Agenda item

Councillor Howson had given notice of the following question to Councillor Reeves:

“How many maintained schools in Oxfordshire have either solar or photo-voltaic panels on their roofs or elsewhere on school grounds?”

In the absence of Councillor Reeves Councillor Lindsay-Gale replied:

‘The Council does not hold a database with this information, as schools would need to register for the FIT (Feed In Tariff) themselves, information on the installation and/or registration is not readily available.

On request at such short notice we have been able to ascertain that 30 of our maintained schools have either solar or photo-voltaic panels on their roofs or elsewhere on school grounds.’

Supplementary: Councillor Howson asked whether the Council could encourage maintained schools to introduce energy schemes and whether the Cabinet Member could engage with the Diocese of Oxford and the Arch Diocese of Birmingham to encourage them to consider such schemes for their schools. In the absence of Councillor Reeves, Councillor Lorraine Lindsay-Gale, Cabinet Member for Education & Cultural Services replied that yes she was happy to follow this up.

Councillor Price had given notice of the following question to Councillor Heathcoat         

“Could the Deputy Leader outline why the most recent Community Risk Management Plan did not include explicit reference to the planned piloting of Initial Limited Response (Crew of Three), therefore missing the opportunity for the widest possible engagement with residents, interested partners and elected members who would have a valuable contribution to make to the debate?”          

Councillor Heathcoat replied:

Thank you for your question. The Fire and Rescue Service identified in the 2017-8 Community Risk Action Plan that :-

Project 2    “Would review and implement changes to key stations and provide area based strategic cover”.

As a result of this review an operational project was established to pilot an initial limited response. The review took the form of:-

o      All Whole time watches have been visited to discuss the pilot. All On Call Stations were invited to locality meetings

o      Attendance by OFRS at public meetings with town and parish locations

o      FBU invited to Charlbury Fire Station to discuss changes in procedure with the operational staff

o      FBU provided with all operational procedures and the relevant risk assessments for the pilot

o      FBU representative attended the visit to Kent FRS to see how this had been implemented in other FRS.

Following the closing of the consultation amendments were made.

Supplementary: Councillor Price commented that it would have been good to see the details included in the current CRMP. Councillor Price asked if the consultation documents could be made available and why the local member for Charlbury had not been consulted. Councillor Heathcoat replied that the CRMP was a strategic document and the project had been included in the 2017/18 Action Plan. It had been fully consulted on and Councillor Heathcoat could provide more detail direct to Councillor Price.

Councillor Bearder had given notice of the following question to Councillor Hudspeth

“Following our resolution at the last full council for yourself and the Cabinet Member for Transport to write to the Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government – demanding that a fuller consultation is carried out asking local residents if they want an Expressway and associated construction before any route is considered, could you please update council as to where we are with this? Whether the letter has been sent or a reply received and what time scale we can expect on the actions of this motion. Could you please also supply copies of any correspondence sent or received from either party thus far.”

Councillor John Sanders had given notice of the following question to Councillor Hudspeth

“Has the Leader or the Cabinet Member for Environment yet written to the Government asking it to conduct a consultation among Oxfordshire's residents asking them whether they want an Expressway and if not, when?.”

Councillor Hudspeth replied to both:

“Yes, the letter has been sent (copy attached as an Annex), no we have not received a reply and cannot say when the reply will be sent.

It is my standard practice to send copies of any reply to all councillors.”

Supplementary: Asked by Councillor John Sanders whether the decision on the route being pushed back to Autumn and the likely route was an indication of the Government attempting to lessen the impact on conservative held Divisions, Councillor Hudspeth replied that throughout there had been no political nuance in the Council response.

Annex

Dear Mr Brokenshire

Motion at Oxfordshire County Council – 2^nd April

We are writing to you following a motion resolved at Full Council on 2^nd April as follows:

“Most people accept that building more roads creates more traffic.  Council instructs that the Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment jointly write to the Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government – demanding that a fuller consultation is carried out asking local residents if they want an Expressway and associated construction before any route is considered.

The Leader and Cabinet Member should also ask the Minister whether the million extra houses outlined in the National Infrastructure Commission’s vision for housing along the route of the arc are in addition to, or included in, the 100,000 houses planned for by the Oxfordshire authorities outlined in the growth deal”

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Cllr Ian Hudspeth                                                     Cllr Yvonne Constance

Direct Line: 01865 815283                                     Cabinet Member for Environment

Mobile: 07956 270318                                            Mobile:07976 934884

Email: ian.hudspeth@oxfordshire.gov.uk           Email: Yvonne.constance@oxfordshire.gov.uk

www.oxfordshire.gov.uk