Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

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There were no declarations of interest.

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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.

There were no questions from County Councillors.

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There were none.

The Cabinet Member is asked to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 11 July 2025 and to receive information arising from them.

EXEMPT ITEM

It is RECOMMENDED that the public be excluded for the duration of Item 5 since it is likely that if they were present during that item there would be disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) and specified below in relation to those items and since it is considered that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

THE ANNEX TO THE ITEM HAS NOT BEEN MADE PUBLIC AND SHOULD BE REGARDED AS ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ BY MEMBERS AND OFFICERS ENTITLED TO RECEIVE IT. THIS ALSO MEANS THAT THE CONTENTS SHOULD NOT BE DISCUSSED WITH OTHERS AND NO COPIES SHOULD BE MADE.

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 July 2025 were approved as an accurate record of proceedings.

Cabinet Member: Finance, Property and Transformation

Forward Plan Ref: Ref: 2025/132

Contact: Vic Kurzeja, Director of Property and Assets

Vic.Kurzeja@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Report by Director of Property and Assets

The information contained in the annex is exempt in that it falls within the following prescribed categories:

Paragraph 3 – Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person including the local authority

Paragraph 5 – Information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings.

and since it is considered that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, in that there is an expectation that consultation and negotiation should take place primarily away from the glare of publicity and public scrutiny in keeping with employment law.

The Head of Property Operations presented the report and referred to the proposed outsourcing of residual cleaning for County Council properties. The Chair stated that a portion of the Council’s contracts had been outsourced to a third-party provider, which was subsequently reviewed by the Scrutiny Committee. The Committee expressed concerns regarding staff transitions between contracts. In response, the officer assured the Chair that all current employees would maintain their positions under this recommendation; and furthermore, the Council would require the provider to uphold the existing contractual terms and conditions, including the preservation of pension benefits. The Chair expressed support for a cleaning service that was more efficient and lower in cost, if staff welfare was maintained, and approved the recommendation.

The Head of Property Operations also presented the section on proposed changes to the school catering service. The Chair said that he had three options, which were, to do nothing, to transfer to all schools the responsibility of delivering their own catering, or to recommend that the Council found its own catering partner. He said that to do nothing was not feasible as the existing service was operating at a loss and that the second option was impractical because some schools did not have the capacity to interact with a third party. In relation to finding a catering partner to take on the existing service, he said that that the proposals had been considered by the Schools’ Forum and the Scrutiny Committee, who had concerns around food quality and, again, current staff. The officer informed the Chair that the Council would require all partners to provide food meeting Department for Education guidelines and would comply with appropriate staff welfare measures. The Chair acknowledged that the decision was challenging; however, he ultimately endorsed the recommendation.

RESOLVED to:

a)    proceed with a procurement exercise to identify a suitable commercial provider to deliver catering services via a direct service contract with each school to replace the existing service level agreements with the school meals service; and

b)    commence a tender exercise in line with OCC Contract Procedure Rules and the relevant procurement legislation to outsource the remaining in-house cleaning of corporate sites.

Cabinet Member: Finance, Property and Transformation

Forward Plan Ref: 2025/151

Contact: Michael Smedley, Head of Estates

Michael.smedley@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Report by Director of Property and Assets

The information contained in the annex is exempt in that it falls within the following prescribed categories:

Paragraph 3 – Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person including the local authority

and since it is considered that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, in that there is an expectation that consultation and negotiation should take place primarily away from the glare of publicity and public scrutiny in keeping with employment law.

The Cabinet Member is RECOMMENDED to:

a)    Approve a Direct Award to enter into a site Promotion Agreement for the development of Guydens Farm, Northfield, Oxford, with existing Promoter of Brasenose College’s land, Catesby Estates Limited; and

b)    Delegate authority to the Director of Property and Assets to finalise, and enter into, the Promotion Agreement in consultation with the Section 151 Officer and the Head of Legal and Governance.

RESOLVED that the public be excluded for the duration of Item 5 since it was likely that if they were present during that item there would be disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) and since it was considered that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in Page 4 maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

The Head of Estates introduced the report.   The Chair said that he had concerns about relinquishing control over Guydens Farm, Northfield, Oxford in light of its controversy, and that his preference was for finalisation of, and entry into, the Promotion Agreement to be subject to delegated decision by the Cabinet Member. As such, he approved the first recommendation only on this occasion.

RESOLVED to:

a)    approve a Direct Award to enter into a site Promotion Agreement for the development of Guydens Farm, Northfield, Oxford, with existing Promoter of Brasenose College’s land, Catesby Estates Limited; but

b)    defer the decision to delegate authority to the Director of Property and Assets to finalise, and enter into, the Promotion Agreement in consultation with the Section 151 Officer and the Head of Legal and Governance.