Leaders Report – 16 July 2020

Leader’s report to South Oxfordshire Council Meeting – 16 July 2020

It is now five months since our last Council meeting although that seems an age ago.

From the start of the Lock Down people here have worked cooperatively at all levels for the good of their local communities. We hope we have now seen the worst of the virus so that we can look forward to a good recovery.

To all of the incredible volunteer groups, council officers who have been working way over their allotted hours, other partners, to you my fellow councillors and to our amazing co-operative local residents I would again like to offer my thanks.  We are very keen to carry on working with our wonderful community support groups as you will see in our draft Corporate Plan.

Consultation on our Draft Corporate Plan is now under way. I hope you have had time to look at it and send in comments. Notwithstanding the great efforts by Cllr Andrea Powell, and her fellow cabinet members, to whom I extend my thanks, in getting this Plan to where it is now, we would all welcome any suggestions for improvement.

Emerging Local Plan 2034/5 EiP

As you will have seen from last night’s Communications update the virtual Examination in Public has been ongoing this week with 564 people tuning in during the busiest session so far. Briefings and information on watching the proceedings are given on the website www.southoxon.gov.uk/examination – you can also find a link on the image panel of the website homepage.

Matters covered this week included housing requirements and trajectory for their delivery, the types of housing needed for various groups of people and issues around density and design. Other topics will be discussed over the remaining three weeks of the Examination. You do need to watch the proceedings while they are on if you are interested as recordings will not be available afterwards for data protection reasons.

Future of Local Government.

The government is promising a white paper on Local Government reorganisation in the autumn.  There is a motion on this later on the agenda. As last night’s LGA bulletin said, we should press for “genuine devolution led by local councils and driven by the priorities of residents.” I concur with these sentiments.

Cllr Sue Cooper

Leader, South Oxfordshire District Council