Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

There were no apologies.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 18 November were approved as a true record and signed accordingly.

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

There were no Member questions or petitions.  Two public questions had been received, the responses to which were taken as read.  One questioner was present to ask a supplementary question.

1.     Question from Richard Lawler to Cabinet Member for Housing and Customer Services, Councillor Flo Clucas 

Cobham Road Flats Parking 

At the Cobham Road flats, residents face ongoing parking stress due to a lack of dedicated spaces, leading to informal verge parking and damage to footpaths and grassed areas. 

Would the Cabinet consider commissioning a small-scale feasibility study to explore creating additional residents’ parking bays — for example by re-purposing a limited section of unused green space — as part of a broader estate-improvement approach? 

If the Cabinet agrees this should be pursued, would it also consider appointing a named senior officer to lead the design and consultation process with residents, so the scheme can be progressed without adding excessive workload to existing operational teams? 

Cabinet Member response 

Thank you for the question.  

Council Officers are undertaking a high-level review of properties that have been identified as having redevelopment potential and this is one of the sites on the list. They are just at the start of the process, and any development would?likely be?some time into the future.?The block is already on the neighbourhood works list for next year to lay a concrete pad for bins and is also due for fencing renewal along the right-hand side of the block which will improve the general amenity of the area.?However, any?additional?parking configuration would be best left until the high-level analysis is completed early in the New Year. A further update can be provided at this time.? 

?

No supplementary question

2.  Question from Emma Nelson to the Leader, Councillor Rowena Hay 

The Government has just announced that the elections scheduled for May 2026, for four regional mayors in England, have been postponed to 2028. Can the Cabinet please advise whether the Cheltenham Borough Council Elections for 20 of the 40 current Councillors, due to take place in May 2026, will definitely be going ahead? Please also provide details of circumstances that might impact and influence their decision, given the cost of running the Election, the amount of work already underway on the whole LGR model etc. and the fact that elected Councillors will have a very short term prior to the Unitary Elections in 2027.? 

Cabinet Member response 

Thank you for the question. It is the government’s decision as to whether elections in 2026 will go ahead. CBC is working on the assumption that elections will take place as scheduled.  

As you know, Cheltenham Council is in an unusual position in that we held all-out elections following a boundary review in 2024 with those members topping the poll serving for four years. Therefore, members retain a strong electoral mandate until 2028, which on the current timescales will coincide with the vesting day of the new unitary authority.  

We are currently engaging with the Ministry of Housing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Report of Cabinet Member for Planning and Building Control, Councillor Mike Collins

Note:

The following correction was made after the publication of the agenda:

·         Appendix 4 IFS Part 3 Infrastructure List – Part-Funded Projects

The cost of the next business case stage is £2,061,855.67 (not £2,061,855,67)

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Building Control introduced the report, the statement and historic update of the IFS statement and CIL rate summary which we are required to publish.  As such, it doesn’t require debate or decision; Members are requested to agree to the recommendations as set out in the report. The detailed summary is in line with our Corporate Plan priorities, and Members will already be familiar with the regulatory requirements and figures.  The contents are statutory, and with CIL contributions we also have to work with our SLP partners in collectively publishing this information. 

He thanked the officers who worked hard in putting these reports together -  Sam Layton, Sara Screen and Andrew Sherborne.

A Member commented that,  given the massive pressure that local authorities are under, the importance of CIL funding cannot be understated, and said some exciting projects will be going forward with CIL funding, including works at the Prince of Wales Stadium and desilting the lakes in Pittville Park, as well as strategic projects.  He said this demonstrates the importance of CIL monies to the council.

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Building Control agreed, adding that it is important to celebrate these great schemes and projects, and make sure that our communities are aware that they can ask for this help with community projects in need of support.

RESOLVED THAT:

1.    the publication by 31 December 2025 of the Infrastructure Funding Statement (IFS) 2024/25, relating to the financial year ending 31 March 2025, and the submission of its CIL and S106 information to Government, is approved;

2.    the Annual CIL Rate Summary Statement December 2025 is approved and its publication on the Council’s website by 31 December 2025 is approved.

Report of Cabinet Member for Planning and Building Control, Councillor Mike Collins

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Building Control said this report is the result of a huge amount of work by the planning policy team to revoke out-of-date and superseded planning guidance notes, statements  and documents.  He said the launch of a new CBC website has provided to opportunity to ensure that everything is current and valid.  The report lists all the documents being revoked, and those being retained will be publicly available on the new website

He thanked officers John Spurling and Daniel O’Neill for their hard work.

Members welcomed and supported the opportunity to tidy up and streamline planning guidance and documents, as planning is essential to the shaping of the town.  They also made the following points:

-       it is a constant bugbear that many on-line documents are not up to date or withdrawn when so longer needed – not just at CBC but also true of central government websites.  This is a great initiative,  particularly important as we enter an age of Gen AI, where people use that to ask questions rather than looking at the actual documents;

-       SPGs and SPDs are really helpful in the planning process, and it is interesting to see what is being revoked, including the fire station and police station.  Could these not automatically drop off the system once the particular scheme or building is complete?

-       CBC is proactive in producing guidance notes, particularly the Climate Change SPD, which make a big difference.  The planning team should be congratulated for being ahead of the game with this.

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Building Control thanked Members for the positive comments.  He didn’t know if guidance and documents are removed once a scheme is complete, and wondered if this is something that can be looked at across the council.  He said he is a great advocate of benchmarking,  and senior officers always use best practice from similar authorities to build on; this is why CBC is so successful in some of its initiatives.

RESOLVED THAT:

1.    the list of SPGs, SPDs and the Urban Design Concept Statements informal guidance notes set out in Table 1 at paragraph 3.5 of this report are formally revoked and withdrawn from publication

Report of Cabinet Member for Housing and Customer Services, Councillor Flo Clucas

In introducing this item, the Cabinet Member for Housing and Customer Services said the reports are updates of earlier work, have been to Cabinet Housing Committee,  and have incorporated tenants’ comments and suggestions.  All present the position statement as of now, with the exception of the Voids Policy.  She invited the Head of Housing Services to provide a verbal update, and he summarised the situation as follows:

-       the voids procedure used to be internal, but is now public for complete transparency;

-       CBC inherited the challenge of a substantive build-up of empty properties,  always a moving feast but where 30-40 voids a month are to be expected, the number is currently three times that at 120, with 179 termination tenancies at the end of November;

-       this is being dealt with by splitting voids  into major (kitchens, bathrooms, plastering, heating systems) and minor, which still often require a lot of work.  Following procurement challenges in the past, the team now has three contractors in place to deal with major voids, so that the in-house team can focus on  turning round minor voids.  Of these, one is working particularly well, and of the 77 major voids at the end of November, 65 are with contractors and due back by the end of January – although more major voids are added and passed on to contractors each week;

-       we had 179 additional properties this year, 28 of which were transfers of existing council tenants to another council property, thus creating another void. Numbers are always changing, but things are going well, particularly with one contractor which has freed up additional resource so been able to reduce the number of major voids we’ve got with them;

-       this creates a slight challenge with lettings as we can only let so many properties each month – they need to be advertised on Homeseeker, followed by shortlisting, viewings, verification and frauds checks. It is a  complicated process, in addition to the challenge of approximately 70 new builds in Regency Village, 30 of which are available to be let, so we are currently looking at resource in the letting area, to avoid the situation where we have a lot of voids back but it is taking too long to secure tenants.

He concluded that he is confident that numbers will come down early next year, but that a huge amount of work is needed to deal with the backlog.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Customer Services said she and officers work closely to get the best results – decent homes for tenants, ensuring they have a voice, tackling voids, reorganising how work is done, and making sure contractors are up to do the job.  She thanked officers for all they do.

Members welcomed the update and were pleased to note that the voids situation is improving and new properties are coming through to relieve housing pressures.   They made the following observations:

-       with a high turnover of one-bedroomed flats in St Mark’s, could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Report of Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets, Councillor Peter Jeffries

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets introduced the report, which was discussed at Full Council on Monday, saying it was a regulatory requirement to report and review the first six months of the financial year.  He confirmed that general fund borrowing costs and investment returns are on target as forecast in the budget for 2025-26, a testament to the hard work of the team, and that CBC is insulated to some degree from volatility in relation to borrowings, having a decent amount on fixed rates, and that short-term borrowing is coming down.

A Member commented that it would be helpful to have a bit more explanation and narrative around the different descriptions of market volatility, to give context to people who are not experts in treasury management.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets said it was difficult under the budgetary process  to have a  very descriptive narrative, but he could see that this would be useful and undertook to have a conversation with the team to provide more narrative and a more reader-friendly way of describing things. 

RESOLVED THAT:

-       the contents of the summary report of the treasury management activity during the first six months of 2025/26 are noted.

Report of Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets, Councillor Peter Jeffries

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets apologised for the late report, which he said shows how the council’s finances stand at the end of November, and give a clear picture of where it is on track and where it is starting to see some pressures. At this stage, we are forecasting overspend of  £564k by the end of the financial year, largely due to lower-than-expected income in a few areas, but there are some positives as well.  Overall, this means we need to keep close eye on spending over next few months; if the position doesn’t improve, we will call on reserves to balance the budget which would take the general balances below the level we want to hold. He added that some savings agreed for this year are also proving hard to deliver, and are being actively reviewed.

He said there is volatility and uncertainty in areas of the national economy even after the recent government budget announcements, and equally the pending local government reorganisation is having negative effect on resources and capacity; there is no  government funding for this, and the impact organisationally is unavoidable and unforeseen.

He ended by thanking the finance and leadership teams for their hard work throughout the year.

A Member thanked the Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets for the report. He said it is disappointing that there will be an overspend and the council will be using reserves by the end of the year, but the report is open, explains what is going on and, he suggested, reserves exist to be spent  when things don’t go the way the financial strategy intended.  This is good jurisprudence, and CBC is in a strong position despite all that is going on.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets welcomed these comments and pointed out that this is a Quarter 2 overspend; he hoped not to be in the same position at the end of the year.  A lot of work is going on in the background with the teams, making savings and adjustments as we move forward; he agreed that this is what reserves are there for but said there is not optimum level of reserves and he hoped that we don’t have to use them. He concluded that budgets have been challenging over the last few years the council and finance team is doing all it can to keep everything on track. 

The Leader added that it is important to remember that this is not the year-end report, and that it highlights the importance of budget monitoring reports to ensure a constant handle on CBC’s finances at any moment in time.

RESOLVED THAT:

-       the contents of the report, including the key projected variances to the general fund and Housing Revenue Account (“HRA”) 2025/26 revenue and capital budgets approved by Council on 21 February 2025, and the actions to ensure overspends are reduced as far as possible by the end of the financial year, are noted. 

Report of Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets, Councillor Peter Jeffries

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets said that under normal circumstances, the Cabinet would be discussing the interim budget proposals at this meeting, which would then go out for consultation.  However, after being presented with single-year settlements for many years, making long-term financial planning difficult, the incoming government is giving us a multi-year settlement which although welcome comes with some uncertainty.  The companies that provide modelling and up-to-date, relevant information about the budget suggest there could be a difference of £2m in our budget alone, so rather than consult on a set of figures that may prove unreliable, we have opted to wait until after the government announces its figures, then work through those before going out to consultation, to ensure the best position and the best financial information.  This is unfortunate but unavoidable and will require an additional Cabinet meeting but it is the right thing to do, to maintain openness and transparency.

The Leader confirmed that the settlement was originally promised for 30 November, but has now been pushed back to 17 December.  She agreed that deferring this item to an extraordinary meeting on 23 December is not ideal but the right thing to do, allowing a few days to work out the impact it will have on our budget implications.  

The Leader invited Members to present their briefings.

The Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency shared the following:

-       he presented his first report, on carbon emissions, to Council on Monday; it was well received, and will be used to move forward and improve our approach to Net Zero by 2030, as pledged in 2019;

-       November has been a month of progress on our climate plan, including:

-       hosting the inspiring schools climate conference in the council chamber;

-       awarding over £35k in Cheltenham Zero grants to local businesses driving low carbon innovation;

-       advances in flood resilience work with an updated response plan now in place and community flood wardens joining the network;

-       housing retrofit projects are moving forward, with work on 87 properties completed under the social housing decarbonisation fund scheme and plans for low carbon heating well under way.

The Cabinet Member for Waste, Recycling, Parks, Gardens and Green Open Space briefed on three items:

-        Cheltenham’s ‘friends’ groups are massively important, engaging with communities, making a real difference and saving the council money; a new one recently held its first event at Newcourt Green in Charlton Park, and the new Roamers Group is also working well;

-        he is meeting with bereavement services to consider direct cremations and green burials and how to work down some of the deficit we currently have on revenue to offer a new service;

-        street cleaning is moving forward, with most roads cleared of leaves, many others to be done before the end of year, and the remainder in January and February.   This requires a lot of coordination with the county, including signage, car removal and drainage works, so although the situation is not great in some areas, residents can be assured that the council is working on it.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets said all had paid tribute the Deputy Chief Executive Paul Jones at Council on Monday, and a later agenda item approved the appointment of a new S151 officer, which the council is legally required to have.  He thanked the Chief Executive, Leader and all the finance team for their work, and said that every meeting without Paul is difficult. 

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Customer Services shared several items:

-        she enjoyed a visit to Riding for the Disabled in Cheltenham, to help distribute some of the nearly 900 selection boxes collected by Citizen of Honour David Bath for children in Cheltenham.  She said that he and housing officers have done great job raising cash and providing the selection boxes, and thanked them and all officers for their help;

-        work has started at Saracens and The Hub, with piling work finished today;

-        she met two new staff members today, and is looking forward to working with them and others in the year ahead;

-        she was in Malta last week, with the Local Government Association, and as always, it was a privilege to be able to share what CBC doing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

Members reported the following decisions taken since the last meeting:

1. To award a contract to Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (GARAS)

Cabinet Member for Safety and Communities, Councillor Victoria Atherstone

2. Approval of the award of grant funding for the Cheltenham Playhouse Theatre

Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Culture, Wellbeing and Public Realm, Councillor Izaac Tailford