Items
| No. |
Item |
62. |
Apologies for Absence and Temporary Appointments
To receive any apologies for absence and
temporary appointments. The quorum for the Committee is six
members.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Apologies were noted from Councillors Natalie
King, Mark Walker and Alex Wilson.
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63. |
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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64. |
Minutes of Previous Meeting  PDF 41 KB
To approve the minutes of the Committee
meeting held 11 November 2025.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Chair noted that Councillor Alaric Smith,
Executive Member for Finance, was present at the previous meeting
and the minutes should reflect this.
The approval of the minutes, subject to this
correction, was proposed by Councillor Cosier, seconded by
Councillor Leffman, put to the vote and agreed by the
Committee.
RESOLVED: To approve the minutes of the
meeting held on 11 November 2025 be confirmed as an accurate
record, subject to the inclusion of Cllr Alaric Smith in the list
of those present.
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65. |
Chair's announcements
To receive any announcements from the Chair of
the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Chair stated that full Council on 3
December 2025 had referred a motion on Protecting Fire Services in
West Oxfordshire to the Committee. This would be considered at the
7 January 2025 meeting and representatives of the County Council
and the Fire Brigades Union were being invited. The paperwork for
the January meeting would be distributed before Christmas.
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66. |
Participation of the Public
To receive any submissions from members of the
public, in accordance with the Council’s Rules of Procedure,
anyone who lives in the district or who pays council tax or
business rates to the Council is eligible to read a statement or
express an opinion at this meeting. You
can register to speak by sending your written submission of no more
than 750 words to [email protected]
by no later than 10.00am on the working day before the meeting.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
There was no participation of the public.
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67. |
Report back on recommendations PDF 171 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 Committee noted the Executive’s
response to the Committee’s recommendations on Youth
Engagement and Local Government Reorganisation.
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68. |
Updates from Task and Finish Groups PDF 27 KB
To receive any updates from the
Committee’s task and finish groups.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Senior Democratic Services Officer stated
that the Waste Transformation Task & Finish Group had met the
previous day and wished to submit comments to the Executive on the
Waste and Environmental Services Programme report. The
Group’s comments were tabled and the Committee agreed for
them to be submitted to the Executive meeting on 17 December
2025.
The Chair stated that the Waste Transformation
Task & Finish Group would hold a further meeting to consider
questions raised about waste and recycling at the September
Committee meeting.
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69. |
2025/26 Quarterly Finance Review Q2 PDF 420 KB
Purpose
Pre-decision scrutiny of an Executive report
detailing the financial performance of the Council in the second
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:
The Director of Finance introduced the report
and highlighted that investment income was above expectations.
The Committee asked questions and noted from
the responses of the Director of Finance and the Head of Finance
that:
- There was a projected underspend in
Environmental Services due to a variety of factors including the
positive performance of the trade waste service.
- The Council had been obliged to
return unused grant funding to Sports England. This had occurred
due to a misunderstanding about VAT treatment (which had been
corrected after year end), rather than an underspend on a specific
project.
- Officers would recommend setting
aside funding in an earmarked reserve for Local Government
Reorganisation in the budget setting process.
- Capital slippage in relation to
investment property repairs and regeneration was considered normal
due to the length and complexity of projects such as Carterton
Industrial Estate Units 1-3, which was now in the construction
phase.
- Agency costs e.g. in planning
services were often due to the need to access specialist
consultancy skills for a limited period or to backfill for
maternity or sickness absences.
- There was no individual cost centre
for fly tipping. Fly tipping had costs in terms of officer time
within Environmental and Regulatory Services. Future reports could
show fly tipping as a separate item.
- Election income was largely
accounted for after elections took place and there were significant
time delays.
The Chair thanked the officers for their
report and attendance.
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70. |
2025/26 Quarterly Service Review Q2 PDF 97 KB
Purpose
Pre-decision scrutiny of an Executive report
detailing the service performance of the Council in the second
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 report and highlighted that:
- Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)
charging would take effect from 31 January 2026.
- Witney and Chipping Norton markets
had transferred to a new operator in August which had made a
positive difference.
- The Council had endorsed the
Oxfordshire Nature Recovery Strategy.
- Progress had been made on
decarbonising the Windrush Leisure Centre in Witney.
- Missed bin collections were well
within target.
- Gym memberships were above targets,
as were visits to leisure centres, helped by improvements and new
marketing strategies.
- The processing times for Council Tax
Support and Housing Benefit changes had improved but remained below
target. £250k had been secured in unclaimed benefits for
residents.
- A staff absence in September had
impacted Land Charges performance but performance was now
improving.
The Committee asked questions and noted
that:
- While the Council was not meeting
its own targets for appeal decisions, it was within the government
targets for both major and minor applications.
- The housing benefit target was under
review due to the complexity of the cases and the fact that
timescales were measured from the initial contact rather than the
required information being received.
- Fly tipping enforcement performance
of 0.33% was expected to improve.
- To date this year no officer
recommendations that had been overturned by planning sub-committees
had been lost on appeal. Appeal decisions were regularly reported
to the planning sub-committees. A breakdown could be provided in
future reports.
- Garden waste generally accounted for
c. 40-45% of all recycling but volumes of green waste had dropped
nationally due to the dry summer, affecting the overall recycling
rate. The Council continued to perform comparatively very well at
recycling.
- Officers were working on
benchmarking the leisure service against other Greenwich Leisure
Ltd. (GLL) contracts or GLL national figures. Questions were also
raised about the reliability of footfall trends given a perceived
lack of access controls at facilities.
- There was a need for clear
measurable key performance indicators to underpin the Biodiversity
Action Plan.
- A complaint that had been upheld by
the Local Government Ombudsman had been reported to the Audit and
Governance Committee.
The Committee commended the overall positive
performance that was presented in the report and requested that
future reports include a break down of appeal decisions and more
information about disabled facilities grants and fly tipping, in
particular the impact of the new bookings system at waste and
recycling centres on instances of fly tipping.
The Committee requested an update on why the
Chipping Norton Leisure Centre decarbonisation project was not
being progressed.
The Chair thanked the Leader and officers for
their report and attendance.
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71. |
Local Plan Annual Monitoring 2024/25 PDF 159 KB
Purpose
Pre-decision scrutiny of an Executive report
detailing the Council’s Local Plan Annual Monitoring Report
for 2024/25.
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:
The Principal Planning Policy Officer
presented the Local Plan Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) for 2024/25
and highlighted that:
- Three stages of Local Plan
consultation had been completed and the fourth stage was underway,
generating a positive level of engagement with over 600 comments
submitted to date as well as high attendance at community
engagement events.
- The next stage would be the Draft
Local Plan consultation in Spring 2026.
- One Neighbourhood Plan had recently
been made, making a total of 10 made plans with a further 7 in
progress.
- 1368 applications had been
determined and over 1100 approved.
- Permission had been granted for a
net gain of 667 dwellings and 300 net dwellings had been completed
in 2024/25, of which over 50% were affordable tenures. It was
acknowledged that housing delivery had not kept up with identified
need.
- Progress had been made on the
delivery of key infrastructure projects.
- The Council was using Grampian
conditions to ensure that sewerage infrastructure was in place
prior to the occupation of new dwellings.
The Committee asked questions and noted from
the responses of the Head of Planning and Principal Planning Policy
Officer that:
- The Draft Local Plan and
accompanying Infrastructure Delivery Plan would draw on a range of
robust evidence and facilitate a more proactive approach to
ensuring that infrastructure would be phased appropriately to
support the planned level of growth.
- Grampian conditions were considered
a last resort that the Council had had to rely on. The wording of
conditions had been improving to make them more robust.
- There was a robust policy on the
water environment, including water supply and flood risk. The
Council would review this policy as part of the Local Plan
process.
- The issue of sewerage capacity was
not unique to Oxfordshire but was high on the agenda of the Oxford
Growth Commission.
- Policies were in place to ensure
that a good proportion of new housing was affordable housing but
the overall housing delivery figures were well below target. There
were a number of approvals coming through which were expected to
lead to an uplift in delivery but the target was very
challenging.
- The Council was under an obligation
to work collaboratively with neighbouring authorities on housing
delivery. Oxford City was looking to rebase its Local Plan from
2025 and discussions remained ongoing.
- The Council did not capture data on
the effect of applying the tilted balance (i.e. the numbers of
applications approved that would have otherwise been refused if the
Council was able to demonstrate a 5-year housing land supply).
- It was difficult to estimate when
the Council would once again be able to demonstrate a 5-year
housing land supply but the Council was doing all it could to
address the issue.
- The Council had a dedicated officer
tracking S106 agreements to ensure their delivery. All tiers of
local government could bid for how S106 contributions would be used
to mitigate the impact of development.
- The introduction of CIL would
provide some funding directly to town and parish councils
...
view the full minutes text for item 71.
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72. |
Promoting Rural Exception Sites
Purpose
To receive a verbal update on the
Council’s work around promoting rural exception.
Recommendation
That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee
resolves to:
1.
Note the presentation and agree any recommendations it wishes to
submit to the Executive.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Strategic Housing Officer provided a
presentation on promoting rural exception sites to deliver
affordable housing, including the Council’s policies and
recent examples of schemes within the district. The officer
highlighted that:
- Planning consent had recently been
granted for an affordable housing scheme in Leafield, which had
originated from an approach by the landowner. A registered housing
provider was looking to take this scheme on, once developed.
- The Council was engaging with
Community First, which had a track record of drawing on government
funding to support rural affordable housing.
- Conversations were ongoing with a
number of parish councils about identifying possible rural
exception sites, including Chadlington, Tackley, Enstone, Hailey
and Ducklington.
- Work was also going on to engage
with Registered Providers who may be interested in managing rural
affordable housing schemes. An alternative approach was for schemes
to be community-led.
The Committee asked questions and noted
that:
- Rural exception sites were those
that would be unlikely to be granted consent for open market
housing schemes due to their location or other constraints but
would be more likely to be considered policy-compliant where they
met an identified need for affordable housing.
- The housing need being met by a
particular site would depend on its location and which Local Plan
policies would be applicable. Within the Cotswold National
Landscape area, it would be the identified need within the
settlement/area itself. In order areas, it may be the district-wide
affordable housing need.
- There was no specific target for
affordable housing delivered through rural exception sites. There
was an overall identified need of 274 affordable units per year
district-wide dating from 2014 and the Council had exceeded that
figure in several years. A new affordable housing target would be
set as part of the Local Plan process.
The Chair thanked the officers for their
presentation.
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73. |
Committee Work Programme PDF 100 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 Senior Democratic Services Officer
explained that the budget item had been moved from January to
February and Community Grants would move to March as a result. An
updated work programme would be published in due course.
The Committee noted the updated work
programme.
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74. |
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 Committee agreed to add Woodford Way to
the January meeting for pre-decision scrutiny.
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