The Lord Mayor welcomed members to the first Council meeting of the new year.  He began by thanking those members who had attended the Lord Mayor’s Carol Service and Christmas Reception. He then announced his main civic events since the last meeting, including:

·       Carol services and other festive events

·       Menorah lighting on Broad Street

·       the visit of the Countess of Wessex to the Jubilee Centre

·       the Agri-Social Charity Road Run in Thame

·       visits to the Iraqi and Chinese communities

The Lord Mayor then gave instructions to Council, which he had composed in the form of a Haiku in honour of Chinese New Year:

Council has started

Set your mobiles to silent

And voices to loud

The Sheriff announced that since the last Council meeting he had:

·       attended a number of festive events

·       attended the Freemens’ Annual Dinner

·       participated in the visit of the Princess Royal, as Patron, to the Annual Farming Conference in Oxford

The Lord Mayor gave permission for the Leader of the Council to invite the Cabinet Member for Planning and Sustainable Transport to update Council on progress on the Oxford Local Plan. 

Councillor Hollingsworth went on record to thank the Planning Policy Team members for their hard work and to point out that the Planning Inspector had also paid tribute to that team for their professionalism and the quality of their work.  Councillor Gant echoed these sentiments and thanked all participants for their contribution. Councillor Gant said that he was pleased to note that the Inspectors had made reference to the proposals to deliver housing on brownfield sites.    In response to a question Councillor Hollingsworth referred members to the timetable for the finalisation of the Local Plan in the report and confirmed that a Special Council would be convened in early June to adopt the Local Plan.