There were seven addresses to Council and one question to Board Members.

1. Jenny Stanton and Nikki Marriott of the Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association (ORFA) gave an address in support of the motion on twinning.

2. Judith Harley gave an address outlining problems with car and bike parking at Temple Cowley Library caused by the ongoing construction work and asking that the spaces are provided as shown in the planning permission.

3. Judith Harley gave an address asking for change to planning call in arrangements in the Council’s Constitution.

4. Artwell gave an address about Oxford Direct Services Ltd.

5. Artwell gave an address about Barton Community Association.

6. Nigel Gibson gave an address about the pricing structure and price increases at the Council’s leisure centres as in his view these were still not correct and still resulted in Oxford City Council discriminating against disabled people.

7. Sharone Parnes gave an address asking the Council to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, emphasising he asked for its adoption in its entirety with all the examples.

Councillor Brown made a statement after this address:

I thank Councillor Parnes for his petition. Following receipt of his petition I checked that we had not responded to the letter of January 2017. He is correct that we had not. Believing that all parties in the council would want Oxford City Council to be signed up to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, to make clear our abhorrence for racism in any form, I have written to the current Secretary of State for Local Government and Housing, James Brokenshire MP on behalf of the City Council. I will ask Committee Services to send a copy of the letter to all councillors and for the letter to form part of the formal record of this meeting.

It is important to note that neither the definition nor the examples cited in the declaration document preclude anyone from criticising Israeli government policy, but quite rightly demand that the language used to do so is appropriate.

Last week saw Israel pass a new law, the Nation State Law, that anyone committed to equality and minority rights must rightly condemn. I therefore am also intending to write this week to our two city MPs to ask them to take every opportunity to raise in parliament and with ministers the horror with which we view this new policy and to ask our government to make representations to the Israeli government. I will also circulate these letters which should also form part of the record of this council meeting.

8. Artwell asked a question about the future of the Royal British Legion Building, Barton

The full text of these speeches and question where these were read as submitted; responses from the Board Members in writing before the meeting; and summaries of verbal responses given at the meeting are in the supplement to these minutes.