Agenda item

Councillor Cherry had given notice of the following two questions to Councillor Constance:

1.    Has there been any progress in recruiting more road gangs to repair potholes by Council highways contractors Skanska  

Councillor Constance replied:

Skanska have allocated additional gangs to respond to the increase in reported pothole numbers, this equates to one gang in the North and similarly in the south. In addition to this where resources permit weekend working is being undertaken

2.    After a Banbury Guardian article on Thursday 15th February 2018, can I be assured that the FixMyStreet depth and width for fixing potholes has not been changed this includes highways officers inspecting potholes that have been reported by FixMyStreet or directly by local councillors.  

Councillor Constance replied:

Official intervention levels for footway and carriageway defects have not changed, however, a small element of discretion has been introduced for the inspectors to reduce the ‘pothole next to a pothole not being fixed’ type of enquiry

Councillor Howson had given notice of the following question to Councillor Hibbert-Biles

Following this comment from Ofsted in a recent report on a visit to a maintained primary school in London:

‘The local authority has provided some support to the school in managing the manipulative and sometimes abusive correspondence and comments made by email and across social media. However, considering the position the school found itself in, and the fact that some correspondence appears to have been coordinated, the local authority’s approach has been perfunctory at best, stopping short of supporting the school in its policy position. Instead, the local authority has positioned itself as a moderator to manage relationships between the school, councillors and community groups. The expected level of emotional care and public support for school staff from the local authority has been too limited and, as a result, ineffective.’

What mechanisms does this local authority have available to deal with any contentious issues affecting a maintained school in Oxfordshire?

Councillor Hibbert-Biles replied:

“Through ‘Workforce Steering Group and the ‘Oxfordshire County Council and Teachers Joint Committee’ a new social media policy is in the process of being agreed. This will apply to all maintained schools and will be available to academies to adopt or adapt as they see fit. The policy will include clear guidance about how school staff should deal with cases of ‘cyber bullying’ including the importance of retaining evidence. Where schools buy into the Council’s legal services they can access support where there may have been a potentially criminal act or, if short of this, perpetrators could be written to requiring them to desist. In principle this would be the same approach as adopted in the case of a vexatious parent or member of the public who could be barred from a school site. Ultimately the Council could take legal action on behalf of its employees, including head teachers.”

Supplementary: Councillor Howson queried how far the Cabinet Member believed that it was the duty of local authorities to provide emotional care and public support for school staff when a school faces unexpected challenges beyond its expertise to deal with under the present arrangements for the governance of schooling. Councillor Hibbert-Biles indicated that there was a responsibility to help and they did help.

Councillor John Sanders had given notice of the following question to Councillor Constance:

"I am aware that the implementation of Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs) in Oxford is a matter of controversy and that the issue is being actively considered by this Council and Oxford City Council.  However, County Councillors in the City are frequently being pursued by residents wishing to know what the Council is doing to ameliorate the problem of on-street parking in Oxford and when this will be addressed.   Will the Cabinet Member provide a timetable for CPZ implementation and when would this be published?" 

Councillor Constance replied:

I am aware of the concerns about on-street parking in residential areas in the city.  A number of new controlled parking zones are already in the pipeline, and updates on the progress of these has been provided through the Oxford locality briefing papers, which all Oxford locality members will have received.

However there are also a number of zones across the city which are not currently being progressed, but where we know there is concern about on-street parking.  Officers have prepared a draft programme setting out how and when all the remaining zones in the city could be progressed, but some discussion with local city and county members (including some prioritisation) will be required before anything is published.  I have asked officers to ensure these discussions happen as quickly as possible.  Funding will need to be identified for any zones which are not already funded.

Supplementary: In response to a question about the need for a timetable covering funded schemes, those where funding was still to be found and plans for the wider area, Councillor Constance agreed that such a timetable is the ideal and that they were working towards that but that it needed to take into account that partial Zones created problems as the parking issues moved to adjacent areas. As soon as more information was available she would share it with Councillor Sanders. Councillor Hudspeth added that the County would be having discussion with the City Council about a contribution to the funding of such schemes.