Agenda item

The Cabinet Member Healthy Lifestyles informed Members that the Chief Executive had recently taken a decision regarding grant arrangements for improvements to Leisure@.

The Cabinet Member Housing reported that CBH were undertaking a series of consultation events in the west of the town on their vision for west Cheltenham.

The Cabinet Member Finance referred to the commitment by the council of £1 million to the CCLA Property fund. She also paid tribute to the successful hosting of the Tour of Britain.

The Leader also referred to the Tour of Britain the previous weekend and thanked all those who had been involved, in particular the Cabinet Member Finance. A cost benefit analysis would be undertaken on the event and it was hoped that a Cheltenham Festival of Cycling be continued into the future.

The Leader referred to this week’s meeting of Overview and Scrutiny which had raised the issue of deprivation in the town and how successful the measures in place have been to tackle it. Officers would be requested to analyse the statistics on progress being made and feedback to the committee. He also had thanked O&S for the report of the Street People Scrutiny Task Group and confirmed to scrutiny members that the process for dealing with the recommendations was already being acted upon.

The Leader updated Members on the Gloucestershire Economic Growth Joint Committee which had confirmed that it would create a Strategic Planning Officer post whose role would be to standardise the database and evidence base and coordinate communications. It was proposed that the County Council would fund this post 50% with the districts and the LEP each contributing £5k. A formal decision would be taken at the November meeting of the committee. He informed that as the council’s representative on this body if he was required to take a decision on this he would publish it in advance of the meeting to facilitate scrutiny. The actual decision of the Joint Committee would be subject to scrutiny by the countywide scrutiny committee.

The Cabinet Member Clean and Green Environment reported that the launch of the new improved recycling service would take place on 16 October. Residents were understanding the message and officers would continue their conversation with the press. He also reported that the new recycling vehicles had arrived which had received good press coverage.

The Cabinet Member Clean and Green Environment informed Members that a successful gate review process had taken place the previous day on the Crematorium project. Following legal advice regarding process, this allowed the Head of Property and Asset Management to accept a revised offer from the contractor Willmott Dixon to proceed with the construction phase for the new crematorium and associated access roads. He informed that officers were finalising the supporting documentation and it was expected that a decision would be finalised and published this week. The revised contract sum following the tender of work packages is within the originally agreed programme budget and the scheme remained on track to deliver the benefits originally set out. Those risks which remained with the Council had been mitigated as far as practicable at this stage of the process.