Agenda and minutes

10:00am

Apologies were received from Cllr Nicholas Turner, with Cllr Patrick Greene substituting. Apologies were also received from Cllr Roger Belson.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 22 September 2011 (GI3) and to receive information arising from them.

Cllr Handley could not support the signing of the minutes of 22 September 2011 as they did not reflect comments in relation to energy saving benefits of changing school terms. The Committee agreed that this should be reflected in the minutes of the last meeting, and that they should only be signed when this had been incorporated. The Chairman agreed and asked for the minutes to be brought back to the meeting in February 2012.

There were no requests to speak to or petition the Committee.

10:15am

The Committee are invited to receive a briefing on the Countryside Service Partnership Working. 

Contact Officer:      Victoria Fletcher (Natural Environment Manager)

                                    Victoria.fletcher@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Due to Officer availability this item was postponed to the meeting in February 2012.

10:45am

The Committee are invited to receive an update on the County Council’s approach to Infrastructure Planning and Financing.

Contact Officer:         Martin Tugwell (Deputy Director, Growth & Infrastructure)

                                    Martin.tugwell@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Martin Tugwell (Deputy Director, Growth & Infrastructure) updated the Committee on work ongoing to develop the Strategic Infrastructure Framework across Oxfordshire. The Committee reinforced the need to work closely with District and Parish Councils to ensure the best outcomes for residents. Cllr Handley wanted to remind Officers that there needs to be a lot of work with other partners, including the chambers of commerce and businesses to ensure the best use of infrastructure funding. Cllr Purse wanted clear evidence of biodiversity and the natural environment being considered in future plans.

Cllr Mathew proposed designing a questionnaire for all Councillors so the right partners are contacted in each local area during the development of the Framework. This was supported by the Committee, and Cllrs Purse and Handley in particular wanted to feed into the process. Martin Tugwell agreed to work with the Members named above to ensure Member involvement.

The committee RESOLVED that this should come back to Scrutiny in February.

11:45am

The Committee are Members are invited to ask questions of a panel comprising community transport providers and those who support them, as well officers from other local authorities to provide background to assist members in scrutinising the development of a community transport strategy for Oxfordshire. 

Approaches taken by other local authorities represented are not necessarily right for Oxfordshire, but are intended to structure and stimulate discussion about possible options.

Contact Officer:      John Disley (Strategic Manager, Transport)

                                    John.disley@oxfordshire.gov.uk

The Chairman invited the panel to come to the table. The members of the panel were introduced as:

Philip Newbould – officer responsible for OCTAP (Oxfordshire Community Transport and Accessibility Partnership, based at ORCC (Oxfordshire Rural Communities Council)

Emily Lewis – Community Transport Adviser at ORCC, supporting and advising 64 CT schemes in Oxfordshire,

Phil Clark – manager of FISH volunteer scheme at Sonning Common – a car scheme with a minibus for social and shopping trips.  Pure charity manned 100% by volunteers.

Pat Chirgwin – manager of West Oxfordshire Volunteer Link-up, a community car scheme with 60 volunteer drivers serving West Oxfordshire.

Victoria Freeman – Community Transport Association, a membership organisation providing legal and technical advice to help develop community transport services. 

Andy Stokes – Public Transport Manager at Warwickshire County Council, managing a wide range of community transport projects.

Liam Tatton-Bennett, Community First, the rural communities council for Wiltshire, managing a range of schemes and delivery of the overall CT strategy for Wiltshire and Swindon.

Nick Small, Northamptonshire County Council, responsible for a wide range of transport provision including their new demand responsive service that meets needs formerly met by  subsidized rural bus services.

Cllr Peter Jones also joined the committee at this stage as a representative of the Adult Services Scrutiny Committee.

CllrNimmo-Smith opened the discussion by asking the Oxfordshire scheme representatives about problems faced by schemes that relied on volunteers.

Phil Clark said that FISH in Sonning Common benefited from the fact that the majority of trustees and volunteer drivers have lived in the village for most of their lives, and therefore there is a strong commitment to the local community.  They have also been fortunate with funding, including bequests and donations from well-to-do residents.  The donations from users of the car scheme enable them to subsidize the minibus.  He compared this fortunate situation with other areas with a transient population and a different age profile.

With regard to specific problems, he highlighted the difficulties of operating a bus service, in particular with the complexity of claiming for concessionary fares.

Andy Stokes agreed that it was easier to run volunteer schemes in some types of area than others. In rural south Warwickshire it seems easier, with schemes such as Shipston Link having little trouble in recruiting volunteer drivers.  In other areas the county council has felt it needed to put in more funding to provide necessary services, particularly where public bus services were being withdrawn.  There was a concern about depending completely on volunteers to provide a basic level of service for everyone’s needs.

Nick Small from Northamptonshire echoed this, saying that in affluent areas like South Northants schemes had little difficulty in recruiting volunteers, although some schemes do not want to get involved in the complexity and risk of bidding for a service providing a minimum service level.  He added that in Northamptonshire, the lack of sustained support and commitment to community transport has made it difficult for officers  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41/11

11:15am

The Director for Environment & Economy will update the Committee on the current activity and priorities of the directorate, including an update on the Capital Programme.

The Committee is invited to receive the presentation which will be followed by a question & answer session.

Contact Officer:         Huw Jones (Director, Environment & Economy

Huw.Jones@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Huw Jones (Director, Environment & Economy) gave the Committee an update on delivering the Business Strategy in 2011/12. This year the Directorate is likely to deliver more efficiencies than planned. This is despite the increased costs in the Highways Contract due to high levels of inflation.

Cllr Tanner left the meeting at 12:20pm.

The Committee received an update on the Capital programme from Arzu Ulusoy-Shipstone (Capital Strategy and Transformation Manager). Although actual spend is lagging slightly behind predicted spend, we are likely to be on track by the end of the year.

Cllr Mathew left the meeting at 1:25pm.

Cllr Greene requested that the presentation be circulated electronically to allow Members to consider issues for future Scrutiny.

The Committee is asked to suggest items from the current Forward Plan on which it may wish to have an opportunity to offer advice to the Cabinet before any decision is taken, together with details of what it thinks could be achieved by looking at any items.

No further items from the Forward Plan were identified.

Cllr Purse reinforced that there were a number of items that should be coming up to meetings shortly, so meetings could last a fully day or start earlier if necessary. Cllr Handley supported the idea, as rushed items don’t produce meaningful outcomes.

1:00pm

1:30pm.