Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillors Tim Bearder, David Bretherton, Lynn Lloyd, Ian Snowdon and Ian White

To elect a chair of Council for the municipal year 2022/23.

The outgoing Chair, Councillor Jo Robb, reviewed her year as Chair of the council and thanked councillors and the vice-chair for their assistance and support during the year.

Councillors David Rouane, Mocky Khan, Robin Bennett, Jane Murphy, Stefan Gawrysiak and Elizabeth Gillespie paid tribute to Jo Robb in recognition of her work as Chair of the council during the past year.

Councillor David Turner was nominated as chair for the 2022/23 municipal year.

RESOLVED:  to elect Councillor Turner as chair of the council for the 2022/23 municipal year, until the next annual meeting of the Council in May 2023.

Councillor Turner signed his declaration of acceptance of office and made an acceptance speech. He advised that his chosen charities are Chalgrove and Watlington First Steps Children Centre and River Thame Conservation Trust.

Councillor Jo Robb presented Councillor David Turner with the chain of office.

Councillor Turner in the chair.

To appoint a vice-chair of Council for the municipal year 2022/23.

Councillor Kellie Hinton was nominated as vice-chair for the 2022/23 municipal year.

RESOLVED:  to appoint Councillor Hinton as vice-chair of the council for the 2022/23 municipal year, until the next annual meeting of the Council in May 2023.

Councillor Hinton signed her declaration of acceptance of office.

To adopt and sign as a correct record the Council minutes of the meeting held on 17 February 2022. 

RESOLVED: to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 17 February 2022 as a correct record and agree that the Chair sign them as such subject to the replacement of “result in” with “be purely for” in the last line of minute 71.

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

To receive notification of any matters which the chair determines should be considered as urgent business and the special circumstances which have made the matters urgent, and to receive any announcements from the chair. 

None.

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

One member of the public had registered to ask a question.

Melanie Mousley Jones asked the following question.

“I understand that South Oxfordshire District Council is assigning officers to work on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Please could you tell me how many full time equivalent officers are assigned to climate action work, and what their roles will be? I am particularly interested in what outward-facing roles there will be to enable greenhouse gas reductions in the district at-large”.

Councillor Andrea Powell, Cabinet member for corporate services, policy and programmes, responded to the question. Action to tackle Climate Change is a high priority in the Council’s Corporate Plan. The recently adopted Climate Action Plan, fully costed and included within the agreed 2022/23 budget, is now being implemented. Council has agreed additional funds to supplement the projects included within the action plan. The council aims to have six FTEs included in the core Climate Team, including a communications expert, to coordinate work in the action plan. However, it is important to note that all council service teams have climate action work embedded into their operational activities and, as such, all officers could be included as considered as being assigned to address climate work.

To receive any petitions from the public. 

None.

To consider the report of the head of legal and democratic on the appointment to those committees required to be politically balanced together with the Climate and Ecological Emergencies Advisory Committee, Licensing Acts Committee, Community Grants Panel and joint committees and to agree any consequential changes to the constitutionattached. 

Council considered the report of the head of legal and democratic on the appointment of those committees and joint committees which are required to be politically balanced; together with the Climate Ecological Emergencies Advisory Committee, Licensing Acts Committee, Community Grants Panel and appointments to joint bodies.

The chair referred to the following recommendation, circulated prior to the meeting, covering these appointments and to reflect the allocation of the vacant committee positions.

That for the 2022/23 municipal year Council

1.             appoints the committees and panels for the 2022/23 year and allocate seats to each political group as set out in the schedule circulated prior to the meeting;

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

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

4.             appoints councillors to the Climate Ecological Emergencies Advisory Committee as set out in the schedule circulated prior to the meeting;

5.             appoints councillors to the Community Grants Panel as set out in the schedule circulated prior to the meeting;

6.             appoints chairs and vice-chairs as set out in the schedule circulated prior to the meeting;

7.             appointsDavid Turner as the council’s representative and David Bretherton as substitute on the Oxfordshire Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee;

8.             appoints Sam Casey-Rerhaye as the council’s representative and Maggie Filipova-Rivers as substitute on the Thames Valley Police and Crime Panel;

9.             appoints Peter Dragonetti, Victoria Haval and David Turner to the Future Oxfordshire Partnership Scrutiny Panel;

10.          authorises the head of legal and democratic to make appointments to any vacant committee or panel seat and substitute positions in accordance with the wishes of the relevant group leader.

RESOLVED: to

1.    appoint the following committees and panels for the 2022/23 municipal year and to appoint the membership, substitutes and chairs and vice-chairs as indicated to sit on them (see table below);

The Joint Audit and Governance Committee, at its meeting on 29 March 2022, considered the report of the councils’ monitoring officer on a draft model Code of Conduct.

The committee agreed to recommend the adoption of the Code to both South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils.

The report of the monitoring officer, which the committee considered on 29 March, is attached.

RECOMMENDATION: to approve the Oxfordshire Code of Conduct, appended to the report of the monitoring officer to the meeting of the Joint Audit and Governance Committee held on 29 March 2022.

Council considered the recommendation of the Joint Audit and Governance Committee, made at its meeting on 29 March 2022, to adopt the Oxfordshire Code of Conduct.

RESOLVED: to approve the Oxfordshire Code of Conduct, appended to the report of the monitoring officer to the meeting of the Joint Audit and Governance Committee held on 29 March 2022.

To consider the report of the monitoring officer on the appointment of independent persons to assist with code of conduct matters – attached.

Council considered the report of the head of legal & democratic and monitoring officer which proposed the appointment of six Independent Persons to assist the monitoring officer with code of conduct matters. The report proposed that the Independent Persons are appointed by both South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils.

RESOLVED: to appoint Mike Boon, Julie Byron, George Green,

Andrew Mills-Hick, Chris Smith and Martin Wright as Independent Persons for a period of four years until the annual meeting in May 2026.

To receive the report of the leader of the council.

No questions have been by councillors in accordance with Council procedure rule 33.   

No questions had been submitted by councillors.

To consider motions from councillors in accordance with Council procedure rule 38. 

1. Motion to be proposed by Councillor Ken Arlett, seconded by Councillor Stefan Gawrysiak:

Councillors have the ability to call in a planning application within 28 days of the start of the statutory consultation period.  This is an exception to the general delegation to the Head of Planning who has authority to deal with planning applications.

Currently, there is no ability for a councillor to call in a planning application that has been amended after the 28 day period comes to an end.  

It may well be the case that the majority of councillors are unaware that amended planning applications cannot be called in after the 28 day period has elapsed, yet there is no provision in the Constitution to resolve this.

Council resolves that:

The Constitution Review Group is asked to consider the delegations to the Head of Planning as part of its review of the Constitution and in particular whether the call in exception should be extended to allow for a councillor to call in an amended planning application notwithstanding the 28 day period has elapsed.

2. Motion to be proposed by Councillor Sue Roberts, seconder to be notified:

This Council Notes:

The Russia-Ukraine war has newly highlighted our dependence on dirty oil and gas from rogue states. A third of our people are expected to be plunged into poverty by October, as domestic fuel prices rise. We lack fuel-security.

In October 2021, Council noted the need to retrofit, wrote to Government, and provided a report on the retrofit landscape.

Since then, the situation has greatly worsened. The response to fuel scarcity by the Government has been to focus on increasing supply of oil and gas, rather than reducing demand. The climate crisis has worsened; and protection of our populace from the ravages of global heating has come further into focus.

We need excellent insulation, not only to keep us warm in winter, but to keep homes cool in the summer. In 2003, 70,000 Europeans died over a few days from the heat; such summers are set to become the norm.

Government has no plan for mass-retrofitting of homes with insulation, airtightness, mechanical ventilation, and renewable energy generation.

In South Oxfordshire, we aim to be zero carbon by 2030, but we have few means to make that happen. Almost a third of our greenhouse gas emissions are from homes. A Government mass-retrofit scheme could reduce this wastefulness of our precious fuel.

In October, there will be further fuel price-rises, and winter will be coming. To retrofit as many homes as possible by then, Government should go on a war-footing in response to the collateral damage to our people from the Russia-Ukraine war. But builders and materials are in short supply, even for newbuild. Government could enable the requisition of builders and materials for this task. 

Inevitably, this would reduce resources for new housing development, and Local Authorities (LAs) might be unable to fulfil development targets.  ...  view the full agenda text for item 14.

Council considered the motions from councillors set out in the agenda in accordance

with Council Procedure Rule 38.

1. Councillor Ken Arlett moved, and Councillor Stefan Gawrysiak seconded the motion as set out in the agenda at agenda item 14

After debate and on being put to the vote the motion was agreed.

RESOLVED: that

Councillors have the ability to call in a planning application within 28 days of the start of the statutory consultation period.  This is an exception to the general delegation to the Head of Planning who has authority to deal with planning applications.

Currently, there is no ability for a councillor to call in a planning application that has been amended after the 28 day period comes to an end.  

It may well be the case that the majority of councillors are unaware that amended planning applications cannot be called in after the 28 day period has elapsed, yet there is no provision in the Constitution to resolve this.

Council resolves that:

The Constitution Review Group is asked to consider the delegations to the Head of Planning as part of its review of the Constitution and in particular whether the call-in exception should be extended to allow for a councillor to call in an amended planning application notwithstanding the 28 day period has elapsed.

2. With the agreement of Council, Councillor Sue Roberts moved, and Councillor Elizabeth Gillespie seconded, an amended motion to reflect acceptance of amended wording prior to the Council meeting. Deleted words shown by a strikethrough and additional words in bold.

This Council Notes:

The Russia-Ukraine war has newly highlighted our dependence on dirty oil and gas from rogue states. A third of our people are expected to be plunged into poverty by October, as domestic fuel prices rise. We lack fuel-security.

In October 2021, Council noted the need to retrofit, wrote to Government, and provided a report on the retrofit landscape. The Council is now employing staff to deliver the recommendations of that report.

Since then, the situation has greatly worsened. The response to fuel scarcity by the Government has been to focus on increasing supply of oil and gas, rather than reducing demand. The climate crisis has worsened; and protection of our populace from the ravages of global heating has come further into focus.

We need excellent insulation, not only to keep us warm in winter, but to keep homes cool in the summer. In 2003, 70,000 Europeans died over a few days from the heat; such summers are set to become the norm.

It is estimated that up to a third of the population could be plunged into poverty by October, as domestic fuel prices rise, and the country lacks fuel security. However, the Government has no plan for mass-retrofitting of homes with insulation, airtightness, mechanical ventilation, and renewable energy generation.

In South Oxfordshire, we aim to be zero carbon by 2030, but, without Government help, we have few means to make that happen. Almost a third of our greenhouse  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.