Issue - meetings

Questions from County Councillors

 

 

Meeting: 21/07/2020 - Cabinet (Item 54)

54 Questions from County Councillors pdf icon PDF 326 KB

Any county councillor may, by giving notice to the Proper Officer by 9 am two working days before the meeting, ask a question on any matter in respect of the Cabinet’s delegated powers.

 

The number of questions which may be asked by any councillor at any one meeting is limited to two (or one question with notice and a supplementary question at the meeting) and the time for questions will be limited to 30 minutes in total. As with questions at Council, any questions which remain unanswered at the end of this item will receive a written response.

 

Questions submitted prior to the agenda being despatched are shown below and will be the subject of a response from the appropriate Cabinet Member or such other councillor or officer as is determined by the Cabinet Member, and shall not be the subject of further debate at this meeting. Questions received after the despatch of the agenda, but before the deadline, will be shown on the Schedule of Addenda circulated at the meeting, together with any written response which is available at that time.

Decision:

See attached annex.

Minutes:

Councillor Mathew had given written notice of the following question to Councillor Constance, Cabinet Member for Environment (including Transport):

“How many trees has Oxfordshire County Council cut down in the last five years and how many of those were replaced. How many new plantings were there all together?”

Councillor Constance replied:

“Oxfordshire County Council have had to remove 2297 trees on the highway verge it is responsible for as Highway Authority. This figure includes some trees that have failed during adverse weather conditions (but not necessarily all) or due to factors beyond our control. In that period, the council have planted 75 trees. There has been no funding for tree replacements or new planting.

Currently there is no budget allocation for tree planting. The only tree related budget is for Highway Tree Maintenance.”

 

Councillor Susanna Pressel had given written notice of the following question to Councillor Walker, Cabinet member for Highway Operations & Delivery:

“The east riverbank along the Thames towpath above Osney Bridge behind Abbey Road was beautifully reinforced by the County Council about 10 years ago. It is part of the Thames Path and classed as highway. Unfortunately, in some places the timber has rotted or been damaged, and the bank has eroded or been scoured out. It is now quite dangerous in places and I fear that an accident could happen any day. This stretch of towpath is now really popular and well-used, especially by people exercising or avoiding public transport. If the temporary bus gates go in, it will be even more heavily used.

Please can it be repaired urgently?”

Councillor Walker replied:

“This stretch of Thames towpath behind Abbey Road is being put forward as a potential scheme to be funded by the DfT Covid Recovery programme under Tranche 2. 

If funding is secured from the Tranche 2 allocation, work will commence as soon as possible. If not, it will be added to the Infrastructure Operations capital programme and its priority will be assessed alongside other pending schemes.

In the meantime, Officers will continue to monitor the situation and are working with Oxford City Council, who now own this land, and the Thames Path National Trail team to remove encroaching vegetation to move use away from the river edge and reduce the risk this poses to the public.  This section of Thames towpath is well known to us and as the Councillor notes, was repaired using a technique called willow spilling, which was promoted by the Environment Agency at the time but has had mixed results on this highly trafficked route”