Tories Take Advice From No-one! (Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats)

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

Tories Take Advice From No-one!

November 7, 2007 3:44 PM

In an extraordinary debate at yesterday's County Council meeting, Conservative Councillors dismissed the suggestion that they needed to do more to show a real commitment to social inclusion. Liberal Democrats had been expressing concerns for some time that the Council's Conservative Administration appeared to be paying only lip service to encouraging diversity and ensuring equality but this was reinforced by the Peer Review last December. The review team reported that the County Council did not demonstrate its prioritisation of social inclusion sufficiently and needed to improve its performance.

At yesterday's meeting, the Conservative administration dismissed a Liberal Democrat motion asking the Cabinet to draw up an action plan, saying that enough work was already being done and the Peer Reviewers were simply wrong. Cllr Altaf-Khan, whose motion it was, said, "Well, if the County Council is already doing all it can to promote diversity, I cannot see it, and I suspect that neither will most members of the public. On the contrary, what people from ethnic minorities tell me is that they think the County Council does not care about them."

Cllr Zoé Patrick added, "We all know how valuable the excellent rating is, and we wish to keep it, but the Council cannot be complacent on this issue. Oxfordshire has a number of areas, particularly in the City and in Banbury where there is a real opportunity to demonstrate our commitment. This shows us that Oxfordshire County Council is not taking the matter seriously and refuses to believe the advice given by the Peer Review team. I hope we do not pay the penalty for this."

Note:

The IDeA Peer Review is a team of councillors and officers from other authorities who are invited in by councils to assess their performance in a less formal way than the Audit Commission Inspectors.