Are We Making Progress?

At today's County Council Cabinet meeting, there were a number of items I raised. The first one was to welcome a new sound system for the committee rooms and council chamber, which is something I have been complaining about for a long, long time. Many members of the public who come to our meetings to hear democracy in action, often come away having heard very little of what is said. Let us hope this will change things for the better. It is due to be installed soon.

Another interesting item on the agenda was a scrutiny review of market towns, and I made a plea to the Cabinet to apply to the SEEDA (South East England Development Agency) for some funding of which £460,000 remains. Some of our smaller market towns like Wantage would certainly benefit from this, and having undergone a 'health check' is ready to make some progress.

Finally, I spoke about the Council's performance in a report on priorities and targets. We have recently been awarded a three star CPA rating, which although 'good' is not the 'excellent' we used to be. This is mainly because Children's Services have only received a two star rating for the second year in a row. One of the problems is our poor educational achievement, and I was keen to draw this to their attention again.

Other areas of concern include the under 18 conception rate which is on the increase not only in Oxfordshire, but all over the country. Some councils, like Gloucestershire have done some innovative work to turn this around, so I urged the Cabinet to look at this. Another area of concern is the delivering of our transport capital programme projects. This was raised at the meeting by one of the Cabinet members himself, who argued that often schemes in the capital programme simply didn't happen. So we have to ask ourselves - are we making any progress or are things taking too long to change? Well my bleating about the sound system fell on deaf ears for a long time - but they finally came round to it a few years later. There may be hope yet!