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To All Members of the County Council

Notice of a Meeting of the Council

Tuesday 12 September 2006 at 10.00 am County Hall, Oxford

Derek Bishop
Head of Democratic Services

1 September 2006

Contact officer: Marion Holyman Tel: 01865 810177; E-mail

AGENDA

Minutes

To approve the Minutes of the meeting held on 20 June 2006 (CC1) and to receive for information any matters arising therefrom.

Apologies for Absence

1. Declarations of Interest – see guidance note

   Members are reminded that they must declare their interests orally at the meeting and specify (a) the nature of the interest and (b) which items on the agenda are the relevant items. This applies also to items where members have interests by virtue of their membership of a district council in Oxfordshire.

Official Communications



Appointments

(a) The Audit Committee, at its meeting on 28 June 2006, considered that, in the light of the two current vacant co-opted member places and following the re-designation of the former Best Value & Audit Committee as an Audit Committee, it did not require three representatives of the business community at this time.

The Committee RECOMMENDS the Council to reduce from three to one the number of non-voting co-opted member places on the Committee.

(b) To make any other changes in membership of the Cabinet, scrutiny and other committees on the nomination of political groups.

Petitions and Public Address



Questions with Notice from Members of the Public



Meeting Dates 2007/08

The Head of Democratic Services reports as follows:

The schedule of meeting dates proposed for the 2007/08 Council year is attached for approval (CC8) (download as .pdf file). Directors and Political Groups have been consulted on a draft schedule. The schedule has been drawn up to reflect the various rules regarding frequency of meetings set out in the Council’s Constitution and generally follows the pattern of meetings agreed for the current year.

The Council is RECOMMENDED to approve the proposed dates of meetings for 2007/08 as set out in CC8.

Note: The Audit Committee will be reviewing the frequency of its meetings.

Report of the Cabinet (CC9)

Item	Heading	Decisions to be made by Council
2	Treasury Management Outturn	The Cabinet accordingly RECOMMENDS the Council: (a) to agree debt restructuring in 2006/07 where premiums will be generated; and (b) to approve the use of different loan types and maturity periods for debt restructuring.

Questions with Notice from Members of the Council

Motions with Notice from Members of the Council

WOULD MEMBERS PLEASE NOTE THAT ANY AMENDMENTS TO MOTIONS WITH NOTICE MUST BE PRESENTED TO THE PROPER OFFICER IN WRITING BY 9.00 AM ON MONDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2006

Motion from Councillor Liz Brighouse

"This Council believes that Oxford residents in controlled parking zones should not be charged for parking outside their own homes and asks the Cabinet to take account of this view in making its final decision on this issue."

Motion from Councillor Barbara Gatehouse

"This Council:

1. condemns the hypocritical attack on the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals (ORH) NHS Trust by the Cabinet Member for Social Care (Oxford Mail, August 1);
2. notes the view of the ORH that "there is a persistent problem with the number of people in our hospital beds and in community hospital beds who are fit to be discharged, but cannot leave, because appropriate social care support is not available for them" (Oxford Mail, August 8);
3. recognises that the Cabinet’s spending plans for adult social care have been blown off course by its own failure to provide sufficient funds for reducing the number of delayed discharges from hospital;
4. condemns the Cabinet’s failure to provide additional funding in the 2006/07 budget for those people who were funded to go into residential or nursing homes out of the extra £100k provided towards the end of the last financial year to reduce delayed discharges and who are still in these placements;
5. calls on the Cabinet to ensure that the funds which are necessary to address the problem of delayed discharges properly and support the placements referred to in (d) are made available as soon as possible."
   
   

Motion from Councillor Zoé Patrick

"This Council recognises the huge impact of climate change and the need for us all to reduce our environmental impact. It therefore welcomes the work already done in partnership with District Councils to encourage house builders to follow best practice guidelines on energy efficiency for all new-build dwellings. The Local Government Association and Planning Officers' Society have published national guidelines on this subject, which have been circulated to all the districts. This Council therefore urges the government to use its powers further to promote and require energy efficiency. This would complement the sustainable environmental policies being pursued by the Council's own Future First programme."

Motion from Councillor Roz Smith

"This Council asks that the rules and conditions surrounding residents' and tradesmen's parking in controlled parking zones be the subject of a full, and speedy, scrutiny review."

Motion from Councillor Zoé Patrick

"This Council notes the importance of good efficient bus services. Efficient planning involving bus operators will ensure that disruption to services is kept to a minimum. During recent works to Oxford High Street many bus passengers have experienced serious delays and inconvenience on occasion which reduces public confidence and bus usage. Council calls upon the Cabinet Member for Transport to ensure good co-ordination and planning with the bus operators during highways maintenance works."

Motion from Councillor Jean Fooks

"This Council is very concerned to learn that cuts proposed in the Adult Learning Service, imposed by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), will impact very badly on the teaching of English to residents of Oxfordshire who have very little English, who need to improve their language skills to participate fully in the life of the County.

Council deplores the emphasis of the LSC on higher level teaching and requests the Cabinet to reconsider which courses should be preserved when cuts have to be made and how funds might be found to ensure that vulnerable residents, especially women and new arrivals, can have access to basic English courses. 

As these cuts are likely to impact particularly badly on people from some ethnic groups, Council further recognises the probable conflict with its Equality policy and asks the Cabinet to do all it can to redress the situation.

Council asks the Leader to write to the Secretary of State pointing out the probable negative effect on community relations that will follow from the lack of the teaching of basic English and asking for an urgent review of the guidance from the LSC."

Motion from Councillor John Sanders

"This Council regrets that, when members were consulted about the new contract for the No 16 bus service, there was no mention of the loss of a through link between Herschel Crescent and the city centre.  Local members were therefore unable to advise the Transport Implementation Committee of the impact of this loss, especially on older people from Littlemore.  The Council now asks the Cabinet to make every endeavour to rectify this loss of service."

Motion from Councillor Terry Joslin

"This Council:

1. notes that in recent years Oxfordshire has enjoyed an upturn in employment, innovation, inward investment and company growth and now enjoys a reputation as a leading international research ‘cluster’;
2. notes that there has been a multi-billion pound investment of government funding for UK science and technology and that Oxfordshire has been a major beneficiary from this investment;
3. recognises that local enterprises are dependent on the infrastructure provided by local authorities including schools, roads, leisure etc.