Agenda, decisions and minutes

Apologies for absence should be notified to sue.whitehead@oxfordshire.gov.uk or Tel: 07393 001213 prior to the start of the meeting.

Apologies were received from Jeremy Long, Chairman of OXLEP; Phil Shadbolt, OXLEP Business Rep – Bicester; and Andrew Harrison, OXLEP Business Rep – Science Vale and Adrian Colwell, Cherwell District Council.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Oxfordshire Growth Board held on 26 May 2016.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 26 May 2016 were approved and signed as a correct record.

To receive communications from the Chairman.

The Chairman proposed and it was agreed that the item he had agreed as urgent business on the Strategic Economic Plan Refresh be taken following item 6.

Members of the public may ask questions of the Chairman of the Growth Board, or address the Growth Board on any substantive item at a meeting subject to the restrictions set out in the public participation scheme.

Deadline to submit questions: By Tuesday 20 September 2016 in writing or email to the Chief Executive or Secretariat of the host authority

Deadline to submit requests to address the meeting: No later than noon on the day before the meeting (Friday 23 September 2016) in writing or email to the Chief Executive or Secretariat of the host authority

In accordance with the Public Participation Scheme, the Chairman invited

individuals and groups who had requested to address the meeting or who had

submitted questions to present them to the Board.

Helena Marshall. Campaign to Protect Rural England, addressed the Board in relation to agenda item 6, Post SHMA Strategic Work Programme.

Chris Henderson, Vice-Chairman, Radley Parish Council, addressed the Board in relation to agenda item 6, Post SHMA Strategic Work Programme

Sarah Hamilton-Foyn, Regional Director, Pegasus Group, addressed the Board in relation to agenda item 6, Post SHMA Strategic Work Programme

The Board received questions from the following:

Tom Rice, Planner, Barton Willmore

Stephen Fry

Dr Pam Roberts, The Save Gavrey Meadows Campaign

Helen Marshall, Director, CPRE Oxfordshire.

Fiona Newton

Helena Whall, on behalf of the coalition Need not

Greed in Oxfordshire.

Phil Clark, Chief Planner, Galliard Homes Limited

The Chairman advised that responses to the submitted questions would be

sent directly to the parties who had submitted them, made available on the

Growth Board webpages and published with the minutes of the meeting.

Report Content: Paul Staines, Growth Board Programme Manager

Purpose of the report

To provide the Growth Board with a report on the findings of the Post SHMA Strategic Work Programme (the Programme), to recommend the adoption of the proposed apportionment  of the unmet housing need for Oxford and approval of a Memorandum of Co-operation including both the apportionment and timetable for delivery of Oxford’s unmet housing need as derived through the Programme.

Recommendation

The Growth Board is recommended to:

(a)               Approve the apportionment of the agreed working figure for the unmet housing need for Oxford, in the interest of complying with the Duty to Co-operate.

(b)               Approve the attached Memorandum of Co-operation setting out the apportionment and timetable for delivery of the unmet housing need for Oxford.

(c)        Formally recommend the approved apportionment to each of the Oxfordshire Local Planning Authorities for consideration in the preparation of their Local Plans, in the interest of meeting the objectively assessed housing needs for Oxfordshire.

The Oxfordshire Growth Board had before it a report on the findings of the Post SHMA Strategic Work Programme (the Programme), that recommended the adoption of the proposed apportionment of the unmet housing need for Oxford and approval of a Memorandum of Co-operation including both the apportionment and timetable for delivery of Oxford’s unmet housing need as derived through the Programme.

Paul Staines, Growth Board Programme Manager, in introducing the contents of the report stressed that the areas of search identified were not to be taken as proposed for development sites but were, as made clear in the report and appendix, evidence of Districts’ ability to meet part of Oxford’s unmet housing need. He explained the chronology of the Programme and how Officers had arrived at the recommendations in the report and finally set out the recommendations. He highlighted adherence to the set of 5 principles drawn up by leaders and the Board as guidance for the programme as evidence of its successful conclusion.

Councillor Cotton, Leader, South Oxfordshire District Council indicated that he had a long list of questions covering the detail in the report that he would send separately to officers for them to respond to but that at the meeting he wanted to raise some issues.

On transportation he queried whether officers were aware of the bias towards areas of deprivation. He also queried the lower score for transport of the Culham site, which was adjacent to a station, when compared to Grenoble Road, asking whether its scoring under the heading of accessibility to Oxford was correct.

On jobs a lot of weight had been given to the proximity to jobs. However he noted that these were existing jobs and he queried what effort had been made to identify future growth in jobs. He queried where the 5 key employment sites in the City were and he further queried how many jobs were associated with them over what period. Bev Hindle responded that existing jobs was the basis of the assessment since we were examining proximity to existing nodes of employment rather than new sites that might come forward.

On education Councillor Cotton suggested that the information provided was not transparent and that it would be good to see it school by school. He questioned the information sitting behind the assessment/scoring suggesting that it was based on misinformation about the long term capacity of sites. Bev Hindle, responded to the concerns commenting that there was a balance between current need and potential.

Councillor Cotton also questioned the density figures quoted for Oxford which he felt were incorrect and that current density was lower than quoted. He also referred to criteria that underpinned the assessment of their areas of search considered in the Programme and questioned whether excessive weight had been given proximity to or communication lines with Universities Bev Hindle indicated that the Executive Officers Group had felt that the weighting given was correct. They had not consulted with the Universities as proximity to or access to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

The Chairman to advise whether they have agreed to any item of urgent business being admitted to the agenda.

Strategic Economic Plan

The Chairman has agreed that the following item be considered as an item of urgent business in that it had always been the intention to review the SEP at this meeting but it was left off the original agenda due to an administrative oversight.

The Chairman has indicated that the item will be taken following Item 6 on the agenda.

The Chairman had agreed that this item be considered as an item of urgent business in that it had always been the intention to review the Strategic Economic Plan (SEP) at this meeting but it was left off the original agenda due to an administrative oversight.

Nigel Tipple, Chief Executive OXLEP, gave a presentation on the refreshed SEP, setting out the factors that influenced the refresh, the vision, programmes and priorities and the consultation and engagement process.

Report Contact: Robin Rogers, Spatial Infrastructure Planning Res. Manager, Oxfordshire County Council

Purpose of the report

To invite the Board to consider key areas of focus for the future work programme of the Board and to charge officers with bringing back detailed proposals to the November meeting of the Board 

Recommendation

That the Growth Board:

(a)                Notes proposals from the Executive Officers Group to develop a revised work programme for the Growth Board’s consideration at the November meeting of the Board;

(b)                Considers and comments on the suggested prioritisation of projects  and identifies additional areas for officer consideration

The Board was invited to consider key areas of focus for the future work programme of the Board and to charge officers with bringing back detailed proposals to the November meeting. The Board agreed that the work streams highlighted in the reports appendix should be addressed and in addition it was proposed by Councillor Barber, seconded and:

RESOLVED:

(a)     Following the publication of the PwC and Grant Thornton reports on local government in Oxfordshire it is clear that there are several areas where joint working may help us realise significant savings and improvements of public services. A working group should be established including Chief Executives and Leaders of local authorities, CCG and LEP to explore how these transformational changes can be progressed in areas including, but not exclusively: infrastructure, skills, economic development, strategic spatial planning, public assets, business rates, health and social care. The working group will investigate, but will not be restricted to reviewing the future function of the Oxfordshire Growth Board and to consider the feasibility of establishing a combined authority for Oxfordshire; and

(b)     The Oxfordshire CCG should be invited to become a non-voting member of the Growth Board from our next meeting.

To consider and review the Board work Programme.

The Board considered its Work Programme.

RESOLVED:             to note the Work Programme and to ask officers to facilitate a meeting with partners in respect to a commitment to secure apprenticeships through planning gain and legal agreements and to a facilitation of that by the CDC owned Apprenticeships Training Agency  (ATA) and to report back.