The Place Overview & Scrutiny Committee was scheduled to meet to discuss the Police and Crime Justice Plan for Oxfordshire, and the council's response to the recommendations of a citizens assembly. The committee was also expected to review its forward work plan and action tracker, and to note the cabinet's response to scrutiny recommendations on network management.

Police and Crime Justice Plan for Oxfordshire

As part of its responsibilities as a Crime and Disorder Panel, the committee was scheduled to hear from Matthew Barber, the Police and Crime Commissioner for the Thames Valley, Jason Hogg, the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, and Chief Superintendent Benedict Clark, Local Command Unit Commander for Oxfordshire.

Matthew Barber was expected to present his annual report on the progress made against the Police and Criminal Justice Plan. Jason Hogg and Benedict Clark were also scheduled to give a presentation.

The annual report from Matthew Barber, the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Thames Valley, noted that the 2024-25 period was the first year of delivery under his new five-year Police and Criminal Justice Plan. The report highlighted achievements including:

• The expansion of the Rural Crime Taskforce¹
• The launch of a Thames Valley-wide youth intervention programme to tackle knife crime
• The continued rollout of the CCTV Partnership
• The transformation of forensic services

The PCC's report also noted future key focus areas for 2025-26:

• Supporting Schedule 1 Authorities across Thames Valley to meet the requirements of the Serious Violence Duty²
• Delivering a new Victims Funding Strategy to align with upcoming legislation and ensure sustainable, high-quality support services
• Championing whole-system reform of criminal justice
• Exploring the opportunities of local government reorganisation and devolution
• Enhancing public confidence and trust through improved transparency, engagement, and outcomes for victims and communities

The presentation from Jason Hogg, the Chief Constable, included an update on the Force Review, described as the biggest review and restructure of our force since 2010. According to the presentation, the review had identified £15.7 million of savings, with £7 million already delivered. The new structure was intended to allow resources to be surged to meet demand, and to provide better levels of local scrutiny and public oversight through the establishment of Local Command Unit Community Scrutiny Panels.

The presentation also highlighted several initiatives:

• Op Purchase: Increased patrols and collaboration with businesses to reduce retail crime.
• Neighbourhood App: Rollout of an app to the entire force to embed engagement logs, link Thames Valley alerts, hotspots, and log patrol activity.
• Thames Valley Alerts: Over 107,000 users with 586,000 total messages and 44,520 alert interactions.
• E-scooters/E-Bikes focus: Addressing issues related to e-scooters and e-bikes, including assigning Single Points of Contact (SPOCs), exploring the use of Selecta DNA sprays, and engaging with the public and schools to educate on legality and risks.
• Courageous Conversations Programme: Healthy Team Culture Training to encourage reporting issues and challenge poor behaviour.
• Project Vigilant: Implemented in 2019 to prevent sexual offending in the night time economy.
• Does it Matter Campaign: Encouraging the reporting of non-contact sexual offences.
• Rural Crime: The TVP Rural Crime Taskforce is increasing in size and working with the South East Partnership Against Rural Crime (SEPARC).

Citizens Assembly

The committee was scheduled to consider the council's response to the recommendations of a citizens assembly, prior to approval by the Cabinet in July 2025. Councillor Andrew Gant, Cabinet member for Transport Management, and Councillor Judy Roberts, Cabinet member for Place, Environment, and Climate Action, were invited to present the report. Paul Fermer, Director of Environment and Highways, and Susannah Wintersgill, Director of Public Affairs, Policy and Partnerships, as well as Carole Stow, Engagement Consultation Manager, Victoria Powell, Communications and Engagement Manager (Strategic Programmes), as well as Hannah Battye, Head of Place Shaping, Joanne Fellowes, Place Planning Manager (Central), and Melissa Goodacre, Sustainable Transport Manager were also invited to answer questions.

Committee Work Plan

The committee was expected to agree its work programme for forthcoming meetings, taking into account the Cabinet Forward Plan and the Budget Management Monitoring Report.

Committee Action and Recommendation Tracker

The committee was scheduled to note the progress of previous recommendations and actions arising from previous meetings. The update to the committee's recommendations on Vision Zero were appended as an annex to the tracker.

Responses to Scrutiny Recommendations

The committee was asked to note the Cabinet response to the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee report on Network Management. The Cabinet's response stated that the council would:

explore different models for compliance and enforcement with regard to highways works, including the use of technology and crowdsourcing to report issues.

The Cabinet's response also stated that the council would partially accept the recommendation to:

increase enforcement on 'street scars' and ensure proper reinstatement of road surfaces after works.

The Cabinet's response noted that while the service had received additional investment to allow for increased investigation and management of works, statutory undertakers are only bound to match the colour of their reinstatement to the colour of the road surface, and that the council can rarely ask for full width reinstatements to be made.