Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 18 December, 2024 were agreed and signed as a true record.

There were no matters arising.

The Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee will consider the call ins indicated below, which were deemed appropriate by the Chair of the Committee, Councillor G Lloyd, at Stage 1 consideration.

In accordance with the Constitution, at least one of the Members for each call in must be in attendance at the meeting.

The Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee considered a Briefing Note of the Director of City Services and Commercial which indicated that the decision by Cabinet Member for City Services to approve the construction of Section 7 – Clifford Bridge Road cycleway had been the subject of two call ins. The Committee also considered a Briefing Note of the Director of Law and Governance which detailed the call-in procedure.

The call-ins related to a report approved by the Cabinet Member for City Services on 9 December, 2024 entitled ‘Binley Cycleway – Section 7 (Clifford Bridge Road’ (Minute 35/24 of that meeting refers), a copy of which was appended to the Briefing Notes. The Cabinet Member had agreed to:-

1)  Note progress in response to the recommendations made within the 15 November 2023 Binley Cycleway – Section 7 (Clifford Bridge Road) report.

2)  Consider the responses, representations and objections to the Tree Felling Notices, Notice of Proposal and Notices of Intent.

3)  Consider the petitioners concerns relating to the proposed cycleway and tree felling.

4)  Approve the construction of Section 7 – Clifford Bridge Road Cycleway.

The first call in was from Councillors J Blundell, M Lapsa and T Sawdon, all of whom were present at the meeting and spoke in support of the call in. The reasons given for the call-in were as follows:-

•  The report fails to take account of a key safety report which is omitted from the report.

•  The report contains misleading information regarding the health of the trees

•  The report does not give sufficient weight and fails to evaluate and cost the alternative routes as set out in the report

The second call in was from Councillors F Abbott, A Hopkins and R Thay, all of whom were present at the meeting and spoke in support of the call-in. The reasons given for the call-in were as follows:-

•  There has been no consideration of any disability reports. Sight of these reports has not been forthcoming, and freedom of information requests have not been fulfilled. A decision cannot be made without a disability assessment. (It had been clarified that this relates to “the outcome of consultation with disability groups and their views”)

•  The report does not sufficiently evidence that residents’ concerns have been resolved, particularly considering residents at the meeting were saying that their concerns had not been resolved to their satisfaction and issues remain at specific properties along the road. (It had been clarified that this relates to “the ability of people at specific properties to have safe access to and from their drives)”

The Committee considered the decision made by the Cabinet Member on 9 December, 2024; the reasons for the call-ins; and the contents of the Briefing Note, which included the background to the Cabinet Member’s decision and material facts relating to the specific reasons for the call-in. 

The Councillors responsible for the call-ins and the Committee asked questions, received answers and made comments on a number of issues including:-

•  The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69.

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

The Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee received and noted their Work Programme and outstanding issues for 2024/25.  

Any other items of public business which the Chair decides to take as a matter of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

There were no other items of urgent private buinsess.