Who we are

We work with Vale of White Horse District Council to provide cost-effective services for our residents. We employ around 450 people, some of whom are based at our offices at Abbey House, Abbey Close, Abingdon, OX14 3JE. The vast majority of council staff have hybrid working arrangements meaning they can work from home or other remote locations, or in the office. 

There are 36 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 the council on our leaders page.

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 on our website .

The council’s Chief Executive is Mark Stone (also Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer).

The council’s Deputy Chief Executive’s are:

• Andrew Down – Partnerships and 5 Councils Partnership Commercial Director
• Adrianna Partridge – Transformation and Operations (also Designated Safeguarding Lead)
• Suzanne Malcolm – Place

Services

Our services are divided into the following areas:

Development and Corporate Landlord

Head of department: James Carpenter

• Economic Development
• Property
• Community centres
• Cornerstone Arts Centre
• Leisure Centres
• Car parks
• Parks maintenance and toilets
• Cemeteries

Housing and Environment

Head of department: Paul Fielding

• Housing needs (including housing register, homelessness)
• Environmental and neighbourhood nuisance issues (including environmental health, food and workplace 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: Mark Minion

• Health and safety
• Planning for emergency situations
• Communications Team
• Customer services and complaints
• HR
• IT
• Accessibility, equality and diversity
• Consultations

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)

• Legal department
• Land charges
• Elections
• Council meetings
• Information governance (Data Protection, FOI/EIR)
• Licensing (including taxis and pubs and clubs)
• CCTV
• Community Safety

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

• Future Oxfordshire Partnership
• 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

South Oxfordshire District Council’s Constitution document sets out how the council operates, how decisions are made and the procedures the council follows 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 South Oxfordshire 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