Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

The Democratic Services Officer invited nominations for Chair of the Shareholders Cabinet Committee for the remainder of the 2024/25 Council Year. Cllr Howson proposed Cllr Leffman and Cllr Sudbury seconded the nomination.

With there being no other nominations, Cllr Leffman was elected Chair for the remainder of the 2024/25 Council Year.

The Chair invited nominations for Deputy Chair of the Shareholders Cabinet committee for the remainder of the 2024/25 Council Year. Cllr Sudbury proposed Cllr Howson and Cllr Fawcett seconded the nomination.

With there being no other nominations. Cllr Howson was elected as Deputy Chair for the remainder of the 2024/25 Council Year.

Apologies were received from Cllr Bearder.

See guidance note below.

Cllr Levy declared an interest in respect of item 8 and left the meeting when the item was discussed.

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 Shareholder Committee’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 Committee Member or such other councillor or officer as is determined by the Committee Member, and shall not be the subject of further debate at this meeting.

There were none.

Members of the public who wish to speak at this meeting can attend the meeting in person or ‘virtually’ through an online connection. 

To facilitate ‘hybrid’ meetings we are asking that requests to speak or present a petition are submitted by no later than 9am four working days before the meeting.  Requests to speak should be sent to committeesdemocraticservices@oxfordshire.gov.uk

If you are speaking ‘virtually’, you may submit a written statement of your presentation to ensure that your views are taken into account. A written copy of your statement can be provided no later than 9am 2 working days before the meeting. Written submissions should be no longer than 1 A4 sheet.

There were none.

Report by Director of Economy and Place  

At its meeting on 19 November the Cabinet established the Shareholder Committee to act as the sole member of the OxLEP company, providing strategic oversight and taking those decisions which are reserved to the sole member of the company by the Articles of Association. As the Leader will now be a member of the Shareholder Committee she has resigned as a director of OxLEP.

The Shareholder Committee is RECOMMENDED to

a)              Note the resignation of Cllr Liz Leffman as a director of Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP).

The Chair introduced the item to the meeting.

Sadie Patamia, Corporate Governance Manager at Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP), confirmed that Cllr Leffman’s resignation as a Director of OxLEP which was registered on Companies House yesterday.

RESOLVED to:

a)    Note the resignation of Cllr Liz Leffman as a director of Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP).

Report by Director of Economy and Place  

The Chair of Council has agreed that this item will be exempt from Call-in.

The Annexes are TO FOLLOW.

To give effect to the Cabinet’s decisions there is a need to change the OxLEP Articles of Association and to appoint new company directors. This report sets out the resolutions needed to bring these changes about.

The Shareholder Committee is RECOMMENDED to

a)          Approve and sign the attached written resolutions attached at Annex A dealing with amendments to the Articles of Association and resignation and appointments of Directors

b)          Having acknowledged and received the resignations of the current Directors to formally thank them for their service

The Chair introduced the item to the meeting and noted that the Chair of Council had agreed to exempt this item from call-in, which officers confirmed was due to the strict timeline of appointing Directors and changing Articles of Association with Companies House.

The Deputy Chair proposed that the name of the company should remain a reserved matter, and Cllr Fawcett seconded the proposal. The Shareholders Committee agreed to the proposal.  

The Head of Legal Services and Deputy Monitoring Officer, Paul Grant, confirmed that this was possible and recommended the following wording to be added into the list of reserved matters in Part 7 (Membership): 21 – Reserved Matters:

‘Changing the name of the company to any name considered to be advantageous, expedient or otherwise desirable’.

Paul Gant confirmed that two Directors were proposed to be appointed: Cllr Dan Levy and Kate Reynolds, an officer of the Council.

Cllr Levy declared an interest in respect of the item being discussed and left the meeting at this point.

Cllr Sudbury proposed that Cllr Dan Levy and Kate Reynolds be appointed as Directors, and Cllr Howson seconded the proposal. The Shareholders Committee agreed to the proposal.

The Chair thanked the Directors who have served OxLEP over many years, and thanked officers of OXLEP for their work.

Cllr Leffman proposed, and Cllr Roberts seconded the amended recommendations. The Shareholders Committee agreed to the amended recommendations.

RESOLVED to:

b) Approve and sign the attached written resolutions attached at Annex A dealing with amendments to the Articles of Association and resignation and appointments of Directors.  

c) Having acknowledged and received the resignations of the current Directors to formally thank them for their service.

Subject to:  

i)               the following amendment in the Articles of Association:

Part 7: Membership

21 – Reserved Matters

Add: Changing the name of the company to any name considered to be advantageous, expedient or otherwise desirable

ii)             the following amendments in the resolutions:

Add the following names as Directors:

- Cllr Dan Levy

- Kate Reynolds

Remove the following name from the list of Directors resigning at the meeting (to be dealt with outside of the meeting):

- David Rouane

To decide on a schedule of future meetings.

The Chair noted that a schedule of future meetings would be circulated at a later date.