The 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 Emily Smith – Leader of the Council:

Democratic Services

Councillor Debby Hallett – Deputy Leader of the Council and 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

Councillor Andrew Crawford – Cabinet Member Finance and Corporate Assets:

Lead on Corporate Plan theme “Building Stable Finances”
Finance and Investments
Council owned Property
Parks and Grounds maintenance
Council Tax and Benefits
Car parks and toilets
Mobile Home Parks

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

Regional and national partnerships, including:
- Oxfordshire Growth Board
- OxLEP and Enterprise Zones
- Shared Services Contract
- Oxford – Cambridge Arc

Councillor Helen Pighills – Cabinet Member Healthy Communities:

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

Councillor Judy Roberts – Cabinet Member Development and Infrastructure:

Lead on corporate plan theme “Providing the Homes People need”
Housing Development
Council housing delivery vehicle
Infrastructure and developer contributions
Didcot Garden Town
Dalton Barracks Garden Village

Councillor Bethia Thomas – Cabinet Member Community Engagement:

Lead on Corporate Plan themes “Working in Partnership” and “Working in an Open and Inclusive Way”
Planning applications and enforcement
Business Support
Economic Development
Communication, Community Engagement and Consultation
Community Grants

Councillor Catherine Webber – Cabinet Member Climate Emergency and Environment: