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ITEM CG3

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE SCRUTINY COMMITTEE – 1 JUNE 2006

Minutes of the Meeting commencing at 9.00 am and finishing at 9.50 am

Present:

Voting Members:

Councillor Mrs J. Heathcoat - in the chair

Councillor Alan Armitage
Councillor Iain Brown
Councillor Neville Harris (in palce of Councillor Liz Brighouse)
Councillor Bob Johnston
Councillor Kieron Mallon
Councillor Craig Simmons
Councillor Lawrie Stratford (in place of Councillor David Wilmshurst)
Councillor Melinda Tilley

Other Members in Attendance:

Councillor Keith R. Mitchell (for Agenda Items 10, 11)

Officers:

Whole of meeting: G. Malcolm (Chief Executive’s Office).

Part of meeting: S. Capaldi, J. Leverton (Chief Executive’s Office).

The Scrutiny Committee considered the matters, reports and recommendations contained or referred to in the agenda for the meeting, together with a schedule of addenda tabled at the meeting, and agreed as set out below. Copies of the agenda, reports and schedule are attached to the signed Minutes.

    25/06. ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN FOR THE CURRENT COUNCIL YEAR

    Councillor Hallchurch moved and Councillor Tilley seconded that Councillor Mrs Heathcoat be elected Chairman of the Committee for the remainder of the Council year.

    Councillor Johnston then moved and Councillor Armitage seconded that Councillor Armitage be elected Chairman of the Committee for the remainder of the Council year.

    Councillor Harris then moved and Councillor Simmons seconded that Councillor Brighouse be elected Chairman of the Committee for the remainder of the Council year.

    RESOLVED: (Councillor Mrs Heathcoat having received 6 votes, Councillor Armitage 3 votes and Councillor Brighouse 1 vote) that Councillor Mrs Heathcoat be elected Chairman of the Committee for the remainder of the Council Year.

    26/06. ELECTION OF DEPUTY CHAIRMAN FOR THE CURRENT COUNCIL YEAR

    RESOLVED: (on a motion by Councillor Brown duly seconded) that Councillor Hallchurch be elected Deputy Chairman of the Committee for the remainder of the current Council Year.

    27/06. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND TEMPORARY APPOINTMENTS

    Apologies for absence and temporary appointments were received as follows:

    Apology from

    Temporary Appointments

    Councillor Brighouse

    Councillor Harris

    Councillor Wilmshurst

    Councillor Stratford

    28/06. ORDER OF BUSINESS

    The order of business was changed, for the reasons outlined in the schedule of addenda, as shown below. The remaining items from the published agenda would be held over to the Committee's next scheduled meeting on 27 July 2006.

    29/06. ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN

    The Chairman advised the Committee of the death on 17 May 2006 of former County Councillor Janet Todd and on 23 May of former County Councillor Harry Wyatt. Tributes were paid to both. Members and officers observed a minute’s silence in their memory.

    30/06. MINUTES

    The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 2 March 2006 were approved and signed.

    Minute 14/06 – Medium Term Corporate Plan 2006-2010: Members’ attention was drawn to Annex 1 of the schedule of addenda which tracked the outcome of the Committee’s comments to the Cabinet.

    31/06. SPEAKING TO OR PETITIONING THE COMMITTEE

    The following requests to address the meeting had been agreed:-

    Request from

    Agenda Item

    Counciillor Zoé Patrick

    8 – Call in of Cabinet Decision - Appointments

    32/06. OXFORDSHIRE PLAN – ANNUAL REPORT 2005/06

(Agenda Item 7)

The Council adopted a new approach to planning this year. In April 2006 the Corporate Plan, which set out the Council’s priorities and targets for the next four years, was approved. The Council was also producing an Annual Report to provide an overview of the previous year summarising the Council’s achievements and successes. The Annual Report also fulfilled the requirements to produce a Best Value Performance Plan which was one of the strategic plans required to be approved by the Council.

Councillor Mitchell introduced the draft Annual report (CG10). He confirmed that work was in progress to produce the final draft for Council on 20 June. He highlighted key areas of the paper and, with Mr Capaldi, responded to members’ questions and comments. It was unlikely that the Summary of Accounts would be available in time for the Council meeting but work was underway to complete the Final Accounts 2005/06 for approval by the Audit Committee on 28 June, and the Summary prior to the earlier deadline of 30 June 2006.

The Committee AGREED to offer advice to the Cabinet about how to improve the proposed content of the Annual Report as follows:-

The Committee:

    • welcomed in general the format and content of the draft Annual Report;

    • was of the view that the contents of the Medium Term Corporate Plan 2006-2010, upon which it had commented to the Cabinet in March 2006, and the Annual Report should be consistent;

    • considered that the draft Report appeared to be very concise but recognised the need to achieve a balance between the inclusion of factual data and readability. It was hoped that some graphics could be included to aid understanding of technical information;

    • considered that the draft was somewhat light on the Council’s outstanding achievements including for example its role in the development of the Oxford Castle site;

    • was disappointed that the Summary Accounts 2005/06 were not available currently and hoped that this would be borne in mind for the next edition of the draft Report;

    • on page 8 – "Did you know?" box – suggested that reference be made as to how the situation was changing;

    • on page 14 – considered that although there was no wholesale change in the variety of methods adopted to ensure that the Council stayed in touch with the community the paragraph at the foot of column 1 should be updated to outline the current position;

    • on page 15 - ‘Our Strategic Priorities’ – expressed some concern about the fact that the adopted priorities did not sufficiently reflect the diverse nature and character of the County, i.e. its rural/urban/university elements.

    33/06. CALL IN OF CABINET DECISION – APPOINTMENTS

    (Agenda Item 8)

    On 2 May 2006 the Cabinet considered a report (CG11) on a review of appointments to Strategic Outside Bodies. The Cabinet had resolved:

    1. to approve the following replacement appointments:

      2. Body



      Existing Appointee

      Councillor ...



      Replacement Appointee

      Councillor ...

      Association of Councils of the Thames Valley Region (ACTVaR)

      John Farrow

      David Wilmshurst

      Tony Crabbe (deputy)

      Ray Jelf

      Carol Viney

      John Farrow (deputy)

      Local Government Association (LGA)

      John Farrow

      Melinda Tilley

      LGA Urban Commission

      Kieron Mallon

      Nick Carter

      Oxfordshire Supporting People Commissioning Body

      Don Seale

      Cabinet Member for Social Care & Policy Coordination

    2. that the arrangements agreed by the Cabinet on 2 September 2003 (minute 213/03) be varied by the substitution of:

          1. "Cabinet" for "Executive";

          2. "Adult Social Services" for "Community Care & Health"; and

          3. "Leader of the Council or such other Cabinet Member as he may designate be authorised" for "Executive Member for Children & Young People be appointed as the alternative member of the Executive".

On 5 May 2006 the Proper Officer received in accordance with the Constitution a request to call in for scrutiny the decision of the Cabinet in the following terms:

"We, the undersigned, request that the decision made on Item 8 in the Cabinet agenda of 2 May 2006 (Appointments) be called in, on the basis that it is not in the best interests of the Council to ignore the talents of the many opposition members of this Council by refusing to send any of them to regional and national bodies, nor in the best interests politically for the council to be seen to be represented by only one group when so many other councils send proportionally balanced delegations to outside bodies.

(signed) M. Altaf-Khan, Alan Armitage, Alan Bryden, Bill Bradshaw, Jean Fooks, Janet Godden, Zoe Patrick, Dermot Roaf, Roz Smith, David Turner, Chris Wise"

Councillor Patrick addressed the Committee. She considered that member representation on Strategic Outside Bodies should be altered to reflect the proportionate representation of the Opposition on the Council, specifically through the appointment of Councillor Jean Fooks to ACTVaR and Councillor Dermot Roaf to the LGA, County Councils Network and South East Employers. The full text text of her address had been circulated on 30 May 2006 to members of the Committee, their substitutes and relevant officers.

Councillor Mitchell stated that it was appropriate that representation of the Council on Strategic Outside Bodies should reflect the current political control of the Council.

The Committee then considered whether it had material concerns about the decision of the Cabinet in the light of the comments by Councillor Patrick and Councillor Mitchell, the current practice in some other local authorities and the facility to observe some Strategic Outside Body meetings.

The Committee AGREED (by 6 votes to 4) to accept the Cabinet’s decision which would therefore become effective from the date of this meeting.

in the Chair

Date of signing 2006

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