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ITEM EX3

EXECUTIVE – 1 MARCH 2005

Minutes of the Meeting commencing at 2.00 pm and finishing at 5.40 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.

31/05. DECLARATION OF INTEREST

Councillor Tony Crabbe declared a prejudicial interest in Item 7 (so far as related to the proposals for minerals) by virtue of his family’s land interest in the Wallingford and Moreton Areas respectively).

32/05. MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting held on 17 February 2005 were approved and signed.

33/05. PETITIONS AND PUBLIC ADDRESS

City Councillor Susanna Pressel presented a petition on behalf of herself and other residents of Oxford requesting that the County Council speed up the provision of more secure cycle parking in the City Centre.

Councillor Robertson advised that the Environment & Economy Directorate, in drawing up proposals for further cycle parking for inclusion in the capital programme, were taking into account the Cyclox report which had recommended provision of 1,000 additional racks in the City Centre, and were currently assessing the sites identified in the Cyclox report.

36/05. ‘THREE-YEAR REVENUE AND CAPITAL SETTLEMENTS' – CONSULTATION ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT FUNDING ARRANGEMENTS

1. note the considerable implications of the changes;
2. note the uncertainty that would result in the first, two-year changeover period as a result of council tax revaluation;
3. agree the response to the Consultation paper as set out in Annex 1 to the report, subject to the addition of reference to the historic variability of specific grants, to the difficulty of managing these, and to the desirability of transferring them into general grant.

37/05. THE LYONS INQUIRY

(Agenda Item 6)

The Executive considered a report (EX6) which provided the background to this inquiry, set up by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer to consider the case for changes to the present system of local government financing in England, and recommended a basis for the County Council’s response.

Councillor Brighouse whilst appreciating the opportunity to respond as a Group, expressed regret that the County Council had not reached agreement on issues such as an increasing the number of Council Tax bands; bringing business rates back under the control of local authorities; and preserving regional variations.

RESOLVED: to thank officers for the report and circulate it to the three Political Groups, inviting them to make individual responses to the Lyons Inquiry.

38/05. OXFORDSHIRE STRUCTURE PLAN

(Agenda Item 7)

(Councillor Crabbe left the room for the duration of the debate and voting on minerals policies).

The Executive considered a report (EX7) which recommended a response to the EIP Panel’s recommendations and proposed modifications to policies arising from the representations and objections made to the deposit draft Plan concerning issues that had not been matters of debate at the EIP, together with the comments thereon of the Environment Scrutiny Committee.

A submission from Councillor Chris Robins was noted. Councillor Purse expressed regret that this stage of the Review had not been referred the Structure Plan Working Group and undertook to ensure that the Working Group would be involved the remaining stages.

Councillor Joslin urged adoption of an extension to Oxford as supporting the economic well being and sustainability of the County; expressed concern over the lack of attention to traffic growth on the A34; and regretted the proposal to remove strategic resource areas from Policy M2, which would leave the whole issue of the location of mineral working for future debate.

In relation to the Environment Scrutiny Committee’s comments Councillor Purse advised that she would wish to follow the officers’ advice on Panel recommendations R2.4, R2.5, 3.1 and 3.3; but that she welcomed the Scrutiny Committee’s suggestions for changes to the Policy EN6 explanatory text about how the policy might apply to important features which were not SSI’s and RIG’s and the Policy M2 explanatory text to reflect the cumulative impact of working across an area.

RESOLVED: to thank the EIP Panel for its report and, noting the comments of the Environment Scrutiny Committee, to RECOMMEND Council to:

1. agree the proposed responses to the EIP Panel’s recommendations and representations made on the draft Plan and pre-EIP changes set out in Annexes A and B to the report as the Council’s statement of decisions and reasons;
2. agree for consultation the proposed modifications to the draft Plan set out in Annex C;
3. authorise the Head of Sustainable Development in consultation with the Executive Members for Sustainable Development and Transport to make any minor editing changes in preparing the above documents for consultation; and
4. note that amendments to the explanatory text would be prepared for the agreement of Council when the draft Plan was presented for adoption.
   
   

39/05. OLDER PEOPLE’S NEEDS ASSESSMENT WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO MINORITY ETHNIC GROUPS – SCRUTINY REVIEW

(Agenda Item 8)

The Executive considered a report by the Social & Health Care Scrutiny Committee on this Review (EX8). Councillor Lesley Legge, a member of the Review Group, presented the Review report and commended its recommendations.

Councillor Barbara Gatehouse spoke in support of the Review, highlighting the importance of recommendation R6 of the review report and effective engagement with the Health Services.

Councillor Seale welcomed the report and proposed the response set out in Annex 1 to these minutes (download as .doc file).

RESOLVED: to thank the Scrutiny Committee for its report and endorse the response by the Executive Member for Community Care & Health.

40/05. YOUTH OFFENDING – SCRUTINY REVIEW

(Agenda Item 9)

The Executive considered a report by the Community Safety Scrutiny Committee on this Review (EX9). Councillor Richard Farrell, Chair of the Lead Member Review Group, presented the Review report and commended its recommendations.

Councillor Farrell emphasized that Review recommendation R4 was not aimed at parents who chose to educate their children at home to an appropriate standard but at a minority who had been found to fall through a ‘loophole’ in the system. Currently the authority had very limited powers to check on these cases and there was no right of entry to assess the child.

Councillor Janet Godden welcomed the report and proposed the response set out in Annex 2 to these minutes.

RESOLVED: to:

1. endorse the response by the Executive Member for Children & Young People;
2. urge the Secretary of State to give Local Education Authorities greater rights to monitor home education to check that such provision was academically demanding and intervene where satisfactory standards are not met;
3. endorse the action of the Director for Community Safety in taking up with Health Partners their under-funding of Youth Offending Service.
   
   

41/05. TRANSPORT INFORMATION FOR BUS SERVICES

(Agenda Item 10)

At its meeting on 7 September 2004 the Executive had considered a report outlining a number of issues surrounding the provision of information on bus services within the County, in which it was felt either the standard or the amount of information being provided fell below what should be available. The Executive had requested Officers to explore further a number of possible initiatives, and their costs. The Executive now had before it a report (EX10) which summarised those investigations, and invited the Executive to consider which initiatives would be most effective in improving information on bus services in Oxfordshire.

RESOLVED:

1. to defer provision of infrastructure on non-Premium Routes pending completion of the Premium Routes programme and a further report from Officers to suggest future initiatives at that time;
2. to authorise officers to supply timetable cases at locations where hourly services did not operate, and to require operators to display timetables at those locations under the terms of the Transport Act 2000;
3. to recognise the difficulties of displaying timetables for minor services on commercial routes but, in view of the cost, not to authorise the provision of comprehensive timetable information at stops and to ask officers to enter into discussion with operators with a view towards a sharing agreement for cases on commercial routes;
4. to agree the cancellation of the parish timetable scheme, and the diversion of those funds to the purchase of timetable cases, while operators were expected to maintain the timetable information; and to authorise officers to send parishes timetables suitable for display on notice boards, etc whenever services changed, while requesting them to notify officers of any operator failure to display timetables;
5. subject to a satisfactory arrangement to maintain cases, to authorise the production of "Where to catch your bus" maps and cases for interchanges, as described in paragraph 25 to the report, subject to suitable locations being identified;
6. to ask officers to report back quickly the results of market research on the Witney area initiative, including any feedback on the preferred format for area public transport guides, but to continue to produce the County Guide in the meantime;
7. to continue to maintain data and to contribute to the regional traveline service, but to ask officers to report urgently to a future meeting if it seemed likely that the current financial difficulties being faced by the service would necessitate telephone and/or web-site enquiry services being provided independently by the County Council, and in the meantime to ensure timetables for all subsidised services were available on the County Council’s web-site;
8. not to take any other initiative on provision of information for the time being, but to ask officers, in reporting back on the market research in the Witney area, to include a report on any further initiatives.
   
   

42/05. RAIL PROJECTS

(Agenda Item 11)

The Executive considered a report (EX11) which reviewed with the County Council’s priorities for the development of rail services and facilities across Oxfordshire during 2005/06, and how the Council could engage with its partners within the rail industry to further its rail priorities.

Councillor Joslin expressed his support for the priority given to the Didcot Station Interchange. He urged the Executive to ensure that adequate public transport provision was included in any negotiations with future bidders for the Great Western Franchise.

Councillor Janet Godden expressed reservations about the high priority allocated to the relocation of the Oxford Station, on the basis that the signalling had been postponed to 2014.

RESOLVED: (Councillor Janet Godden abstaining in respect of project A/05/STNS (relocation of Oxford Station) to:

1. note the progress of the key rail projects during the past year;
2. subject to (c) below, adopt the recommended priorities for and, where applicable, the recommended changes to, the proposed rail aspirations as indicated in the report;
3. ask officers to respond to consultations on the Route Utilisation Strategy and future franchise, and any other relevant consultation, in accordance with those priorities;
4. note that an amount of £140,000 would be included for rail development schemes in the draft Capital Programme 2005/06 to be considered by the Executive on 15 March;
5. continue the allocation from the Public Transport Revenue Support budget of up to £30,000 for feasibility and other related work to take forward the County Council’s rail aspirations;
6. to authorise the Head of Transport, in consultation with the Executive Member for Transport, to determine how funding could be used to achieve the Council’s rail priorities and to make subsequent modifications if necessary;
7. in response to the comments of the Environment Scrutiny Committee:

1. to ask the Rail Development Officer working in conjunction with the Rail Industry and to ensure Rail User Groups and County Councillors were notified of rail timetable changes;
2. in the event of the East/West link not being taken forward to lobby the Department for Transport and Rail Industry to improve rail journey times on the A34 Bicester-Oxford corridor;
3. to consider improved rail provision along the A34 corridor generally as a Strategy within the Local Transport Plan.

43/05. FIRE AND RESCUE INTEGRATED RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN

(Agenda Item 12)

The Executive considered a report (EX12) which outlined progress with the production of the Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) and Action Plan thus far, together with the findings of the recent consultation in respect of the Action Plan for the coming year.

RESOLVED: to:

1. note the progress thus far in implementing the IRMP Action Plan 2004-05; and
2. authorise the Director for Community Safety & Chief Fire Officer, in consultation with the Executive Member for Community Safety, to finalise the IRMP Action Plan 2005-06 for publication and implementation from April 2005.
   
   

44/05. REGIONAL FIRE CONTROLS

(Agenda Item 13)

The Executive considered a report (EX13) which outlined progress towards establishing a Regional Fire Control Room for the South East Region.

RESOLVED: to endorse the current approach to the project on behalf of this Council, as outlined in the report, and in particular the arrangements proposed to ensure the continued provision of the existing control room pending the implementation of the new regional facility.

45/05. SENIOR MANAGEMENT GRADING STRUCTURE

(Agenda Item 14)

The Executive had before it a report (EX14) which sought agreement to revise the Senior Management Grading Structure.

RESOLVED: to:-

1. agree a grading structure for Director posts comprising the current 5 point scale inflated by 3% to take effect from 1 April 2005, the revised scale to apply for the next two years 2005/06 – 2006/07;
2. review the position in a year's time in the light of developments around the uncertainties identified in paragraph 6 of the report.

   46/05. LOANS TO FOSTER/KINSHIP CARERS AND ADOPTERS

(Agenda Item 15)

The Executive considered a report (EX15) which outlined amendments to a scheme to provide interest free loans, and in some cases grants, to foster carers and adopters under section 23 of the Children Act 1989, in order to tighten financial control and clarify the eligibility criteria.

Councillor Liz Brighouse spoke on behalf of the Shadow Executive Member who had expressed concern about the viability of the loan scheme in terms of cost to the Council, high interest repayments for carers, not meeting the needs of potential carers and the numbers of children benefiting from the scheme.

Mr Richards, in introducing the report, confirmed that the loans were provided interest free to the carers for the duration of the child’s stay in that home. He advised that the Capital Steering Group would be considering possible alternatives for the funding of the financial provision mentioned in the report.

The Executive noted that any underspend in the allocated capital provision for this purpose in any year could be carried forward to spend in the following year.

RESOLVED: to:

(a) note and approve the revised scheme;

(b) request the Executive member for Children & Young People to monitor the scheme and ensure it remained cost effective and continued to deliver good outcomes to looked after children.

47/05. STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT OXFORDSHIRE SCHOOLS IN RAISING ATTAINMENT, PARTICULARLY AT KEY STAGE 4

(Agenda Item 16)

The Executive considered a report (EX16) which responded to a request by the Executive to bring forward proposals for additional actions to be taken in support of the Oxfordshire Plan priority to raise attainment in Oxfordshire schools.

Councillor Hodgson spoke on behalf of Councillor Andrew Brown in support of promotion of and support for the development of Extended Learning. He expressed concern over Oxfordshire being the lowest performer at Key Stage 4 and being below the middle of the performance range at Key Stages 1, 2 and 3, when compared to 11 similar authorities. He urged the Executive to encourage local media and business to join a campaign to improve education in all of Oxfordshire’s towns and villages.

RESOLVED: to:

1. agree the proposals as a basis for the development of a Raising Attainment Campaign Strategy;
2. agree the list of organisations to be asked for their views (as set out in the Best Value Review of Achievement in Secondary Schools);
3. authorise the Director for Learning & Culture, in consultation with the Executive Members for Learning & Culture and Schools, to oversee the consultation and finalise the Strategy in the light of consultation and initiate action for implementation;
4. request the Director for Learning & Culture to write to all secondary school head teachers and chairs of governors asking them to indicate how they would help implement the strategy; and to monitor the replies received.
   
   

48/05. DISCRETIONARY AWARDS

(Agenda Item 17)

The Executive considered its policy for discretionary awards to new applicants under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 for the academic year. No provision had been made in the budget for such awards.

RESOLVED: not to take up the power to make discretionary awards in any circumstances for the 2005-2006 academic year and not to make any provision for considering applications.

49/05. FORWARD PLAN AND FUTURE BUSINESS

in the Chair

Date of signing 2005

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