Items
| No. |
Item |
31. |
Apologies for Absence and Temporary Appointments
To receive any apologies for absence and
temporary appointments. The quorum for the Committee is four
members.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Apologies were received from Councillor Adam
Clements.
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32. |
Declarations of Interest
To receive any declarations from Members of
the Committee on any items to be considered at the meeting.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
There were no declarations of interest.
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33. |
Minutes of Previous Meeting  PDF 103 KB
To approve the minutes of the Committee
meeting held 2 July 2025.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Genny Early, Vice-Chair of the
Committee, noted that the wording of recommendation 5 on car parks
attached to the minutes should have included a reference to
greening of car parking spaces as well as environmental
standards.
Subject to the amendment, Councillor Alex
Wilson proposed accepting the minutes of the meeting on 2 July
2025, and Councillor Michele Mead seconded this.
The minutes were voted on and unanimously
agreed.
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34. |
Chair's announcements
To receive any announcements from the Chair of
the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Early provided an update on the
recent scrutiny training sessions.
Councillor Early advised that the training had
been split into sessions on principles of scrutiny and questioning
skills. The training had provided some useful tools for the
Committee. The slides and notes could be made available to those
who did not attend.
Councillor Paul Marsh arrived at 17:34.
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35. |
Participation of the Public
To receive any submissions from members of the
public, in accordance with the Council’s
Public Participation Rules.
The deadline for submissions is 2.00pm, two
clear working days before the meeting.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
There was no participation of the public.
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36. |
Report back on recommendations PDF 202 KB
For the Committee to note the
Executive’s response to any recommendations arising from the
previous Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Head of Democratic and Electoral Services
stated that the Committee’s recommendations in relation to
Car Parking Strategy and Climate Change Strategy had been responded
to by the Executive, as set out in an annex to the minutes of the
previous meeting and pages 15-18 of the Agenda Pack.
The Chair invited comments from the Committee
of which there were none.
Councillor Natalie King arrived at 17:38.
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37. |
2025/26 Quarterly Finance Review Q1 PDF 427 KB
Purpose
Pre-decision scrutiny of an Executive report
detailing the financial performance of the Council in the first
quarter of 2025/26.
Recommendation
That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee
resolves to:
1.
Note the report and agree any recommendations it wishes to submit
to the Executive.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Alaric Smith, Executive Member for
Finance, introduced the item and was supported by Madhu Richards, Director of Finance, and Georgina
Dyer, Head of Finance. The Executive Member made the following
points;
- At the end of quarter 1 there was an
overall underspend of £260,745.
- Key factors driving the position
were: additional income from Trade Waste; the Leisure Contract;
vacant positions and better than expected performance in respect of
the materials recycling contract.
- The Recycling contract had commenced
in September 2024. Between September 2024 and March 2025, the
contract had saved the Council an average of £60,000 per
month. In quarter 1 the contact was £25,000 underspent
against the reduced base budget.
- Green Waste income was £30,000
behind target; however, the net income was £1.2m.
- Trade waste was £164,000 above
target and was partially offset by expenditure on bins and boxes.
The estimate for the year end position was £216,000
underspent.
- Legal shared service vacancies had
resulting in an underspend in the quarter. Subsequent recruitment
to these posts had meant that this saving would cease, however
Officers were now in post which was positive.
- Development Management appeals were
underspent by £24,975 in quarter 1, however it was noted that
this was dependent on the actions of third parties.
- In the Conservation Service two
vacant posts had resulted in an underspend, these positions had now
been recruited to.
- The Leisure contract was
£41,000 ahead of budget.
- The Government’s proposals for
The Fairer Funding Review and Business Rates Reset were out for
consultation until 12 August 2025. Final proposals were expected to
follow by the end of October. The Council was aware that it would
receive less funding, however the position was no worse than
expected or planned for.
In discussion, members raised the following
points:
- Although decisions would be
influenced by Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) there was a
need to ensure that there were no gaps in services and
contracts.
- A query was raised as to the degree
of planned capital expenditure and the use of external borrowing.
The Officer explained that all current planned expenditure would
not require external borrowing. On the current LGR timetable, the
Council’s last budget would be for 2027/28, with a Shadow
Authority budgeting for 2028/29. Therefore, considerations for
capital expenditure and borrowing would be a key question for the
next budget cycle.
The Chair thanked the Executive Member and
Officers for their presentation to the Committee.
Resolved: The Overview and Scrutiny Committee
noted the report.
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38. |
2025/26 Quarterly Service Review Q1 PDF 93 KB
Purpose
Pre-decision scrutiny of an Executive report
detailing the service performance of the Council in the first
quarter of 2025/26.
Recommendation
That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee
resolves to:
1.
Note the report and agree any recommendations it wishes to submit
to the Executive.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Andy Graham, Leader of the Council,
introduced the item and was supported by Gemma Moreing, Business
Information and Performance Lead. The Executive Member made the
following points;
- The Report was being taken to the
Executive meeting on 10 September 2025, and comments from the
Committee were welcome ahead of this.
- The report was broadly positive.
Section 2.1 contained a broad summary of performance, section 3.1
showed service areas with performance above target, of which there
were a considerable number.
- Section 3.3 contained detail of
service performance that was below target. These were expanded on
by the Officer making the following points:
- Processing times for Council Tax
Support Change Events and Housing Benefit Change of Circumstances
were below target due to a planned one-month pause in uploading
Universal Credit Applications. Since resuming such uploads, batch
automation rates had consistently exceeded 90% and processing times
had significantly improved which should address the issues.
- The percentage of household waste
recycling was below target which mirrored a national trend due to
seasonal and structural factors. In particular, the unusually dry
weather had led to a reduction in garden waste tonnages.
In discussion, members raised the following
points:
- The Committee sought an explanation
as to how recycling was measured and calculated.
- What steps could be taken to improve
communication with the service users regarding recycling. There was
a useful pdf document on the Council website, which could be
presented differently.
- Despite the Council being rated
highly for recycling rates in benchmarking terms, the results were
static. As this was the case could improvements be
investigated?
- It would be useful if measurements
could be separated for garden and general waste in order to get a
truer picture of performance trends.
- With the falling garden waste rate
had there been a noticeable increase in use of the local tip?
- What was the verification process
for plastic recycling.
- The Committee discussed the merits
of a separate Task and Finish Group for this area of Waste. It was
noted that such work could be included in an expanded remit for the
existing Waste Transformation Task and Finish Group. The Committee
expressed a preference for expansion of the existing remit of the
current Group.
The Chair thanked the Executive Member and
Officers for their presentation to the Committee.
Resolved: That the Overview and Scrutiny
Committee note the report.
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39. |
Responding to the Youth Needs Assessment PDF 190 KB
Purpose
The purpose of the report is to share with the
Committee the progress made by the Youth Development Officer to
date and set out the priorities for the role moving forwards.
Recommendation
That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee
resolves to:
1. Note the
report
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Andy Graham, The Leader of the
Council, introduced the item and was supported by Heather
McCulloch, Community Wellbeing Manager and James Edney, Youth
Development Officer. The Executive Member made the following
points;
- The Report had been requested by the
Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
- The Council had expressed a
commitment to assess and address the needs of young people.
- Young people were often not at the
table for discussions about what they needed and the nature of the
rural district made accessing services difficult.
- James Edney, Youth Development
Officer, was introduced. The Officer made the following points:
- He was a trained youth worker, with
experience at Oxfordshire Youth and Thame Town Council.
- In his first six months in post he
had visited communities and had subsequently identified 6 priority
areas which were shown in section 4.1 of the report.
- There had been some further
developments since the report: Stonesfield “have a go
day” had taken place and been successful; Topaz, Chipping
Norton Town Council and Chippy Pride were now looking to develop a
LGBTQI+ group in the town; Witney Youth Partnership would continue,
and would focus on issues of exploitation, this would involve
networking with other organisations; a job fair would be held on 25
September 2025.
- The Officer expressed that he was
happy to take questions and suggestions for future actions from the
Committee.
In discussion, members raised the following
points:
- Should there be a tangible target
for the work being undertaken and clarity on what it was hoped
would be achieved. The six priority areas were restated for the
Committee.
- This was a discretionary initiative
from the Council and Youth Services was in the remit of the County
Council.
- Past cuts to services and changes in
youth culture had left a patchwork provision of services for young
people.
- The Youth Development
Officer’s role was suggested to be one of facilitating
communication and giving advice, not hosting events and groups. A
Councillor gave the example of the Stonesfield “have a go
day”, for which the Officer had acted as “glue”
to connect local people who facilitated the event.
- A suggestion was made that
green-gyms, hedge laying and dry-stone walling may be looked at as
potential activities.
- The Officer could contact the local
private schools as he had with the state schools. The Officer
agreed to follow this suggestion up.
- The Officer could contact local
sports clubs who had a strong record for mental health initiatives.
The Officer would take away the suggestion. It was noted that some
local boxing clubs had been approached.
- Some young people struggled at
school and were left with a feeling of not belonging. Alternative
provision was therefore crucial.
- The work to support young girls was
noted as of particular importance.
- Young people were a valuable and
vital voice in society.
- When facilitating groups for young
people there was a need for an adult to manage this. Difficulties
in attracting volunteers and potential resources for how this could
be supported were explored. The officer noted ...
view the full minutes text for item 39.
|
40. |
Oxfordshire Local Area Energy Planning PDF 87 KB
Purpose
Pre-decision scrutiny of an Executive report
detailing the Oxfordshire Local Area Energy plan.
Recommendation
That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee
resolves to:
1.
Note the report and agree any recommendations it wishes to submit
to the Executive.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Andrew Prosser, Executive Member
for Climate Action and Nature Recovery, introduced the item and was
supported by Hannah Kenyon, Climate Change Manager. The Executive
Member made the following points;
- Local area energy planning was a
process which set out the pathway on how to get from the current
energy system to zero-carbon.
- The Oxfordshire Leaders Joint
Committee had supported the six Oxfordshire Councils to develop
Local Area Energy Plans (LAEP).
- Plans sought to squeeze energy
demand and increase the use of renewable energy sources as well as
ensuring infrastructure was in place to support this.
- Phase 1 would close soon, and the
plan entered phase 2 at this point. Phase 2 translated analysis
into district-level action plans which would help councils to
prioritise projects such as renewable energy generation, energy
storage and infrastructure improvement.
- The timing of the development of the
LAEP was key in terms of its input into the emerging Local Plan.
The LAEP would help identify places for development, constraints
and where investment was needed.
The Committee made a number of recommendations
to the Executive, which are included as an annex to these
minutes.
The Chair thanked the Executive Member and
Officers for their presentation.
Resolved: The Overview and Scrutiny Committee
noted the report and agreed to submit recommendations to the
Executive.
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41. |
Updates from Task and Finish Groups
For the Chairs of Task and Finish Groups to
provide any verbal or written progress updates..
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Early provided a verbal update to
the Committee on the work of the Public Conveniences Task and
Finish Group. The group had met at the end of July 2025 and the
discussion had focussed on:
- The options to be presented in the
upcoming Executive report which would be taken to the September
meeting.
- The cost per use of the various
facilities.
- The ownership of the various
facilities.
- The Group would continue for a
further year and focus on potential changes to pricing and
enhancement to the facilities.
A query was raised as to the total value of
the public conveniences. The Officers agreed to return to the
Committee on this point.
Councillor Stuart McCarroll provided a verbal update to the Committee
on the work of the Leisure Strategy Task and Finish Group:
- The Group had met on 10 June 2025,
and the following issues were discussed:
- The Council’s proposed Leisure
Options Appraisal.
- The need to continue to increase the
use of facilities.
- The difficulties with the booking
systems.
- Acquiring better performance data
for the facilities.
- Benchmarking.
- The Group had also met on 3
September 2025, and the following issues were discussed:
- The emerging Executive report.
- The non-core facilities being
financially supported by the core-facilities under all models.
- Work was still required to underpin
the cost assumptions in the final report.
- The options available for the
facilities, which included: re-procurement; contract extension;
Local Authorities Trading Companies and asset transfers to
third-party providers.
- The issues presented by LGR for
leisure facilities.
- The timeline for the consideration
of the Executive report, including pre-decision scrutiny was
provided to the Committee.
- The Executive report would be fully
exempt and any discussion at the October Committee meeting
(following the next Task and Finish Group meeting) may necessitate
the Committee moving to private session.
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42. |
Committee Work Programme PDF 107 KB
Purpose:
For the Committee to review and note its work
programme.
Recommendation:
That the Committee notes and comments on the
work programme.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Head of Democratic and Electoral Services
advised the Committee that the item on LGR, initially scheduled for
8 October 2025, was now expected to be brought to the Committee in
November 2025. This change was to align the Council’s
approach with the other Councils across the County.
It was noted that the Local Plan Spatial
Options item was being brought to the Committee in October.
Resolved: That the Committee accept the work
plan.
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43. |
Executive Work Programme PDF 146 KB
Purpose:
To give the Committee the opportunity to
comment on the Executive Work Programme.
Recommendation:
That the Committee agrees which items on the
Executive Work Programme should be subject to pre-decision scrutiny
and the priority order of those items.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Chair invited comments from the Committee
on the Executive Work Programme.
It was noted that there would be an all-member
briefing for the Local Plan.
The Chair thanked attendees and closed the
meeting.
The meeting closed at 7:52 pm.
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