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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1, Council Offices, Woodgreen, Witney, Oxfordshire OX28 1NB. View directions

Items
No. Item

79.

Apologies for Absence and Temporary Appointment

To receive any apologies for absence and temporary appointments.

The quorum for the Committee is 6 Members.

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillors Adam Clements and Mark Walker.

 

Councillor Adrian Wray Arrived partway through the meeting, at 5:38pm.

 

Councillor Joy Aitman left the meeting early, at 6:40pm

80.

Declarations of Interest

To receive any declarations from Members of the Committee on any items to be considered at the meeting.

Minutes:

In relation to the item on Affordable Housing, Councillor Julian Cooper declared that he was a member of the Lowlands Planning Sub-Committee.

81.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 227 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 4 December 2024.

Minutes:

Councillor Mike Baggaley stated that he had been missed from the apologies from the previous meeting and asked that this be amended. 

 

Councillor Steve Cosier proposed accepting the minutes with Councillor Baggaley’s amendments.

 

The minutes were seconded by Councillor Poskitt and unanimously agreed.

 

RESOLVED: To agree the the minutes of the meeting held on 4 November.

82.

Chair's announcements

To receive any announcements from the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Minutes:

The Chair announced that a Survey on the Committee’s effectiveness would be sent within the next couple of weeks and asked that all members respond to this when they receive it.

 

The Chair explained that agenda item 8 would be moved to the end of the meeting.

 

The Chair also explained that the Sovereign Housing Association had been unable to attend the meeting and stated that the item would be deferred to a future meeting.

83.

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.

Minutes:

There was no participation of the public.

84.

Registered Provider Discussion: Sovereign Housing Association

Purpose

To receive a presentation from Sovereign Housing Association.

 

Recommendation

That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee resolves to:

1.      Note the presentation.

2.      Agree any recommendations it wishes to submit to the Executive on 15 January 2025.

Minutes:

As per the Chair’s announcements, the item was deferred and not discussed.

85.

Affordable Housing Delivery Update pdf icon PDF 585 KB

Purpose

This report provides an update on delivery against the corporate priority of delivering more affordable homes across the district, particularly social rented homes. This report sets out key information on the delivery of affordable housing to date and the future plans to intervene in the market in order to boost the supply of social rented accommodation.

 

Recommendation

That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee resolves to:

1.      Agree any recommendations it wishes to submit to the Executive on 15 January 2025.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The purpose of the report was to provide an update on delivery against the corporate priority of delivering more affordable homes across the district, particularly social rented homes. The report sets out key information on the delivery of affordable housing to date and the future plans to intervene in the market in order to boost the supply of social rented accommodation.

 

Councillor Geoff Saul, the Executive Member for Housing and Social Care Cabinet Member for introduced the item, highlighting the following;

  • The Council was forecast to deliver 240 socially rented homes between June 2024 to December 2025.
  • 162 units were within pipeline for completion
  • Social housing was priced at a substantially reduced rate of generally around 50-60% compared to the average market rate

 

The Executive Member asked the Housing Delivery Programme Manager to speak on the item. The Housing Delivery Programme Manager provided an overview of the report and explained that the Council was working with a range of registered providers to deliver socially rented accommodation.

 

Members of the Committee discussed the report, raising the following points of discussion and clarification;

 

Councillor Andrew Beaney proposed that the report be noted and that the Overview and Scrutiny recommend that the Council’s target on an additional 30 bedspaces within the district to clarify that the target is for the current financial target and to emphasise that the Council’s priority is to keep families together and in the district.

 

Councillor Ruth Smith seconded the proposal.

 

The Committee voted on the recommendations, which were agreed unanimously.

 

RESOLVED: That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

 

  1. Noted the update
  2. Recommended to the Executive that the Council’s target on providing a minimum of 30 temporary accommodation bed spaces is amended to clarify that the target is for the current  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85.

86.

Waste and Environmental Services Review pdf icon PDF 177 KB

Purpose

To provide an update on the review of the waste and environmental services contract with Ubico and to outline the proposed Oxfordshire Waste and Environmental Services (WESP) Transformation Programme.

 

Recommendation:

That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee resolves to:

1.      Agree any recommendations it wishes to submit to the Executive on 15 January 2025.

 

Minutes:

The Chair explained that the report contained an exempt annex and that if the Committee wished to discuss this it would need to resolve to go into a private session.

 

The purpose of the item was to update the Committee on the review of the waste and environmental services contract with Ubico and to outline the proposed Oxfordshire Waste and Environmental Services (WESP) Transformation Programme

 

At the Chair’s discretion, this item was taken as the last one on the agenda.

 

Lidia Arciszewska The Executive member for the Environment introduced the item, and explained that;

  • In partnership with Cherwell District Council and Oxford City Council, The Council had commissioned Activist to undertake a review of options for these services. Having already worked together to complete a dry mixed recycling procurement project, the three councils had common goals and could work together to achieve this at scale.
  • What was proposed was an extensive transformation project which would achieve economies of scale.
  • The contract for waste and recycling collection with Ubico was due to expire in March 2026 and the Council was seeking to extend it to 2027.

 

The Publica Assistant Director for Commercial Development provided an overview of the work, explaining that the project tied in to Government proposals intended to simplify waste collection and opportunities which would be provided by devolution.

 

Members of the Committee discussed the report, raising the following points of discussion and clarification;

  • The report highlighted that the cost of waste collection across the County was very high and welcomed the proposals for their ability to save money.
  • The Publica Assistant Director explained that the Council had been awarded an Extended Producer Responsibility Grant, which would likely be ringfenced to pay for costs such as commissioning and secondment associated with the work.
  • Simpler recycling was a separate work stream and it was important to get it right so that residents would understand changes.
  • The figures on page 64 related to annual returns provided by local authorities.

 

Councillor Liz Leffman proposed noting the report, welcoming the proposals and this proposal was seconded by Councillor Nick Leverton.

 

The recommendation was voted on and agreed unanimously.

 

RESOLVED: That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted the report.

 

87.

Report back on recommendations pdf icon PDF 173 KB

For the Committee to note the Executive’s response to any recommendations arising from the previous Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting.

Minutes:

The Head of Democratic and Electoral Services explained that the recommendations made by the Committee at the previous meeting had been considered by the Executive, and that the Executive had resolved to defer the recommendations to the meeting in March, when they were due to consider the Ubico business plan. 

 

RESOLVED: That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted the response

88.

Committee Work Programme pdf icon PDF 71 KB

Purpose:

To provide the Committee with an updated Work Programme for 2024/25.

 

Recommendation:

That the Committee notes and comments on the work programme.

Minutes:

The Committee considered the work plan. The Chair proposed the following amendments;

  • Community Safety Partnership item from March to April’s meeting.
  • Supporting Market Towns be removed as there would be a Member briefing on this instead.

 

The Committee agreed to the changes unanimously.

 

Resolved: To note the work programme

 

89.

Executive Work Programme pdf icon PDF 154 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.

Minutes:

In discussing this, it was mentioned that the Executive report on affordable housing had a recommendation to note and that the Committee’s time might be better spent on pre-decision scrutiny. The Chair explained that this could be considered in the survey feedback.

 

90.

Exclusion of the Press and Public

If the Overview and Scrutiny Committee wishes to exclude the press and public from the meeting during consideration of any of the items on the exempt from publication part of the agenda, it will be necessary for the Committee to pass a resolution in accordance with the provisions of the Paragraph 4(2)(b) of the Local Authorities ((Executive Arrangements) Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 on the grounds that their presence could involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as described in specific paragraphs of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

Minutes:

The Committee did not resolve to exclude the press and public.

91.

Waste and Environmental Services Review - Exempt Annex A

Minutes:

This was not discussed.