Agenda item

Councillor Janet Godden had given notice of the following question to Councillor Ian Hudspeth:

“Please can full consideration be given as soon as possible to the creation of a scrutiny committee for adult social care? You will remember that in the course of the debate on the new governance arrangements at the April Council meeting several members questioned the absence of this. The main reasons put forward in favour were the size of the budget and the scale and complexity of the service. It was argued that the Performance scrutiny committee would not have the time to review this adequately; and that in terms of finance and of service delivery adult social care is one of our highest risk areas. To put it under a ‘Health’ umbrella overlooks much of the work (esp. re disabilities). No reasons were advanced in April against having such a committee; to reject it for administrative reasons would seem to be letting the tail wag the dog. To wait for the first review of the new arrangements in a year’s time seems excessive. Please can this be looked at now?”

Councillor Hudspeth replied:

“The new scrutiny arrangements came about following a cross party review group. All the proposals were put forward to the Conservative group at frequent stages during the review, they were fully debated with comments fed back to the cross party working group, I would hope that other groups within the council followed the same open and democratic process. There will be a review of the new arrangements and that is the time to consider any changes.”

Councillor Jean Fooks had given notice of the following question to Councillor David Nimmo Smith:

“There is much concern about cycle safety in Oxford and throughout the county. I hope that cyclist safety will be a top priority for you in your new role. Large lorries pose particular risks and with the expected huge amount of construction planned for the city it is more important than  ever that all possible ways to improve safety and reduce risk are implemented. Some time ago I asked about the provision of ‘Trixi mirrors’ at junctions, to enable lorries to see cyclists on their near sides – these are inexpensive and easy to install. It is also possible to require lorries to have safety rails and they could themselves have better nearside mirrors. Could you tell me when you will ask officers to investigate which junctions should be fitted with Trixi mirrors, when they might be installed and whether you will seek powers to improve the safety features on large lorries?”

Councillor Nimmo Smith replied:

“The use of ‘Trixi’ mirrors in Oxfordshire was considered following the issuing of a general authorisation of their use by the Department for Transport in February this year. However, results including those published by the Institute for Road Safety Research in The Netherlands suggest  that such mirrors are not an effective way of reducing collisions involving lorries and cyclists.  In view of this we currently have no plans to provide them, but will review closely the experience of other  authorities in England–in particular London where we understand a significant number have been installed – to establish if any benefits are reported, and if so, will then consider their use.

The issue of improving safety features on lorries is not in the gift of OCC but sits with DfT and VOSA”.

Supplementary: Councillor Fooks asked what the Cabinet Member for Environment would be doing to promote cycle safety? Councillor Nimmo Smith replied that as a Civil Engineer he was aware of the work being done through the Institution of Civil Engineers to promote cycle safety and he would be following that work through in Oxfordshire.