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To All Members of the County Council

Notice of a Meeting of the Council

Tuesday 4 April 2006 at 10.00 am

County Hall, Oxford


Derek Bishop
Head of Democratic Services

24 March 2006

Contact officer: Marion Holyman (Tel: 01865 810177; E-mail)

AGENDA

  1. Election to Chairman for the 2006/07 Council Year

  2. Election to Vice-Chairman for the 2006/07 Council Year

  3. Minutes

    4. To approve the Minutes (CC3) of the meeting held on 14 February 2006 and to receive for information any matters arising therefrom.

  4. Apologies for Absence

  5. Declarations of Interest – see guidance note

    6. Members are reminded that they must declare their interests orally at the meeting and specify (a) the nature of the interest and (b) which items on the agenda are the relevant items. This applies also to items where members have interests by virtue of their membership of a district council in Oxfordshire.

  6. Official Communications

  7. Appointments

(a) Leader and Deputy Leader and Cabinet

The Council is required at its annual meeting to elect the Leader and Deputy Leader and to appoint the Cabinet. The current membership of the Cabinet is attached (CC7(a)) for information.

 

The Council is RECOMMENDED:

  1. to elect a councillor as Leader of the Council;

  2. to elect a councillor as Deputy Leader of the Council;

  3. to agree the number of members to be appointed to the Cabinet; and

  4. to appoint those members.

(b) Committees and Review of Political Balance

The Council is required annually to appoint "at least one scrutiny committee, a Standards Committee and such other committees as the Council considers appropriate", to review the political balance on committees and to appoint members to the committees. A schedule is attached (CC7(b)) showing the present committees and their membership.

The Constitution requires the appointment of committees to take place at the annual meeting. The Local Government & Housing Act 1989 requires the review of political balance on committees to take place at the annual meeting or "as soon as practicable" after that meeting. The vacancies caused by the two recent resignations would distort this exercise if carried out in advance of the vacancies being filled. It will in any event be open to either of the new councillors, on joining a political group, to require a review of political balance to be carried out. It is suggested therefore that the review process, and any consequential adjustments in membership, should await the next meeting of the Council.

 

The Council is RECOMMENDED:

  1. to confirm continuation for the 2006/07 Council Year of the existing scrutiny committees, Standards Committee and other committees listed in the appended schedule (CC7(b));

  2. to defer the review of political balance on committees until the Council meeting on 20 June 2006;

  3. pending the review of political balance on committees, to:

(i) appoint members to fill the current vacancies noted in the schedule on the nomination of the relevant political groups;

(ii) make any other appointments to the committees on the nomination (if any) of the political groups;

(ii) subject to (i) and (ii) above, appoint to the respective committees the present members of those committees listed in the schedule.

  1. Petitions and Public Address

  2. Questions with Notice from Members of the Public

  3. Report of the Cabinet

Report of the Cabinet (CC10).

Item

Heading

Decisions to be made by Council

1

Medium Term Corporate Plan 2006-2010

The Cabinet RECOMMENDS the Council to approve the Medium Term Corporate Plan for 2006-10.

4

Financial Monitoring

The Cabinet RECOMMENDS the Council to approve the modifications to the approved Treasury Management Strategy specified in Annex 1 to the report of the Cabinet.

8

Local Transport Plan 2006-11

The Council is RECOMMENDED to approve the final draft Local Transport Plan 2006 – 11, including the accompanying Bus Strategy, Information Strategy for Bus Services, Accessibility Strategy and Strategic Environmental Assessment, for submission to the Department for Transport.

17

Children & Young People’s Plan

The Cabinet RECOMMENDS the Council to approve the Children and Young People’s Plan 2006-2009.

THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTS HAVE BEEN CIRCULATED SEPARATELY WITH THE AGENDA:

  1. Scrutiny Annual Report

    2. Copy of the Annual Report has been circulated separately with the agenda

    (CC11 - Scrutiny Annual Report- download as .pdf file)

     

    The Council is RECOMMENDED to receive the report.

  2. Annual Report of the Standards Committee

    3. Report of the Committee (CC12) (download as .doc file).

     

    The Council is RECOMMENDED to receive the report.

  3. Questions with Notice from Members of the Council

    4. 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 3 APRIL 2006

    Motions 14-16 with Notice from Members of the Council which were referred by Council in January 2006 to the Cabinet via the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee for advice to the Council at its April meeting. The advice is set out in Annexes 2 and 3 to the Report of the Cabinet (CC10)

  4. Motion from Councillor Jean Fooks

"This Council notes the launch of the Government’s Education White Paper on 25 October 2005.

This Council supports the Government’s wish to improve schools for every child but has serious doubts that the proposals in the White Paper would achieve this.

It believes that:

    • The aim of education is to help every child reach their personal potential in preparation for a fulfilling adult life;

    • The best results are achieved when schools collaborate and the local authority is best placed to play a co-ordinating role;

    • Local schools should be funded locally, with decisions made by elected bodies accountable to local people, rather than by funding formulas dictated by central government;

    • The White Paper would raise barriers to delivering the Every Child Matters agenda which sees schools, alongside the Extended Schools initiative, as a key part of integrated children’s services.

This Council therefore calls for:

    • The restoration of financial and planning powers to Oxfordshire for 16-19 education to enable a coherent 14-19 education policy to be developed;

    • The Leader of Oxfordshire County Council to lobby local MPs to campaign actively for education services to remain accountable to local people through local democracy and to vote for this principle when the White Paper is debated in Parliament.

This Council reaffirms its commitment to providing good local schools for every child and asks the Chief Executive to write to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills to set out the concerns and proposals in this Motion."

  1. Motion from Councillor Jean Fooks

"This Council has particular concerns that proposals concerning school admissions in the Government’s White Paper ‘Higher Standards, Better Schools for all’ would work against the provision of good local schools for every child. This Council believes that Admissions policies should not encourage schools to ‘poach’ pupils from each other.

This Council is concerned that implementing the White Paper would lead to:

    • An admissions ‘free for all’ where schools could choose the pupils they want and leave some parents without the school place they wanted for their child;

    • School closures in deprived areas, contrary to the government’s own policies on neighbourhood regeneration.

This Council therefore wants Oxfordshire to continue to lead and co-ordinate local admissions to ensure fair access for all, including hard-to-place children, and asks the Leader to write to the Secretary of State requesting that this be protected in any new legislation."

  1. Motion from Councillor Val Smith

    2. "This Council recognises that the Education White Paper has many strengths including money for personalised learning, action on behaviour and discipline, and more challenge for "coasting schools".

    However, there are other issues that cause concern - for example on admissions policies, the proposed ban on new community schools, the practicalities of expansion and contraction of schools in response to parental choice, and the risk that schools serving disadvantaged children may lose out in a more choice-driven system.

    This Council feels that as an LEA it should also have a say and requests the Cabinet Member for Schools Improvement to initiate discussions with officers and members in consultation with school governing bodies and parents with a view to the Council putting forward its views on the White Paper and any legislation to follow."

  2. Motion from Councillor Sushila Dhall

    3. "Understanding that Oxfordshire is proud to be a Council which believes in actual transport choice for all transport modes, and facing the facts that:

    (a) Oxfordshire has missed out on almost £1million of potential Local Transport Plan funding, due, in part, to the failure of the Council to meet cycling targets set in the last Local Transport Plan;

    (b) cycling is declining in Oxfordshire;

    (c) air pollution in Oxford exceeds statutory limits in a significant number of densely peopled streets and we have a duty to show how we will take steps to reduce it;

    (d) it is suspected that there are other areas where this is the case throughout Oxfordshire;

    Council resolves to urge the Cabinet to investigate the promotion of cycling as a serious mode of transport with the potential to:

    (a) painlessly reduce car-dependency in Oxfordshire;

    (b) promote health and fitness;

    (c) help us achieve our air pollution reduction requirements before we are penalised for not doing so.

    Council also resolves to urge the Cabinet to ensure that we use the large sums of money saved by cutting cycle routes from the Local Transport Plan to create cycle-friendly road conditions in the same and many other places in ways that require much less money (cycle lanes on roads, slower traffic speeds etc.)."

  3. Motion from Councillor Bob Johnston

    4. "This Council notes with alarm the lack of progress by the Government on the implementation of the apparently stalled new regulations of packaging. In the light of the impending changes to waste collection and waste disposal within the County, this Council asks the Leader of the Council to call upon the Government to set a new deadline for implementing these regulations, and for the regulations to have as their objective to reduce by at least 50% the amount of packaging used by the retail trade. This Council notes that such a reduction would greatly ease the County in meeting its much reduced capacity to use landfill, and further notes that the excessive packaging currently used by the retail trade threatens to place a huge burden on the authority in the amount of waste needing to be diverted from landfill to avoid high penalties."

  4. Motion from Councillor Larry Sanders

    5. "In the event of this Council receiving additional income, this Council requests the Cabinet to provide to the Directorate of Social & Community Services for services for older people the first £1.5 million of any additional income which is not ringfenced for another purpose.   

    This money is necessary because significant sums included in the annual budget for these services are illusory. These include:

    - over £1.3 million for residential care for costs arising from inflation, which have not been budgeted for. The private providers will not provide services for which they have not been paid;

    - over £150,000 in inflationary costs not provided for home care services;

    - £792,000 in increased " fair charges" for home care, little of which will actually be collected, because the estimates are based on incorrect figures;

    - £500,000 in savings for services provided by new mechanical systems which are not yet in place.

    If this sum is not provided unbudgeted overspends will appear in the accounts for older peoples services. This will then lead to unplanned and devastating cuts in vital services for very disabled people."

  5. Motion from Councillor Jean Fooks

    6. "This Council agrees with the Government view that school meals should be nutritious and available to all children at a price their parents can afford. It notes that for some schools this is impossible due to lack of facilities like proper well-equipped kitchens and dining halls.

    Council therefore asks the Leader to write to the Government expressing our extreme disappointment that there is no offer of capital funding to enable schools to cook fresh produce on the premises and to serve it in suitable accommodation. It further asks the Cabinet to investigate how the County Council might help schools with inadequate facilities to upgrade both kitchens and dining space to meet the target of providing nutritious, locally sourced and freshly prepared meals for Oxfordshire’s school children, in accordance with the Conservative manifesto commitment."

  6. Motion from Councillor Melinda Tilley

    7. "This Council recognises the constant increase in the complexity of official documents and urges the Customer Service Board and the County Council Management Team to eliminate the use of unexplained acronyms and jargon expressions in all of the Council’s documents, whether published electronically or printed hard copy and to ensure that all documents are written in plain English."

  7. Motion from Councillor Iain Brown

    8. "This Council applauds the achievements of the BMW Group Plant Oxford where the MINI is produced. The BMW Group has moved up to the third largest manufacturing plant in the UK since starting production of the car in April 2001. Production for the MINI reached over 200,000 cars in one calendar year in 2005 - the highest output at the plant since 1988 and good news for those working at the plant and for their contribution to improving economic development in Oxfordshire.

    Over three quarters of all cars built at the plant are exported to over 70 countries. The success is based on a commitment to large-scale investment and a highly skilled, motivated and flexible workforce of 4,500 people."

    The Council congratulates the BMW Group and wishes it all the best for the future to continue its good work as a large and successful employer in Oxfordshire."

  8. Motion from Councillor Patrick Greene

    9. "This Council is disappointed to see that many of our pavements are being defaced by discarded chewing gum. This Council in line with our own de-cluttering policy, our greener, cleaner Oxfordshire campaign and our own responsibilities for safeguarding the environment, supports District Councils in engaging in the national campaign which aims to make manufacturers contribute to cleaning up the mess caused by their products."

  9. Motion from Councillor Hudspeth

    10. "The County Council is concerned that the decision by the Government not to extend the Post Office account card after 2010 will impact on both rural and urban stores with Post Offices in Oxfordshire. This will reduce their viability and choice for residents, particularly the elderly and the vulnerable which will include many people who are dependent on County Council care services.

    This County Council therefore asks the Leader to write to the Government to reconsider the decision and to continue the Post Office account card beyond 2010."

  10. Motion from Councillor Olive McIntosh-Stedman

    11. "This Council:

    (a) notes the continuing need to tackle anti-social behaviour in Oxfordshire;

    (b) recognises that the Government has already given police and councils various powers to tackle problems such as drug dens, graffiti and teen gangs in areas like Oxfordshire;

    (c) notes that the Government’s recent Respect Action Plan contains a number of proposals concerning provision for young people, education of excluded pupils, support for parents and families etc. that relate to the activities of this Council;

    (d) urges the Cabinet to implement the proposals in the Respect Action Plan that relate to upper-tier local authorities."

  11. Motion from Councillor Terry Joslin

    12. "This Council:

    (a) notes that Oxfordshire is host to the principal laboratory of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, an organisation which gave rise to the nuclear industry in Europe, and that this Council has representatives on the Harwell-Chilton Campus Local Stakeholder Group whose role is to put forward local views;

    (b) notes that a consultation is currently under way which will contribute to an Energy White Paper to be published later this year in which all forms of carbon-free and secure energy supply, including nuclear, will be evaluated;

    (c) welcomes the debate on renewal of the UK nuclear energy programme and encourages the Council’s representatives on the Harwell-Chilton Campus Local Stakeholder Group to participate in that debate."

  12. Motion from Councillor Terry Joslin

"This Council:

(a) notes that several medical research companies across the United Kingdom have been forced to close down because of threats of violence to their members of staff;

(b) notes that Oxford has recently been declared a prime target for various Animal Rights groups opposed to the building of a new university biomedical research centre;

(c) recognises that protection of the buildings and staff of medical research establishments against these threats is important for community safety and well-being but involves considerable expenditure of police time and resources;

(d) asks this Council’s representatives on the Police Authority to communicate to the Authority the importance which this Council attaches to ensuring that these threats can be resisted and asks them to monitor the costs involved."

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