Scrutiny Committee – Date, Outcome

1 June 2006

The Committee offered 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.

Cabinet - Date, Decision

06 June 2006

The Cabinet considered the draft Annual Report (CA6) which provided an overview of the previous year and highlighted the Council's achievements and successes.

Councillor Patrick, speaking as Leader of the Opposition, highlighted several factual and grammatical errors within the draft Annual Report, including a number raised by the Corporate Governance Scrutiny Committee, but recognised that this was due to its still being in draft form. She believed that it would be a considerable challenge for the Cabinet to absorb the major new housing provision into Oxfordshire’s communities.

The Leader of the Council confirmed that the current document was by way of an early working draft and that the comments from the Corporate Governance Scrutiny Committee would be taken into account in the final draft to be presented to Council.

RESOLVED: to approve the draft Annual Report as the basis for submission to the Council on 20 June for approval, incorporating the necessary detailed appendices and any presentational and editorial changes agreed by the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive.

Council - Date, Decision

20 June 2006

The Council approved the Annual Report subject to the following amendments to Page 2 (Foreword by Keith R Mitchell, Leader of the Council), second paragraph:

in the second line add the word shown underlined "us to deliver the lowest Council Tax increase of any shire County Council in the South East of England";

in the last line, amend the word "increase" to read "increases";

any final presentational and editorial changes agreed by the Leader of the Council;

Next Consideration by Scrutiny/ Cabinet/ Council

Not applicable