Decision details

To agree to enter into a contract with recruitment consultancy Carrington West for the supply of services of a shared planning policy manager (covering Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury) for up to a period of 12 months. The contract position will be reviewed within a period of 6 months.
This supplements the decision by the Cabinet Member for Planning and Building Control on 18th August 2025 which agreed the pooling of the base budgets for the Planning Policy Manager roles of Cheltenham Borough Council, Gloucester City Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council in order to secure two contractor posts. Decisions have also been made by Gloucester City and Tewkesbury Borough. Collectively the decisions agree to manage the work of the three Planning Policy Teams and support the agreed work programme of the Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury Strategic and Local Plan (SLP). One of these will be the existing contractor employed by Cheltenham Borough Council, the second will be a new contractor employed by Tewkesbury Council.
This decision facilitates the implementation of the contract to be held by Cheltenham Borough Council in line with the Council’s procurement rules.

Cheltenham Borough Council currently employs via contract with Carrington West a Planning Policy Manager. There have been ongoing and numerous attempts to recruit to this role with no success. Following similar challenges with recruitment across Gloucester City and Tewkesbury Borough Councils for this role, we have collectively agreed to amend our approach and enter into a consultancy contract for a shared planning policy manager role. This will be a new contract with Carrington West. The contract will be secured via a waiver which is required to enable the councils to maintain the current post holder who works effectively across teams and holds significant knowledge, and the direct skill set to undertake this amended role.

The recruitment challenges are summarised above and captured in previous decisions. Efforts will continue to seek a permanent role, to reflect this a review period is built into this contract. In the meantime, it is critical we retain the detailed knowledge and experience to support the delivery of the Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury Strategic and Local Plan which is a corporate priority to deliver.