Agenda and minutes

None received.

The Chairman took the opportunity to welcome Councillor Coleman as the newest member of the committee.

None declared.

The minutes of the last meeting had been circulated with the agenda.

Upon a vote it was unanimously

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on the 08 November 2010 be agreed and signed as an accurate record.

If any

None received.

If any

There were no items referred to the committee.

• Cabinet Member Housing and Safety
• Cabinet Member Sport and Culture

Cabinet Member Sport and Culture had a number of items on which to update the committee. 

In reference to the ArtGallery and Museum (AG&M), a Heritage Lottery Fund bid had been made back in November 2010.  The decision was expected in March 2011 and this was presuming Council agreed to ratify the decision to underwrite the funding.

The Christmas Market held at the AG&M on the 16 December attracted over 400 visitors and many exhibitors, which really raised its profile.

Refurbishment works to the Drawing Room and Conference Suites at the Town Hall had recently commenced. The new box office system, INFX, had been in use since December and it was interesting to note that since this time internet bookings had greatly increased.

He had also been made aware that the Pump Rooms would soon be featuring on the BBC2 programme, Flog It.

The Tourism and Marketing Strategy featured later on the agenda and having assessed the document, he was satisfied that it was an accurate reflection of what Cheltenham had to offer and the challenges faced by the town. 

Leisure@ was performing better than forecast, all areas except casual swimming which was inexplicably, not. 

The two Christmas events organised by the Play Development Team were cancelled due to adverse weather conditions.  These were Lottery funded and the money was to be used by the end of December 2010, however, this had now been extended to March 2011.

In an attempt to maximise the position of the Healthy Lifestyles Officer in light of the changes to the NHS, a real focus had been given to GP referrals.  Given the expected changes it was envisaged that GPs would favour exercise referrals in the future.

The following responses were given by the Cabinet Member Sport and Culture (with input from the Assistant Director Wellbeing and Culture) to questions from members of the committee;

• There was an annual programme of events over the summer period held in parks across the town.  This did not include a climbing wall and whilst in respect of structure, this would be possible, with unknown budget and health & safety implications, no commitment could be made.
• The Leisure@ performance did not include the month of December, when Cheltenham had been badly affected by the snow, but adverse weather in the past had affected the leisure centre.
• The Healthy Lifestyles Officer post was part funded by the PCT.  Conversations were underway about securing the future of this funding and it had been guaranteed for another 12 months.  In the meantime efforts were being made to build it into the base budget.
• Many leisure activities and services were high on the commissioning agenda, but were undergoing ‘Systems Thinking’ first.  More detail would be tabled with the committee in due course.

The Cabinet Member Housing and Safety circulated a copy of the Community Safety Handbook 2010-11.  She explained that 20,000 had been printed at no cost to the Council and could be amended and printed again later in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Presentation by Geoffrey Rowe, Chief Executive – Everyman Theatre 

Geoffrey Rowe, Chief Executive of the Everyman Theatre, introduced a PowerPoint presentation (appendix 1) which admittedly, some members had already seen. 

The theatre hosted 45 weeks of mixed performance arts which included pantomime, ballet, the Literature Festival (though not the Jazz Festival this year, a decision of Cheltenham Festivals) and ran a large scale education and community programme. 

He talked through various figures for 2009/10, which he explained were much the same each year and the result of a successful model which had been in practice for 15 years.  A study a couple of years ago had indicated that the Everyman Theatre had a £10million economic impact on the town.

Some highlights of the past year had included numerous West End shows, Studio Christmas shows for younger children and adults, as well as 16 entirely new shows.

Images demonstrated some of the restoration works required to the Theatre, for which the cost would be just under £3million.  Members were shown a breakdown of the budget and income, which highlighted the £200k shortfall.  

The Everyman was facing challenging times as a result of the current financial climate and whilst to date the downturn had not affected ticket sales, it could.  The availability of quality productions, who may do fewer tours, was the biggest risk faced by the Everyman Theatre.

Once completed the restoration works would provide a new heritage aspect, with tours of the theatre a condition of the Lottery funding. 

Physical access had been addressed as a legal requirement and recent improvements to the sound system had been made for those with hearing difficulties.  In his view social access was not a problem as he didn’t believe that the theatre was elitist, though he did feel that economic access may be an increasing issue. 

He explained that 54% of tickets were sold as concessions and highlighted the Pantomime Fund, which saw organisations such as the Rotary Club providing young people of their choice, with tickets for the Pantomime.  Perhaps in better economic times there could be a Cheltenham Fund supported in part by the Council.

He felt strongly that there was a marked difference between the Everyman Theatre, which was funded by the Council and those facilities which were managed by them (Town Hall, Leisure@, etc).  He suggested that there was scope for improved co-operation with regard to marketing, etc. 

In closing, he proposed that a successful Everyman Theatre was good for Cheltenham, which was ultimately good for Cheltenham Borough Council.

The Chairman invited questions from members of the committee.

The following responses were given by Geoffrey Rowe to questions from members of the committee;

• Catering at the Theatre generated £100k profits but the restaurant had failed despite various attempts to make it succeed and had ultimately become an alternative bar area. 
• Another income stream was the sale of tickets on behalf of other people, approximately 100,000 tickets which generated a good level of income.
• The Everyman did host the Russian ballet and ice –skaters, but there was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Report of the Chief Finance Officer

(Please refer to the budget papers circulated in December 2010)

The Cabinet Member Finance and Community Development introduced the report as circulated with the agenda and referred members to the budget papers circulated on the 21 December 2010.

He stressed that these were the biggest reductions in public expenditure in the history of local government, exceeding those made after the war.

The cuts had been greater than those initially indicated by Government as they had recalibrated the model so that places like Cheltenham took a bigger hit than authorities in areas that were more dependent on welfare services. 

The challenge for Cheltenham Borough Council (CBC) was how to deliver services differently whilst maintaining effectiveness, but reducing expenditure.

There were two ways of looking at the ‘Big Society’, one was to cynically assume that it was simply doing things on the cheap and the other was that it would mean more power to the community. 

He highlighted that the Medium Term Financial Strategy identified that cuts would be required over the next 4 years.  It was important to note that, were all these cuts to be made over night that the Council would cease to function and as such, the commissioning approach was its only way forward.

Human Resources and IT had not been subjected to the same level of cuts as other areas as these services would be critical in supporting future changes from which savings could be derived.

There were a number of issues and he asked that the committee focus on those that related to their remit, highlighting some to members. 

One off funding was available and given that the County Council would now be focussing on vulnerable people, CBC would contribute £50k to enable the provision of youth work in Cheltenham.  This funding would not be used to save Youth Workers from redundancy though, as the model was not sustainable and the funding was not necessarily long term.

He referred members to page 87 of the budget papers and the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).  Rents were to be increased by an average of £188.76 a year, which was higher than Council Tax for a Band D property.  He did not wish to comment further given that this was being imposed by Government but did note that this could see those in low-paid work and living in social housing, worse off.

The Chairman was aware that for some members of the committee, this was the first time they would have been involved in assessing budget papers and as such asked the Head of Financial Services to give a brief explanation of the various appendices.

The Head of Financial Services talked through each of the appendices, highlighting that Appendix 4 (page 47) was expected to be the focus of most debate as this document outlined the various measures to address the budget gap.

The Chairman suggested that all members turn to page 49 – 53, areas for member approval which had not been built into the base budget, commenting that the employee parking levy (Item  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Report of the Tourism and Marketing Working Party

The Assistant Director Wellbeing and Culture introduced the report as circulated with the agenda. 

She explained that the 2009/10 Business Plan had included a milestone to develop a Tourism and Marketing Strategy.  At that time, a working group was established and included Councillors Rawson, Ryder and co-optee Karl Hemming from this committee and Councillors Cooper and Stennett from the Economy and Business Improvement O&S Committee. 

The Strategy had come before both committees, prior to consultation with stakeholders and had been due to come before the committee again in September 2010. 

However, during this time, there were a number of Government announcements and it was felt appropriate to await further announcements and decisions and she hoped that members understood and accepted the reasons for the delay. 

Section 2 of the report detailed the progress made to date.

Councillor Rawson introduced himself as the Chair of the working group and advised members that he was speaking in his capacity as the Chair of the working group and a former member of the committee, rather than in his current role as a Cabinet Member. 

He too hoped that Members understood the reasons for the delay but stressed that work had continued.  The strategy had helped populate the Corporate Plan and improvements had been made to the website, which could in part explain the increase from 500,000 hits last year to 1 million at this time.

During their research the working group had reviewed a policy from 2005 which was nothing more than a list of growth bids, clearly the position had changed and the strategy had to be more than simply a ‘shopping list’.

The strategy sought growth within current resources and took consideration of announcements that Visit Britain would have funds made available to them to promote tourism and the fact that Civic Pride was being taken forward in the town.

Previous comments made by members of this committee and E&BI were about the action plan, which members felt was unconvincing given it was not linked to the Corporate Plans. 

The key had been identifying things that could be slotted into current resources and budgets and taking account of the current economic situation.

Councillor Rawson invited questions and comments from members of the committee.

Councillor Driver highlighted that whilst the booming night-time economy was positive for some, it was not for others and queried how much it cost to address any issues that were a result (litter, vandalism, etc).  She queried why Officers were no longer attending the Town Centre meetings, where such queries were being raised. 

The Assistant Director Wellbeing and Culture would investigate why Officers were no longer attending these meetings and seek a resolution for Councillor Driver.

The Chairman proposed that the action plan should be reviewed by the committee in September 2011. 

As there were no further questions or comments the Chairman moved to accept the recommendation.

Upon a vote it was unanimously

RESOLVED that the Marketing and Tourism Strategy be approved for consideration by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Chairman referred members of the committee to the work plan.

As agreed earlier in the meeting, a review of the Tourism and Marketing Strategy action plan would be scheduled for September 2011.

The focus of the next meeting (28 February 2011) would be Community Safety. 

Councillor Hay asked that an update from the Public Art Review Working Group be scheduled for the 9 May meeting.

The Chairman asked that members contact the Chair, Vice Chair and/or Democracy Officer with any additional items.

There were no further items for discussion.

28 February 2011

The next scheduled meeting was on the 28 February 2011.