Meeting documents
Cabinet
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
To Members of the Cabinet |
Councillors |
|
|
Keith R Mitchell CBE |
- |
Leader of the Council |
David Robertson |
- |
Deputy Leader of the Council |
C.H. Shouler |
- |
Cabinet Member for Finance & Property |
Jim Couchman |
|
Cabinet Member for Adult Services |
Ian Hudspeth |
- |
Cabinet Member for Growth & Infrastructure |
Louise Chapman |
- |
Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Families |
Michael Waine |
- |
Cabinet Member for Schools Improvement |
Rodney Rose |
- |
Cabinet Member for Transport Implementation |
Mrs J. Heathcoat |
- |
Cabinet Member for Safer & Stronger Communities |
The Agenda is attached. Decisions taken at the meeting
will become effective at the end of the working day on 29 July 2009
unless called in by that date for review by the appropriate Scrutiny Committee.
Copies of this Notice, Agenda and supporting papers are circulated
to all Members of the County Council.
Date of next meeting: 15 September 2009
If you have any special requirements (such as a large print version of these papers or special access facilities) please contact the officer named on the front page, but please give as much notice as possible before the meeting. |
AGENDA
1. Apologies for Absence
2. Declarations of Interest – see guidance note
3. Minutes
To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 23 June 2009 (CA3) and to receive for information any matters arising therefrom.
4. Petitions and Public Address
5. Treasury Management Outturn
Cabinet Member: Finance & Property
Forward Plan Ref: 2009/035
Contact: Donna Ross, Treasury Manager (01865 815684)
Report by Assistant Chief Executive & Chief
Finance Office (CA5) (download as .doc file)
The report sets out the Council’s Treasury Management Outturn financial position for the 2008/09 financial year.
The report fulfils the CIPFA Code of Practice on Treasury Management 2001 requirement for the receipt of an annual report summarising the Treasury Management activity within 6 months of year-end.
The Council's external debt increased from £392.38m on 1 April 2007 to £402.38m on 31 March 2009. All new long-term debt was arranged through the Public Works Loans Board. The weighted average rate of interest paid on long-term debt during 2008/09 was 4.9578%.
Security and liquidity of cash was prioritised over returns and the council adopted a cautious approach to lending to financial institutions, temporarily suspending those on ratings watch negative from the lending list. The council also imposed a maximum lending limit of 3 months in the latter half of the financial year.
The council achieved an in-house deposit return of 5.16% and continued to use 2 external fund managers, Investec and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP). Investec earned an average return of 7.78% and SWIP 5.43%.
The Strategic Measures interest on balances outturn was £7.516m compared to a budget of £4.935m. The additional net interest earned was as a result of higher temporary cash balances, due to capital programme slippage and higher than budgeted interest received as a result of the 'credit crunch'.
The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to note the Council’s treasury management activity carried out in 2008/09
6. Financial
Monitoring
Cabinet Member: Finance & Property
Forward Plan Ref: 2009/034
Contact: Kathy Wilcox, Principal Financial Manager (01865 323981)
Report by Assistant Chief Executive & Chief Finance Office (CA6) (download as .doc file)
(CA6 - Annexes 1 - 5 - download as .xls file)
(CA6 - Annex 6 - download as .xls file)
This is the second financial monitoring
report for the 2009/10 financial year and covers the period up to the end of
May 2009 for both revenue and capital budgets.
The 2009/10 revenue budget was approved by Council in February 2009. Subsequent budget reallocations to reflect final grant notifications and adjustments to support service recharges and pooled budgets were noted by Cabinet on 17 March 2009. These updated budgets have been used for the Council’s Service & Resource Planning publications for 2009/10 to 2013/14 and will form the basis for the 2009/10 monitoring reports.
The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
(a) note the report;
(b) approve the virements as set out in Annex 2a; and
(c) approve the supplementary estimate request as set out in Annex 2f and paragraph 13;
7. Developer
Contributions to Service Infrastructure
Cabinet Member: Growth & Infrastructure
Forward Plan Ref: 2009/036
Contact: Howard Cox, Team Leader - Developer Funding (01865 810436)
Report by Head of Sustainable Development (CA7) (download as .doc file)
(CA7 - Annex 1 - download as .doc file)
(CA7 - Annex 2 - download as .xls file)
(CA7 - Annex 3 - download as .pdf file)
(CA7 - Annex 4 - download as .doc file)
(CA7 - Annex 5 - download as .pdf file)).
This report presents a summary of the developer contributions secured by the county council through the planning process for 2008/09, identifying the financial contributions negotiated, received and spent throughout the year.
The report shows that 102 planning obligations were completed in 2008/09 securing the largest annual financial contributions to the county council for future infrastructure provision. The total secured was £72.69M. The report shows the actual amount of contributions received in the year to be £5.611M with £5.884M expended.
The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to note the information reported on the developer contributions negotiated and received through the planning process in 2008/09.
8. Planning for
Spaces for Gypsies and Travellers and Travelling Showpeople (Partial Review of
the South East Plan)
Cabinet Member: Growth & Infrastructure
Forward Plan Ref: 2009/087
Contact: Geri Beekmeyer, Principal Planning Officer (01865 815874)
Report by Head of Sustainable Development (CA8) (download as .doc file).
The Government is consulting on the number of new pitches that each local authority should provide by 2016 for Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople (GTTS) as recommended to it by the former South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) as a partial review of The South East Plan (adopted May 2009). The deadline for comments is 1st September 2009. This report outlines the new policy (H7) that is being recommended for inclusion in the South East Plan, what it means for Oxfordshire and advises how the County Council should respond.
The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to support new Policy H7 and supporting text as the County Council’s response to the consultation on the South East Plan.
9. Madley Brook Primary School
Cabinet Member: Schools Improvement
Forward Plan Ref: 2008/094
Contact: Allyson Milward, Service Manager - School Organisation & Planning (01865 816447)
Report by Director for Children, Young People & Families (CA9).
Madley Brook Community Primary School opened in 2003 as a new one-form-entry school with nursery facilities to serve a housing development to the north-east of Witney. It shares its site with Springfield Special School for children with complex learning difficulties.
The school was built with two more classrooms than needed for a one-form-entry school, to allow for expected growth in pupil numbers from the new houses. The building was also designed to allow it to be extended in the future.
Until now the school has planned to admit 30 children each year. For September 2009, 49 parents chose the school as their first choice. Primary Care Trust records and the annual census of local children in private, voluntary and independent early years settings show that the demand for 45 places per year is likely to continue.
This report considers a proposal to increase the school admission number from 30 to 45, which has been the subject of an informal consultation in Witney. A decision is sought as to whether to proceed to issuing a statutory notice to expand the school, in accordance with The Education and Inspections Act 2006 (EIA 2006) and The School Organisation (Prescribed Alterations to Maintained Schools) (England) Regulations 2007 (as amended by The School Organisation and Governance (Amendments) (England) Regulations 2007 which came into force on 21 January 2008).
The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to approve the publications of a statutory notice for the expansion of Madley Brook Primary School, Witney.
10. Partnership
Governance
Cabinet Member: Leader of the Council, Deputy Leader of the Council
Forward Plan Ref: 2009/044
Contact: Paul James, Head of Partnership Working (01865 323959)
Report by Assistant Chief Executive (Strategy) (CA10) (download as .doc file).
In February 2008 the Public Service Board commissioned a review of the governance arrangements of the partnerships responsible for delivery of the targets in the Oxfordshire 2030 Delivery Plan. The structure of partnerships has already been agreed by Cabinet. This report seeks agreement on the governance principles and membership.
The report circulated to the Public Service Board is attached (CA10) and their comments will be reported to the meeting.
The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to agree the governance principles and membership.
11. Implementing the
Manifesto Pledges
Cabinet Member: Leader of the Council
Forward Plan Ref: 2009/107
Report by Leader of the Council (CA11).
This report will set out the way in which the election manifesto pledges made will be taken forward by the new administration in the short and medium term.
12. Safeguarding and
Child Protection Services in Oxfordshire: an Update
following Lord Laming’s Review
(CA12)
Cabinet Member: Children, Young People & Families
Forward Plan Ref 2009/048
Contact Officer: Andy Couldrick, Head of Service for Children & Families (01865 815833)
This report provides Cabinet with a summary
of the findings of Lord Laming's review of Safeguarding and Child Protection
services, commissioned following the death in Haringey, in 2007, of Baby Peter.
It sets out the actions taken to improve safeguarding services in Oxfordshire, including a new and comprehensive Quality Assurance Framework.
The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to
(a) Note the content of the report, including the increased County Council investment
(b) Approve the proposed framework for providing Quality Assurance of the Council’s Safeguarding and Child Protection activity
13. Forward
Plan and Future Business
Cabinet Member: All
Contact Officer: Sue Whitehead, Committee Services Manager (01865 810262)
The Cabinet Procedure Rules provide that the business of each meeting at the Cabinet is to include “updating of the Forward Plan and proposals for business to be conducted at the following meeting”. Items from the Forward Plan for the immediately forthcoming meetings of the Cabinet appear in the Schedule at CA13. This includes any updated information relating to the business for those meetings that has already been identified for inclusion in the next Forward Plan update.
The Schedule is for noting, but Cabinet Members may also wish to take this opportunity to identify any further changes they would wish to be incorporated in the next Forward Plan update.
The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to note the items currently identified for forthcoming meetings.