Proposed By Cllr Roz Smith

Liberal Democrat member motion

At the recent meeting of the County Council on July 14 the Leader of the Council, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, tabled a motion [agenda item 15] which, among other things, called on the Leader to “write to the Secretary of State requesting that its 2021 elections are held over until 2022 to allow sufficient time to undertake an open and wide-ranging conversation with our local authority partners, residents and stakeholders to explore all options for a new future for Oxfordshire”.

Council

·         wholeheartedly opposes any attempt to delay scheduled elections, further reducing democratic accountability, bearing in mind that other elections are also due to be held in May 2021, many of them already delayed by a year, and

·         instructs the Leader to write to the Leader of the County Council and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government communicating its view.

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