Agenda item


Motions

To debate the following motions which have been submitted with advance notice, in accordance with the Constitution (to be debated in the order submitted).

 

Topic

Proposer

Seconder

Planning

Cllr Ian Corkin

TBC

Banbury FM

Cllr Kieron Mallon

TBC

Oxford Cambridge ARC

Cllr Ian Middleton

Cllr John Broad

 

Please note that the deadline to submit motions has passed. The deadline for Members to submit amendments to motions is noon on Thursday 14 October 2021. No amendments will be permitted after this deadline.

 

Any amendments submitted will be published as a supplement to the agenda on the afternoon of Friday 15 October 2021. Amendments for motions will be dealt with in the order submitted. 

 

 

Decision:

Resolved

 

(1)          That the following motion be adopted:

 

This council believes that planning works best when developers and communities work closely together to shape local areas when delivering new homes, infrastructure and commercial sites.

 

Notwithstanding the above, this Council further believes that the ability of individual residents to support or object to planning applications is an invaluable part of the planning system.  As we await the emerging Planning Reform Bill, this council calls on the Leader of the Council to closely monitor the situation and lobby as appropriate, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, The Local Government Association and the District Councils Network to ask them to support and uphold this vital principle”

 

(For information, following debate of the proposed motion, on being put to the vote the amendment was lost and subsequently fell)

 

(2)          That the following motion be adopted:

 

“This Council welcomes Banbury FM’s objective to secure a licence to provide a locally run radio station dedicated to the listeners of North Oxfordshire.

 

More particularly, this Council supports Banbury FM’s aspiration to operate the local DAB multiplex and to secure an FM community radio licence when they become available.

 

This Council requests that the Leader writes to Ofcom and the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to convey our support to Banbury FM for its initiative to persuade Ofcom of Banbury FM’s community-mindedness and licensing credentials to ensure that Banbury FM’s laudable aims can be realised”.

 

 

(For information, following debate of the Oxford Cambridge Arc motion, on being put to the vote the motion was lost and subsequently fell)

 

Minutes:

The Chairman advised that three motions had been submitted and would be considered in the order submitted.

 

One amendment to the first motion, Planning, had been submitted.  In line with the Constitution, no further amendments to motions were now permitted.

 

Motion 1: Planning

 

It was proposed by Councillor Corkin and seconded by Councillor Wood that the following motion be adopted.

 

This council believes that planning works best when developers and communities work closely together to shape local areas when delivering new homes, infrastructure and commercial sites.

 

Notwithstanding the above, this Council further believes that the ability of individual residents to support or object to planning applications is an invaluable part of the planning system.  As we await the emerging Planning Reform Bill, this council calls on the Leader of the Council to closely monitor the situation and lobby as appropriate, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, The Local Government Association and the District Councils Network to ask them to support and uphold this vital principle”

 

Councillor Middleton proposed the following amendment (amendments in italics), which was duly seconded by Councillor Walker.

 

“This council believes that planning works best when developers and communities work closely together to shape local areas when delivering new homes, infrastructure and commercial sites.

 

Notwithstanding the above, this Council further believes that the ability of individual residents to support or object to planning applications and policy is an invaluable part of the planning system and should be given due weight as part of the decision process.

 

As we await the emerging Planning Reform Bill, this council calls on the Leader of the Council to closely monitor the situation and lobby as appropriate, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, The Local Government Association and the District Councils Network to ask them to support and uphold this vital principle and the Prime Minister's promise of a 'brownfield first' policy made at the Conservative Party conference.

 

While we wait for the Prime Minister's pledge that there will be no further unnecessary building on green fields to become national planning policy, and in view of the significant local opposition to recent proposals to remove areas in Cherwell from the Green Belt, we further call on the leader to write to the Secretary of State to review Cherwell's Local Plan Partial Review in light of the Prime Minister's words and/or to call in any planning applications proposed on former Green Belt sites to establish if there are not now, or at the point of application, more suitable brown field sites available"

 

The amendment was debated and on being put to the vote was lost and therefore fell.

 

Council debated the motion as submitted, which on being put to the vote was carried and therefore approved.

 

Motion 2: Banbury FM

 

It was proposed by Councillor Mallon and seconded by Councillor Ilott that the following motion be adopted.

 

“This Council welcomes Banbury FM’s objective to secure a licence to provide a locally run radio station dedicated to the listeners of North Oxfordshire.

 

More particularly, this Council supports Banbury FM’s aspiration to operate the local DAB multiplex and to secure an FM community radio licence when they become available.

 

This Council requests that the Leader writes to Ofcom and the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to convey our support to Banbury FM for its initiative to persuade Ofcom of Banbury FM’s community-mindedness and licensing credentials to ensure that Banbury FM’s laudable aims can be realised”.

 

No amendments to the motion having been proposed, the motion was debated as submitted. On being put to the vote was carried.

 

Motion 3: Oxford Cambridge Arc

 

It was proposed by Councillor Middleton and seconded by Councillor Broad that the following motion be adopted.

 

“Council notes that the Government recently completed a public consultation on the Vision for The Oxford to Cambridge Arc.

 

The consultation appeared to be designed in such a way as to suggest that growth is a given and provided little opportunity to challenge the need for the Arc project.

 

The government commissioned Dasgupta Reviewcriticised the UK's approach to growth and the belief that technological progress can overcome the exhaustibility of natural resources.

 

While there have been attempts to prioritise nature and climate action by proposing the Arc Environmental Principles, the recent  consultation essentially ignored them.

 

This 'top-down' approach overrides public opinion, flies in the face of planetary resource constraints and is incompatible with the levelling up agenda or commitments to combat climate change.

 

Council notes these concerns and asks the Leader to write to the Minister for Levelling up, Housing and Communities, asking him to:

 

1.    Set out clearly the Government’s aims for the Arc, including expected costs, projected housing numbers and growth expectations.

 

2.    Engage in genuine public consultation on the need for the Arc and if excessive growth should be targeted in the South East when other areas are in far greater need of investment to ‘level up’ the UK.

 

3.    Ensure proper local democratic control, with local planning authorities able to set their own housing requirements based on local need.

 

4.    Ensure local authorities within the Arc area have the powers and funding to protect biodiversity, enable nature restoration and maintain the highest environmental standards.”

 

No amendments to the motion having been proposed, the motion was debated as submitted. On being put to the vote was lost and therefore fell.

 

Resolved

 

(1)          That the following motion be adopted:

 

This council believes that planning works best when developers and communities work closely together to shape local areas when delivering new homes, infrastructure and commercial sites.

 

Notwithstanding the above, this Council further believes that the ability of individual residents to support or object to planning applications is an invaluable part of the planning system.  As we await the emerging Planning Reform Bill, this council calls on the Leader of the Council to closely monitor the situation and lobby as appropriate, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, The Local Government Association and the District Councils Network to ask them to support and uphold this vital principle”

 

(2)          That the following motion be adopted:

 

“This Council welcomes Banbury FM’s objective to secure a licence to provide a locally run radio station dedicated to the listeners of North Oxfordshire.

 

More particularly, this Council supports Banbury FM’s aspiration to operate the local DAB multiplex and to secure an FM community radio licence when they become available.

 

This Council requests that the Leader writes to Ofcom and the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to convey our support to Banbury FM for its initiative to persuade Ofcom of Banbury FM’s community-mindedness and licensing credentials to ensure that Banbury FM’s laudable aims can be realised”.

 

 

Supporting documents: