Agenda item

Any county councillor may, by giving notice to the Proper Officer by 9 am two working days before the meeting, ask a question on any matter in respect of the Cabinet’s delegated powers.

The number of questions which may be asked by any councillor at any one meeting is limited to two (or one question with notice and a supplementary question at the meeting) and the time for questions will be limited to 30 minutes in total. As with questions at Council, any questions which remain unanswered at the end of this item will receive a written response.

Questions submitted prior to the agenda being despatched are shown below and will be the subject of a response from the appropriate Cabinet Member or such other councillor or officer as is determined by the Cabinet Member, and shall not be the subject of further debate at this meeting. Questions received after the despatch of the agenda, but before the deadline, will be shown on the Schedule of Addenda circulated at the meeting, together with any written response which is available at that time.

Councillor Turnbull had given written notice of the following question to Councillor Lindsay-Gale:

“How many maintained schools and colleges in Oxfordshire are operating in-year budget deficits?” 

Councillor Lindsay-Gale replied:

“Based on the budget and monitoring plans provided by maintained schools 111 schools out of a total of 154 (or 72%) are operating in year budget deficits.

There will be many reasons for in-year deficits, schools may be budgeting for significant one-off costs (redundancy, repair & maintenance, building work, ICT replacements) or managing the impact of fluctuating pupil numbers.

Each year, schools are asked to plan their budget for a three year period taking into account any brought forward balances.”

Councillor Howson had given written notice of the following question to Councillor Constance:

“Please can you provide an indication of the timetable when traffic reduction measures, as presented in the Oxford Transport Strategy and a briefing to Councillors in January 2018 are likely to be introduced?”

Councillor Constance replied:

“The County Council is presently working with the City Council to develop options as part of a detailed business case and this will be accompanied by extensive public consultation.  We remain committed to exploring options to reduce traffic in Oxford, which includes consideration of a workplace parking levy and congestion charge.  The project programme is being reviewed by officers at present with a view to reporting to Cabinet at the next available opportunity once this review has been completed”.

Supplementary: Councillor Howson asked if given a number of very large planning applications with significant transport implications the Cabinet Member would give some idea of when work would come to fruition. Councillor Constance replied that she at this stage she could not give an end date but that progress was being made. A City Council and County Council Steering Group had been set up and was meeting monthly. Councillor Constance assured Councillor Howson that he would be amongst the first to know when more information was available.

Councillor Roz Smith had given written notice of the following question to Councillor Constance:

“Pressure on residential parking bays in Headington is increasing.  Could the Cabinet member provide information of the number of parking permits issued to businesses which allow them to park in the controlled parking zone (CPZ) in central Headington?”

Councillor Constance replied

“There are currently 36 valid Business Permits issued in the central Headington CPZ.

Supplementary: Councillor Roz Smith referred to the Car Parking Policy and noted that permits for businesses were issued for commercial business need and not for commuting. She feared that some permits were being used for commuting and asked what monitoring was being done or could be done to ensure permits were being used correctly? Councillor Constance indicated that it should be possible to check whether permits were valid and she would consider the point made and reply I writing on what could be done to monitor use.

Councillor Emily Smith had given written notice of the following question to Councillor Corkin:

“What is the date of the first Partnership Working Group meeting for the Cherwell-Oxfordshire partnership and will this be open to the public?”

Councillor Corkin replied:

“The Partnership Working Group has been established through the s113 arrangements and is a cross-party group that will be considering detailed business plans and proposals for joint working arrangements.  The first meeting will be held on 23 October 2018 at 2.00 pm in County Hall, Oxford. It would not be appropriate for this group to meet in public given that it will be discussing personal information in relation to staffing and, likely, confidential and sensitive information relating to risk.  However, the purpose of the group is to have a space within which to discuss and debate those matters with a view to making recommendations having been satisfied that any proposal is sufficiently robust.

The recommendations will be to the respective Cabinets of Cherwell and Oxfordshire for final approval which, of course, will meet in public”.

Supplementary: Asked whether minutes would be available and whether political balance had been agreed on the Group, Councillor Corkin replied that the minutes of the meetings would remain confidential but with recommendations coming through to the respective Cabinet meetings. All main political groups were represented on the Working Group.