Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Pittville Room - Municipal Offices. View directions

Contact: Rosalind Reeves, Democratic Services Manager 

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

Councillor Roger Whyborn.

 

2.

Declarations of interest

Minutes:

None declared.

 

3.

Minutes of the last meeting pdf icon PDF 57 KB

Minutes of the meetings held on 24 February and 7 March 2017

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the last meetings held on 24 February and 7 March 2017 were approved and signed as a correct record.

 

4.

Public and Member Questions and Petitions

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

Minutes:

None received. 

 

5.

Proposal to implement Solace: A partnership to tackle priority anti-social behaviour pdf icon PDF 745 KB

Report of the Cabinet Member Development and Safety

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member Development and Safety introduced the proposal to implement Solace, a council and police partnership to tackle anti-social behaviour through partner agency working. It would result in more robust services including the use of two police staff to support the work that the council is currently doing who would be based in a hub in the former Tourist Information Centre.

 

The Cabinet Member Housing welcomed the proposals and with his particular interest in homelessness, the additional support measures that they offered to the most vulnerable in society.

RESOLVED THAT

 

1.    the proposal for Cheltenham Borough Council to join the Solace partnership be approved.

 

2.    authority be delegated to the Public & Environmental Health Team Leader, in consultation with the Cabinet Member Development & Safety to agree the final implementation plans.

 

3.    a briefing note to all Members be circulated setting out further detail regarding implementation, governance and performance monitoring once it becomes available.

 

 

6.

Response to the government white paper 'fixing our broken housing market' pdf icon PDF 274 KB

Report of the Leader

Minutes:

The Leader introduced the report which set out a response to the government consultation on the housing white paper setting out their plans to reform the housing market and boost the supply of new homes in England. He highlighted that it was good to see that the direction of travel of the government supported the aims of the JCS. He disagreed with the government proposal for starter homes and this was reflected in the response.

 

Appendix 2 of this paper contained a list of the consultation questions and proposed answers. The answers given here, if agreed by the other Joint Core Strategy authorities, were likely to form the body of a joint response from the JCS.

 

The report noted that any responses to the consultation must be made by 11:45pm on 2nd May 2017 

 

The Cabinet Member Healthy Lifestyles requested an amendment to the second paragraph of the response to question 15 with the insertion of the words "or for shared ownership" after "build homes to rent".  She felt this was important as it would enable people on middle incomes and young people to have a modicum of home ownership and would enable CBH to provide more affordable homes to rent or buy.

 

Other Members supported the response and felt the proposed changes to planning would put the council in a better position to provide a five-year supply of housing. However there were concerns that the proposals failed to address the insufficiency of housing and in particular affordable housing. There was also concern that an increasingly large private rented sector was providing very poor quality accommodation or top end leaving housing associations or local authorities to fill the gap.

 

RESOLVED THAT

 

the consultation responses set out in Appendix 2 as amended be approved for submission to the government consultation on behalf of Cheltenham Borough Council, and to form part of a joint response where other JCS authorities agree.

 

7.

Briefing from Cabinet Members

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member Healthy Lifestyles advised that she had signed a letter of behalf of local and regional authorities to European parliament to request changes in the way investments are accounted for.

 

The Cabinet Member Development and Safety advised that the informal consultation regarding the Cheltenham Local Plan had closed on 20 March 2017.  657 responses had been received and 200 people had attended a consultation event.  They were largely positive in their responses although there were some objections to particular developments.  All these responses were now being considered.

 

The Cabinet Member Finance advised that the contract for Tour of Britain had now been agreed.  The council had received an invitation to a launch event in Cardiff on 25 April 2017 and would be issuing a media release regarding this event.

 

The Leader advised that the consultation for the JCS had concluded yesterday. He reminded members that he had called a special Cabinet meeting at 4 p.m. on 24 April 2017 to consider a treasury management matter.

 

 

 

8.

Cabinet Member decisions since last meeting of Cabinet

Minutes:

Cabinet Member

Decision

Clean and Green Environment

Contract Awards Refuse Vehicles

Corporate Services

Award of Contract for Offsite Print and Mailing

Healthy Lifestyles

Health Inequalities Grants

Development and Safety

Final Notification of Cheltenham Borough Council's Decision in response to BT Public Payphone Removal Consultation

Clean and Green Environment

Crematorium Redevelopment - Preconstruction and Construction Work