To receive communications from the Chairman.
Minutes:
The Chairman made the following announcement:
“Today’s meeting is the last one of 2022. This has been an eventful year for the council and I just wanted to take few moments to highlight the achievements we have made and the challenges we face as we approach 2023.
We have no successfully decoupled from Oxfordshire County Council, ending our partnership which involved 24 services. This has been a major piece of work and I’d like to congratulate everyone involved, for the time, skill and effort that has gone into it and, most importantly, for ensuring that the council continued to deliver excellent services to residents and businesses during this period of great change.
However, this change has given the Council a great opportunity. For the first time in a decade, we are a standalone Council, free to fulfil our own ambitions, always putting our customers, the people of Cherwell, at the heart of our decisions.
With this in mind, we recently approved our first Annual Delivery Plan. This sets out the key priorities for our residents, businesses and communities based on four key pillars: Housing that meets their needs; Regeneration and investing in our communities; Environmental sustainability; and, Healthy and Resilient communities. Our Annual Delivery Plan also includes ten strategic priorities. I won’t go through them all but I just wanted to mention a couple.
We should be very proud of the work we are doing to support residents during the cost of living crisis. In the last few weeks, we have introduced a warm space initiative and a food voucher scheme. The warm welcome initiative encourages community venues and spaces to open their doors and provide an activity, information point or a hot drink or meal this winter to help those struggling with the rising costs of heating bills. Participating venues will display a sticker in their windows so residents can spot that are offering support.
I’m also really pleased that the £100 food vouchers we promised to households facing hardship are now reaching them in time for Christmas, which is always a challenging time of year. Over 3500 households, everyone in the district who is in receipt of housing benefit, will benefit from this support also.
Meeting the challenges of the climate emergency is another key priority for the Council. We are investing, and will continue to invest, in reducing the Council’s carbon emissions, for example, we have already made great headway with our air source heat pumps at venues reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.
There are far too many examples to mention all of the great work the Council is carrying out on behalf of residents but just a few days ago, we were delighted that England’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, visited Bicester to see the work we have been doing alongside other partner agencies in areas such as Elmsbook and at Kings Meadow School.
We will continue to pursue our commitment to building well designed, active communities in Bicester and across the district and I am delighted that we were able to showcase this important work to Professor Whitty.
As we approach the New Year, we face a number of challenges. Many of the long term uncertainties about the way Councils are funded remain. The amount of income we will get in future from business rates and New Homes Bonus are too, such areas. On top of this, the Council is facing a lot of the same pressures related to inflation that residents and business are themselves facing. This means we are looking to make savings of £0.5million from our budget next year.
Proposals for next year’s budget are now well advanced and residents can have their say as part of our public consultation which runs until 23 December. These budget proposals have been carefully mapped out with a focus on back office efficiencies and generating more income in certain areas, so that we can protect frontline services such as waste and recycling for residents, and continue to give our residents the services they need.
Despite the need for savings, we are sticking by our ambition to be a Council with a positive vision for the district. Now that we are a standalone Council again, free to put our resources where residents and communities need them most, I am confident that this district’s, and this Council’s, futures are bright.
I’d like to thank Members of the Executive, other elected Members and the Council staff for your support during this year and I look forward to achieving great things again next year. And, just in case I don’t get the chance to say so later, I’d like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.”