Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllrs Joy, Garcia Clamp and Smith.

Cllr Foster attended as a substitute for Cllr Joy.

There were none.

Minutes of the meeting held on 31 March 2025

The minutes of the 31^st March meeting were approved.

There were none.

Briefing from Councillor Hay, Leader (if she has an update, or if O&S Members have questions for her)

Objective: An update from the Cabinet on key issues for Cabinet Members which may be of interest to Overview and Scrutiny and may inform the work plan

To include a regular update on the Household Recycling Centre from the Leader/Cabinet Member Waste, Recycling and the public realm.

Cllr Hay as Leader attended the meeting but as Council had occurred so recently there was nothing to report. 

She invited Members to ask any questions of which there were none.

There were none.

Due to the County Council elections, there are no updates on this occasion. For information the dates of the next meetings of these joint committees are as follows :

Gloucestershire Health O&S Committee – 15 July

Gloucestershire Economic Strategy Scrutiny Committee – 25 July

Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel – 11 July

There had been no recent scrutiny meetings due to the County Council Elections.

There are currently no active scrutiny task groups

There are currently no scrutiny task groups.

Objective: to review the draft physical activity and sports strategy action plan before it goes to Cabinet for approval on 20 May.

To provide an opportunity for the committee to reflect on the proposed actions and how they support wider ambitions of the Council.

Richard Gibson, Head of Communities, Wellbeing and Partnerships

The Head of Communities, Wellbeing and Partnerships introduced the report as published.  He explained that the action plan was being taken to Cabinet for approval on the 20^th May.

He then gave some background to the report stating that there are a number of reasons for the Council to have an up-to-date sports and physical activity strategy including the need to secure investment into the Council’s leisure facilities, supporting the ambitions of local sporting clubs, and addressing health inequalities. In addition, the strategy was identified as a corporate priority in the corporate plan 2023-2027.

The report sets out the journey of work that has been done since 2023. There have been two studies carried out – one with regard to leisure facilities and the other with regard to playing pitches. These provide a robust evidence base for the future. There was also a survey of young people the results of which were taken to Cabinet in February.

The action plan was drafted with support from the previous Cabinet Member and will be taken to Cabinet on 20^th May.

The engagement of stakeholders and how they are engaged with is important. For instance, schools are important stakeholders as they have assets like swimming pools and sports fields. The Council will work to unlock investment into sport and physical activity with creative means.

The matter then went to Member questions, the responses were as follows:

-       There are many more opportunities with football and much more investment.  However, this does mean that certain sports get side-lined e.g. hockey is one as their pitches get taken over by football.  The Football Foundation invest, and they are keen that the pitches they invest in are used for multisport. This might create opportunities for other sports such as netball – which members felt was incredibly important for women and girls.

-       In the context of local parks, the council needs to balance their use by sporting teams with making sure that they remain open to use by all. 

-       There is now less risk of schools selling off sports fields as Sport England can now raise a statutory objection. The case of Pittville School was slightly different as they were the only school that didn’t have a sports hall they sold some of their unused playing fields to build the sports hall.

-       The Council will use its business-as-usual budget to deliver the action plan and then look at seek funding from elsewhere to deliver wider ambitions.  It was suggested that leveraging existing facilities in the private sector might help.

-       The Feel-Good Pass has been launched and involves four community providers. With the No Child Left Behind activity pass there is an opportunity to bring on commercial providers

-       The national bodies for sports are addressing toxic masculinity ensuring that investment is made and that they address the balance.

-       As regard to the implementation schedule this is something that has to be discussed with the Cabinet Member as they will need  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Objective: Present impact of new EDI policy.  Identifying good practice and reviewing targets.

Director of Governance, Housing and Communities

The Director of Governance, Housing and Communities introduced the report.  She stated that the report was instigated by Councillor Tooke some time ago.  It has taken some time to put together what is done by the individual teams within the Council.  The report illustrates what each team is doing and what is being done with buildings and assets and the housing improvement plan to address and improve accessibility.  The new ED&I policy will go to Council in September.  There will be more opportunity to do things differently as the Council moves forward.  The chamber is not really accessible and there is not much that can be done at the moment.  The action plan captures what we can do with the current environment.  The Council are currently working with the Star College with regard to access to buildings, also will be working with shops in the town to see which are accessible and this information will then be made available to the public via the Marketing Cheltenham website.

The Chair raised the issue of the problem for people with dementia is that they sometimes cannot see a way out of a strange building so it would be good to map that information as well.  The Cheltenham Dementia Action Alliance are working with the BID to raise awareness of businesses about how to improve services to accommodate people living with dementia.

The responses to Member questions were as follows:

-       The Council are working with the BID around shops and what can be done. 

-       Currently at the Everyman two wheelchair users cannot sit together as the lay out of the accessible seats does not allow for this.  It has been requested that as part of the grant funding that the Council awards the Everyman they try and improve this.

-       There are ongoing discussions with Gloucestershire Highways to improve pavements and the roads.

-       It would be a political decision for improvements regarding accessibility to be made to the Municipal Offices before the Council moves out.

-       It was agreed the that the completed EDI policy would come to the committee in October.  It was also agreed that there would be a review in a years’ time to see the progress that has been made.

The Chair thanked the officer for attending the meeting. 

To consider and approve the draft scrutiny work plan 2025/26

Due to Cabinet changes it was requested that the Culture Board item be moved to a future meeting, this will be discussed more fully at the Chairs briefing in June.

There was also the reiteration of the request that the Accessibility and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion briefing note is brought to the committee when the policy is finalised.

There were none.

7^th July 2025

The next meeting will be on 7^th July 2025.