Agenda and minutes

Councillors Anthony Dearlove, Stefan Gawrysiak, Stephen Harrod, Imran Lokhon, Richard Pullen, Alan Thompson and Margaret Turner had all sent their apologies for absence. 

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

None

To receive announcements from the Chairman. 

The chairman alerted attendees to the emergency evacuation arrangements, asked everyone to switch the mobile phones to silent, and asked the public to remain silent and listen to the debate.  

In view of the significance of the issue before the Council at this meeting, the chairman proposed that Council procedure rules 44 and 45 were suspended to allow unrestricted length of speeches by councillors.  Council agreed the proposal. 

RESOLVED: to suspend Council procedure rules 44 and 45 to allow councillors unrestricted time to make their speeches at this meeting. 

To receive any questions or statements from members of the public that have registered to speak on the single unitary council for Oxfordshire item.    

Mr Neville Harris had registered to address the Council. 

Mr Harris informed Council that he was in favour of the proposal for a single unitary council for Oxfordshire.  However, if the proposals were to be a stepping stone, it was vital to adopt an inclusive form of local government for Oxfordshire, where representative democracy, elected member involvement and participation were maximised at the centre of decision making.  This must not remain the prerogative of a minority of councillors as at present in the two-tier system, where the majority group elect a leader, who appoints a cabinet.  The electorate believed that all councillors made a difference.  All councillors should have a more inclusive role to play in decisions that affect our everyday lives.  The proposals before Council were focussed on the status quo; instead they should be neutral.  This was a matter for the first elected unitary council to decide on which form of governance it adopted. 

The report before Council was asking councillors to abdicate their responsibilities on this important issue.  It recommended delegating authority to officers, leaving little involvement for backbench councillors.  He believed all elected representatives should decide on a material change in wording, and to decide on the terms of reference of the joint committee.  Too much would be decided by too few. 

He asked councillors to ensure that the proposals did not espouse the status quo and were at least neutral in their final recommendations.  These proposals would mean life in Oxfordshire was a postcode lottery; in some places ‘yes’ to certain services, in other places ‘no’.  Delegation was not devolution.  If things were to really change for the better, a unitary council would evolve with the passage of time. 

The chairman thanked Mr Harris for his statement. 

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.”

The Scrutiny Committee will meet on 2 March 2017. Any recommendations will be reported to Cabinet. 

At its special meeting on 10 March 2017, prior to the special Council meeting, Cabinet will consider the report of the Chief Executive on the development of proposals for a single unitary council for Oxfordshire. The report, which Cabinet will consider at its meeting on 10 March 2017, will be circulated to all councillors in advance of the Council meeting. 

Cabinet’s recommendations will be reported at the Council meeting. 

Council considered the report of the chief executive on proposals for a single unitary council for Oxfordshire.  Council recalled that at its meeting on 16 February 2017, it had passed a motion supporting the principle of a single unitary council and authorised the chief executive and leader of the council to work with partner councils that supported the same proposal, to develop the terms of a submission for local government change in Oxfordshire, and to submit a report to Council in due course. 

Since that meeting, the chief executive and leader had worked with the leaders of Oxfordshire County Council and Vale of White Horse District Council to improve the county council’s One Oxfordshire proposal to form a new submission ‘A New Council for a Better Oxfordshire’.  The Better Oxfordshire proposal was now presented to Council.  The proposal had already achieved the support of Vale of White Horse District Council and would be put before Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet on 14 March 2017. 

The chief executive’s report had been considered by the Scrutiny Committee on 2 and 9 March 2017.  The committee had recommended to Cabinet and Council to:

(a)       note a number of concerns raised on matters of detail; and

(b)       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 “A New Council for a Better Oxfordshire” proposal. 

Cabinet had met on 10 March 2017, prior to the Council meeting, and had supported the recommendations set out in the chief executive’s report, with the amendment of recommendation 7 to read (additional words shown in bold type):

“authorise the head of legal and democratic services, in consultation with the leader and the chief executive, to agree the terms of reference of the joint committee, which will include making recommendations regarding the initial functions of the implementation executive, and to make this council’s appointments to the joint committee”. 

Tabled at the meeting were three additional documents to provide clarification:

1.    A vision of a governance structure for the new unitary authority;

2.    A model of council tax in Oxfordshire; and

3.    A comparison of the Better Oxfordshire proposal with the One Oxfordshire proposal and the governance arrangements in Cornwall and Wiltshire. 

Council 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 leader of the council introduced Cabinet’s recommendations, explaining that he had worked with the leaders of Vale of White Horse District Council and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67.