Agenda, decisions and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Hay and Webster and Councillor Whyborn gave his apologies in view of his potential declaration of interests in both agenda items should he be in attendance.

Councillor McKinlay declared a personal and prejudicial interest in agenda item 5 as the council’s representative on the St Margaret’s Hall management committee and announced his intention to leave the room for that item.

Resolved that the minutes of the meeting of 19 April 2011 be approved and signed as a correct record.

None received.

Report of  the Cabinet Member Built Environment

The Cabinet Member Built Environment introduced the report which had been circulated with the agenda. He explained that the Council had, over many years, entered into a variety of property letting arrangements with the voluntary or “third sector”, sometimes providing grant assistance or preferential tenancy terms. Increasingly the council was being asked to consider similar arrangements for community based organisations on a subsidised basis rather than at “best consideration”. A more consistent, transparent and streamlined process had been developed to facilitate officer negotiations by the development of an assessment tool and St Margaret’s Hall was the first time it had been put into practice.

The results of the assessment were set out in appendix 2 and demonstrated that St Margaret’s Hall scored highly on all the criteria and was the kind of organisation that the council should be supporting. The application had been supported by the ward councillor, Councillor Jo Teakle. 

Norman Ashworth, Senior Estates Surveyor, highlighted to members that a 15 year lease had been provisionally agreed, it was currently 10 years. The subsidised rent was for a period of five years which would then be reviewed at the same time as the rent review/lease renewal dates, the first of these being in 2016.

The Cabinet Member Housing and Safety thought this was a very positive example of the new transparent process and supported the valuable services that St Margaret’s Hall provided to the community.

The Leader supported the recommendations and commended the work done in creating the policy. He confirmed that the Cabinet would ensure that the five-year review of the subsidised rent would be carried out.  

Resolved that:

1. The non implementation of the outstanding 2006 rent review, and an extension of the original matching rent grant to cover the period from June 2006 to the expiry date of the current lease (5^th June 2011) be agreed, thereby avoiding costly administrative time in negotiating a new rent and subsequently producing a report to ‘write-off’ an outstanding debt.
2. The Trustees of the St Margaret’s Hall User Group be granted a new full repairing lease of the premises from 6 June 2011 at a rent to be formally stated in the documentation of £13,500 per annum exclusive of rates, insurance and other charges and with a rent review at the end of the fifth year.
3. The subsidised rent of 100% of the above rent figure of £13500 per annum be approved until a new rent is determined at rent review or lease renewal in accordance with the Council’s agreed Property Lettings and Disposals to the Third Sector policy with the proviso (as advised at the meeting) that the subsidy be reviewed on a five yearly basis at the same time as the rent review/lease renewal dates, the first of these to take place in 2016.
4. The Trustees of the St Margaret’s Hall User Group be required to continue to pay the annual building insurance premium throughout the new  lease.
5. Authority be delegated to the Head of Property  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Report of the Cabinet Member Housing and Safety

The Cabinet Member Housing and Safety introduced the report. This provided an update to members on the commissioning approach for allocation of the one-off sum of £50,000 allocated by Council to support the sustainable development of additional capacity and expertise in providers of community-based youth work in Cheltenham.

Four expressions of interest had been received and these had been reviewed by members of the Social and Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee and also at a meeting with the chair of the Cheltenham Children and Young People’s Partnership. That meeting had provided a number of useful comments on the information contained in the appendix. The next stage was to ask for more detail on the proposals and encourage potential providers to work together.

She highlighted that this was a separate process to the allocation of the residual Gloucestershire County Council county funding of £50,000 per district in 2011/12 for youth provision. The districts had just received the criteria from the county on how this money should be spent. All the districts were now working up their own criteria which following agreement by the county would be used to initiate a small bidding process. This funding would be available from July and the only limiting factor was how quickly the bidding process could be completed.

The Leader welcomed the work that was being done by the council to help groups who may be struggling as a result of the cuts in youth provision.

The Leader reminded members that the Community Pride bidding process was still open until 1 July 2011. He was pleased that the government had finally confirmed the setting up of the Gloucestershire Local Enterprise Partnership. This partnership would be able to put bids in to the regional growth fund.