Meeting documents
County Council
Tuesday, 6 November 2007
To All Members of the County Council
|
Committee |
Existing Member |
Proposed Member |
Planning & Regulation |
N Turner |
Seale |
(b) Appointment of Independent Members to the Standards Committee
At the meeting on 10 January 2006, Council agreed to increase the number of independent members on the Standards Committee from two to four members. Following a recruitment exercise, Council is RECOMMENDED to appoint two additional independent members to the Standards Committee.
The Council is reminded that, under The Relevant Authorities (Standards Committee) Regulations 2001, the appointment of independent members must be approved by a majority of the members of the Council.
(c) To make any other changes in membership of the Cabinet, scrutiny and other committees on the nomination of political groups.
6. Petitions and Public Address
7. Questions with Notice from Members of the Public
8. Report of the Cabinet (CC8)
Item |
Heading |
Decisions to be made by Council |
6 |
Financial Monitoring |
The Cabinet RECOMMENDS Council to:
(1) establish a fund of £100K from the additional LABGI allocation of £340K to assist in welcoming/supporting returning military personnel to Oxfordshire from serving abroad and their families;
(2) authorise the Leader of the Council, Cabinet Member for Finance and the Assistant Chief Executive & Chief Finance Officer to approve applications for contributions to projects; and
(3) consider at its meeting in January 2008 recommendations from the Cabinet for the allocation of the remaining LABGI money. |
9. Questions with Notice from Members of the Council
Motions with Notice from Members of the Council
WOULD MEMBERS PLEASE NOTE THAT ANY AMENDMENTS TO MOTIONS WITH NOTICE MUST BE PRESENTED TO THE PROPER OFFICER IN WRITING BY 9.00 AM ON MONDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2007
Agenda Items 10, 11, 12 and 13 were deferred from the last meeting of the Council in September 2007
10. Motion from Councillor Bob Johnston
“Following the damage and distress caused by the recent flooding in Oxfordshire, this Council resolves to ask the Cabinet to take the following steps to reduce the risk of further flooding in the future:
(a) encourage parishes and towns to set up flood defence groups, because experience has shown that, where they already exist, they can do a useful job in organising volunteers. Such groups may also encourage riparian owners to clear gullies and culverts;
(b) encourage and if necessary pressurise riparian owners to ensure that their ditches are clear and fit for purpose;
(c) where possible use any available funding from central Government to finance any works made necessary by the recent flooding;
(d) undertake a condition survey of those ditches and culverts for which the Council is itself responsible;
(e) prioritise any additional works for those cases where the alleviation of future flooding can be achieved;
(f) call on the Environment Agency and Thames Water to meet their obligations regarding management of watercourses, surface water drainage and sewerage and where required encourage Thames Water to upsize their existing surface water sewers to cope with the increased storms and rainfall.”
11. Motion from Councillor Zoé Patrick
“Oxfordshire’s Highways’ budget for routine weedkilling for its roads and footways has been insufficient for some time. In the absence of any spraying, large perennial weeds such as elder and docks are now becoming established on many footways and especially in between kerbstones. Structural damage due to growth pressure is beginning to occur. The Cabinet is therefore requested to identify additional resources which can be applied to weedkilling as soon as possible, and ask the Transport Service to draw up a priority programme for dealing with the worst cases. It is accepted that this will put further pressure on resources for other activities.”
12. Motion from Councillor Janet Godden (amended by strikethrough and in italic type)
“Council
notes that the prospects for an adequate settlement for adult social care in
the forthcoming comprehensive spending review remain remote despite previous
Government assurances that investment would be made in this area following
investment in education and the health service. Council is dismayed at the
implications for the residents of Oxfordshire of continued low Government
funding of social care, as evidenced by waits for assessed care packages or
nursing home placements and retrenchment of the day services strategy agreed in
principle in 2004. Council therefore requests the Leader of the Council and
the Cabinet Member for Social & Community Services to ask for an urgent
meeting with ministers to explain the position in Oxfordshire and the need for
increased national spending on social care.
Council also notes that the County's
Citizens' Panel has not been consulted on an issue relating to social
care since autumn 2005 (direct payments). In the light of possible inadequate
funding, Council asks the Director for Social & Community Services to
request that the Panel is consulted this autumn on the
availability and adequacy of adult social care services in Oxfordshire in
good time so that for its response to help to inform
the Council's budget debate.”
13. Motion from Councillor John Sanders (amended by strikethrough and in italic type)
"This Council
a) notes the Cabinet’s plan to use £1.1m of interest earned on developer contributions to fund a contribution to balances in 2009/10 (with the developer interest being ‘repaid’ to the developer contributions account in 2011/12);
b) notes that funding the contribution to balances in this way rather than from the revenue account would increase the amount of money available for spending on services in 2009/10 by £1.1m but reduce the amount of money available for spending on services in 2011/12 by £1.1m and would also involve a loss to the Council in terms of total interest earned;
c) notes that the service and resource planning reports for the Cabinet meetings on 21 November 2006 and 16 January 2007 reflected a possible need for some of the £1.1m to come from developer interest earned in 2008/09;
(d) asks the Cabinet to ensure that, irrespective of whether the
contribution to balances in 2009/10 will go ahead, the plan to use the
developer interest is withdrawn during the current forthcoming service
and resource planning process for 2008/09 – 2012/13.”
14. Motion from Councillor M Altaf-Khan
“Council notes that the recent peer review of the County Council advised that more needs to be done to demonstrate its commitment to social inclusion, diversity and equality. It further notes that ignoring this might lead to the Council losing its excellent rating. Council therefore asks the Cabinet to set out a clear action plan to ensure that we are meeting our obligations in this respect. This should include:
(a) Working more closely with ethnic minority groups within their communities;
(b) Ensuring we meet our targets on recruitment;
(c) Include measures to tackle diversity and equality in our service provision.”
15. Motion from Councillor Nick Carter
"This Council condemns Government Proposals to force schools in Oxfordshire to surrender a percentage of any end of year school balances to the Council. This stealth tax will penalise those Oxfordshire schools which have prudently saved for future expenditure needs and reward those who have made no such provision forcing some to choose between spending on capital projects and the provision of teaching staff and materials.
This Council calls on the Leader of the Council to write to the Secretary of State calling for the Government to withdraw these proposals and asks Oxfordshire's MPs to support the call."
16. Motion from Councillor Larry Sanders
“This Council urges the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) not to appoint private, profit-making, organisations as advisors on the commissioning of services. The use of such advisors is likely to reduce the quality and quantity of health services available to the people of Oxfordshire:
- The cost of the advisors would reduce the amount of money available for patient care and weaken the PCT's ability to improve its own commissioning skills
- The use of private advisors would be a large step towards private profit-making companies controlling the NHS. This would increase the costs and reduce the availability of services free at the point of delivery
- The private companies lack the skills and experience required to commission health care for large groups of vulnerable people
- The PCT needs more time to consolidate its own abilities to commission services
- The six very new Practice-based Commissioning consortia have only just been established and need time to consult with the public and to develop the systems and skills to allow them to provide effective commissioning.”
17. Motion from Councillor Larry Sanders
“From the most recent statistics it appears that if the same proportion of Oxfordshire residents had received fully funded NHS continuing health care as did the residents of Buckinghamshire free care would have been provided to hundreds more of our residents. They would not have had their homes sold to pay for their care. This is especially odd since the criteria for the two Counties were precisely the same.
This Council requests the relevant Council officers and the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust to liaise with their Buckinghamshire counterparts:
- to explain the difference in the proportions receiving fully funded NHS care between the Counties in 2006/7
- to see if any of their policies or procedures should be amended to provide a better result for Oxfordshire residents and
- to report their findings to the Social and Community Services Scrutiny Committee, the Oxfordshire Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee and this Council as soon as possible.”
18. Motion from Councillor Nick Carter
“At a time when this Council is participating with Oxfordshire businesses in the development of a healthy and thriving economy in the county, the Council calls on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to review his decision to increase the capital gains taxes paid by small businesses to 18% which will undermine enterprise in Oxfordshire.”
Pre-Meeting Briefing There will be a pre-meeting briefing at County Hall on Monday 5 November 2007 at 10.00 am for the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Group Leaders and Deputy Group Leaders.
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