ITEM CA3CABINET – 7 JUNE 2005Minutes of
the Meeting commencing at 2.00 pm ened finishing at 3:45 pm Present: Voting
Members:
Other
Members in Attendance: Officers: Whole of meeting: Chief Executive, J. Leverton and M. Bayliss (Chief Executive’s Office). Part of meeting: Director for Learning & Culture; Director for Social & Health Care; P. Mann (Environment & Economy); A. Harper-Smith (Chief Executive’s Office). The Cabinet 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.
114/05. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Councillor Belson indicated that he would not participate in Agenda Item 9 on the basis that he had been a member of the review panel.
115/05. MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting held on 18 May 2005 were approved and signed.
116/05. PETITIONS AND PUBLIC ADDRESS
The following requests to address the meeting had been agreed:-
117/05.
OXFORDSHIRE
PLAN/BEST VALUE PERFORMANCE PLAN
(Agenda Item 5) The Cabined considered a draft of the annual Best Value Performance Plan (the ‘Oxfordshire Plan’) for submission to the meeting of the Council on 21 June 2005. The final Plan had to be published by 30 June 2005. There were gaps in the draft document for (a) the BVPI outturn data, which was still being collected, and (b) the targets for 2005-06 and beyond, which were still being evaluated. The Corporate Governance Scrutiny Committee had considered an outline of the Plan on 3 March and were in "broad support" of the proposals. Councillor Roaf expressed doubts as to the achievability of certain of the proposals in the Plan, in particular the expressed intention to reduce the rate of council tax increases and the planned increase in early years places. RESOLVED: subject to the inclusion of the outturn data and targets information referred to, to RECOMMEND the Council to approve the Plan for publication by 30 June 2005.
118/05.
LOCAL TRANSPORT
PLAN 2006-11 The Cabinet considered a Draft Local Transport Plan and accompanying Bus Strategy to cover the years 2006/07 – 2010/11 to replace the current Plan, which would expire in March 2006. The Plan was required to be submitted to Government in a Provisional version in July 2005 with a final version having to be completed by March 2006. The report set out the main requirements of the Plan, how the Provisional Plan had been developed, its key features and the five year capital programme proposed to implement it. The Plan was one of those strategic documents which must be referred to the full Council for approval. The Plan had to be published by 31 July 2005 and would therefore need to be submitted to the meeting of the Council on 21 June 2005. Councillor Johnston, whilst welcoming some aspects of the draft Plan, stated his opposition to a number of the Cabinet’s transport policies and proposals, in particular, the dualling of the A40 and free evening parking in Oxford. Councillor Bryden expressed concern about principle of downgrading of the B4015, which would lead to increased congestion on other routes, contrary to expressed objectives of the Plan. He advocated planned improvements to the means of access to M40 from the south. Mrs Davies criticised the Plan as failing to give effect to the commitment to give priority to investigation of north-south access to and from Didcot and expressed concern about the prospect of abandonment of local schemes in Didcot, referring to developer contributions which had been received in respect of such schemes. Mr Jones welcomed some aspects of the draft Plan, commending a number of further measures in Oxford, including bus lanes in Abingdon Road and Summertown, improved accessibility in High Street, reconfiguring of Frideswide Square and short term parking in Broad Street. In relation to the remarks by Mrs Davies, Mr Mann indicated that officers would be reviewing the overall financing of local transport schemes, including the application of developer contributions, in the context of the new government transport funding arrangements and would report back to the Cabinet. RESOLVED: to:
119/05.
FUTURE OF CHILDREN’S
SERVICES AND The Cabinet considered a report by the Leader of the Council (CA7) proposing action in response to the Children Act 2004 requirements to designate a Director of Children’s Services and a Director of Adult Social Services. Councillor Fooks welcomed the proposals but expressed concern about their complexity and the resources needed to achieve them; and the problem of the potential separation of some services from others with which they had links. She also expressed the hope that the future inspection regime would be simplified so that, for example, there would be a single inspection for all children’s services. RESOLVED: to:
120/05.
PROMOTION OF
DISABILITY EQUALITY The Cabinet considered a report (CA8) responding to a motion adopted by Council calling on the Cabinet to produce a disability equality action plan in the course of 2005. RESOLVED: to
121/05.
SOCIAL &
HEALTH CARE GRANTS TO VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS - The Cabinet considered the report of this Scrutiny Review (CA9) regarding the Social & Health Care systems for administering funding arrangements with voluntary sector organisations and the effect of the Oxfordshire Compact on how far the various arms of the Council involved in this area were working in a co-ordinated manner. Councillor Fitzgerald O’Connor presented the Review report and commended its recommendations. Councillor Fooks stressed that the recommendations were aimed at the organisation’s practices, not at individuals. She emphasised the benefits gained from the relatively small expenditure involved in grant-aiding voluntary organisations. Councillor Seale welcomed the report and thanked the Review Team. He gave a detailed response, which is reproduced as Annex A to these minutes. RESOLVED: to endorse the response of the Cabinet Member for Health & Community Services, subject to all members of the Council being advised when grant applications had been deposited in the Members’ Resource Centre pending decision.
122/05.
REVIEW OF APPOINTMENTS The Cabinet considered a report (CA10) on member appointments to a variety of bodies which in different ways supported the discharge of the Council’s executive functions. The report identified the basis on which appointments to the respective bodies had been made in the past and invited the Cabinet to agree arrangements for filling the councillor places on those bodies. The opportunity was also taken to affect a minor adjustment to the substitution rules for the Transport Implementation Committee. The Cabinet also had before it proposals for the respective appointments by the Leader of the Council (CA10 Supplement). Councillor Roaf indicated his general acceptance of the Leader’s proposals, but urged that a membership of nine be retained for the Children’s Panel and that there be more flexibility with respect to the Integrated Transport Working Groups. The Leader of the Council indicated that he would be prepared to revisit individual cases in the light of experience. RESOLVED: to agree:
123/05. FORWARD PLAN AND FUTURE BUSINESS
(Agenda Item 11) The Cabinet considered a list of items from the Forward Plan for the immediately forthcoming meetings (CA11) RESOLVED: to note the items currently identified for forthcoming meetings.
in the Chair Date
of signing 2005
|