Agenda, decisions and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 8 December 2020 (CC1) and to receive information arising from them.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 8 December 2020 were approved and signed as an accurate record.

Councillor Laura Price declared a non-pecuniary interest in Agenda Item 8, by virtue of her position as Chief Executive at Oxfordshire Community & Voluntary Action (OCVA).

Councillor Jenny Hannaby declared a non-pecuniary interest in Agenda Item 8, by virtue of her position as trustee of a local Nursing home in Wantage.

Council welcomed Anita Bradley, newly appointed Director for Law & Governance & Monitoring Officer.

Council paid tribute and held a minute’s silence in memory of former County Councillor and Honorary Alderman Margaret Ferriman.

Council expressed its gratitude to staff for their dedication, professionalism and commitment in the face of difficulties during the pandemic.   Special thanks was given to the firefighters, emergency planners, highways staff, social care teams and many others whom had responded to the flooding while continuing to manage the local response to the pandemic and their business as usual duties.

This Council meeting will be held virtually in order to conform with current guidelines regarding social distancing. Normally requests to speak at this public meeting are required by 9 am on the day preceding the published date of the meeting. However, during the current situation and to facilitate these new arrangements we are asking that requests to speak are submitted by no later than 9am four working days before the meeting i.e. 9 am on 3 February 2021. Requests to speak should be sent to deborah.miller@oxfordshire.gov.uk together with a written statement of your presentation to ensure that if the technology fails then your views can still be taken into account. A written copy of your statement can be provided no later than 9 am 2 working days before the meeting.

Where a meeting is held virtually and the addressee is unable to participate virtually their written submission will be accepted.

Written submissions should be no longer than 1 A4 sheet.

Council received the following Petition and Public Address:

Ms Jean Conway, Campaign Leader 20’s Plenty for Oxfordshire presented a Petition requesting that Oxfordshire County Council take the 20 mph initiative forward and create a coherent strategic plan that rolled out 20mph in groups of defined areas with one TRO per area so as to minimise costs.  They further sought that OCC fund the initiative so that facilitation was not based on the wealth of an area.

Public Address

Mr Chris Hancock, Appleford-on-Thames Parish Council addressed the Council in relation to a section of the proposed relief road, part of the HIF1 scheme approved by Cabinet on 21 July 2020.  The section ran north of Didcot Power Station to a new bridge crossing over the River Thames.

The Parish Council had surveyed the views of all residents in Appleford and were instructed to speak for them.  He explained that Appleford did not object to the principle of a road between Didcot to Culham, they accepted that traffic and future development will require this.  However, they were concerned that the current alignment for that section of the road presented serious consequences for residents living adjacent to this road.  The proposed route required the road, cycleway, and footway to bridge over Appleford Sidings. This was a private freight railway siding used by Hanson and others and would require that the total highway would have to be raised on embankments, higher than the roofline of adjacent properties, for a considerable distance either side of the bridge.

Subsequent to the OCC consultation exercise in April last, Hanson secured planning approval, to triple the size of the sidings by building extra tracks. These would be built this year. This was not included in the road proposal and considerably increased the cost, size, and complexity of a road bridge. The Three major impacts of this high-level road would be felt as noise, traffic pollution and visual intrusion.

They anticipated noise from four sources, road traffic over the bridge, train movements below the bridge, interaction of the train movements and the bridge (reflected noise) and the vibration of the bridge structure. They felt that the cumulative effect of noise would be most severely felt for residents of Main Road in Appleford, facing the sidings.

It was recognised that dealing with vehicle noise from an elevated road was twice as difficult as dealing with noise from a road at ground level. Attenuation by the ground surface is lost.  Secondly, dealing with the vehicle emissions, and particulates from an elevated road was considerably more difficult than for a road at ground level. Appleford was upwind of the proposed road, they expressed concern about the health effects.

Thirdly, they felt that a raised road would dominate the skyline to the west of Appleford and increase the prominence in the landscape. Noise and pollution screens would add considerably more to the height. The possible construction costs were large. Similar road bridges elsewhere in the county had cost between £15M  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4/21

Report by the Director for Human Resources (CC7)

The Remuneration Committee is required to report annually to Council on the Pay Policy Statement. The Remuneration Committee considered this report on 25 January 2021 and now submit it for approval to Council on 9 February 2021.

The Council is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)       receive the report of the Remuneration Committee;

(b)       approve the revised Pay Policy Statement at Annex 1 to this report;

(c)       approve the Gender Pay Gap Report at Annex 2 to this report.

In 2012, a stand-alone Remuneration Committee was set up to report each year directly to full Council and to make recommendations regarding the Council’s Pay Policy Statement.  The Council had before it a report of the Remuneration Committee which updated the Council’s Pay Policy Statement and set out future proposals of the Remuneration Committee in relation to this area, the report further included an Annex updating members on the Gender Pay Gap.

RESOLVED: (on a Motion by Councillor Hudspeth, seconded by Councillor Brighouse and carried nem con) to:

(a)       receive the report of the Remuneration Committee;

(b)       approve the revised Pay Policy Statement at Annex 1 to this report;

(c)        approve the Gender Pay Gap Report at Annex 2 to this report.

Report by Director of Finance and Corporate Director Customers, Organisational Development & Resources (CC8)

This report is the culmination of the Budget and Business Planning process for 2021/22 to 2025/26. It sets out the Cabinet’s proposed budget for 2021/22, medium term financial plan to 2025/26 and capital programme to 2030/31, together with a number of strategies and policies that the Council is required to approve for the 2021/22 financial year.

The report is divided into four main sections which are outlined below:

Section 1 – Leader of the Council’s overview (to follow)

Section 2 – Corporate Plan

Section 3 – Statutory Report by the Director of Finance (Chief Finance Officer)

Section 4 – Revenue Budget Strategy

Section 5 – Capital Budget Strategy

The Council is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)           approve the Corporate Plan as set out in Section 2;

(b)           have regard to the statutory report of the Director of Finance (at Section 3) in approving recommendations c to e below;

(c)           (in respect of the budget and medium term financial strategy – at Section 4) approve:

(1)           the council tax and precept calculations for 2021/22 set out in Section 4.3 and in particular:

(i)             a precept of £407,954,238.76;

(ii)           a council tax for band D equivalent properties of £1,573.11;

(2)           a budget for 2021/22 as set out in Section 4.4;

(3)           a medium term financial strategy for 2021/22 to 2025/26 as set out in Section 4.1 (which incorporates changes to the existing medium term financial strategy as set out in Section 4.2);

(4)           the Financial Strategy for 2021/22 at Section 4.5;

(5)           the Earmarked Reserves and General Balances Policy Statement 2021/22 at Section 4.6 including:

(i)             the Chief Finance Officer’s recommended level of General Balances for 2021/22 (Section 4.6), and

(ii)           the planned level of Earmarked Reserves for 2021/22 to 2025/26 (Section 4.6)

(d)           (in respect of capital – at Section 5) approve:

(1)           the Capital & Investment Strategy for 2021/22 to 2030/31 including the Prudential Indicators and Minimum Revenue Provision Methodology Statement as set out in Section 5.1;

(2)           a Capital Programme for 2021/22 to 2030/31 as set out in Section 5.5 which includes new capital proposals set out in Section 5.6 and the Property Strategy set out in Section 5.4; and

(3)           the Investment Strategy for 2021/22 set out in Section 5.3.

(e)           (in respect of treasury management) approve:

(1)           the Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy for 2021/22 at Section 5.2 including the Treasury Management Prudential Indicators and the Specified Investment and Non-Specified Investment Instruments.

(2)           that any further changes required to the 2021/22 strategy be delegated to the Chief Finance Officer in consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Cabinet Member for Finance.

Before the Council was the report and annexes, an Addenda setting out the changes to the Cabinet’s proposed revenue budget for2021/22 and Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) to 2025/26 arising from information received after the publication of Council papers on 1 February 2021; the Labour Group’s  Amendment; the Leader of the Council’s Overview and the Schedule of Business.

Councillor Hudspeth moved and Councillor Bartholomew seconded the Cabinet’s recommendations in relation to the revenue budget for 2021/22 and Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) to 2025/26  In moving  and seconding the motion, Councillor Hudspeth and Councillor Bartholomew paid tribute to Lorna Baxter, Hannah Doney and the finance team for all their work in preparing the budget.

Councillor Brighouse moved and Councillor Phillips seconded an amendment to the Cabinet’s budget as set out below. Councillor Brighouse thanked the Director of Finance and her team for their work on the Budget.

The Council is RECOMMENDED (in respect of the budget and medium term financial strategy – at Section 4)to approve a budget for 2021/22 set out in Section 4.4 and a medium term financial strategy for 2021/22 – 2025/26 set out in Section 4.1 as amended in Labour Group Annex 1 below:

Having heard the proposal, with the consent of Council, Councillor Hudspeth accepted the Amendment from the Labour Group.

Following debate, the motion as amended was put to the vote and carried by 48 to 15.

Voting was as follows:

Councillors voting for the motion (48)

Afridi, Banfield, Bartholomew, Bartington, Azad, Billington, Brighouse, Bulmer, Carter, Cherry, Clarke, Constance, Corkin, Fatemian,  Fenton, Field-Johnson, Fitzgerald O’Connor, Fox-Davies, Gawrysiak, Gray, Griffiths, Handley, Harrod, Haywood, Heathcoat, Hibbert-Biles, Hudspeth, Ilot, Lindsay-Gale, Lygo, Mallon, Matelot, Mathew, Mcllveen, Phillips, Pressel, Price, Reeves, Reynolds, Sames, Gill Sanders, John Sanders, Sibley, Stratford, Thompson, Turnbull, Waine and Walker.

Councillors voting against the motion (15)

Bearder, Buckley, Fawcett, Hanna, Hannaby, Harris, Howson, Johnston, Leffman, Roberts, Rooke, Emily Smith, Roz Smith, Sudbury and Webber.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6/21