Agenda item

“This Council fully supports ‘Ox Online – The Digital Strategy for Oxfordshire’ and the campaign to get the whole county connected to Broadband as part of Oxfordshire’s Local Broadband Plan. 

Council notes:

That digital exclusion correlates closely to social and financial exclusion – those without IT skills find it harder to access education and employment opportunities, and miss out on opportunities to save money by accessing goods and services online.

That 28% of premises (residential and business) in Oxfordshire are in the Ofcom Market 1 area where it is recognised that the market has failed to deliver an adequate broadband service.

That 74,500, or 28% of households are within such areas, as are 33% of Oxfordshire’s businesses and 25 % of all employees.

That Race Online 2012 is a national campaign to get everyone online by the end of the Olympic year (hence the ‘race’); and

That nearly 10 million people in the UK never access the Internet. The ‘Give An Hour’ campaign hopes to help this group so that those with IT skills can ‘Give an Hour’ (gained when the clocks went back on 30th October) to show those without IT skills how to use computers and Internet.

Council resolves:

(a)       That, as part of Oxfordshire’s Local Broadband Strategy, members are asked to consider signing up as ‘Digital Champions’ to commit to helping others get online (at www.raceonline2012.org/giveanhour).

 (b)      That the work, resources and aims of ‘Ox Online’ continue to be promoted through the County Council’s resources, including the website.”

 

Councillor Fatemian proposed and Councillor Robertson seconded the following motion:

 

“This Council fully supports ‘Ox Online – The Digital Strategy for Oxfordshire’ and the campaign to get the whole county connected to Broadband as part of Oxfordshire’s Local Broadband Plan. 

Council notes:

That digital exclusion correlates closely to social and financial exclusion – those without IT skills find it harder to access education and employment opportunities, and miss out on opportunities to save money by accessing goods and services online.

That 28% of premises (residential and business) in Oxfordshire are in the Ofcom Market 1 area where it is recognised that the market has failed to deliver an adequate broadband service.

That 74,500, or 28% of households are within such areas, as are 33% of Oxfordshire’s businesses and 25 % of all employees.

That Race Online 2012 is a national campaign to get everyone online by the end of the Olympic year (hence the ‘race’); and

That nearly 10 million people in the UK never access the Internet. The ‘Give An Hour’ campaign hopes to help this group so that those with IT skills can ‘Give an Hour’ (gained when the clocks went back on 30th October) to show those without IT skills how to use computers and Internet.

Council resolves:

(a)       That, as part of Oxfordshire’s Local Broadband Strategy, members are asked to consider signing up as ‘Digital Champions’ to commit to helping others get online (at www.raceonline2012.org/giveanhour).

 (b)      That the work, resources and aims of ‘Ox Online’ continue to be promoted through the County Council’s resources, including the website.”

 

With the consent of Council, Councillor Fatemian accepted the amendment proposed by Councillor Pressel to add the following additional resolution (c) to the motion:

 

“(c) That the director for Adult Services seeks to arrange for volunteers (for instance from Age UK and student volunteers from The Hub) to contact the Council’s Well-being and Resource Centres to help the centre users get on-line.”

 

Councillor Fooks moved and Councillor Patrick seconded the following amendment to the motion shown in bold italics and strikethrough:

 

“This Council fully supports ‘Ox Online – The Digital Strategy for Oxfordshire’ and the campaign to get the whole county connected to Broadband as part of Oxfordshire’s Local Broadband Plan. 

 

Council notes:

 

That digital exclusion correlates closely to social and financial exclusion – those without IT skills find it harder to access education and employment opportunities, and miss out on opportunities to save money by accessing goods and services online.

 

That 28% of premises (residential and business) in Oxfordshire, mostly in rural parts of the county, are in the Ofcom Market 1 area where it is recognised that the market has failed to deliver an adequate broadband service.

 

That 74,500, or 28% of households are within such areas, as are 33% of Oxfordshire’s businesses and 25 % of all employees.

That Race Online 2012 is a national campaign to get everyone online by the end of the Olympic year (hence the ‘race’); and

 

That nearly 10 million people in the UK never access the Internet. The ‘Give An Hour’ campaign hopes to help this group so that those with IT skills can ‘Give an Hour’ (gained when the clocks went back on 30th October) to show those without IT skills how to use computers and Internet.

 

Council resolves:

 

(a)       That, as part of Oxfordshire’s Local Broadband Strategy, members are asked to consider signing up as ‘Digital Champions’ to commit to helping others get online (at www.raceonline2012.org/giveanhour).

 (b)      That the work, resources and aims of ‘Ox Online’ continue to be promoted through the County Council’s resources, including the website; and

(c) That the Digital Oxfordshire Governance Board, about to be set up, should recommend that expenditure by Oxfordshire County Council to improve broadband speeds should prioritise areas currently having speeds less than 2Mbs.”

 

Following debate the amendment was lost by 9 votes to 47 with 10 abstentions.

 

Following debate of the substantive motion as amended it was carried unanimously and accordingly:

 

RESOLVED: 

 

This Council fully supports ‘Ox Online – The Digital Strategy for Oxfordshire’ and the campaign to get the whole county connected to Broadband as part of Oxfordshire’s Local Broadband Plan. 

Council notes:

That digital exclusion correlates closely to social and financial exclusion – those without IT skills find it harder to access education and employment opportunities, and miss out on opportunities to save money by accessing goods and services online.

That 28% of premises (residential and business) in Oxfordshire are in the Ofcom Market 1 area where it is recognised that the market has failed to deliver an adequate broadband service.

That 74,500, or 28% of households are within such areas, as are 33% of Oxfordshire’s businesses and 25 % of all employees.

That Race Online 2012 is a national campaign to get everyone online by the end of the Olympic year (hence the ‘race’); and

That nearly 10 million people in the UK never access the Internet. The ‘Give An Hour’ campaign hopes to help this group so that those with IT skills can ‘Give an Hour’ (gained when the clocks went back on 30th October) to show those without IT skills how to use computers and Internet.

Council resolves:

(a)       That, as part of Oxfordshire’s Local Broadband Strategy, members are asked to consider signing up as ‘Digital Champions’ to commit to helping others get online (at www.raceonline2012.org/giveanhour).

(b)       That the work, resources and aims of ‘Ox Online’ continue to be promoted through the County Council’s resources, including the website;

(c) That the director for Adult Services seeks to arrange for volunteers (for instance from Age UK and student volunteers from The Hub) to contact the Council’s Well-being and Resource Centres to help the centre users get on-line.