Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllr Peter Handley and Cllr Roger Belson.

Substitutes were Cllr Patrick Greene and Cllr Peter Skolar.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no speakers or petitions.

The report (which is to be considered by each of the Scrutiny Committees on 15 December) forms part of a series relating to the Service and Resource Planning process for 2012/13 to 2016/17.

Each Committee will meet in turn to consider the Business Strategies and savings proposed for their service areas. Comments from each Committee will then be considered by Strategy & Partnerships Scrutiny Committee on 12 January 2012 prior to being fed back to Cabinet in order that they can take the comments into consideration in proposing their budget and Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) in January 2012.

The following annexes are attached:

The Director for Environment & Economy will be available to respond to questions, together with the Cabinet Member for Growth & Infrastructure.

The Committee received a presentation from Officers outlining progress that has been made since the Business Strategy was agreed by Council in February 2011. They also set out the new pressures and variations to the Medium Term Financial Plan that are proposed for next year’s budget.

The Committee raised a number of areas of concern that should be monitored by Scrutiny throughout the year:

• Cllr Nimmo-Smith and Cllr Purse stressed the need to monitor the impact of changes on smaller services, such as the Countryside Service when they are supporting voluntary organisations. This should come to a future scrutiny meeting.
• Cllr Mathew asked how performance on planning applications and enforcement will be affected by the proposals, which should come to a future scrutiny meeting. Cllr Mathew requested further information on the Growing Places Fund. Huw Jones agreed to provide to the Committee. Cllr Mathew suggested that efficiencies could be made through a more effective process for contacting Area Stewards, which should come to a future scrutiny meeting. Cllr Mathew urged officers to consider charging utilities companies for digging up highways and charging for commercial parking at park and ride sites.
• Cllr Nimmo-Smith was concerned that the announcement on the likely changes to solar panel tariffs would have an adverse effect on the budget; new plans should be considered at a future scrutiny meeting. Martin Tugwell described how the implications of the announcement will be unclear for a while.
• Cllr Greene urged that funding for infrastructure projects that will encourage business growth across Oxfordshire should be prioritised.

The committee were concerned with how accurate the plans could be beyond 2012/13 and reinforced the need to monitor upcoming national policy changes that will affect local government funding, responding and influencing as much as we can.

Cllr Skolar was concerned by the reduced budget for the schools capital programme, which has been caused by a change in the funding received from central government.

Cllr Strangwood challenged Officers to find bigger savings on contracts and re-negotiating with suppliers.

The Committee broadly supported the Business Strategy.

Cllr Nicholas Turner proposed that Officers and Cabinet members explore

• Amalgamating the Natural History Service with the Countryside Service
• Amalgamating the Business Skills Bureau with the Connexions Service
• Robust monitoring arrangements for road repairs to ensure extra money can be diverted quickly if necessary

The recommendation was seconded by Cllr Strangwood and carried unanimously.