Progress in creating a greener, fairer and healthier county in 2024/25
Positive progress has been made in 2024/25 against priorities set for Oxfordshire County Council by its cabinet, with notable achievements in the council’s work to tackle climate change.
The 17 June meeting of the council’s cabinet was presented with the authority’s annual report, which detailed many positive developments during 2024/5.
Councillor Liz Leffman, Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, said: “Across the wide array of services we provide to the Oxfordshire public, from highways to social care, our aim is to make Oxfordshire a greener, fairer and healthier county.
“Our officers have worked hard to deliver against these priorities in partnership with many other organisations. It was great for the first cabinet meeting since the elections to report on the progress that has been made in supporting our communities and protecting our environment over the past 12 months.
“It is worth noting that these achievements have been delivered against a backdrop of financial constraints and high, complex demand on our services as we continue to work with our communities to support those who are most vulnerable.”
Achievements in 2024/5
Action to tackle climate change lies at the heart of the council’s work and 2024/25 has seen the authority being ranked as the top performing waste disposal authority in England for the eleventh year running as well as expanding the council’s electric vehicle fleet and reducing operational emissions by 71 per cent.
Since the report was published the council has been told that it is the best performing county council in the UK for tackling climate change.
Meanwhile £3.6m has been secured to improve public EV charging to make driving electric vehicles more accessible in the county and more than 200 requests have been approved to reduce speed limits to 20mph in towns and villages. Five new bus routes began operating to connect more villages and market towns to Oxford following a £1.2m allocation from the council.
During 2024/5 the council planted 825 trees and 16 new community orchards. It completed more than 3,300 tree care operations and 20 new road verge nature reserves were designated.
The council’s work to support residents during the cost of living crisis includes providing 500 vulnerable households more than £1.2m in supermarket vouchers, energy credit and essential household items through the council’s government-funded resident support scheme; and providing £3.3m to ensure families entitled to free school meals received support during school holidays.
And in terms of wider support to the most vulnerable, the council was awarded local authority of sanctuary status for supporting people fleeing war, persecution and serious human rights violations - the first county council to do so.
Achievements around creating a healthier county include partnering with University College London’s Institute of Health Equity and renowned academic Sir Michael Marmot to become a “Marmot Place” – a two-year programme to tackle health inequalities and local communities.
Waiting times for social care assessments continued to fall, with the cumulative improvement over the last four years being 80 per cent. Meanwhile more people were supported to live in their own communities for longer with 3,186 packages of home care arranged.
The council’s discharge to assess programme has enabled more than 7,000 people to be discharged safely from hospital – an increase of 23 per cent compared to the previous year.
Many accolades were achieved by the council in 2024/5 including the 2024 LARAC Best Partnership award for improving recycling and reducing waste (jointly won with community action groups), and an MJ award for the “Cheers M’Dears” Community Support Service in Banbury.
The council’s performance and insight analyst team won the best teamwork award in the ONS Datathon 2024 and a construction project to improve Banbury railway station won a Green Apple Environment Gold award.
Cllr Leffman added: “The report provides a snapshot of the wide range of activity and support that the council provides to residents across the county on a day to day basis. It’s a great way for people to spend a few minutes learning what their council tax contributions went towards during 2024/25.”
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