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ITEM EX3

EXECUTIVE - 4 MARCH 2003

Minutes of the Meeting commencing at 10.00 am and finishing at 4.04 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.

60/03. MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting held on 18 February 2003 were approved and signed.

61/03. PETITIONS AND PUBLIC ADDRESS

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

Request from	Agenda Item
Mrs Frances Simmons	9 - Use of British Sign Language and the Standard Manual Alphabet in Schools

62/03. BUS SERVICES REVIEW

(Agenda Item 5

Early last year the Executive had commissioned the Environment Scrutiny Committee to examine the County Council’s bus service procurement policy and practice based on a review which had been carried out by the consultants Halcrow. The Executive now considered a report which summarised each Scrutiny Recommendation, with responses and/or action in relation to each.

With regard to paragraphs 34 and 35 (Customer Care Training) Councillor Mrs Ludlow asked the Executive to consider bringing forward the start date for compulsory Disability Awareness Training for all subsidised service bus drivers from 1 January 2005 to 2004.

With regard to paragraph 32 (Preferred Bidder Scheme) Councillor Fooks asked the Executive to consider the introduction of such a scheme so as to ensure that only those operators who provided a satisfactory service were awarded contracts. With regard to paragraph 22 (Patronage Data) she felt that data could be adequately acquired through a suitable proforma and it was therefore unnecessary to take on additional staff as suggested.

Councillor Robertson in response to Councillor Mrs Ludlow advised that the start date for the introduction of the contract requirement had been realistically set as 500 drivers would be involved. In response to Councillor Fooks he said it would be unwise to introduce mandatory minimum standards at present but that the matter would be kept under review. With regard to data acquisition as there were 130 subsidised services involving 27 operators there would be an enormous amount of information available and he confirmed that this could not be collected and processed adequately without extra staff, even then it would not give a satisfactory measure of reliability, and the County Council should not be seen to be excluding any operator from a Tender List on the basis of inadequate monitoring.

He thanked the Environment Scrutiny Committee and Halcrow for their work on the Review process and commended the recommendations as set out in the report.

An amendment by Councillor Seale, which sought to allow for pursuing of availability of concessionary fares before 0900, in view of concerns about crowding on buses was lost by 5 votes to 3.

RESOLVED:

1. to incorporate the following in the draft Bus Strategy:

1. Scrutiny Recommendations A(I), F, H(I), I, K, M, amended only insofar as was necessary to ensure consistency of style with the rest of the document;
2. a policy not to subsidise services above hourly save:

1. where subsidy was required to minimise a reduction from a previous higher frequency; or
2. where the additional cost of a higher frequency was negligible; or
3. where needed to pump-prime frequency as part of a Premium Route package including new infrastructure and improved marketing, driver training and vehicles, and if no alternative funds were available;

and in furtherance of (3) to support a Government pump-priming scheme such as "Kickstart" and to seek pump-priming funding from all appropriate new building developments;

3. the ticketing aspirations mentioned in the report on the basis that implementation would be through voluntary initiatives such as Plus+ Pass in the first instance, with use of Transport Act 2000 powers to set up a ticketing company as a last resort;
2. not to introduce a Preferred Bidder scheme unless and until the average number of tenders per contract had risen to at least three, but to ask officers to explore further the cost, legal and administrative implications of direct purchase of buses by the County Council, as recommended by Halcrow and the Bus Services Review Panel;
3. to ask officers to remind all bus operators of the commitment to compulsory Disability Awareness Training for all subsidised service bus drivers from 1 January 2005, and advise them that it should also cover wider Customer Care issues; to offer to work with each to assist them in meeting this target; and to report back to the Executive in the event that serious staffing difficulties appeared to remain as an obstacle to this;
4. to authorise officers, in consultation with the Executive Members for Transport and Strategic Planning & Waste Management, to take the following actions (which would incur extra cost and/or a staff requirement), subsequent to an appropriate source of finance being identified:

1. appoint consultants to explore provision of public transport by use of Social Services’ vehicles’ spare time, in conjunction with the area review of bus services in the Faringdon/Wantage area due for implementation in October 2003 and the review of day care provision in the same area;
2. appoint consultants to carry out a study jointly with RTP, into the feasibility and the likely passenger demand and reaction to using Thornhill Park & Ride for interchange between buses, particularly for local rural services;
3. appoint consultants to explore provision of public transport by flexibly-routed services, and by postbuses, as part of the Chipping Norton area review, including submission of a Rural Bus Challenge bid and implementation of any agreed new services;
4. ask operators to supply comprehensive data on usage of subsidised services, and more general data on commercial services, on a standardised basis; as soon as legally possible make receipt of such information in respect of subsidised services a condition of subsidy payments; and agree employment of additional staff time to permit this;
5. subject to the Transport Implementation Committee being satisfied upon receipt of full information from officers on how such a score would work that it would be a valuable aid to decision-making, ask officers to report an accessibility score to Transport Implementation Committee in addition to other information on bus services whose subsidy was under review;

1. not to take the following forward for the time being, but to review them in conjunction with the LTP review in 2005/06;

(i) fares concessions for 16-25 year-olds;

2. enhanced monitoring of service reliability;
3. a Community Transport Strategy;
4. use of subsidy per passenger-kilometre in subsidy decisions;
5. provision of bus services for travel to school by children not entitled to free transport.
   
   63/03 GREEN ROAD ROUNDABOUT

(Agenda Item 6)

The Oxfordshire Local Transport Plan and the Headington and Marston Area Transport Strategy had identified the need for improvements at the Green Road Roundabout, Headington, in order to reduce traffic congestion, improve bus priority and journey times and address accident and safety issues. Consultants Faber Maunsell had been appointed to carry out a study of the roundabout and the Executive now considered a report (EX6) which reviewed the consultants’ suggested options and identified possible short/medium/long-term improvements.

The Executive noted that in paragraph 3, line 3 "2003" should have read "2002".

Councillor Tompkins sought assurances that the proposals would address the problems experienced by traffic accessing Bayswater Road from Northway.

Councillor Robertson advised that there would be further development of the scheme and consultation on it but that the scheme was seen as a positive start to a solution to the problems in this area and one which would afford positive controls for traffic using the roundabout.

RESOLVED: to:

1. approve the long term measures shown on drawing No 30510/P001 in Annex 2 to the report EX6 as the preferred scheme for further development and consultation;
2. approve the implementation of the short and medium term measures set out in paragraph 16 of the report, subject to inclusion of the schemes in the Transport Capital Programme and the consideration of any observations or objections resulting from consultation on the individual measures by the Transport Implementation Committee.
   
   

64/03. OXFORD PARKING SHOP

(Agenda Item 7)

The Executive considered a report (EX7) which sought to agree to an exemption to the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules to enable the conclusion of a formal agreement with Oxford City Council for the running of the existing Parking Shop in Oxford High Street.

RESOLVED: in accordance with Rule 3.2 of the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules, to exempt the proposed agreement with Oxford City Council under the Local Authorities (Goods and Services) Act 1970 for the provision of Parking Shop services as described in the report EX7 from the requirements as to tendering set out in Rules 7-12 and to authorise completion of the agreement accordingly.

65/03. JOINT HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE COMMUNITY LEARNING DISABILITY TEAMS

• Joint Health and Social Care Community Teams
• A Pooled Budget under Section 31 Health Act Flexibilities
• A new Joint Strategy and Decision Making Structure

66/03. USE OF BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE AND THE STANDARD MANUAL ALPHABET IN SCHOOLS

(Agenda Item 9)

The Learning & Culture Scrutiny Committee on 10 December 2002 had adopted the following motion by Councillor Brian Hodgson which had been referred to it by the Council:

"This Council welcomes the fact that all our local schools are involved in the active development of an up-to-date and effective curriculum in the field of disability awareness and practice. The Council therefore invites the Executive:

1. to plan to ensure that all pupils are taught the Standard Manual Alphabet, as a basic signing medium for communicating with deaf people; and
2. to urge the government to provide funding:

1. for an Oxfordshire pilot project for the teaching in school of the basics of British Sign Language (BSL); and
2. to help the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) in its efforts to train more BSL interpreters nation-wide."

The Executive now considered a report (EX9) which provided an outline of the use of BSL nationally and an Oxfordshire perspective.

Mrs Frances Simmons addressed the Executive. She expressed grave concerns regarding the teaching of BSL and the Standard Manual Alphabet to all pupils in Oxfordshire Schools as proposed in the motion. She opposed the introduction of BSL and supported using a predominately BSL authority for a pilot project with improvements to deaf awareness using courses in the County’s schools but focusing on the Standard Manual Alphabet.

Councillor Hodgson suggested that, rather than address his original motion as drawn, the Executive might consider agreeing to encourage the running of deaf awareness classes for all pupils, including the Standard Manual Alphabet, while also pressing the Government in the terms of (b)(2) of the motion. He referred to recent RNID advice in the context of the Disability Discrimination Act that training should take place in all modes of communication including British Sign Language.

Following a long debate during which a number of amendments to the motion were tabled members recognised the need for more detailed information.

RESOLVED: to defer consideration of the item to enable officers to prepare a more detailed report, to be submitted to the Executive within two months, on the implications of introducing courses in schools on deaf awareness, British Sign Language and the Standard Manual Alphabet; the relationship with other areas of disability; and the present and planned activities of schools in these fields.

67/03. FORWARD PLAN AND FUTURE BUSINESS

(Agenda Item 10)

The Executive considered schedules of proposed additions and amendments for further roll forward of the Forward Plan, together with a list of items for the next two meetings.

RESOLVED: to:

1. agree the additions and amendments set out in Schedules 1 - 3 of the report and in the Schedule of Addenda for the purpose of the Forward Plan for the ensuing four months subject to:

1. a possible additional item that might arise as a result of the Public Inquiry into the Bicester Accommodation Centre;
2. an additional item on British Sign Language to the 13 May 2003 meeting;
3. the item on the Common Hall Café being brought forward from 27 May if possible;
2. subject to (a) above, note the items currently identified for forthcoming meetings as set out in Schedule 4.

in the Chair

Date of signing 2003

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