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ITEM EX3

EXECUTIVE – 5 MARCH 2002

EXECUTIVE – 19 FEBRUARY 2002

Minutes of the Meeting commencing at 10.00 am and finishing at 5.15 pm

Present:

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.

77/02. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Don Seale.

78/02. DECLARATION OF INTEREST

Councillor Crabbe declared an interest in agenda item 18.

79/02. MINUTES

The Minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 6 February 2002 were approved and signed.

80/02. PETITIONS AND PUBLIC ADDRESS

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

Request from	Agenda Item
Mr William Johnson ) Mr Michael Hugh-Jones )	10. - Charging Policies for Home Care and other Non-Residential Services

The addresses on item 10 are recorded below at Minute 83/02

81/02. ORDER OF BUSINESS

RESOLVED: to vary the order of business as indicated in these Minutes.

82/02. BUDGET MONITORING

(Agenda Item 5)

The Committee considered a report (EX5) which updated members on the latest estimated balances on the Committee Carry Forward Reserve and County Fund Balance as at 31 March 2002, the Capital Programme and the Capital Reserve.

The Leader of the Council advised that that in light of the current financial position, he had asked all departments to consider what projects could be deferred to the next financial year without affecting service provision.

In relation to the Social Services overspend detailed on the Addenda, he reported that members would be meeting with officers on 20 February to identify what had happened and the best way to address it. He further reported that the Executive would be starting the Budget process for 2003/04 early, to enable the task to be approached in a structured way and enable adequate preparations to be made to cater for the pressures which were anticipated.

RESOLVED: to note the report.

83/02. CHARGING POLICIES FOR HOME CARE AND OTHER NON-RESIDENTIAL SOCIAL SERVICES

(Agenda Item 10)

The Executive considered a report (EX10) which set out the implications of the final guidance in relation to charging policies for Non-Residential Services and the position on consultation, and recommended the Executive to agree an action plan to phase in changes to the current charging policies over the course of 2002/03.

Mr Collins advised that the new guidance in relation to charging would cause significant loss of income to the Council.

Mr Johnson addressed the Executive on behalf of his mother who was in receipt of care services from the Council, and others in a similar position. He considered the proposed charge increases unreasonable, and referred to a letter formally submitted on her behalf illustrating their effects on her budget.

Mr Hugh-Jones addressed the Executive on behalf of the Oxfordshire Pensioners’ Action Group (OXPAG) who were against the proposals as representing excessive increases. He urged the Executive to drop the charges proposed for second careers and limit the charges proposed for 8 April to an overall increase of 13% on the basis that, if the Council made these changes to the proposals it would be seen to be genuinely responding to consultation.

Members of the Executive expressed regret at the necessity to increase charges in the way proposed, but were of the opinion that the Council had no option but to do so in the light of Government policy and the general problems of funding for social services provision.

RESOLVED: (unanimously) to:

1. note the implications of the Fairer Charging guidance;
2. ask the Director of Social Services, in consultation with the Executive Members for Community Care & Health and Children & Young People, to:

1. develop consultation proposals in accordance with the approach detailed in paragraphs 24-29 of the report, and the practical guidance to be published by the Government, and
2. undertake the necessary consultation programme and report back to the Executive for decision, in time for a revised charging policy to be implemented by 1 October 2002, in line with the Government’s requirements;
3. agree the establishment of three new posts as described in paragraph 11 of the report, to undertake the additional work related to the assessment of disability related expenditure, and the provision of benefits advice;
4. in the meantime, agree the amendment of the current charging scheme with effect from 8 April 2002, to bring full cost charges in line with the actual costs of care, as detailed in the consultation letter at Annex 1 to the report, subject to the savings threshold for exemption from the full cost charge being raised from £12k to £19k.
   
   

84/02. MANAGEMENT OF COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH

(Agenda Item 11)

The Executive considered a report (EX11) which outlined the proposed service model for the Management of Community Mental Health Teams in Oxfordshire and the results of the consultation undertaken with affected staff.

RESOLVED: to receive the report and authorise the Director of Social Services to proceed to implement the proposals.

85/02. APPOINTMENT OF LEA SCHOOL GOVERNORS

(Agenda Item 6)

The Executive considered a report (EX6) which invited members to consider whether there should be a new mechanism for appointing governors in secondary and community special schools in the context of the new political structure, and revised Code of Practice for the Local Education Authority.

Mr Mitchell reported receipt of a letter from Mrs Carole Thomson, Chair of Oxfordshire Governors’ Association. The Association urged the Executive that the most important consideration when appointing governors should be their interest in the school and its community, and their willingness to commit time to the governing body’s duties rather than their political affiliation.

RESOLVED: to:-

1. note that responsibility under the Constitution for making individual appointments full to the Democracy & Organisation Committee, and agree therefore that the machinery for making such appointments should also be determined by that Committee;
2. refer the Acting Chief Education Officer’s report for decision to the Democracy & Organisation Committee accordingly, and in particular:

1. as to the machinery to be adopted for appointment of LEA governors to secondary and special schools, including whether or not, and if so to what extent, political groups should be involved in the process;
2. whether a Governance Group should be established to deal with matters relating to the appointment of school governors and if so what its role, remit and membership should be; and
3. as to the proposed protocol for the appointment of LEA governors as set out in Annex B of the report;
3. recommend to the Democracy & Organisation Committee that:

1. the present system of appointing Local Education Authority governors to primary, first and nursery schools should be confirmed;
2. the present practice of appointing Local Education Authority governors to secondary and special schools on the recommendation of nominated members of the political groups should continue in the short term on the basis of the present apportionment, pending any revised procedure that might be implemented for the longer term further to (b) above.
   
   

86/02. HOME TO SCHOOL TRANSPORT: SUTTON COURTENAY

(Agenda Item 7)

The Executive considered a report (EX7) which responded to the Executive’s request to "ask officers to report on the issues raised by Councillor MacKenzie’s motion, with a view to establishing, in the first instance, whether the problems identified in the motion were limited to school transport in Sutton Courtenay or required a more general review." The report set out the financial and other implications of a change of policy, and identified other places where similar circumstances applied, and concluded that a change of policy could over time result in substantial increased costs.

In speaking to the motion, Councillor MacKenzie stressed that in her opinion the current system was unfair and that the financial implications of changing the current policy would not be extensive.

Councillor Crabbe, as the Executive Member for Schools, advised that the situation at Sutton Courtenay and elsewhere was the result of legislation relating to home to school transport, but for which he believed that the authority would be likely to provide transport only to the catchment school.

RESOLVED: (on a motion by Councillor Crabbe, amended in the cause of debate and carried nem con) to:

1. note that the circumstances which gave rise to the motion were not limited to Sutton Courtenay, and that taking action as suggested by the motion would give rise to potentially substantial increased costs;
2. make no change to the existing policy for the time being, but review the policy generally following completion of the forthcoming review of Public and School Transport and further report on Post-16 Student Transport.
   
   

87/02. SCHOOLS PROJECT APPRAISALS

(Agenda Item 8)

RESOLVED: to approve Project Appraisals ED551/1 (Bartholomew School), ED581 (John Watson Special School) and ED569/1 (Carterton Community College).

88/02. COTSWOLDS AREA OF OUTSTANDING NATURAL BEAUTY (AONB) ESTABLISHMENT OF A CONSERVATION BOARD

(Agenda Item 9)

The Executive considered a report (EX9) which sought approval to establish a Conservation Board for the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership.

RESOLVED: to:

1. support in principle the establishment of a Cotswolds Conservation Board, on the understanding that the Board would come into effect by 1 April 2004 at no additional cost to the Authority; and
2. support in principle the establishment of a ‘large model’ Conservation Board, comprising of 17 Local Authority and 8 Parish Council nominees and 16 Secretary of State appointments as recommended by the Cotswolds AONB Partnership.
   
   

89/02. REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE OF BUILDINGS - TERM CONTRACTS

(Agenda Item 12)

The Executive considered a report (EX12) which set out and sought endorsement of action taken to evaluate tenders submitted in respect of eleven Term Contracts for the procurement of building and electrical and mechanical engineering services, repair, maintenance, minor alteration and improvement works to County Council buildings.

RESOLVED: to authorise the acceptance of tenders and award of contracts for Building Repair and Maintenance and Electrical and Mechanical Services Contracts based on the price and quality evaluations described in paragraphs 7 to 10 of the report.

90/02. PLANNING GREEN PAPER

(Agenda Item 13)

The Executive considered a report (EX13) which described the Government’s proposals for reforming the planning system in its Green Paper "Planning: Delivering a Fundamental Change".

The Director of Environmental Services, in introducing the report, expressed concerns over the proposals for the development plan system. The first concern was that the proposals for abolishing structure plans would represent a serious weakening in the democratic accountability of plan making. Decisions on sub-regional planning, currently taken by elected County Councils, would be transferred to the Secretary of State, acting on the advice of regional bodies consisting of representatives who were either not directly elected or not elected at all. The green paper proposals would threaten to create a hiatus in the planning system at precisely the time when a major effort to address under-investment in the country’s infrastructure was needed. Lack of development plan coverage was likely to increase. This in turn would almost certainly lead to an increase in planning by appeal, with greater uncertainty and delay for business, local communities and everyone else involved in the system, which was precisely the opposite of what the Government was seeking.

The Chief Executive reported that a Working Group of the County Councils Network had been set up to study the Green Paper in order to identify a viable set of alternatives to its proposals.

The Leader of the Council reported that, at a recent SEERA meeting, an overwhelming majority thought that the government had got the proposals wrong and would be formally responding to the government on that basis.

RESOLVED: to:

1. inform the Department of Transport, Local Government & the Regions that, while welcoming some aspects of the Planning Green Paper, the Council objected to the Government’s proposals in that they failed adequately to embody the following principles:

• there must be a clear and direct link between plan making and democratic accountability;

• as far as strategic planning was concerned:

• there needed to be a bridge from the regional to the local;

• there needed to be a clear link and integration between land use and transport planning;

• the sub-regional level which should in most cases be based on the County needed to provide a clear framework for the plans prepared at district level;

• the planning system must be adequately resourced and needed to be capable of ensuring implementation on the ground, particularly in terms of securing infrastructure;

1. send the comments in paragraphs 28 to 47 of the report to the Department of Transport, Local Government & the Regions as the Council’s more detailed comments on the Green Paper;
2. authorise the Director of Environmental Services in consultation with the Leader of the Council and Executive Member for Strategic Planning & Waste Management to agree any supplementary representations and approaches that might appear appropriate in the light of the responses of CCN and SEERA and other events during the remainder of the consultation period subject to:

1. all members being informed of any such representation or approach; and
2. report back to the Executive if necessary.

91/02. LOCAL TRANSPORT PROGRAMME 2002/2005

(Agenda Item 14)

The Executive considered a report (EX14) which proposed how the transport element of the Single Capital Pot for 2002/03 (£18.613m) should be allocated between the six main budget headings set out in the Local Transport Plan and proposed a provisional apportionment of the indicative allocations for the period 2003/04 to 2005/06 to enable detailed programmes to be developed for consideration by the Executive in March.

RESOLVED: to:-

1. approve the allocations for the main budget headings for 2002/03 set out in Annex 2 to the report, as the basis for developing the detailed programme of schemes for each programme area; and
2. approve the provisional allocations for the main budget areas for the period 2003/04 to 2005/06 also set out in Annex 2, as the basis for developing future years' programmes.
   
   

92/02. HOME ZONES

(Agenda Item 15)

The Executive considered a report (EX15) which summarised the progress that had been made on Home Zones in a number of areas, and sought approval to publish the "Home Zone Characteristics and New Housing Developments" Guidance which were the first such guidelines to be published in this country. It also reported this Council’s success in the national Home Zone Challenge Bid for a scheme at Saxton Road, Abingdon and set out machinery for identifying suitable locations of Home Zones for the purpose of trialling Home Zones in the County.

Members expressed reservations about the sites which had been put forward for further Home Zones, and identified the need to promote an appropriate profile for such Zones based on community building objectives rather than as simple traffic calming schemes.

RESOLVED: to:

1. approve publication of the "Home Zone Characteristics and New Housing Developments" Guidance, subject to the Director of Environmental Services, in consultation with the Executive Member for Transport, resolving any outstanding issues raised by District Councils;
2. agree to take forward the Saxton Road Home Zone Project and set up a broadly based Steering Group to oversee the development of the project, including potential local partners on the basis outlined in paragraph 7 of the report;
3. endorse the arrangements set out in the report for identifying and investigating other Home Zone projects, including Oxford City Council’s nomination of Hertford Street, and for overseeing the development of each agreed project by a steering group, to include the local County Councillor(s).
   
   

93/02. NORTH OXFORD PARK & RIDE CAR PARK

(Agenda Item 16)

The Executive considered a report and Project Appraisal (EX16) which outlined the current proposal which is for a 800 space park and ride car park on a site adjacent to the A4165 Banbury Road and existing Grain Silo Building.

Councillor Robins addressed the Executive as local member. He urged the Executive to defer approval of the Project Appraisal, on the basis that alternative sites had not been given proper consideration, and to commission the Environment Scrutiny Committee to review the project as a matter of urgency, taking into account any representations which might be made by other authorities, bus operators or other interested parties, and to make recommendations as to whether or not the project should proceed in its present or revised form and whether any other actions are desirable in order to alleviate any concerns which might be raised.

Councillor Tudor Hughes, as the Executive Member for Transport advised that while he sympathised with the Kidlington Residents, the traffic impact assessment had concluded that the adverse traffic impact of the new site on Kidlington would be minimal.

RESOLVED: to approve Project Appraisal H152/1.

94/02. HENLEY-ON-THAMES PARKING REVIEW – STAGE 1

(Agenda Item 17)

The Executive considered a report (EX17) which outlined measures to control on-street parking outside of the Controlled Parking Zone and encouraged the use of off-street car parking in Milton Close, Queens Close, Leicester Close, Deanfield Road, West Street and Church Street/Greys Hill.

RESOLVED: to authorise the Director of Environmental Services to proceed with the implementation of the proposed parking measures as advertised but including the minor modification for Deanfield Road outlined at Annex 1 to the report.

95/02. WALLINGFORD TO CHOLSEY RAIL STATION CYCLE ROUTE

(Agenda Item 18)

(Councillor Crabbe withdrew from the meeting for the duration of this item).

The Executive considered a report (EX18) which outlined of proposals for improved cycling facilities between Wallingford and Cholsey rail station which were the subject of public exhibitions in Cholsey and Wallingford on 29 and 30 November last year. Four possible route options were shown at the exhibitions and the report summarised the views of those who attended.

RESOLVED: to:

(a) note the results of the questionnaire survey as showing considerable support for the introduction of improved cycling and walking facilities between Wallingford and Cholsey Station and in particular Options 1 and 3 displayed at the exhibition;

(b) for the reasons set out in paragraphs 21 to 23 of the report, approve Option 1 as a basis for detailed design (including an investigation of lighting the route) and further consultations with the local councils, local members and the police; and

(c) authorise the Director of Environmental Services in consultation with the Executive Member for Transport, to determine the detailed design, in the light of the consultations, referred to at (b) above; for future decision by the Executive.

96/02. PROPOSAL FOR PEDESTRIAN CROSSING FACILITIES – ABINGDON

(Agenda Item 19)

The Executive considered a report (EX19) which outlined measures to introduce four controlled pedestrian/cycle crossings at Ock Street, Spring Road, Marcham Road (Tesco) and Marcham Road (Hospital).

RESOLVED: to:

1. approve the conversion (under Sections 65 and 66 of the Highways Act 1980) of the sections of footway between the A34 Slip Road and the Colwell Drive Roundabout of the Marcham Road to shared footway/cycletrack as shown on drawing No’s BPN807/B3261 and BPN807/B3260;
2. approve the implementation of the two Marcham Road Toucans and the Ock Street Puffin; and
3. approve the implementation of the Spring Road Puffin at a site to be agreed with the Town and District Councils, subject to the localised consultation and the subsequent determination of any objections or representations by the Director of Environmental Services in consultation with the local member.
   
   

97/02. OXFORD CENTRAL AREA WAITING AND PARKING RESTRICTIONS - CONSULTATION ON PROPOSED CHANGES

(Agenda Item 20)

The Executive had before them a report (EX20) which considered comments received on changes to the Oxford central area waiting and parking restrictions advertised by the City Council under the Agency arrangements that were in place until October 2001, and in particular a representation by Debenhams, that the proposed time limit on loading in Magdalen Street West should be increased from 20 minutes to 30 minutes.

RESOLVED: to agree to the implementation of the proposed changes as endorsed by the City Highways & Traffic Committee and outlined in Annex 1 to the report.

98/02. PROPOSED DISPOSAL OF EASTFIELD HOUSE, OXFORD

(Agenda Item 21)

The Executive considered a report (EX21) which sought approval for disposal of Eastfield House. Mr Monaghan reported that, under the terms now agreed, the Council would have nomination rights for a period of 50 years and would receive full market value for the property.

RESOLVED: to approve the direct sale of Eastfield House to a Registered Social Landlord, upon terms to be agreed by the Director of Environmental Services but if terms could not be agreed, to authorise a sale on the open market.

99/02. PROPOSED DISPOSAL OF DAILEY HILL HOUSE, WITNEY

(Agenda Item 22)

The Executive considered a report (EX22) which sought approval to the disposal of Dailey Hill House. Mr Monaghan reported that the purchasers had now agreed terms for the right of pre-emption for the adjoining property.

RESOLVED: to accept the inclusion of a right of pre-emption for the purchase of the Springfield School site in the sale of Dailey Hill House to Sovereign Housing Association, on terms agreed by the Director of Environmental Services.

100/02. OXFORDSHIRE CHILDREN’S RIGHTS CHECKLIST

(Agenda Item 23)

The Executive had before them a transcript (EX23) of the Oxfordshire Children’s Rights Checklist, published by the Children’s Rights Development Team in November 2001. Councillor Janet Godden commended the checklist for application in the planning of all Council services.

RESOLVED:

1. authorise the Executive Member for Children & Young People to write to all departments requesting them to put the Oxfordshire Children’s Rights Checklist – particularly Section 2 (Planning) – into effect by September 2002 in the planning of future policies and services;
2. ask the Corporate Governance Scrutiny Committee to review departments’ performance after September 2002 and report back to the Executive thereon.
   
   

101/02. FORWARD PLAN AND FUTURE BUSINESS

(Agenda Item 24)

The Executive considered Schedules (EX24) identifying items of business listed in the Forward Plan as to be conducted at the following two meetings.

The Executive also considered a request, of the Environment Scrutiny Committee on 13 February 2002 that the Executive consult the Committee before any final decisions were made on the following issues:-

Forward Plan Ref.	Issue	Executive Report Date
60/2001	Didcot Transport Issues Study	5 March 2002
98/2001	Speed Management Policy	5 March 2002
125/2001	Highway Management Policies	19 March 2002
-	Residential Roads Guide	Summer 2002
-	Transport Networks Review	Late 2002 (Stage 1)
123/2001	Transport Interlink Study	No date at present




RESOLVED: to

1. note the items currently identified for forthcoming meetings:
2. agree the request of the Environment Scrutiny Committee for an opportunity to comment on the specific reports identified by them, subject to:

1. this not giving rise to delay where this was time critical; and
2. the Executive Members for Transport and Strategic Planning & Waste being requested to agree the detailed arrangements in each case through their periodic briefing meetings.

in the Chair

Date of signing 2002

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