed practical and emotional support to family carers, as well as the person with dementia. 

To elect a leader of Council, in accordance with the council’s executive arrangements agreed at the special council meeting on 9 December 2010, for a four year period ending on the day of the next post election annual meeting.

The leader of Council will report on:

• the appointment of the deputy leader of Council
• the membership of the Cabinet and the allocation of portfolios

RESOLVED: to elect John Cotton as leader of the Council for a four year period ending on the day of the next post election annual meeting in 2019.

Mr Cotton appointed Jane Murphy as the deputy leader of Council and Anna Badcock, Elizabeth Gillespie, Tony Harbour, Lynn Lloyd and Robert Simister as Cabinet members with portfolios as follows:

John Cotton: Leader, corporate strategy and strategic policy (including local plan)

Anna Badcock: leisure, arts, communications, health and well-being and community safety

Elizabeth Gillespie: development management, building control and housing

Tony Harbour: waste, grounds maintenance, food safety and environmental health

Lynn Lloyd:  IT, HR, customer services and corporate services project

Jane Murphy: Deputy Leader, finance, legal and democratic services and licensing

Robert Simister: property, economic development and technical services

The Leader’s scheme of delegation is appended to these minutes.

To consider the report of the head of legal and democratic services on the appointment to those committees required to be politically balanced together with the Licensing Acts Committee and joint committees and to agree any consequential changes to the constitution(to follow). 

Council considered the report of the head of legal and democratic services on the appointment of those committees and joint committees which are required to be politically balanced together with the Communities Capital Grant Scheme Panel and Licensing Acts Committee and appointments to joint bodies.

The Chairman referred to the following recommendation tabled at the meeting covering these appointments and to reflect the allocation of an additional Planning Committee seat to the Opposition Forum group.

That for the 2015/16 municipal year Council:

1.    appoints the committees, joint committees and panels and allocates seats to each political group as set in the report and the schedule circulated at the meeting;

2.    allocates one of the Conservative group’s seat on the Planning Committee to the Opposition Forum Group;

3.    agrees to amend the Constitution to allow for the chair of the Scrutiny Committee to be from the majority party;

4. appoints councillors and substitutes to sit on the committees and panels as set out in the schedule circulated at the meeting;

5.    appoints councillors to the Licensing Acts Committee as set out in the schedule circulated at the meeting;

6. appoints councillors and substitutes to the Communities Capital Grant Scheme Panel as set out in the schedule circulated at the meeting;
7. appoints committee chairmen as set out in the schedule circulated at the meeting;
8. appoints Anna Badcock as the council’s representative on the Oxfordshire Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee;
9. appoints Ian White as the council’s representative on the Thames Valley Police and Crime Panel;

10.  authorises the head of legal and democratic services to make appointments to any vacant committee or panel and substitute positions in accordance with the wishes of the relevant group leader and any external appointments in consultation with the Leader of the Council;

11.authorises the head of legal and democratic services to amend the constitution as necessary to reflect the arrangements set out in this report.

In proposing the change to the constitution to remove the restriction on the appointment of a chairman of the scrutiny committee from the ruling group, Mr Cotton, Leader of the council, stated that he envisaged the committee playing a greater role in policy development. This move was designed to enhance the role of the committee and not to weaken it. He acknowledged concerns raised that this appointment and the reduced number of opposition councillors could prevent the call-in of executive decisions. He asked officers to review the constitutional arrangements to address this.

RESOLVED: to

1.    appoint the following committees and panels for the 2015/16 year and to appoint the membership, substitutes and chairmen as indicated to sit on them:

To consider the head of legal and democratic services’ report and the accompanying report from the council’s Independent Remuneration Panel. 

Council considered the report of the head of legal and democratic services and the accompanying independent remuneration panel’s report on the councillors’ allowances scheme.

John Cotton moved and Jane Murphy seconded a revised set of allowances circulated at the meeting. In moving the motion Mr Cotton stated that the council could afford an increase in allowances having the sixth lowest council tax in the country. The proposed allowances would still be lower than the average for the South East of England and the cost could be met from the contingency budget and not impact on the level of council tax. It was important that the level of allowances should not dissuade people from standing as a councillor or taking on a position of responsibility and, although the allowance should not be considered a salary, a councillor should not be out of pocket for doing so. The proposed rates reflected the allowances paid at Vale of White Horse District Council. This was a logical move given the alignment of officer remuneration across South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils and the continued integration between the two councils.

The view was expressed that the proposed reduction in the level of special responsibility allowance for the chairman of the scrutiny committee did not reflect the significant level of responsibility of the role and served to downgrade its importance.

A minority of councillors, whilst supporting the proposals of the independent remuneration panel, did not support the higher overall levels tabled at the meeting. However, the vast majority of councillors supported the revised scheme as attached to these minutes.    

RESOLVED: to

1.    agree a revised councillors’ allowances scheme for 2015/16, as attached to these minutes, with effect from 11 May 2015;

2.    authorise the head of legal and democratic services to implement and advertise the scheme, and make any consequential amendments to the constitution.

In accordance with the overview and scrutiny procedure rules, a cabinet decision can be taken as a matter of urgency, if any delay by the call-in process would seriously prejudice the council’s or the public’s interest. Treating the decision as a matter of urgency must be agreed by the chairman of the Scrutiny Committee and must be reported to the next meeting of the council, together with the reasons for urgency.

The leader of the council will report that on 20 February 2015 Rev’d Angie Paterson took a decision to undertake a Regulation 18 issues and scope consultation for the Science Vale Area Action Plan. The chairman of the scrutiny committee agreed to waive call-in to allow the consultation process to begin recognising that the committee had commented on the plan.

On 15 March 2015 Councillor Lynn Lloyd took a decision to transfer £45,000 from the capital contingency budget within the provisional capital programme to the approved capital programme and to create a capital budget for the purchase of new polling booths for the May 2015 elections. The chairman of the scrutiny committee agreed to waive call-in to allow a formal order before the end of the financial year and to ensure delivery in time for the elections.

In accordance with the overview and scrutiny procedure rules, Council noted that the following decisions were taken as a matter of urgency since the last Council meeting:

·         On 20 February 2015 Rev’d Angie Paterson took a decision to undertake a Regulation 18 issues and scope consultation for the Science Vale Area Action Plan. The chairman of the scrutiny committee agreed to waive call-in to allow the consultation process to begin recognising that the committee had commented on the plan;

·         On 15 March 2015 Councillor Lynn Lloyd took a decision to transfer £45,000 from the capital contingency budget within the provisional capital programme to the approved capital programme and to create a capital budget for the purchase of new polling booths for the May 2015 elections. The chairman of the scrutiny committee agreed to waive call-in to allow a formal order before the end of the financial year and to ensure delivery in time for the elections.