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ITEM EX3

EXECUTIVE – 6 november 2001

Minutes of the Meeting Commencing at 2.00 pm and Finishing at 4.10 pm

Present:

Officers:

Whole of meeting: Chief Executive, J. Leverton and G. Warrington.

Part of meeting: C.J. Impey (Chief Executive’s Office)

The Executive 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 decided as set out below.  Except insofar as otherwise specified, the reasons for the decisions are contained in the agenda, reports and schedule, copies of which are attached to the signed Minutes.

1/01          HENLEY INTEGRATED TRANSPORT
(Agenda Item 4)

Over the last 12 months discussions with Henley Town Council and South Oxfordshire District Council have taken place on the design and funding of an environmental enhancement scheme for Henley Market Place, with local consultations carried out on possible design options.   The principles of a scheme had been agreed, but in September the Town Council asked the County Council to reverse the decision to proceed with the scheme.

In the light of that development, the then Leader (Designate) together with Councillors Margaret Godden (as the Deputy Leader of the Council designate) and Roy Tudor Hughes and Anne Purse (as the relevant prospective Executive Members) visited Henley on 12 October, to look at the Market Place and hear the views of the Town Council members and representatives of other interested organisations in the town.   Following that visit, the Leader (Designated) wrote the attached letter to the Town Clerk setting out the County Council’s view  that, provided the Town Council continued to support the scheme both with a financial contribution and the incorporation of the area of Market Place which they owned:

• the proposed scheme for Market Place should be implemented forthwith, with the object of completion by the end of May 2002, before the tourist season got under way;

• an Integrated Transport Study Working Group should be set up to deal with wider concerns and particularly the problem of the continuing growth of traffic volume; and

• the County Council should make a commitment to spend up to £100,000 next year on the implementation of an Integrated Transport Strategy.
  

RESOLVED (nem con):

1. to note that no further work could proceed on the Henley Market Place Environmental Improvement Scheme until the Town Council’s position concerning its funding and land contribution had been determined;

2. to request the Town Council to recognise the partnership nature of the proposed scheme and to consult with the Executive of the County Council and with South Oxfordshire District Council on the wording of any Town Poll which related to the scheme and to any background information that may be circulated with the Poll;

3. subject to the Executive being satisfied that the question and accompanying information for the Town Poll was fair and objective, that the Executive undertook to respect the outcome of the Poll, providing it was clear and substantial, but without prejudice to their consideration of representations received in response to any traffic order that might be needed as a result;

4. subject to the Town Council’s agreement to support partnership working by consulting on the form of the Town Poll as described above, to set up an Integrated Transport Study Working Group to deal with wider concerns and particularly the problem of the continuing growth of traffic volume and to commit £100,000 in 2002/03 to fund the implementation of an Integrated Transport Study.

2/01          PEER REVIEW
(Agenda Item 5)

The IDeA Peer Review had concluded their work on 12 October following an intensive week of interviews and discussions with members, employees, partners and customers and comparisons of performance with other county councils. The formal written report of the Review Team would be received in December and considered in detail at that time. However to initiate early action the Executive considered the principle issues raised by the Review Team in a report by the Chief Executive (EX5).

1. to commission officers to bring forward proposals for improving performance management for consideration by the Executive later in the Autumn;

2. to agree the following  statement for dissemination to managers:

“Oxfordshire has a long and proud history of innovative services and cost effective performance. However we want Oxfordshire to be a leading edge Council in every area of activity and we therefore take seriously the Peer Review Team’s recommendations for improvements.  Many of the changes recommended have already been identified in ‘Raising Our Performance’, which the Council has approved as an action plan to be implemented during the life of the Council. We will now be adding further action points to the ‘Raising our Performance’ programme, to incorporate the new issues identified by Peer Review.

The Review Team was particularly critical of our performance management arrangements. In consequence we have commissioned officers to bring forward proposals for improvement for consideration by the Executive later in the Autumn.

It is important that we all contribute to the improvement in the Council’s performance. If we work together constructively, we will make rapid progress. The Executive will closely monitor progress in the coming months and we look forward to celebrating more successes.”

3/01          REVIEW OF EDUCATION, CULTURAL AND SOCIAL SERVICES
(Agenda Item 6)

The Executive considered a report (EX6) which proposed a review of the relationships between the three departments of Education, Cultural Services and Social Services and of their structures, and set out the terms of reference for such a review.

RESOLVED:     to agree that:

1. a review be carried out of the relationships between the departments of Education, Cultural Services and Social Services and of their structures and where appropriate the department of Environmental Services;

2. the review should implement the terms of reference set out in paragraph 7 of EX6;

3. the review team should include 2 members of the Executive;

4. the Chief Executive circulate the terms of reference to staff and partners.

4/01          ESTABLISHMENT OF LOCAL STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP AND OUTLINE PROCESS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITY STRATEGY
Forward Plan Ref 9/2001

(Agenda Item 7)

The Local Government Act 2000 requires all local authorities to develop community strategies, which identify community aspirations and priorities, and which address these by fostering partnership working.  In two tier areas, county and district councils are required to co-operate and have the option of developing joint plans.

More recently the Government asked local authorities to establish Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs), which were intended to improve partnership working between the various public agencies and with the business and voluntary sectors. These arrangements need to be established on a countywide basis and more locally within each district, and county and district councils will need to support both the countywide and local arrangements. The Executive considered a paper (EX7) which outlined proposals for action together with a supplementary paper which dealth with staffing issues and funding requirements.

RESOLVED (nem con):

1. to approve the proposals for a countywide Local Strategic Partnership and Community Strategy;

2. to support the replacement of the Oxfordshire Committee and Forum with quarterly meetings of Oxfordshire’s six local authority leaders;

3. to approve the appointment of an LSP Secretariat on the basis that the cost would be incorporated in  2002/03 budget;

4. to ask the Chief Executive to seek the support of District Council colleagues to the inclusion of additional business representative on the Local Strategic Partnership.

5/01          COUNTY COUNCIL GRANT AID FOR VILLAGE HALL PROJECTS
Forward Plan Ref 45/2001

(Agenda Item 8)

The Executive had before them a report (EX8) from the Deputy Chief Executive of the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council (ORCC) setting out recommendations on the applications received for support in 2001/02 under the County Council’s grant aid scheme to assist with meeting the costs of essential repairs and improvements to village halls. This scheme has been re-instated in the current financial year with an annual budget of £50,000, on the basis that advice to the County Council on priorities and assistance with the administration of the scheme would be provided by ORCC under a service level agreement with the County Council. One application for Russells Water Village Hall had already been approved under a priority procedure agreed by the former Cultural Services Committee.   The remaining eight applications had been assessed according to criteria agreed by the Cultural Services Committee and the total of the recommended grants matched the budget sum available.

Meryl Smith the Deputy Chief Executive of the ORCC attended and answered members questions on the applications.

RESOLVED:            subject to

1. the conditions recommended therein to approve the payment of grant (where specified) ; and

2. the removal of condition (a) in respect of Parkhill Youth Community Building, Kidlington;

to approve the following grants:

6/01          OUTSIDE BODIES

The new political management arrangements allocated to the Democracy & Organisation Committee as a local choice function the responsibility for appointments to Outside Bodies except for those appointments identified by the Executive as strategic and “noted as such on a list of all relevant offices and bodies from time to time presented to and endorsed by the Council”.

The executive had before it a list of current Outside Bodies to which the Council appointed (EX9A) and a list of those bodies considered to be of strategic importance to the County Council (EX9B).

RESOLVED:

1. to agree the list of Strategic Outside Bodies set out at EX9B with the addition of the Oxfordshire Health Authority Modernising and Partnership Board for submission to the Council;

2. to ask the Democracy & Organisation Committee to carry out a review of the categorisation and appointment process to other Outside Bodies.

7/01          MEMBER/OFFICER WORKING GROUPS – INTERIM ARRANGEMENTS
Forward Plan Ref 2/2001

(Agenda Item 10)

The Executive had before them a report (EX10) which suggested interim arrangements whereby the existing member/officer Working Groups would continue subject to some minor changes in their composition to reflect the new political management arrangements to last until a review of existing member/officer working groups had been completed and the Executive had taken a decision about the future and final form of the Groups.

RESOLVED:

1. to agree the proposed interim arrangements.;

2. to continue representation on the City Schools Steering Group on its current basis namely the Leaders of the three largest political groups, the two Executive lead members for Schools and Learning & Culture and the Chair of the Learning & Culture Scrutiny Committee;

3. to confirm the appointment of Councillor Brian Law and Terry Joslin to the Cross Thames Travel Study Steering Group;

4. that Chairman of all meetings should be appointed annually.

8/01          AGENCY AND JOINT ARRANGEMENTS
Forward Plan Ref 14/2001

(Agenda Item 11)

As a result of regulations made under the Local Government Act 2000, the implementation of the new political management system automatically brought to an end those existing agency and joint arrangements which involved “executive functions”.  To perpetuate any of these arrangements required a specific decision from the Executive who considered a report (EX11) which listed those existing agency and joint arrangements which it was considered should be “refreshed” in this way.  The schedules took into account recent decisions by the former Environmental Committee in respect of agency arrangements for Oxford City.

In the case of joint committees there was also a need to formally determine membership.  In general, only members of the Executive could be appointed to a joint committee with a responsibility for discharging executive functions and in the case of a joint committee between a County Council and a single district council, appointments could include any councillor who represented an electoral division wholly or partly contained within that district. 

RESOLVED:            to:

1. approve the making with immediate effect of agency and joint arrangements relating to executive functions as listed in the Schedules now presented, subject to:

   1. the terms under which such arrangements have had effect hitherto, but incorporating variations provisionally agreed by the former Environmental Committee in respect of agency arrangements with Oxford City Council;

   2. any revised and updated terms that may be negotiated with the respective partner authorities as appear to the relevant Chief Officer and Solicitor to the Council to be appropriate;

2. formally appoint the following County Council representatives on:

   1. the Fire Service Control Room Collaboration Joint Committee:
      Councillor Farrow, Councillor M. Godden, Councillor Purse

   2. the National Parking Adjudication Service Joint Committee:
      Councillor Tudor Hughes (deputy Councillor Purse)

   3. Banbury Sports Ground Management Committee:
      Councillor K. Mallon and Councillor G. Reynolds
      Councillor Roy Mold and Mr M. Lines
      Daphne Nash and ? Lynsey Jones

   4. Bicester & Ploughley Sports Centre Management Committee:
      Councillor C.H. Shouler and 1 other (tba)
      Councillor Leslie Sibley and 1 other (tba)
      District Councillor Hunter and District Councillor Wyse

   5. Kidlington & Gosford Sports Centre Management Committee:
      Mrs Y. Munday
      Councillor Chris Robins

9/01          FORWARD PLAN AND FUTURE BUSINESS

(Agenda Item 12)

The Executive Procedure Rules provided that the business of each meeting of the Executive should include “updating of the Forward Plan and proposals for business to be conducted at the following meeting”.   The Forward Plan should be formally updated on a monthly basis, in accordance with a schedule of published dates; the next publication date, for the period December - March, was 19 November and it was therefore necessary to determine the content for the roll-forward month, and any amendments for the preceding 3 months, at the meeting on 13 November.  Members were asked to identify any changes they would wish to have incorporated in the next update.

RESOLVED:            to:

1. clarify the description and decision process under 11/2001 ( Future of Secondary School  Provision in Wantage);

2. clarify the description under 35/2001 (Eligibility Criteria for Continuing Health Care) and 76/2001 (Eligibility for Adult Social Care) in order to clearly distinguish between the two issues involved;

3. structure agendas for future meetings to try and achieve a meeting length of 2 hours.

10/01      PUBLICITY

(Agenda Item 13)

Members may wish to identify any matters considered at this meeting which should be the subject of particular publicity; and if so:

• what form such publicity should take and

• who should be primarily responsible for initiating it.

RESOLVED:            to instruct relevant members and/or officers accordingly.

....................... in the Chair

Date of signing....................... 2001