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Delegated Decisions by Leader of the Council - Thursday, 22 May 2025 2.30 pm

May 22, 2025 View on council website
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Summary

This meeting of the Delegated Decisions by Leader of the Council was scheduled to consider the review of the Oxfordshire Statement of Community Involvement. The agenda also included opportunities for councillors to ask questions, and for members of the public to speak or present petitions. Councillor Liz Leffman, Leader of the Council, was expected to make the decisions.

Oxfordshire Statement of Community Involvement Review

The main item for discussion was the review of the Oxfordshire Statement of Community Involvement (SCI). The SCI sets out how Oxfordshire County Council will carry out consultations on both policy and development management matters.

The report pack included a recommendation that Councillor Liz Leffman, Leader of the Council, should:

Approve the review of the Statement of Community Involvement 2020, subject to a further review of the Statement of Community Involvement being carried out by December 2026.

The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 require that Statements of Community Involvement are reviewed every five years. The County Council adopted the Revised Oxfordshire Statement of Community Involvement in May 2020, and so it is required to be reviewed by May 2025.

A full review of the SCI is set out in Appendix 1 of the report.

The review identified several paragraphs within the document that would benefit from slight redrafting and correction of some typographical errors, but it was noted that none of them would affect the consultation process.

It was noted that provisions of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 are expected to come into effect later in the year, and a revised SCI will be needed following that.

The County Council’s six principles of consultation contained within the SCI remain unchanged, and the SCI follows those principles. These principles are:

  • keep an open mind and run consultations in an open and honest way
  • be clear about what we are consulting on and what we will do with the findings
  • give all relevant parties the chance to have their say
  • provide sufficient time and information to enable people to engage
  • take views expressed in consultations into account when we make decisions
  • provide effective and timely consultation feedback

The review concluded that there is no need to update the current SCI at this time, but that anticipated legislation on plan-making is likely to require a change following its coming into force.

Other items

The agenda also allowed for:

  • Declarations of interest from councillors
  • Questions from county councillors
  • Petitions and public address

Attendees

Profile image for Councillor Liz Leffman
Councillor Liz Leffman  Leader of the Council •  Liberal Democrat
Chris Reynolds

Topics

No topics have been identified for this meeting yet.

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