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  • Friday 31 March: − the phone lines and emails for our council tax, benefits and business rates services are currently out of action. Online accounts for these services should be working as normal.  We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Work is underway to try and rectify the issue, however services may continue to be impacted over the weekend.

Cabinet

This committee is chaired by the leader of the council who selects eight cabinet members from their ruling group. Each Cabinet member has specific areas of primary responsibility, as detailed below.

The Cabinet reviews reports prepared by council staff working with the cabinet member who represents them. The report recommends a decision on an important subject, and the Cabinet debates and votes on it in a public meeting.

Cabinet members can make decisions on less important subjects themselves – we call this an Individual Cabinet Member Decision.

We publish all decisions made by the Cabinet, and all Individual Cabinet Member Decisions on our democratic pages.

See our calendar for the dates of all of our Cabinet meetings. Five working days before a meeting, we will publish the reports the Cabinet is reviewing. You can find these reports on the calendar.

Cabinet Members and the areas they represent

Councillor Bethia ThomasLeader of the Council and Cabinet Member Community Engagement:

  • Lead on Corporate Plan themes “Working in Partnership” and “Working in an Open and Inclusive Way”
  • Planning applications and enforcement
  • Communication, Community Engagement and Consultation
  • Customer Service and Complaints
  • Community Grants

Councillor Neil Fawcett – Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Partnerships and Place:

  • Regional and national partnerships, including:
    • Future Oxfordshire Partnership
    • OxLEP and Enterprise Zones
    • Shared Services Contract
    • Oxford – Cambridge Arc
  • Support for Local Businesses
  • Economic Development

Councillor Andrew Crawford – Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Assets:

  • Lead on Corporate Plan theme “Building Stable Finances”
  • Finance and Investments
  • Council owned Property
  • Council Tax and Benefits

Councillor Debby Hallett – Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Transformation:

  • Human Resources and IT
  • Planning Policy – Including the Vale’s Local Plan
  • Information governance
  • Corporate Policy and Programmes
  • Legal and Contracts
  • Democratic Services

Councillor Helen Pighills – Cabinet Member for Healthy Communities:

  • Lead on Corporate plan theme “Building Healthy Communities”
  • Housing and Homelessness
  • Active Communities and Leisure
  • Community Safety
  • Licensing
  • Community and Arts Centres
  • Community response and support
  • Public toilets

Councillor Judy Roberts – Cabinet Member for Development and Infrastructure:

  • Lead on corporate plan theme “Providing the Homes People need”
  • Housing Delivery
  • Infrastructure and developer contributions
  • Didcot Garden Town
  • Dalton Barracks Garden Village
  • Major Planning Applications and Strategic Sites
  • Mobile Home Parks

Councillor Sally Povolotsky  – Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency and Environment:

  • Lead on Corporate plan theme “Tackling the Climate Emergency”
  • Waste and Recycling
  • Environmental Protection
  • Air quality
  • Food Safety
  • Climate Emergency Action Planning
  • Parks and Grounds maintenance
  • Carparks

Contact us - Democratic services

01235 422520
(Text phone users add 18001 before dialing)

Vale of White Horse District Council
Abbey House
Abbey Close
Abingdon
OX14 3JE