Agenda and minutes

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

Contact: Steven Corrigan  Democratic Services Manager

Items
No. Item

1.

Election of Chair

To elect a chair of council for the municipal year 2023/24.

Minutes:

Councillor Turner left the room during consideration of this item.

 

Councillor Turner was nominated as chair for the 2023/24 municipal year. Councillor Rouane as proposer, Councillor Bennett as seconder and Councillors Gawrysiak, Khan and Snowdon spoke in support of the nomination.

 

RESOLVED:  to elect Councillor Turner as Chair of the council for the 2023/24 municipal year, until the next annual meeting of the Council in May 2024.

 

Councillor Turner signed his declaration of acceptance of office and made an acceptance speech.

 

2.

Appointment of Vice-Chair

To appoint a vice-chair of council for the municipal year 2023/24.

Minutes:

Councillor Hinton was nominated as vice-chair for the 2023/24 municipal year.

 

Councillor Bennett as proposer, Councillor Cooper as seconder and Councillors Arlett and Khan spoke in support of the nomination.

 

RESOLVED:  to appoint Councillor Hinton as vice-chair of the council for the 2023/24 municipal year, until the next annual meeting of the Council in May 2024.

 

Councillor Hinton signed her declaration of acceptance of office and made an acceptance speech.

 

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 435 KB

To adopt and sign as a correct record the Council minutes of the meeting held on 14 March 2023. 

Minutes:

RESOLVED: to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 14 March 2023 as a correct record and agree that the Chair sign them as such.

 

4.

Declarations of interest

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests, other registrable interests and non-registrable interests or any conflicts of interest in respect of items on the agenda for this meeting. 

 

Minutes:

None.

5.

Urgent business and chair's announcements

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. 

Minutes:

None.

6.

Appointments to committees, panels and joint committees for 2023/24 pdf icon PDF 255 KB

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 Licensing Acts Committee and joint committees.

Minutes:

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 at the meeting, covering these appointments and to reflect the allocation of the vacant committee position:

That for the 2023/24 municipal year Council

 

1.             appoints the committees and panels for the 2023/24 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.             appoints Katharine Keats-Rohan as the council’s representative and David Turner 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 Jo Robb, Leigh Rawlins 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.

Councillor Snowdon, the non-group councillor, advised Council that he did not wish to accept the offer of a seat on the Planning Committee.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That for the 2023/24 municipal year 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);

 

Planning Committee, 11 Members

Green (2)

Henley Residents Group (1)

Labour & Co-operative (1)

Liberal Democrat (6)

Vacancy (1)

Peter Dragonetti (Vice-Chair)

Ken Arlett

Axel Macdonald

Tim Bearder

 

Ali Gordon-Creed

 

 

David Bretherton (Chair)

 

 

 

 

Sam James-Lawrie

 

 

 

 

Katharine Keats-Rohan

 

 

 

 

Ben Manning

 

 

 

 

Ed Sadler

 

Preferred substitutes

 

Green (3)

Henley Residents (2)

Labour & Co-operative (2)

Liberal Democrat (6)

Sam Casey-Rerhaye

Stefan Gawrysiak

Mocky Khan

Kate Gregory

James Norman

 

Denise Macdonald

Georgina Heritage

Jo Robb

 

 

Alexandrine Kantor

 

 

 

 

Zia Mohammed

 

 

 

 

Andrew Tinsley

 

 

 

 

Tony Worgan

 

 

 


Scrutiny Committee, 9 Members

Green (2)

Henley Residents (1)

Labour & Co-operative (1)

Liberal Democrat (5)

James Barlow

Ken Arlett (Chair)

Mocky Khan (Vice-Chair)

Kate Gregory

Jo Robb

 

 

Katharine Keats-Rohan

 

 

 

Leigh Rawlins

 

 

 

David Turner

 

 

 

Tony Worgan

Preferred substitutes

Green (3)

Henley Residents (2)

Labour & Co-operative (2)

Liberal Democrat (5)

Sam Casey-Rerhaye

Stefan Gawrysiak

Axel Macdonald

Mike Giles

Peter Dragonetti

Kellie Hinton

Denise Macdonald

Alexandrine Kantor

Ali Gordon-Creed

 

 

Ben Manning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Election of leader of the council

Council is invited to elect a leader of the council in accordance with the Cabinet arrangements and procedure rules as set out in the council’s constitution for a term of office beginning immediately and ending on the date of the annual Council meeting in May 2027 (following the district council elections scheduled for May 2027).

 

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 leader’s scheme of delegation to cabinet members and officers

Minutes:

RESOLVED: to elect David Rouane as leader of the council for a four-year period ending on the day of the next post-election annual meeting in 2027.

 

Councillor Rouane advised that Cabinet would comprise Pieter-Paul Barker, Robin Bennett, Sue Cooper, Maggie Filipova-Rivers, Andrea Powell, Anne-Marie Simpson and Freddie van Mierlo. Councillors Bennett and Filipova-Rivers would act as deputy leaders.  

 

 

 

8.

Allowances for Independent Persons pdf icon PDF 200 KB

To consider the head of legal and democratic’s report. 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Council considered the report of the head of legal and democratic covering the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel on the payment of an allowance to the Independent Person on the Joint Audit and Governance Committee and those Independent Persons who assist the monitoring officer with code of conduct matters.

 

RESOLVED: to

 

1.          agree that an allowance of £1,768 per annum be paid to the independent member of the Joint Audit and Governance Committee with effect from the date of the appointment, the cost shared equally with Vale of White Horse District Council; 

 

2.          agree that an allowance of £583 per annum be paid to each independent person appointed by the head of legal and democratic to assist in dealing with code of conduct matters, the cost shared equally with Vale of White Horse District Council, and to be backdated to 1 April 2023; 

 

3.          agree that the allowances above be subject to annual increases in line with the increase in allowances paid to councillors; and

 

4.          authorise the head of legal and democratic to update the councillors’ allowances scheme to make reference to the allowances to independent persons set out above. 

 

 

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