Agenda and draft minutes

There were none.

Cllr Willingham stated that he had been on a site visit for the A board and that he had been on the committee when the driver previously attended.

The senior licensing officer introduced the report as published.

There was one Member question to the officer, in which it was confirmed that it was an application for one A board and not two.

The applicant was then given the opportunity to speak and made the following points:

·         the shop is a zero waste shop.

·         The shop relies on approximately 40 volunteers.

·         Relocation of the business was funded by community funding as this was seen as a more central location than they had before.

·         The shop can not be sustained by just the members.

·         An A board is a simple and relatively easy solution to their advertising.

·         They have approached the other businesses to share an A board and we unsuccessful in their request.

·         The back drop will be the existing street scene.

·         The business is part of the change to 0 or carbon neutral Cheltenham.

In response to Member questions the applicant confirmed that the other two businesses had been approached to share an A board and they did not wish to do this.

The matter then went to debate where Members raised the following matters:

·         There is a concern re A boards and the equality act, particularly with regard to wheelchair and disabled users.  They will need to ensure that they are in the same place every day.

·         There is enough space in the area to not impinge on the physically disabled.

·         There is support from the BID for this application.

·         The objection does make the point that if every business is allowed an A board then there will be too many in town.

·         As there is no option to share an A board the 4 meter separation in condition b will need to be amended.

·         The Council has a desire to improve the  offer on the High Street, and the suggestion that a modular sign should be considered.  The Chair has undertaken to contact the BID and cabinet colleagues regarding this.

·         For this particular part of town if this application is granted there will not be a proliferation of A boards as there are only 3 businesses in the area in question.

·         There are only going to be 2 A boards at this site which isn’t too onerous, if the 2 businesses that currently share 1 board wish to have a board each that will be business for another meeting.

·         There is a concern that it might end up with too many things cluttering the highway.

·          The application should be supported as the business is eco-friendly and filling an empty building in the High Street.

·         The application complies with policy as there are special arrangements for that specific area, there is no reason to refuse.

There were no further question and the matter went to the vote to permit.

FOR: UNANIMOUS

Permitted

That in accordance with Section 100A(4) Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the meeting for the remaining agenda items as it is likely that, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, if members of the public are present there will be disclosed to them exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 and 2, Part (1) Schedule (12A) Local Government Act 1972, namely:

Paragraph 1; Information relating to any individual

Paragraph 2; Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual

After much discussion and debate the matter went to the vote to refuse which was 5:0 in favour of refusal.