Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Sam Coates (Councillor David Williams substituting).

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 5 January 2017 (PSC3) and to receive information arising from them.

It was agreed to defer consideration of the minutes of the meeting held on 5 January 2017 to the next regular meeting on 16 March 2017.

The following requests had been received to address the Committee:

*Did not speak

It was agreed to take the speakers after the presentation on item 5.

To consider feedback on One Oxfordshire and discuss any recommendations to Cabinet.

1.    Presentation.

2.    Public addresses.

3.    Non-committee Councillors and responses from Officers.

4.    Committee discussion (for the final 45 minutes).

In September 2016, Performance Scrutiny considered reports from Grant Thornton and PwC and made a recommendation to Cabinet on options for reorganisation of local government within Oxfordshire. Cabinet subsequently directed officers to engage with stakeholders and the public to prepare proposals for a new unitary council to cover the whole county.

A discussion document was published in January 2017 to inform an extensive stakeholder and public engagement process. This process has now been completed. Performance Scrutiny will receive a copy of the full bid document and a presentation on the feedback from the engagement process.

The Cabinet report, including the full proposal, will be available to Performance Scrutiny from Friday 3 March. This will be accompanied by a Service and Community Impact Assessment (SCIA).

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to consider the presentation giving feedback on the public and stakeholder engagement process and the revised bid document and make any such comments to Cabinet as they consider should be taken into account before determining whether or not to submit the bid to the Secretary of State.

Mr Clark gave a presentation which outlined the “One Oxfordshire” engagement feedback, described what had changed in the “Better Oxfordshire” proposal and examined the Combined Authority and Mayor model.

While the doorstep survey showed 70% support for the One Oxfordshire proposal, the online questionnaire responses indicated 75% opposed to a single unitary.  The engagement process also provided more detailed and qualitative feedback.

In response the “Better Oxfordshire” proposal includes

·         a higher number of Area Executive Boards to improve local connection with natural communities as well as clarifying that local partners will be involved in the boards.

·         a list of new arrangements for Oxford city including a new local council.

·         options for council tax harmonisation.

·         a commitment that existing local plans and five area planning committees will be retained until a strategic plan for Oxfordshire is in place.

Councillor Barber reported that the “Better Oxfordshire” proposal had been agreed by the Vale of White Horse Cabinet and Full Council.  He had previously supported the multi-unitary proposal and opposed the original single unitary idea.  However, the multi-unitary proposal was no longer viable and the “Option 6” version of the single-unitary was much improved.  He decided to engage in that process and, following the latest changes in “Better Oxfordshire”, he can say that the proposal will be very good for the county.

The discussion was opened to all councillors present to make points for consideration by the Committee.

Councillor Mallon asked if the future Council after the elections in May could rescind any bid agreed by the current Cabinet.  He asked how the Implementation Executive would be politically balanced and expressed concern that a single council would be too big and would not reflect the diversity within the county.

Councillor Pressel asked the Committee to be careful about accepting the results of the doorstep survey as many respondents would not have been aware of what would be lost in the single unitary proposal.

Councillor Williams congratulated officers on a very professional job and a very good consultation exercise.  However, the proposal was flawed in reducing the level of local democracy.  Oxfordshire was too big for one council.  Many services were better delivered locally.  He believed that three unitaries would be best.

Members raised concerns about tax changes and expressed different views on the number of members of the Implementation Executive.  A larger executive could better represent different views but others were concerned that it would be less efficient.

Officers responded with the following points:

·         The next council could decide that it didn’t support the proposal and the Secretary of State would take that into consideration under the requirement for a level of consensus.

·         The options for council tax range from no change to levelling them.  Even in the latter case the biggest change would be for West Oxfordshire at 4%.

·         The unitary option allows the flexibility of doing things at the county level or a more local level depending on the particular service.

The Committee then discussed the issues raised and agreed to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12/17