- Target:
- Oxford City Council
- Region:
- United Kingdom
The Executive Board of Oxford City Council proposes to abolish or downgrade Area Committees and/or remove their local planning powers.
We want to keep our area committees because:
-they are held in our communities and are easy to get to;
-they allow us to raise local issues and get problems fixed;
-they give us the chance to tell our local councillors what's important to us, and debate big local issues;
-we can use the backing of area committees to help us with campaigns for better services;
-the councillors who make planning decisions about where we live and how developments will affect us must be people who know the area and understand our needs.
We the Signatories, being residents of Oxford, petition the Leader and Members of the City Council Executive Board to rescind the proposed abolition/downgrading of Area Committees and/or removal of their planning powers.
Area Committees are a proven pillar of effective local democracy. They ensure:
Local accountability of elected members;
Application of local knowledge to local issues, including planning;
Direct public access to elected members in open forums at an early stage of decision making;
Public testing of campaign issues raised by residents' groups and concerned individuals;
Direct availability of officers for advice and action;
Regular public interaction with neighbourhood police officers;
Effective cross-party working in the common interest;
A local, accessible forum for city-county cooperation;
Transparency of decision-making;
Targeted funding of local resources;
Value-for-money delivery of real change to local communities through democratically elected and constitutionally accountable local representatives.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Save Local Democracy in Oxford petition to Oxford City Council was written by Dr Graham Jones and is in the category Local Government at GoPetition.