Agenda item

Report of the Cabinet Member Clean and Green Environment

The Cabinet Member Clean and Green Environment introduced the report which provided an update on the development of Cheltenham’s new crematorium as it moved through its design stage. He outlined the history of the project since he had taken over the Cabinet portfolio and highlighted the excellent report which had been produced by the scrutiny task group at that time which had raised his awareness of the issues at the crematorium, particularly regarding the need to replace the cremators and the abatement system. He had taken the decision at the time to review the overall service and address the inefficiencies of the current site alongside the cremators. The project had received expert advice and had consulted with key stakeholders. The initial vision had been for the building of a new crematorium with two new chapels. However the estimated cost of £10 million was too high and a revised plan was proposed with one new chapel and continued use of one of the existing chapels at a cost of £7.5 million which the Council had given its consent to in 2015. The use of two sites did have drawbacks and so with the support of officers and Cabinet he had continued to challenge the £10 million figure and had now reached a position where the second chapel was affordable but still needed an additional £1 million of funding. This was to be funded by using the capital receipt from the sale of the cemetery lodge and money from the revenue budget reserve arising from the introduction of new crematorium fees with the balance being supported by prudential borrowing. This was the subject of the recommendation before Council today.

In concluding, the Cabinet Member emphasised that this was a very significant step in the project. The building had been given to the council 150 years ago and this decision today would allow the council to continue to provide the service for the next 150 years.

The Cabinet Member responded to questions:

• With expert advice the costs of the development had been reduced by reviewing the scale of the building, the nature of the car park and other features of the design. He now had every confidence in the figures he was putting before Council today and assured members that they had been scrutinised to a great extent.
• He confirmed that he had always maintained that the receipt from the sale of the cemetery lodge should be ring fenced for this development and therefore the receipt had not been allocated to any other capital projects.
• A member highlighted that the report asked the council to sanction a further £352,000 of prudential borrowing in addition to the other £1.8 M of loans already in place and at a time when there may be other demands on the council. Was the Cabinet Member confident that the extra business at the crematorium would be generated?
  The Cabinet Member reassured members that the business case shows that the council could support the level of loan being requested and the estimates for income were conservative given that the population of the town was expanding.
• The Cabinet Member advised that the additional cost of £1 million which he had referred to for the second chapel was based on the fact that the initial scheme had an estimate of £7.5 million and the bolt on cost of the scheme with an additional chapel and waiting room would be in the order of £8.4 million.
  The Finance Officer advised that the business case for the second chapel also included savings from non usage of the existing chapels. She confirmed that the costs of the capital were included in the calculation of revenue.
• The Cabinet Member assured members that there were no plans to demolish the existing buildings and indeed this would not be possible as they were listed and they would continue to form a central part of the service The business case had shown that if this was pursued there would be a number of interesting possibilities for the existing listed buildings. These included a cafe or wake facility, a place for visitors to spend some time or possibly making part of the building available for a small business such as a florist or stonemason.
• He was confident that the plannned new car park would work in terms of visitor numbers to the two chapels but he  confirmed that the next working group would be discussing this issue. The plans for the siting of the maintenance facility were not set in stone but it was logical to have it at the end of the site where most of their work took place.

In the short debate that followed members expressed their support for the scheme and felt it would improve the services offered at the crematorium and enable the crematorium to provide these services to a wider area beyond the Cheltenham borough.

The Cabinet Member thanked members with their comments. He advised that the application for planning permission would be submitted in April and be considered at Planning Committee in June or July. Assuming approval was given, work would start in the autumn with the planned completion date of Spring 2019. He wished to put his thanks on record for the commitment of officers and members of the working group in the project to date and he would continue to keep members updated on progress.

RESOLVED  (UNANIMOUSLY) THAT COUNCIL

Allocate the budget for the construction of a second new chapel, including the use of the capital receipt of £275,000 from the sale of the cemetery lodge and £373,000 from the revenue budget reserve arising from the introduction of new crematorium fees in 2017-18, with the balance of £352,000 being supported by prudential borrowing.