Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Clucas, Lansley, McCloskey and Walklett.

There were no declarations of interest.

11 May 2015

The minutes of the last meeting were signed and approved as a correct record.

The Mayor informed the meeting that Councillor Walklett was currently in hospital and wished him a speedy recovery.

The Mayor highlighted the events he had attended since he had taken up office and said what a great privilege it was to meet people in the community and witness the valuable work that was undertaken.

The Mayor then thanked those Councillors who had been present that morning at the start of Armed Forces Week where the flag had been raised.

He informed Members of the Civic Service which would take place at the Cheltenham Minster on Saturday 15 August at 1 pm to mark VJ day. He also informed Members of the British Legion event for VJ day which would be held on 16 August.  Cheltenham would be welcoming the Princess Royal on 7 July and on 12 July the Mayoress and the local MP would be undertaking a skydive in aid of the Mayor’s charities. At the end of July Gottingen would be hosting visitors from Cheltenham.

Finally the Mayor reminded Members to come appropriately dressed for Council out of respect for the roles of all Councillors, the Mace and the Queen and the citizens who they were elected to represent.

The Leader thanked the Mayor for his best wishes to Councillor Walklett who he hoped would be home from hospital shortly.

The Leader informed Members that Councillor Barnes would be replaced by Councillor McCloskey on Licensing committee. Councillor Barnes would take up the position of substitute on this committee.

Members were reminded that a member seminar on devolution would be held in conjunction with Tewkesbury Borough Council on 30 June at 2.30pm in Cheltenham or 5 pm in Tewkesbury.

Members were also reminded that the non-statutory consultation on the Cheltenham Plan –issues and options had been launched that day and would be open until 3 August. The Cheltenham Plan sat alongside the JCS.

Report of the Cabinet Member Development and Safety

The Mayor referred Members to the process for dealing with petitions as laid down in Appendix 2 and then invited the petitioner, Mr Zach Bromfield to address Council.

Mr Bromfield firstly addressed the issues that were inherent in the petition taking shape. He explained that he had incorrectly assumed that an attack on a teenage girl in Brunswick Street, which had prompted him to start the petition, had taken place on 2^nd May this year but it had actually taken place last year. He then explained that he had chosen to start this petition on Change.org instead of the council’s website because he felt that he would reach more people, including families outside of Cheltenham concerned for relatives or friends living in the community and therefore believed this would improve the petition’s chances of success. He also stated that the information used for this petition was solely from the Gloucestershire Echo. However, he had subsequently received information from the Police that the incidents of crime in these areas differed to what was mentioned in the petition. He provided members with the details of these incidences. Crime had been reduced overall thanks to the actions of Streetwatch and other actions taken by the community to assist crime-prevention. Mr Bromfield said that having consulted with council officers and Streetwatch he recognised that in a time of austerity, prioritisation was inevitable and therefore he intended to focus on Brunswick Street as the main area to have CCTV placed. He felt that it was wrong that residents living in St Paul’s should feel anxious about crime in their area and that he had not intended to give places he had mentioned a bad representation as an unsafe place to be nor damage the University’s reputation.

He explained that he had started this petition because of recent concerns he had developed over the security measures placed in certain areas of Cheltenham. Brunswick Street in particular had, according to fellow students, gained a bad reputation as an unsafe street to walk down at night. He had learned via the Gloucestershire Echo that there were other areas vulnerable to violent crime and in some of their interviews, there were several concerns raised over the choice to implement CCTV in these areas as a way to deter or assist the police in tackling violent crime.

Mr Bromfield believed that CCTV placed in Cheltenham, or at least Brunswick Street, would be a good idea, for several reasons as supported by Streetwatch:

·         CCTV would help deter criminals and also ensure their detection. The Brunswick Street area next to Matalan is considered a desolate spot, lacking overlooking residential windows and therefore a lack of witnesses.

·         CCTV can also be used therefore to disprove alibis criminals will use, for example that they say they went down one alleyway when the footage can show that they went down a different way. 

·         CCTV would make people feel more secure when walking down certain areas of Cheltenham at night.

·         It would be an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Report of the Cabinet Member Finance

The Cabinet Member Finance introduced the report and explained that this was in response to a request from the Director Resources to release capacity in order to deliver on key corporate projects such as the Accommodation Strategy, Vision 2020 partnership and the Asset Management Plan. In the interim it was proposed that the role of S151 Officer be taken up by the Deputy Section 151 Officer via a secondment for a period of 18 months. It was noted that the Deputy Section 151 Officer held the position of S151 Officer at Forest of Dean District Council.

When asked what the financial implications were for these interim arrangements, the Cabinet Member reported that GO Shared Services have costed the implications of the proposal at £30k per annum. This was due to the reallocation of responsibilities within the Finance team. This cost could be met from the Transformation Challenge Award (TCA) paid to the 2020 vision partners.

In response to a question the Cabinet Member Finance clarified that the S151 officer was a member of the Senior Management Team and the Executive Board and the existing Director would continue to attend them.

RESOLVED

That the Deputy Section 151 Officer be designated, in an interim seconded capacity for 18 months, to the role of Section 151 Officer until further notice.

THIS ITEM HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN AS NO DECISION IS REQUIRED AT THIS STAGE

This item had been withdrawn from the agenda.

None received.

None received.

None.