Real Consultation - Let's Hope

Speech by Cllr Zoe Patrick delivered to Cabinet on Tue 20th May 2008

I am pleased to read that the County Council is committed to consulting the people and communities of Oxfordshire in a meaningful and robust way - this has certainly not been happening too well in the past so let us hope this bodes well for the future. That this was not done well previously was picked up by the Peer Group when they visited us.

I think we need to ask ourselves - are we telling people what we are doing and therefore centralising our control or are we just ignoring the views we hear and plough ahead anyway? This certainly appears to be the case as was done with some of the school consultations and indeed, the infamous residents' parking.

The principle is sound, but this strategy looks weak in the detail. We do have a duty to involve hard to reach groups and in particular I am thinking of some of the ethnic communities, eg. Chinese who have some major events in the city. Certainly the one I attended recently at the beginning of the Chinese New Year had just 2 other councillors there, none from the Cabinet.

So all I ask here is that we truly do adhere to some of these proposals and show that we are not just paying lip-service to the whole thing.