Oxford City Council's new executive board is promising to make its decisions open to the public, unless there is a compelling reason not to.

Labour regained control of the council on May 2, and the new leader, Alex Hollingsworth, is promising today that people will have access to all the council's key decisions.

The only exceptions would be if a report contained information on individual staff, or commercially sensitive information about third parties.

It is the first meeting of the executive board since Labour took control of the council from the Liberal Democrats and Greens.

Cllr Hollingsworth said: "The issue of access to information has been put at the top of the first executive agenda because the administration is committed to running an open council. "As part of this commitment, all councillors will have full access to information and, unless there is a compelling reason, all reports will be considered in the open section."

During the previous administration, Cllr Hollingsworth complained that the public, and councillors, were kept in the dark about important issues.

In April, councillors agreed that two reports about the council's homelessness service, which had been kept confidential, should be made available to councillors.

Cllr John Goddard, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said: "I am pleased the executive has no intention of being secretive.

"But it is not announcing anything that is not normal practice." The Labour administration is pledging that:

All councillors will have the right to see documents

All councillors will have the right to ask for more time with officers

All councillors will have the right to ask for and to be given information.

According to Cllr Hollingsworth, if any councillor is unreasonably refused access to documents, officers or information, the executive board will investigate.

The Labour administration will also assume that all reports considered by the council at any meeting should be considered in public session -- unless there are specific reasons to prevent this.

There are no opposition members on the executive. Cllr Hollingsworth will have responsibility for strategic finance while Cllr Bill Baker, deputy leader, will have responsibility for council staff.

The other eight portfolios are:

Housing: Cllr Val Smith

Property/estates and information technology: Bob Price

Culture: Cllr Maureen Christian

Leisure facilities: Cllr Peter Johnson

Environment: Cllr Mary Clarkson

Economic development and planning: Cllr Colin Cook

Local services: Cllr Richard Tarver

Crime and community safety: Cllr Susan Brown.