Agenda item

These must be received no later than 12 noon on Thursday 6 June

1.     Question from Mr Barry Brown to Cabinet Member for Waste, Recycling and Public Realm, Councillor Izaac Tailford

Cheltenham town centre looks untidy and unkept.  An example is that there are huge weeds growing out of most tree pits.  On your website you say that tree pits will be cut back at least once a month right to the soil level to discourage any weed growth.  Can you confirm that the tree pits are cut back at least once a month?  I appreciate that it isn’t possible to keep on top of every tree pit so if it is easier then please just answer the above on the trees from Neptune’s Fountain to 131 on either side of the road (Prom).  Thank you for your time.

Member response

Thank you for your question Mr Brown. I appreciate having my first public council question as a cabinet member.

As a festival town we are pleased to welcome a lot of visitors to the town, many of whom enjoy our thriving night-time economy venues and take away food outlets. Our service provider, Ubico, is out every morning from around 5.30am with manual crews litter picking, sweeping up and emptying bins along with two small pavement sweepers, the jet washing crew and the mechanical road sweeper to ensure the town centre is clean by the time most of us get up in the morning. 

We all know there is a climate emergency, and the vital role trees play, so we are being very careful how we look after our trees across the borough.  This year we will be further reducing the amount of weed spray used across the borough by not spraying around tree bases in grass verges or on paved areas which will assist in allowing vegetation to grow around tree bases helping to maintain moisture levels.

I can confirm that we intend to carefully manually cut back tree bases in hard standing, such as in the Promenade, on a monthly basis where possible and this work has already begun or is about to.

I acknowledge the pavements themselves are in need of improvement too, and we are working with Gloucestershire County Council who are responsible for this.

2.     Question from Mr Barry Brown to Cabinet Member for Waste, Recycling and Public Realm, Councillor Izaac Tailford

Are there any plans to deep clean the pedestrianised areas of the town centre?  The High Street from Poundland all the way to John Lewis really needs a deep clean.  I have recently visited Worcester and Leamington Spa and there is no comparison.  Their streets are so much cleaner than ours.  This is important when it comes to attracting visitors to the town.  These are two rival destinations.

Member response

Thank you Mr Brown.

Whilst I am not sure I agree with your comments about the cleanliness of Cheltenham compared to Worcester and Leamington Spa, I am a firm believer that things can always be improved. In fact, your question is very timely and I am pleased to say that there are plans to carry out a deep clean of the pedestrianised areas of the town centre and more details will be made available early in July. 

It is important that we don’t focus all our efforts in the town centre and forget the rest of the borough.  I have therefore asked that a deep clean of some of the outlying shopping areas is carried out and you may have noticed that work is already starting in outlying shopping areas such as Windyridge (w/c 10 June) and Rowanfield (w/c 17 June).  Whaddon Road shop fronts are scheduled for w/c 24 June and Lynworth Exchange shop fronts are planned for w/c 1 July.  After this work, the crews will move into the town centre and more details will be publicised nearer the time.

I hope this shows the council’s commitment to making Cheltenham as clean and tidy as possible, in both the town centre and across the borough.