Issue - meetings
Responding to external consultations
Meeting: 02/10/2024 - Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Item 51)
51 Responding to External Consultations 
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Purpose:
The Overview and Scrutiny Committee has requested detail on how West Oxfordshire District Council assesses which external consultations it responds to.
Recommendations:
That the Committee resolves to:
1. Note the content of the report;
2. Agree any recommendations it wishes to submit to the Executive.
Invited:
Councillor Andy Graham, Leader of the Council
Astrid Harvey, Strategic Policy and Partnerships Officer
Minutes:
The Strategic Policy and Partnerships Officer introduced the report detail on how West Oxfordshire District Council assesse which external consultations it responded to.
It was explained that West Oxfordshire District Council received a wide range of consultations from a variety of bodies that deemed it to be a relevant consultee. These included, but were not limited to, Central Government bodies, other Local Authorities within and beyond Oxfordshire, the Cotswold National Landscape, Thames Valley Police, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and West Berkshire Integrated Care Board, and organisations from within the Community and Voluntary Sector.
External bodies could send consultations directly to Senior Officers within the service that was most relevant to the matter or topic under consultation or they could be sent to the Council Leader, relevant Executive Member or Chief Executive Officer who would delegate the consultation request to the relevant Service.
On receipt of a consultation, Senior Officers would assess the consultation against criteria in order to determine if a response was required and to undertake the consultation response. The criteria was contained in section 1.3 of the report.
In undertaking the assessment against the criteria, Senior Officers would engage with lead Members to inform their judgement of the significance of the proposal or matter. Usually this would be the Executive Member with portfolio responsibility for the matter being consulted on.
The following points and suggestions were to be noted by the Committee:
· In terms of what was considered a reasonable time for the 106 money consultation period; it was explained that Planning Officers would need to answer that question. Action Point: The Planning Policy Manager would provide the timeframe for the 106 money consultation period.
· Members thanked Officers for the report.
RESOLVED that the Committee noted the report and it was agreed that there were no recommendations to the Executive on 9 October 2024.