Corporate Plan - or Conservative manifesto (Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats)

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

Corporate Plan - or Conservative manifesto

February 10, 2009 9:04 AM
By Cllr Zoe Patrick in County Council

I am pleased to see that the Leader has acknowledged that the County Council elections in June will mean that this plan may also need revising depending upon the wishes of the incoming administration. I am sure that any administration after June will want to make some changes to this document which reads rather like a Conservative manifesto.

I would like to make a few points however.

Language in the world class economy section is not exactly very user friendly "High levels of gross value per head" in the Strengths section sounds more like what is being offered for sale at a market stall!

However I am pleased to see in the challenges that you wish to "improve our skills at all levels" - particularly important in the time of recession. In fact, I agree that all these challenges are valid and need addressing and indeed these are listed in the priorities on p.7.

Under the targets, I am pleased to see that educational attainment is high on the list, and it may be useful if the new primary schools were listed.

However, I do question the measures for Oxford city regarding the new pedestrian friendly Queen Street by Sept. 2009 and also the Western Gateway by Autumn 2011 - these will be very difficult to achieve especially if you take into account public consultation - and will this be through the Ask Oxfordshire which is referred to - do we know how this new system is working?

Again the language used in no.11 about "increasing the Gross Value Added per head of Oxfordshire's population from its current position of 13th out of 131 NUTS3 (county) regions" - well the man on the street may well think the County Council is NUTS!

In the healthy and thriving communities section where you are addressing the priorities - will people really understand what you mean by clarifying your 'offer' to communities and customers and supporting members in their community governance role? What offer exactly? It would be useful if it was explained to us all what that is.

However, I do agree that the targets you have set will be a challenge especially those regarding delayed discharges and support for carers.

The Environment and Climate Change section are a bit thin, but that's not surprising considering some of your senior members admit to not believing in climate change

I think there could be a number of additions in there especially on reducing the Council's carbon footprint - which doesn't get a mention. And delivering just 10 drainage schemes doesn't sound very much countywide.

In the section on reducing inequalities there is little emphasis placed on those areas of deprivation, especially in Oxford city wards, Banbury and some other wards around Oxfordshire including those like South Abingdon. We have a few LAA targets listed to deal with the issue, but it would have been nice to see more commitment here.

I could go on but I will run out of time. Basically what we have here is a manifesto of Tory aspirations but not much emphasis on how it is going to change the lives of most Oxfordshire residents - or if it is in there, then it is hidden away and too difficult to find - or maybe that is the intention.