New challenges
Forgive me for not posting. I do - for once - have an excellent excuse. After our victory in the local elections, the Labour party is now running Oxford city council again. We are (just - by one councillor) a minority administration. At annual council on Thursday, I was appointed to the administration. I’m now our lead member for social inclusion and young people - in other councils it may be called portfolio holder or cabinet member. I’ve known that this was the role I’d take for a week or so, and spent a fair amount of time discussing our priorities with colleagues and officers.
My portfolio covers: delivering our commitment to refurbish Oxford’s playgrounds; expanding the number and reach of our playschemes; overseeing community centres and facilities; the city council’s grants to voluntary organisations, including those which deliver on corporate priorities through commissioning, such as to the advice centres; the public side of the living wage campaign (the Leader is taking forward the internal agenda of ensuring that all council staff are paid at least $7 per hour as part of the wider discussions around pay and HR); estates regeneration; and community cohesion.
It’s all very exciting, though I’m not under-estimating the scale of the challenge, particularly where it comes to financial management and value for money. There’s a slight holiday atmosphere that comes of not being out on the knocker every night producing an inexhaustible appetite amongst Labour colleagues for dissecting the local elections/the state of the party/what we’re going to do on the council, always over a pint. All of this, plus the continued pleasure of representing Rose Hill and Iffley and continuing to hold down a full-time job means I’m super-busy - and loving it.
Congratulations on the new post. Just two comments:
(a) I hope that the living wage is still going to be £7 an hour, rather than $7 an hour….
(b) I was surprised to hear that you guys aren’t having opposition seats on EB. I think that is the wrong decision, not only on basic principle, but also for you - the first you will hear of lots of grumbles and issues will be Full Council, whereas a decent opposition EB member can solve some issues before they become major bones of contention. I think its a shame that EB will become even less accountable under the new administration.
However - I am out of it, so feel free to ignore the views of a private citizen, soon to be no longer an Oxford taxpayer!
Matt
Congratulations Antonia, and it’ll be interesting to see how the refurb of the playgrounds goes down. I’ve been thinking that this might be a good, visible, and popular thing to do where I live, now all I have to do is convince Steve Bullock.
Well done, Anotnia! That’s excellent news. Very pleased for you.
Very many congratulations. What a great portfolio!
Good luck with the new role, I’m sure you’ll do brilliantly in it.
Like Matt I initially wondered about the $ target, but noticed its right next to the £ sign on the keyboard, if your finger had slipped the other way you’d have been quoting targets in Euros of course.