Who we are

We work with South Oxfordshire District Council to provide cost-effective services for our residents. We employ around 450 people, most of whom are based at our offices at 135 Eastern Avenue, Milton Park, Milton, OX14 4SB.

There are 38 elected councillors. You can read more about your councillors and how they make decisions on how the council is run in our Local Democracy webpages.

You can find out more about the Leader of our council here.

Each year, our Council Leader appoints a Chair of the Council – this is a non-political role that involves chairing meetings and representing the council at community events. Find out more information on our Chair here.

The council’s Chief Executive is Mark Stone.

The council’s Deputy Chief Executives are:

Andrew Down – Partnerships and 5 Councils Partnership Commercial Director
Adrianna Partridge – Transformation and Operations
Suzanne Malcolm – Place

Services

Our services are divided into the following areas:

Development and Corporate Landlord

Head of department – Chris Traill

Housing and Environment

Head of department – Liz Hayden (also Designated Safeguarding Lead)

Licensing (including taxis and pubs and clubs)
Housing needs (including housing register, homelessness)
Environmental and neighbourhood nuisance issues (including environmental health, food safety, restaurant food hygiene ratings, how to report fly-tipping)
Recycling and waste collections

Planning

Head of department – Adrian Duffield

Prepares and consults on statutory plans for land use and development in the district
Gives expert advice to developers and the public
Scrutinises and determines planning applications
Investigates contraventions of planning approvals and rules and takes appropriate action
Conservation area appraisals, Listed buildings and Tree Preservation orders
Transport infrastructure
Footpaths

Corporate services

Head of department – James Carpenter

Health and safety
Accessibility, equality and diversity
Planning for emergency situations
Communications Team
Customer services and complaints
Information governance (Data Protection)
HR
IT

Finance

Head of department – Simon Hewings (also Section 151 Officer)

Finances
Procurement
Revenues and Benefits (including Council Tax and Housing Benefits)
Business Rates
Benefit Fraud Investigation

Legal and democratic

Head of department – Patrick Arran (also Monitoring Officer, Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer)

Legal department
Land charges
Elections
Council meetings

Policy and Programmes

Head of department – Harry Barrington-Mountford

Climate
Corporate Plan
Planning policy (including Local Plan, Neighbourhood planning, Oxon 2050, S106/CIL Policy)
Community Grants
Community Hub
Garden Communities
Active Communities

Partnerships

Head of department – Andrew Down

Growth deal
Oxfordshire councils
5 Councils
Oxford Cambridge corridor
LEP
Enterprise zones

Chief Executive

If you have a matter that cannot be dealt with by the relevant team or Head of Department, or you feel you need to escalate it to our Chief Executive Mark Stone, you can do so by emailing Executivesupportsav@southandvale.gov.uk or by calling 01235 422100.

Jobs

To see job opportunities at the council please see our current vacancies page.

Trade Union facility time

We are required to publish this data on the amount and spend of facility time in respect of staff who are Trade Union representatives

Constitution

Vale of White Horse District Council’s constitution sets out how the council operates, how decisions are made and the procedures which are followed to ensure that these are efficient, transparent and accountable to local people. Some of these processes are required by the law, while others are a matter for the council to choose.

Where you live

To find out more about Vale of the White Horse and where you live, you can click on the information about your area section of our home page or for more detail about the district you can head to our where I live page