Councillor Gant was grateful to Board Members for their positive responses to Scrutiny Committee recommendations.

In relation to the report on Assessing Disability Impacts in Planning, this was a matter that needed to be kept under review and, also, although not referred to in the recommendations, planning should take account of cognitive disability.

In relation to the report on the Oxford Design Review Panel, it was clear that the Panel had a valuable role to play. He noted two changes to the recommendations as originally crafted by the Committee. First, that access to heritage expertise should be limited to projects in conservation areas, secondly the proposal that Councillors be alerted to pre-application proposals was constrained to some extent by the fact that such proposals are normally confidential.