Agenda item

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

-       he was delighted that the lease for Cheltenham’s iconic Lido has been renewed for almost 100 years, and where other lidos are being closed or needing heavy investment to continue, ours is now protected for many generations to come.  He thanked Julie and the fantastic team for all the work they do;

-       he and Councillor Atherstone recently undertook an after-dark walk around the town centre with members of the Accessibility Forum, to experience for themselves the risks and hazards involved.  The insight helps inform decisions by licensing, the safety team and town centre planning on what can be done to help residents and visitors, as well as work with BID and the county council to make things as safe and manageable as possible.  A town centre approach survey will be carried out soon after the election;

-       the current Paula Rego exhibition at The Wilson is highly recommended – interesting art by an internationally renowned artist – and continues until 10 May;

-       as this is the last Cabinet meeting before the election, thanks to all the fantastic offices, people and partner organisations – from Cheltenham Trust and Festivals to the volunteers in our parks and gardens – who help to make Cheltenham such an amazing place to live.

The Cabinet Member for Major Development and Housing Delivery said she recently had the privilege of visiting the Cherrington’s site in Leckhampton, where beautiful bungalows and family homes are being built in a sought-after area.  She said the focus is very much on investing in and creating homes which people will love and cherish for years to come, not only beautiful to look at but exceeding expectation and providing adaptable accommodation, including downstairs wet-rooms and wide, wheelchair-friendly doorframes, to support people through all phases of their lives.  She thanked CBC’s partners and the major development team, who are doing a great job in building houses across Cheltenham both big and small.

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Building Control said that with elections in a few weeks’ time, it was good to take a moment to think about all the Liberal Democrats have achieved in the last few years – policies and reports, both updates and brand new – which will collectively leave Cheltenham an even better place than it was when they started.

The Cabinet Member for Waste, Recycling, Parks, Gardens and Green Open Space was happy to share several items which demonstrate what the council is doing to positively improve the ambience of the town:

-       he is part of the panel for a public art project on the Honeybourne Line, with a £60k grant available for the winning applicant.  Over 50 artists have applied, now shortlisted to ten; the standard is very high and the final decision will be extremely difficult, but we can definitely look forward to some really exciting public art on the Honeybourne Line very soon, following some good and informative public consultation;

-       he has today attended a seminar about how to deal with and get rid of weeds using an electric weeding machine.  These are much used on the continent, especially in Belgium and Holland, and he hopes to arrange a demonstration with Ubico to see if it is something CBC can use in the future to control weed growth on pavements and in gulleys, although there are likely to be pros and cons;  

-       congratulations to Georgie Bearder, a recent recruit to the greenspace team, who has just successfully passed all her exams with and is a fantastic asset to the team and to CBC;

-       CBC has just completed our final community orchard in Naunton Park – it is great to be doing this, and good for biodiversity;  

-       work is also underway on improving the course of the Park Run in Pittville Park – this incredible event is attended by 600-700 runners and raises money for charities, but inevitably has resulted in wear and tear on the paths and the course – now being repaired, including the introduction of matting;

-       on the street-cleaning side, we continue our rolling programme, asking people not to park on certain streets at certain times.  This is proving very effective and many roads, including Evesham Road, York Street, St Luke’s Road, Portland Square and College Road are benefitting, making a  real difference to the cleanliness of the town by tackling these difficult-to-clean areas;

-       a programme to update all litter bins is being introduced, particularly in parks and the town centre, with bigger, more attractive bins, which are less attractive to seagulls.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets had a number of items to report:

-       thanks to officers, particularly the property team which has taken on so much work recently, with a new principal building surveyor appointed, the compliance work all on track, and the 2026-27 planned works programme now in full swing.  This includes the floor-strengthening works at the Pittville Pump Room, which are well underway;

-       as well as building new homes itself, he said that CBC also enables new homes to be built by its partners, with planning works and the disposal programme at the former Arle Nursery site in Old Gloucester Road completed last month, and Bromford Housing soon to start work on 171 vital new homes for the borough;

-       CBC also owns some commercial units at Enterprise Way, all of which are now let, following successful lease negotiations and renewals;

-       moving to finance, he said it is good to note that the 2024-25 accounts have now been signed off and will go to Audit, Compliance and Governance Committee soon in the final stage of the system.  He noted a lot of questions and some concerns about the accounts at the budget council meeting, but said it is difficult to convey the amount of legislation and work that the council has to undertake, quite rightly, when guarding public.   The legislation is extremely complex, and he would be adrift without the help and guidance of the property team and S151 officer;

-       conversations are already underway for next year’s accounts, turbo-charged in order to get ahead. This can be difficult, because there is a huge amount of information and we are dealing with public money, but we are making sure everything is transparent throughout;  

-       finally, regarding transparency, the finance team is having close conversations with the governance team, as the council receives a lot of information requests around  finance.  We are always looking for ways to ensure the process is smoother and  more transparent, as this is crucial when managing public finances.

The Leader thanked everyone for their briefings.  She gave special thanks to the Cabinet Member for Planning and Building Control for his contribution to Cabinet over the last few years and wished him well as Deputy Mayor for the next municipal year.  She put on public record that Councillor Baker will move to that portfolio in the new Cabinet – he has many years of experience in planning and is ideally suited to the role with big decisions coming up around the Strategic and Local Plan later this year.

Finally, as this is the last meeting of Cabinet before the elections, she gave huge thanks to all Members for their support and help over the last two years.