Government Draft Legislative Programme (Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats)

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

Government Draft Legislative Programme

September 15, 2009 4:30 PM
By Cllr Zoe Patrick in County Cabinet

Firstly I do have some problem with the recommendation as it is written here because it states that this is the County Council's response to proposals. This cannot be a County Council response, but a Cabinet response, because the County Council will not be meeting now until November and comments are invited by 21 September. So I suggest the wording of the recommendation is changed to reflect that.

I am not sure what any member of the public would think of the report if ever they got around to trying to read it! I would like to give a suggestion that the Leader asks his report-writer to take more care with their grammar and spelling so we aren't subjected to some of the schoolboy howlers in the report. Two worth noting are on page 14 regarding Issues for Schools refers welcoming in 'principal' (as the school principal rather than the principle). The second is in Appendix 1 p.7 under Policing, Crime and Private Security Bill - the first bullet point refers to cutting red police officer 'red-tape'. I was trying to visualise the 'red police officer' but gave up on that one! I won't spend all my time on this though; suffice it to say that I find this an amateur attempt at what is really a hugely important area. Many mentions are made of 'quangos' all through the report (which clearly the Leader doesn't like), but no attempt to say what and who they are - I can guess, but again, if this is aimed at being a public document, there is no desire to inform anyone about what the issues actually are.

Many of the Bills should be welcomed. For example, the Child Poverty Bill - surely something which we must address if we are truly to tackle to areas of deprivation in our County, as highlighted in the Public Health report. Recommendation (c) just reads like nonsense - what is the Leader trying to say here? Referring in (d) to creating 'slums of tomorrow' is hardly the language one would expect of a County Council responsible for trying to ensure that housing and infrastructure and properly planned.

The Energy Bill and Flood Management Bill - there is no problem with this. However, when it comes to Improving Schools and Safeguarding Children I was interested to see (vi) about giving parents a greater say over the range of schools in their local area by gathering views on parental choice; I'm not sure how this fits in with the Oxford Academy proposals?

I'm not sure where the Leader has his statistic in the second bullet point in (a) (i) about parents having the care of their children from six sevenths of their lives from 4 - 16. Anyone who has raised children of their own and had them in the school system will know that the school where their children attend does indeed have a huge impact on that child, both in terms of that child's life chances and future career. To not acknowledge that shows basic lack of understanding any parent will sympathise with. The third bullet point reads like stating the obvious, but in a derisory way which is totally unhelpful to anyone. In fact all the recommendations in this section are not saying anything that any Government Minister would wish to take any further than the nearest waste paper bin!

Finally the Equality Bill should be welcomed and the first sentence saying the Bill builds upon the Equality Bill is again a nonsensical statement. The recommendations (c) and (d) are again almost not worth stating - 'what complexity in the field of inequalities' is being referred to?