Agenda item

A presentation from Jeremy Williamson to update members on North Place, the Brewery, the Station and Boots Corner developments.  

The chair welcomed Jeremy Williamson, Managing Director of the Cheltenham Development Task Force, to give an update to the committee on the work of the task force. In his presentation he provided a progress report on key sites, the public realm, transport issues and future targets. The presentation is attached to the minutes.

Prior to the meeting, the chair had received some questions from a local residents’ group which she had forwarded to Mr Williamson and requested that he address these during his presentation.

In response to a question regarding the governance arrangements for the task group, Mr Williamson informed the meeting that the initiation of the task group was approved by Council in December 2009 and established in January 2010 as an advisory body.  The membership was drawn from Councillors, business and community representatives with support from key Borough Council and County Council officers. The business plan was approved by Cabinet and financial implications by Council. The lead Cabinet Member is Councillor Andy McKinlay.

The officer undertook to follow up queries raised from members in respect of feedback on the Bath Road shopping area traffic arrangements and the report on air quality if Boots Corner were to be closed to cars.

In considering the public realm, members voiced concerns about the appearance of the pedestrianised areas, the maintenance of paving slabs and the use of concrete in their place where slabs had been removed. The officer explained that slabs would be lifted in areas used by vehicles, including delivery vehicles, as they are not designed to bear such weights. The High Street will trial the same system that exists in the Promenade between the bollards and if this proves successful, this will be the template used at Boots Corner.

A Member asked why the Promenade couldn’t become totally pedestrianised throughout its whole length as it had the potential to be developed into a town square. The officer responded that the traffic system here had been modelled by the County Council to allow buses entering Cheltenham from the south to gain easy passage through town and therefore it was not feasible to pedestrianise the whole promenade.

A member suggested that stakeholders were not adequately represented on the task force and in particular residents groups were not included.  Mr Williamson refuted any suggestion that the task group did not provide proper representation and added that he was always happy to respond to requests for information from Members or any local groups. He advised that in setting up the task group one of the aims had been to try and get an element of commercial experience onto the task group which could help move forward some of the projects which up to that point had stalled. He invited members to put forward any suggestions if they felt that there was a need to revisit its make-up.

Members were reassured that Third Sector transport and Star Centre minibuses were within the definition of buses and were therefore allowed the same access to the town centre as commercial buses.

The Chair thanked Mr Williamson for his presentation.