This motion was not taken as the time allowed for debate had finished.

This motion was not taken as the time allowed for debate had finished.

This motion was not taken as the time allowed for debate had finished.

This motion was not taken as the time allowed for debate had finished.

Council considered a report of the Acting Head of Planning Services submitted to the City Executive Board on 10 April. The City Executive Board recommended to Council that the Summertown and St. Margaret’s Neighbourhood Plan be “made” (formally adopted).

Councillor Hollingsworth, the Board Member for Planning and Transport presented the report and moved the recommendations, which were adopted on being seconded and put to the vote.

Council resolved that the Summertown and St. Margaret’s Neighbourhood Plan be “made”.

Councillor Wolff, seconded by Councillor Simmons, proposed the submitted motion as set out in the agenda and briefing note.

Two amendments were set out in the briefing note. Councillor Wolff accepted the amendment from Councillor Harris, but not the amendment from Councillor Hayes.

Councilor Hayes proposed and Councillor Brown seconded his amendment.

After debate and on being put to the vote the amendment was declared carried.

Council then debated the amended motion, and on being put to the vote this was declared carried.

Council resolved to adopt the following motion, as amended:

On 28th January 2019, the Council unanimously passed an amended motion declaring a Climate Emergency. Since then, the County Council has followed suit to unanimously acknowledge the climate emergency facing the world.

The majority of Councils, including Oxfordshire, have pledged to make their own operations carbon neutral by a specified date and put in place a process to report back on progress.

This Council has gone further, by committing to involve a Citizens Assembly to make recommendations on the key decisions around both target deadlines to reach zero carbon and the types of costed measures required to meet those targets. We await the evidence-based recommendations of the Citizens Assembly in September 2019 in order to make decisions and set deadlines that reflect the support of a representation of the city.

Therefore, we will:

1.            Continue to call on the Government to provide the powers and resources to fully decarbonise Oxford City Council in the shortest timeframe working towards the vision of zero carbon by 2030 at the latest.

2.            Continue to work with partners across the city to deliver this new goal across all sectors and make further reductions in carbon emissions as the City Council is responsible for just 1% of Oxford’s carbon emissions.

3.            Ensure, as far as possible, that any new targets are reflected in the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 and associated plans and strategies.

4.            Report to Council within two months of the finalisation of the Citizens Assembly report with the actions the Council will take to address this emergency.

5.            After the Citizens Assembly has reported, encourage Scrutiny, as master of its own house, to consider setting up a review group to scrutinise and support plans to deliver against targets.

6.            Respect the process agreed to unanimously by all councillors on 28 January 2019 to approve a Citizens Assembly to ‘establish the facts and make recommendations’ for dealing with cli-mate change and discourage the submission of further motions to Full Council which may pre-empt the findings of the Citizens Assembly.

There were no questions taken on these minutes as the time had elapsed.

Council had before it six motions on notice and amendments submitted in accordance with Council procedure rules and reached decisions as set out below.

Council resolved to adopt the following motions as set out in these minutes:

a.    Acting on the Climate Emergency

b.    Council tax exemption for Care Leavers under 25 years old

The following motions were not taken as the time allocated for debate had elapsed:

c.    Homelessness - Six months to plan for Winter 2019/20

d.    Supporting the EU election process

e.    Nuclear disarmament

f.     Climate Emergency priorities in new builds

Council had before it the report of the Scrutiny Committee Chair.

Councillor Gant introduced the report, thanking those councillors and officers who had contributed through the year, and noting that the committee would consider the long list of work plan suggestions at its June meeting.

Council noted the report.

Councillors Aziz, Pressel and Tidball left before the start of this item.

 There were five addresses to Council.

1.    Alistair Morris gave an address to ask for the planting thousands of trees in and around the city, as this improves the city and contributes to mitigating climate change.

2.    Dr Graham Jones gave an address asking for a review of the procedures for assessing minor planning and licensing applications to avoid the detrimental effects of many incremental changes.

3.    Izzy and Kamila gave an address asking for support to improve the standard of living and tackle the climate crisis via sustainability in education.

4.    Artwell gave an address asking the Council to rescind its adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance policy as he considered it incompatible with the decision to be a twin city of Ramallah.

5.    Judith Harley gave an address asking for easier and on-line methods of viewing and responding to all city council consultations, including those proposing changes to charges in car parks such as the Cowley Marsh Car Park.

The full text of these speeches read as submitted; responses from the Board Members in writing before the meeting; and summaries of any verbal responses given at the meeting are set out in the printed pack of these minutes.

44 written questions were asked of the Board members and Leader, and written responses published.

These, written responses, and summaries of the 19 supplementary questions and responses are set out in the printed pack of these minutes.

Council had before it the minutes of the last five City Executive Board meetings.

There were no addresses or questions.

The Lord Mayor announced;

-       His visit to Padova to sign the twinning agreement

-       The annual Oxford Bonn Link week visit to Bonn

-       His charity dinner had raised over £2000 for Nightline and the Samaritans

The Leader of the Council announced new champions

-       Cllr Munkonge as Champion for small businesses

-       Cllr Humberstone as armed forces and veterans’ Champion

There were no changes to committee memberships.

Council agreed to approve

·         the minutes of the ordinary meeting held on 29 January 2019 and

·         the minutes of the budget meeting on 13 February 2019

as true and correct records.

Minute 109a: Councillor Simmons declared in the interests of transparency that he was a contractor and small shareholder in Anthesis, who had a contract for a small amount of work supporting the City Council with its climate change strategy; but this did not qualify as a disclosable pecuniary interest. He would therefore remain in the chamber and take part in the debate.

Councillor Upton sent apologies

Councillors Djafari-Marbini, McManners, Bely-Summers, Goddard, Corais and Iley-Williamson arrived during the meeting as shown in the minutes.

Councillors Aziz, Pressel and Tidball left the meeting at the point shown in the minutes.

Minutes 159 and 170 (Review of civic flag flying arrangements)

Councillor Gant asked about cross-party involvement in one-off requests to fly particular flags, as this was a civic matter. Councillor Brown, Leader, replied that she would generally seek cross-party views before a decision was made, especially where a request might cause controversy.

Minute 162 (Securing Social Value through Procurement)

Councillor Simmons asked about the process to determine ‘social value’ when assessing contracts. Councillor Turner replied that the Scrutiny (or Finance Panel if they wished) may in due course ask for a report on the process, and an update report once the principle was better-established.

Minute 154 (Twinning links)

Councillor Wade asked how, given the relatively small budget, the Oxford International Links team would be able to organise and manage effective links with the eight twin cities: it was clear help was needed and would this be provided from voluntary community Link groups and the universities.

Councillor Clarkson replied that she was conscious of the limited budget. There were ongoing discussions with the Oxford International Links Team (who collaborated with the local voluntary twinning associations) about effective use of their resources and new initiatives including bringing several cities together for events.

Councillor Bely-Summers and Corais arrived during the debate.

Council considered a report of the Assistant Chief Executive submitted to the City Executive Board on 13 March 2019 to seek approval for the 2018-19 Annual Update on the Corporate Plan 2016-20. The City Executive Board had resolved to approve the Annual Update as set out in Annex 1 of that report

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Brown presented the report and answered questions.

Council noted the Annual Update to the Corporate Plan.

Council considered a report of the Monitoring Officer submitted to the Standards Committee on 25 February 2019. The Standards Committee resolved to recommend Council to approve the changes to the “complaints handling arrangements” documentation including the introduction of assessment criteria for code of conduct complaints set out in the report and appendices.

The Chair of the Standards Committee, Councillor Aziz presented the report and appendices and moved the recommendations, which were adopted on being seconded and put to the vote.

Council resolved to:

1.            approve the proposed changes to the “complaints handling arrangements” documentation as detailed in the report and the appendices; and

2.            delegate authority to the Monitoring Officer to amend and agree the final text and design of the draft “Arrangements for dealing with code of conduct complaints against councillors” documentation (as set out in Appendix 1 of the report).

There were no questions on these minutes.

Councillors Goddard and Iley Williamson arrived during this item.

Minutes 125 and 126 (JSSP Regulation 18 Consultation Document)

Councillor Simmons asked why non-minor amendments were made to the text of the Oxfordshire 2050 Plan (JSSP) consultation document between its approval at each authority and its publication; given that the Scrutiny Committee was advised it could not recommend changes. He also asked how many responses were received.

Councillor Hollingsworth replied that he could not confirm the reasons, but his understanding was that the changes were made to better reflect a correct interpretation of the law and clarify the proposals. A large number of responses were received: some from landowners offering sites and others covering a range of themes.  There was a common theme on housing people effectively in a way that was sustainable, low environmental impact, and reduced the impact on climate change. The Council had not responded to what was effectively its own consultation.

Minute 129 (Treasury management report)

Councillor Simmons welcomed the renegotiation and retention of the loan facility for the Low Carbon Hub.

Councillor Azad, seconded by Councillor Lygo, proposed the submitted motion as set out in the agenda and briefing note.

Councillor Azad accepted the amendment proposed by Councillor Henwood as set out in the briefing note.

After debate and on being put to the vote the amended motion was agreed.

Council resolved to adopt the following motion:

In Oxford we have a proud record of support for people who are struggling financially. Children in local authority care are particularly vulnerable as they move into independent accommodation and begin to manage their own budget fully for the first time. It can be extremely challenging. With no family to support them and insufficient financial education, some will fall into debt and financial difficulty.

The Children and Social Work Act 2017 places corporate parenting responsibilities on district councils for the first time, requiring them to have regards to children in care and care leavers when carrying out their functions.

This provides us with a fantastic opportunity to work together with Oxfordshire County Council and surrounding district colleagues for the benefit of approximately 800 young care leavers who are 16-25 years old across Oxfordshire.

The city council already has a good model of council tax reduction which supports many vulnerable people. All care leavers in financial need are covered by our existing policies. Oxford City Council also has policies of financial and social inclusion in many other areas such as access to our leisure services, advice support and access to housing services that are good models of financial and social inclusion that benefit care leavers among others.

Council notes that many councils chose to end their council tax reduction schemes when the government ceased to provide financial support for these schemes centrally but that in Oxford we chose to retain our scheme to support households who were struggling financially, particularly in light of the government’s austerity programme.

Council therefore resolves to ask the Leader of the Council

·         to engage with the County Council to see how we can do more to ensure that care leavers and young people who are registered carers, some of our most vulnerable citizens, have the best possible start when they set up their own homes.

·         to work with other District Councils to share our expertise in implementing council tax reduction schemes, with a view to looking at broader general agreement on social and financial inclusion policies across the districts as soon as possible.

Award of contract to complete the full capital works to convert the Floyds Row building into a Homeless Shelter and Assessment Hub

Councillors Djafari-Marbini, and McManners arrived during the debate.

Council considered a report of the Head of Housing submitted to the City Executive Board on 10 April 2019 to seek Project Approval for the development of a new homeless shelter and assessment hub at Floyds Row to further develop services focusing on the prevention and relief of rough sleeping, including winter shelter provision; to request further capital funding from Council; and to delegate authority to enter into construction contracts accordingly.

Councillor Linda Smith, the Board Member for Leisure and Housing presented the report and moved the recommendations, which were adopted on being seconded and put to the vote.

Council resolved:

that, subject to the outcome of the forthcoming architectural feasibility work being affordable and within the proposed budget envelope, that a revised capital scheme now totalling £458k (an additional £274k up from an original £184k) relating to Option C as set out in the officer’s report is included in the Council’s 2019/20 capital programme (the funding of which is achievable albeit potentially from a variety of sources the ranking of which is still as yet to be finalised).