Agenda and minutes

Apologies had been received from Councillors Garnham, Hibbert, Holliday, Lansley, McLain, McCloskey, Prince and Ryder.

Councillors Coleman, Fisher, Harman, Colin Hay, Sudbury and Wheeler all declared interests as members of Gloucestershire County Council and indicated that they had been granted dispensations from the Standards Committee to participate and vote in the meeting.

Councillor Whyborn declared an interest regarding the reference to the use of primary school/community centre on the Leckhampton site.

The minutes of the meeting held on 31 March 2014 will be approved at the next meeting of the Council on 2 June 2014.

These would be taken at the next meeting of Council.

None.

As this was the last Council meeting before the borough elections, the Leader wished to place on record his thanks to all the Councillors and what they had done for the town during their period of office.

These must be received no later than 12 noon on the fourth working day before the date of the meeting

The minutes of the public questions are attached

None received.

Report of the Leader of the Council

The Mayor welcomed all the members of the public to the meeting and explained how she intended to conduct the debate on this very important issue for Cheltenham.

A member asked for legal clarification on this item. He indicated that he had spoken to a number of members who had not had time to read and assimilate the papers in the 4 days prior to the meeting. He accepted that some of the information had been seen before but he suggested that the majority of members would not be able to put their hands up and say that they had read and understood every page. He asked for legal advice on their competence to make a decision if this was the case and clarity on the risk of a judicial review.

The Head of Legal Services advised that any decision of the council was open to legal challenge so it was always important that due process was followed. On the face of what he had seen and been told by officers, he did not think it was unreasonable for Council to proceed to debate this matter in this case. There had been a considerable length of time spent in working up the detail of the JCS to this point in time and much of the documentation circulated would have been seen by Members previously as part of the JCS processes. The main issues for Members to consider were covered in the Leader’s report and it was for individual Members to decide whether they had sufficient information and understanding to make a decision on the matter; in this respect he referred Members to the proposed amendments which had been circulated where there were two proposals to defer which would be dealt with later in the meeting.    

The Leader introduced the report on the Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Joint Core Strategy – Pre Submission Version for publication. The report explained that the Joint Core Strategy (JCS) was the strategic plan being prepared to provide a framework for development in Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury to 2031. The report summarised the Pre Submission version of the JCS and sought Council approval to publish the document for publication under regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 as the version of the JCS proposed to be submitted to the Secretary of State for independent examination. 

The Leader informed members that Tewkesbury Borough Council and Gloucester City Council had considered and agreed the document earlier in the week. It was important that all three partners agree and he hoped that the covering report and pre-submission document were clear. He added that the Council had been working on the JCS since 2008 and outlined the process after publication would be submission to the Secretary of State in Winter 2014, examination in public (EIP) in Spring 2015 and adoption later in 2015.

He said that since the Council had to have a core strategy and had an obligation to cooperate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

None received.

None received.

There was no urgent business.