Agenda item

The Leader invited Members to present any briefings they wanted to share.

The Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency said that small and medium-sized business-owners with some spare time over the festive period may want to complete an application to the Cheltenham Zero business fund, which will award grants of up to £10k to energy-efficient projects.  The closing date is 28 January.

The Cabinet Member for Waste, Recycling and Street Services put on record his thanks to Ubico staff for their work in keeping the town clean and green, particularly over the holiday period, tackling huge mountains of Christmas waste and recycling, as well as coping with changed bin collections.

The Cabinet Member for Safety and Communities shared four items:

-       thanks to everyone who recycles their food waste, as in doing so they are helping food banks to receive fresh food -  recycling companies donate a portion of their profits;

-       the No Child Left Behind strategy board is looking to extend beyond Cheltenham’s borders and help the rest of the county long-term.  She thanked Tracy Brown and Richard Gibson for their work which allows this to happen;

-       thanks to all officers and everyone else for their incredible commitment to the No Child Left Behind organisation, which has now been running for five years;

-       the Safety of Women survey is available on the CBC website until the end of January, and women are encouraged to share their experiences.

The Cabinet Member for Housing said that as part of the move to bring housing services back in house, the council is taking the opportunity to ask tenants and leaseholders to help us shape services going forward.  A letter has been sent, with instructions on how to complete the survey, which closes on 11 February.  She urged people to complete it, reassuring them that all information is shared in strict confidence, managed by an independent organisation and not shared directly with the council.  She said people can ask questions at drop-in centres in St Paul’s and Hester’s Way, and at on-line webinars, all detailed in the letter.

The Cabinet Member for Customer and Regulatory Services shared the news that two new posts are being added to the planning team.  A Senior Enforcement Officer will help with the post-pandemic backlog as well as new cases, and a Borough Ecologist will advise on biodiversity net gain rules, and improve policy and practice in nature recovery.

He went on to say that the Secretary of State had made a speech earlier when launching revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework which berated councils for being too slow to deliver housing but simultaneously said he would make it easier for councils to avoid building in the green belt.  In fact Cheltenham is delivering 35k houses with Gloucester and Tewkesbury, at the same time protecting the greenbelt and green spaces, but the Cabinet Member for Customer and Regulatory Services was worried that less conscientious councils may use the NPPF revisions as an excuse to not build anything.

The Leader had three items to share:

-       at Council last week, CBC approved the Cheltenham-Gloucester-Tewkesbury Strategic and Local Plans to go out for the first round of consultation under Regulation 18.  This is an opportunity to gather evidence and hear residents’ thoughts on future strategic development.  She encouraged everyone to look at and feed into the consultation;

-       all district leaders are writing to the Home Secretary regarding the lack of financial support to allow councils to welcome all refugees in the same way that Ukrainian and Afghan refugees have been supported;

-       thanks to all officers, led by Louis Krog, who will be on standby over the festive period.