Oxfordshire Plan - Annual Report (Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats)

Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats <info@oxfordshirelibdems.org.uk>

Oxfordshire Plan - Annual Report

June 6, 2006 2:10 PM
By Cllr Zoé Patrick in The Cabinet

I appreciate the plan is still in its draft form, but for this reason I am hoping that my comments to the Cabinet will be seen as helpful and constructive.

I would also like to say that I broadly welcome this report, and believe that there is obviously no point having a plan if one doesn't try to work to that plan and thereby record achievements and pitfalls accordingly.

However, I do need to correct the Leader in his Foreward on p2 where he refers to Oxfordshire has the lowest council tax of any shire County Council in the SE.

I have a list of all shire counties and the average band D council tax and

Cambs, Cornwall, Devon, Corset, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Somerset, Suffolk, Surrey, West Sussex and Wiltshire all have a lower figure than us.

Having listened to the comments made at Corporate Governance Scrutiny, I won't repeat the points raised there, however, I would emphasise Cllr. Johnston's comments regarding the plan being quite thin on transport - especially as this is an area which is often 'the face of the authority' - he did highlight the maintenance of pavements as a problem and I would hope that this could be looked into. There were also some key targets missing under the achievements which I hope will be addressed. All the area covered by Oxfordshire Highways covers a very large remit and I am sure Cllr. Robertson would be able to add a few more words on some of these key areas.

Cllr. Fooks has asked me to raise an issue of the youth service where there is reference to reducing the number of children in care reoffending - and she believes this is a mistake and this should read 'offending' (Performance Highlights 3rd bullet).

Finally, I know this was voted down at Full Council, and this caused a subsequent exchange of letters in the press from Cllr. Howell, but I feel that our Strategic Priorities where we aim to help the economy to grow as fast as possible with a real choice of access to jobs, homes, leisure and services - is a mighty challenge without damaging the environment. We have been suffering for a long time due to the speed of our growth in the South East, and we shall surely suffer some damage to the environment - not least in the South of the County where thousands of homes are being diverted to Didcot and Grove without any thought to the damage this will do to these communities - and I will leave it at that for now.