Agenda item

The Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Wellbeing and Culture shared the following:

-       despite terrible weather, Cheltenham launched its Christmas shopping season at the weekend, a collaboration between local business, the council, BID, the Cheltenham Trust and several local groups.  On Thursday the ice rink will open, using battery power to reduce its carbon emissions by 98.7% and less noise for local residents.  Thanks to Helen Mole and especially to Tara for working with sponsors, including Lidl, the headline sponsor;

-       thanks to the Mayor of Annecy, Monsieur Francois Astorg, and Hugo Epineuse of this team, who hosted a delegation from Cheltenham.  It included representatives of Cheltenham Festivals, with a view to forging closer links between the jazz festival and the new Annecy jazz festival, sharing information about multi-use venues used for culture, music and sport, and budget cuts from governments requiring them to make enormous savings; 

-       congratulations to Cheltenham Festivals on a successful literature festival, with numbers almost back to pre-Covid levels.  The event was fossil-free for the second year, welcomed 12000 children over six days, and used AI in innovative and interesting ways.  Thanks to Andrew Lansley, who has worked for the council and the Cheltenham Culture Board for all his work;

-       thanks to Laurie Bell, the outgoing chief executive of the Cheltenham Trust.  She is retiring after six years, and has done an enormous amount of work for the Trust and the town.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Customer Services was interested to hear about the Annecy event, and told members about a meeting due to take place in Leeds in December which will bring together French and British elective representatives to look at ways in which they can work together on climate and culture.  It will be a great opportunity to build on relations with Annecy as well as other French towns and cities. 

In addition, she shared the following briefings:

-       she attended a very interesting briefing meeting with the housing regulator, who explained their role and methods, and answered questions.  It was notable that tenants feature highly in every aspect of their work, and with a tenant rep on the Housing Cabinet Committee, CBC will continue to work together closely to ensure the tenant voice is at the core of everything we do;

-       the housing support forum brings together everyone connected with housing across social housing and private rental, to discuss what they do and how they do it.  She suggested that at future meetings, the police, social services and health service representatives could be included to look at how they can work together, on matters such as anti-social behaviour and drug dealing which affect people in Cheltenham and the wider community;

-       she will attend a meeting of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions next week in Karlsruhe, where delegates will be discussing housing amongst other things.  Also, the EU is planning to introduce a European card, a bank card that can be used across Europe, and it will be interesting to hear how that will work as we may find ourselves affected by it, despite no longer being in the EU.  

The Cabinet Member for Climate Change reported on the previous week’s Schools Climate Conference in the Council Chamber, in which 14 schools and 65 students took part in a Mock Cop29 event.  It was hugely successful, with excellent media coverage from Radio Gloucester and Points West.  The students held their own COP negotiations, then grilled a panel of local climate experts with some tough questions.  He hopes that it will become an annual event.

The Cabinet Member for Waste, Recycling and Public Realm reported that:

-       the council is always looking to do the best it can for the planet and the public purse, and last year switched to Plan B as its material broker for recycled material.  Not only do they pay a better price, but they also offer higher social value – as part of the contract they donate to food banks, and since March 2023 have donated 8000 items for families in need.  Last year’s recycling rate was 51%, and he encouraged residents to recycle as much as possible, as the higher the rate of recycling, the more Plan B donate to food banks;

-       Fiddlers Green Park recently received new play equipment, partly funded by community organisations, and it is good to see children and families enjoying themselves.

The Cabinet Member for Safety and Communities had two updates:

-       she thanked the organisers of Cheltenham Interfaith Week, where places of worship open their doors and share their beliefs and values to get a better understanding of each other.  She thanked all involved for these enlightening events which demonstrated that regardless of faith, they are all working together and doing good work in their communities.  The week ended with a lovely meal at the Hindu Centre;

-       on Monday 25 November, 16 days of action started to raise awareness of and help end gender-based violence.  The council has a group which focuses on Violence Against Women and Girls, working with community groups and businesses in the town centre.  More information about the 16 days of action can be found on the CBC website; activities include exploitation training, Reclaim the Night walk on Friday 29 November, and a creative art project at Pittville school.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets invited anyone with any questions about the budget consultation to email her, as she wants to ensure people are in a good place before the consultation starts.

The Leader shared three updates:

-       the new government requires each county to have a growth plan, and CBC is rising to the challenge through a recent event at the MX building, which was well attended by local academics, voluntary sector, building companies and businesses; their conclusions will be fed into the bigger mix for the county council and inform the growth plan. The evening ended with a poll of priorities and it was heartening to note that the top priority is attainable housing, recognising the logical fact that without this there will be no growth;

-       twenty years of IT Schools Africa (ITSA) was recently celebrated at Kohler Mira in Cromwell Road, with many businesses in attendance for the launch of a new limb, getting more people to sign up.  The organisation started by providing technology and computers to young people in South Africa, but this year has done a lot more in Gloucestershire, broadening out its original offer.  It was a pleasure to see people’s commitment to supporting this important work;

-       on Monday, the University of Gloucestershire officially launched FuturePark, an exciting new learning space at Park Campus offering Cyber Security, Computing, and Computer Games Design and Programming courses.  It was opened by the Director of GCHQ and the Golden Valley development was mentioned.  Students and lecturers provided tours and demonstrations, and it was exciting to anticipate Cheltenham growing its own talent feed into its future as a major cyber centre.