Council - Wednesday 24 September 2025, 6:00pm - Vote_events Tab - Cotswold District Council Webcasting

Council
Wednesday, 24th September 2025 at 6:00pm 

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  1. Councillor Mark Harris
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  1. Julia Gibson, Officer
  2. Councillor Mark Harris
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  1. Councillor Mark Harris
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  1. Councillor Gina Blomefield
  2. Councillor Mark Harris
  3. 03. To approve the minutes of the Council meeting held on 16 July 2025
    Status: In progress
  4. 03. To approve the minutes of the Council meeting held on 16 July 2025
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Mike Evemy
  2. Councillor Mark Harris
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  1. Public Speaker
  2. Councillor Mark Harris
  3. Councillor Juliet Layton
  4. Councillor Mark Harris
  5. Councillor Juliet Layton
  6. Public Speaker
  7. Public Speaker
  8. Public Speaker
  9. Councillor Mark Harris
  10. Public Speaker
  11. Councillor Andrea Pellegram
  12. Councillor Mark Harris
  13. Public Speaker
  14. Councillor Mark Harris
  15. Public Speaker
  16. Councillor Mark Harris
  17. Public Speaker
  18. Councillor Paul Hodgkinson
  19. Councillor Mark Harris
  20. Councillor Paul Hodgkinson
  21. Councillor Mark Harris
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  1. Councillor Dilys Neill
  2. Councillor Mark Harris
  3. Councillor Juliet Layton
  4. Councillor Juliet Layton
  5. Councillor Mark Harris
  6. Councillor Tom Stowe
  7. Councillor Juliet Layton
  8. Councillor Mark Harris
  9. Councillor David Fowles
  10. Councillor Juliet Layton
  11. Councillor Juliet Layton
  12. Councillor Mark Harris
  13. Councillor Tom Stowe
  14. Councillor Juliet Layton
  15. Councillor Juliet Layton
  16. Councillor Mark Harris
  17. Councillor David Fowles
  18. Councillor Paul Hodgkinson
  19. Councillor Mark Harris
  20. Councillor Len Wilkins
  21. Councillor Paul Hodgkinson
  22. Councillor Mark Harris
  23. Councillor Gina Blomefield
  24. Councillor Juliet Layton
  25. Councillor Juliet Layton
  26. Councillor Mark Harris
  27. Councillor Jon Wareing
  28. Councillor Mark Harris
  29. Councillor Jon Wareing
  30. Councillor Mark Harris
  31. Councillor Mike Evemy
  32. Councillor Mark Harris
Share this agenda point
  1. Councillor Mike Evemy
  2. Councillor Mark Harris
  3. Councillor David Cunningham
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. Councillor Mark Harris
  6. Councillor Tom Stowe
  7. Councillor Mark Harris
  8. Councillor Nikki Ind
  9. Councillor Mark Harris
  10. Councillor Mike McKeown
  11. Councillor Angus Jenkinson
  12. Councillor Mark Harris
  13. Councillor Juliet Layton
  14. Councillor Mark Harris
  15. Councillor Paul Hodgkinson
  16. Councillor Mark Harris
  17. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  18. Councillor Mark Harris
  19. Councillor Tom Stowe
  20. Councillor Mark Harris
  21. Councillor Juliet Layton
  22. Councillor Mark Harris
  23. Councillor Mike Evemy
  24. Councillor Mark Harris
  25. 07. Corporate Plan 2024 - 2028 - Approve Recs 1-2
    Status: In progress
  26. 07. Corporate Plan 2024 - 2028 - Approve Recs 1-2
    Status: Ended
  27. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  28. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  29. Councillor Mark Harris
  30. Councillor Nigel Robbins
  31. Councillor Mark Harris
  32. Councillor Gina Blomefield
  33. Councillor Mark Harris
  34. Officer
  35. Councillor Mark Harris
  36. Councillor David Cunningham
  37. Councillor Gina Blomefield
  38. Councillor Mark Harris
  39. Councillor Angus Jenkinson
  40. Councillor Mark Harris
  41. Officer
  42. Councillor Mark Harris
  43. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  44. Councillor Mark Harris
  45. 08. Treasury Management Outturn - Approve rec 2
    Status: In progress
  46. 08. Treasury Management Outturn - Approve rec 2
    Status: Ended
  47. Webcast Finished

Councillor Mark Harris - 0:00:00
And we're live. Good afternoon and welcome to this meeting of Cotswold
District Council's full council on Wednesday the 24th of December 2025. My
name is Councillor Mark Harris I'm the chair of the council and I'd like to welcome
all members, the public in attendance and those watching online. You're very
welcome. Members of the public present are entitled to record the meetings
themselves, provided this isn't disruptive to our proceedings. For those
watching at home, the electronic voting results will be displayed on screen and
will be announced at the end of each vote. Should anything go wrong with the
electronic voting which cannot be resolved, we'll revert to voting by a

1 Apologies

clear show of hands. So we're going to start off with apologies. We have
Julia Gibson, Officer - 0:00:53
apologies from Councillor Helen Mansella, Councillor Claire Bloomer, Councillor Lisa Spivey,
Councillor Laura Hall -Wilson and Councillor Joe Harris. And I mean we got a late apologies from
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:01:04
Councillor Ray Brasington as well. Hence I'm up here on my own. Thank you Julia. Do we have any

2 Declarations of Interest

Councillor Mark Harris - 0:01:22
declarations of interest please. I'll take that as a no and obviously if
something comes up during the meeting that you feel you should declare then

3 Minutes

please please please do that. Okay minutes minutes of the previous meeting
on the 16th of July. Do we have any...
Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:01:45
Thank you chair. It's just the correction on page 30 in response to my question.
The sentence doesn't quite make sense. We're expecting from Trinity Road from
the space of his spaces let out at Trinity Road.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:02:08
Thank you. We've captured that and it will be correct. Do we have any other amendments or concerns or issues?
In which case may I have a proposer to accept the minutes of the 16th of July?
Councillor Layton, thank you very much. Can I have a seconder please?
Councillor Stokes, thank you very much.
So the recommendation is that full council accept the minutes of the meeting on the 16th of July 2025 as a correct record.
I now call for the voting to be opened.
How are we looking?
Oh, we've got...
Is that good?
We all floated.
26, so we've got 27... 27 for...
Sorry, 21
4 and 6 abstentions. Sorry, it's got the green there and then it says it's reading along.
So we've got 21, four and six extensions.
So that's carried.
Okay. Move now to announcements from the chair,
leader and chief executive.
So for myself, I'd like to remind members of the need
to be disciplined with their comments,
avoid repetition during debate and be succinct
with any questions raised.
The length of the meeting is capped at four hours and after three hours have elapsed,
if we get to that point, we will take a vote on whether to continue for the final hour.
After four hours we will finish the item we are dealing with in the normal way but any
other remaining business will fall.
Please note that when voting on items there may be a delay before each member's vote
is displayed.
Please allow a few moments for this.
We'll have a comfort break after approximately two hours and the break will not count towards
the time limit.
So I'll move on to announcements now.

4 Announcements from the Chair, Leader or Chief Executive

It's been a quiet summer for me from a civic point of view.
That said, I had the pleasure of giving the opening speech at this year's Phoenix Festival
in Sire and Sester where I thanked the numerous volunteers whose hard work and passion made
the event possible.
and one of those, well several of them are here, but one of them has always turned up every year,
Councillor Fowles, so thank you David for your contribution to that and I know other members as
well have contributed over previous years. It's a powerful example of what we can achieve when
we empower communities to do this and we support them and this year the Phoenix Festival welcomed
over 22 ,000 people across the weekend and crucially the Phoenix Festival remains completely free
to attend, ensuring that everyone in our community, whatever their background, can take part in this.
We also had the Orpheus Festival as well, which was another great success. We're especially grateful
to our own council, Cotswold District Council, who was the largest single supporter.
And CDC's investment in the festival directly enabled all the inclusion, creativity and the
pride in the community that was shown for that event.
It demonstrates that funding these sort of events is money well spent, supporting not
just the event itself but the fabric of community life in Sarrancestor and the wider area.
And I hope that we can expand this sort of thing further north as well.
That's that.
That's all I did as chair during the summer period.
I'll now go to the leader who has a few words to say and you have five minutes.
Thank you chair I'm not going to tell you everything I've done since the last
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:06:23
meeting but I do have a few things that I'd like to let council and know about.
One is to share with you two winners of the BBC Gloucestershire Make a Difference
Awards that were held on the 13th of September. Unfortunately I wasn't able to
but Juliet was there representing the council.
And there were two winners from the Cotswold district.
The winner of the Young Hero Award was Ed Simpson.
He's a 16 -year -old from Syrinsestor,
and he's raised over 100 ,000 pounds for charity
through penalty kicks.
He's receiving treatment for leukaemia
following having brain cancer four years ago.
So congratulations, Ed, and what amazing achievement
And he has to raise that amount of money for a young person.
That's absolutely astonishing.
And the winner of the Green Award
was from the National Star College.
They have a hedgehog friendly campus.
There's a group of students there
with complex disabilities who have warmly welcomed
hedgehogs at the college.
They picked up later and made it a safe environment
for our spiked friends.
So yeah, absolutely well done to them, too,
and the recognition are those worthwhile sharing that with all members of the council this
afternoon. I've just got a few other really more dates for your diaries, important things
coming up and I want as many members as possible who are able to attend these. We have a planning
enforcement briefing next Monday afternoon, which I think is going to be online. I encourage
members if they can to get along it will be recorded and can be shared afterwards
but I'm very conscious that members have raised planning enforcement issues and a
number of occasions including by the ONS committee and we as a cabinet made a
commitment that we would hold a briefing with members and officers to discuss
understand the issues and the challenges share information and how we can
communicate more effectively about these issues so that we as members have a clearer understanding in our offices
Understand some of the challenges that we face as members in dealing with planning enforcement. So that's next Monday
I have been going to a series of meetings about local government reorganisation. You won't be surprised to hear
since we last met and just to also let let council know that when I haven't been able to
attend workshops and meetings that Councillor Tristan Wilkinson has been
deputising for me so that Cotswold District Council was represented by a
member as well as the Chief Executive who's been at most if not all of those
meetings as well on our behalf and really to let you know that we have an
update coming up on the 14th of October that's an online meeting we had one of
those last week and we've got another one coming up and that's all in advance
of the discussion that we will be having at our next meeting as a council in November.
And as those of you who haven't been involved may not know what this has been deemed, it
is an executive decision because we're not deciding about whether we should have one
council or two councils for Gloucestershire. That's a decision that the minister will take.
But what we can do is individual councils, the seven sovereign councils in Gloucestershire
is express an opinion.
That experience, that opinion is an executive function,
not a council -wide function.
So what we have arranged to do is we will have a discussion
and debate about that at our next meeting.
And then after that, the cabinet will meet
to make formally make a response on behalf
of the district council to the government's request
for that.
But we are working very collaboratively together
with our partner councils across Gloucestershire,
I would have to say.
and we're hopeful that we will have a submission for us to review and discuss
that you know will have been commonly agreed across most if not all of the
councils even if they end up coming to a different view about what they would
like to see in terms of the future organisation of councils in Gloucestershire
and finally the other big subject we talked about it obviously at our last
meeting which was the local plan and we agreed that we would move forward to
update our local plan just to remind members that we have an all -member
briefing set up for that on the 7th of October at 5 o 'clock and that's then in
advance of consideration of the Regulating 18 consultation documents
which will go to the overview and scrutiny committee the following week on
Monday the 13th and will be discussed and debated at the cabinet on Thursday
the 16th so and then they'll see the consultation itself will then take place
starting in early November don't have the precise dates yet so just obviously
I'll ask for all members to engage I'm sure they will in that and and attend
the briefing if you possibly can so that we all members are aware of what's in
documents and have the opportunity to discuss privately with their colleagues
and with officers the implications of that and to make sure they have a very
clear understanding of that before the public consultation starts. Thank you.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:11:53
Thank you very much leader and I don't think we have any no announcements from
the chief executive thank you very much. One small announcement or quite a big
announcement for that person which I forgot to mention and that's that we
have a new face over here.
Tyler is trainee, Democratic Services Officer.
I'm sure you're welcome, Tyler,
and to a long and fruitful career at CDC.
Right, we move on now to public questions.

5 Public Questions

And public questions, this item is capped at 15 minutes.
I know we have a few people who've come along.
Can you put up your hand if you'd like to ask a question?
So we have three questioners.
Thank you very much.
Right, what I'll do is I'll go through each of you in turn
and ask you to come forward.
So maybe the lady at the right, my right, with the glasses,
would you like to come forward?
Yes.
And while you're walking over, if you could tell us your name
and where you're from.
Charles Wood.
Thank you, Charles Wood.
Yeah, OK.
So if you'd like to press the button, that's great.
Dylis Neil has put forward a question where
Public Speaker - 0:13:00
your answer is unacceptable.
I've not received any progress report from Kevin Marlow,
Senior Environmental Officer, Health Officer,
after notification on the 12th of September who informed
Mr. Spade's office, both by phone and email,
and personally visited the site.
I want to know what long -term prevention will be enforced
to stop the infiltration of rats into my newly purchased home,
where electric wiring was dangerously chewed,
resulting in the trip, going down, and loss of power in the early hours.
Not only have I had the expense of getting an electrician out, pest control twice, I
still have live rats in the property, the stench of decaying carcasses, and infestation
of blue bottle flies.
My 15 -year -old daughter has moved out and is staying with her father.
The lack of sleep and health hazard is not tolerable.
No engagement from Mr Slade has ever been forthcoming and is not acceptable
and I want to know what actions have been or will be taken as access to the
property is the only option to prevent the rats from coming into mine.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:14:13
Thank you. Do we have... Council Layton, yes.
Yes. Thank you for... Oh, you're going... That's okay.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:14:20
You're welcome to stay if you want.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:14:21
Well, wherever you like.
If I might, you're welcome to stay.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:14:27
Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention.
We have, I mean, Dyliss has already put in a member question,
as you probably know, about empty properties
and about the rat situation.
I absolutely sympathise entirely because I had a rat situation
of my own last summer, only in the garden, thank goodness,
but that was purely because somebody
had stopped feeding the birds and gone on holiday.
I really apologise if you have not had any officer response.
I am sorry about that.
As soon as I got this question, I got in touch with Kevin and I had an email very quickly
back saying, I will just read out his emails to you because this is all I can give you
really.
I can give you sympathy but that doesn't help.
I need to pursue this further because this is up to date, right?
So it's not a closed thing.
So I visited the property last Wednesday and
can confirm that the property has been boarded up.
I've also contacted the business address of the owner but has yet received no response.
I will continue to chase this week and serve a prevention of damage by pests
notice later in the week if no satisfactory response action is forthcoming.
Then about a couple of days ago I got an email off again, which is a follow up to my call
to your office today.
I've received reports of a rat infestation from the above property.
I intend to visit the exterior of the property next week.
Are you aware of said infestation and if so, what measures are you taking to deal with
the issue as I believe you are the property owner?
The local authority has the duty to act where such infestations has occurred.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Oh sorry, this is a reply then from the property owner next to yours.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
I'm surprised there is an infestation at the property because no food is available to them.
As if rats don't read menus on the outside of a door, do they?
We had a report of an infestation a year ago
and on investigation there was no signs I will get a pest control firm to visit
the site and advise me on the best course forward that is the most recent
thing I've had I will continue to pursue this because it is unacceptable
Public Speaker - 0:16:58
Mr. Slade hasn't been very forthcoming ever in the last 15 years and he has
been contacted multiple times but the house is very derelict. There are people, there
are children hanging around there at night. You can smell drugs wafting across my courtyard
where I've had rats going across my courtyard. The previous owner put a brand new roof on
Public Speaker - 0:17:27
Public Speaker - 0:17:30
to the to help prevent rats coming in but where part of his roof goes into my
property we can't get access to you can only get access via his property
on site doing looking at this and I've got other officers know about it so I
promise we will be taking this forward and doing the best we can but we'll see
what what the property owner does in the meantime as well because that should be
happening. I have been trying to get rid of it.
We don't want them to run out of their time. Thank you very much.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:18:14
Thank you very much and Councillor Layton will pursue that and she'll be also pursued by
Councillor Neill as well.
I'm really sorry to hear that as well. That sounds unpleasant.
If you could tell us your name and roughly where you're from.
My name is Valerie Dyson.
We'll just get you started. Press the microphone button. You don't need to hold it down, just press it.
My name is Valerie Dyson.
Public Speaker - 0:18:39
I've got a question for Andrea Palogram.
I live in Middle Dunthisbourne. Since the refuge collection was reorganised in June 2024, our black bin collection has been appalling.
On average, one in three collections are missed, and since our collection day is Friday, black bins are left by the curbside over the weekend, blighting our lovely hamlet.
My understanding is that Yubico has insufficient vehicles of a smaller size
needed for our narrow lanes. There is apparently only one truck and it
frequently breaks down. The Council has been made aware of this but is refusing
to purchase new vehicles. We are unable to report to report on this collection
on the website as they apparently already know about it. I note from the
Council's draught financial statements for 2024 -25 that the unit vehicle replacement
allocation was unspent. I also note that the missed thin rate was above target. It was
170 per thousand against a target of 80 per thousand, so more than double. And I don't
know whether this includes the ones that were not able to report on the website.
My question therefore is given that bin collection is a statutory duty and of
utmost importance to residents, why is the service so bad and why is the council
unwilling to make the investment in vehicles needed to fulfil their
statutory duty and why does the council give priority over other spending such
is pay all.
Councillor Andrea Pellegram - 0:20:42
Well Mrs. Dyson, all I can do is apologise. I know it's not nice. I receive a lot of letters,
not as many as I used to, and I don't believe I've heard from you if I have, I apologise.
It's not good enough.
I know it's not good enough.
And I've got a new team in place.
They're fantastic.
We are doing a lot.
I hope that very soon that you will actually see a change.
So there has been a problem in last year,
before I took on this role, there was a whole rejigging
of the rounds so that it would be more even.
I don't know why.
What has happened is that on the Friday round there's been quite
a lot of difficulty. So officers have worked very hard. First of all, we've got a new set
of officers. They only started in the summer. I only started in May, so we haven't been
in place long. They've actually spent a lot of time understanding each and every complaint
to understand what the problem was, and they have now, they're just about to roll out a
new Friday service round, which will take a lot of the vehicles that were supposed to
on a Friday, move it to the Wednesday.
I believe, I spoke to Councillor Judd beforehand.
I believe that you are not, have you received a letter
from saying that you're?
Okay, right.
So if you've received a letter,
that means that you will be moving to the Wednesday.
And there have been all sorts of issues with the Friday.
We've had vehicle breakdowns.
We've also had insufficient crew over reliance on agency staff
and things like that.
Hopefully, this change will help with that.
With regard to the not spending the money on the vehicles, we're also working on that.
Last week we had a very detailed presentation where we looked at every single vehicle in
the fleet with a date against it when it needed to be replaced.
We have made decisions as a cabinet about which vehicles are to be replaced and which
are to be refurbished.
We're very well aware.
Unfortunately, these things don't happen overnight.
overnight. The change in your collection schedule will pretty much happen overnight. Vehicle
replacement will not happen overnight, but we're working on it. And with regard to the
comms, I've also had quite a few letters about that, and I think that's quite frustrating
for you. And if your bin isn't going to be collected on a Friday, I think you want to
know on a Friday and you don't want to wait around and see if it might be collected on
Monday. We know this. So we are looking at an app which, unfortunately, it's not easy
to just sort of put in place, but we are working on it. And that will then allow you, as a
customer, if you wish to, put your name forward and then we can contact you. IT has not made
this happen yet, but we are working on it. So we understand it's not been great for you
and we're doing everything we can. And I hope very soon you will actually see a change in
service so I'm sorry for what you've experienced so far.
It's one of the new vehicles going to be a smaller vehicle.
The problem is our lanes are tiny so normal sized vehicles won't fit.
We haven't decided which vehicles we're going to be replacing and I'm sorry it was there's about 35
vehicles and I can't remember which vehicle is going to be replaced.
If in two weeks time you still have a problem please write to me directly and I will I will investigate
anything you want and do what I can. Thank you. Thank you Councillor Berger.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:24:14
Thank you very much. Thank you. Our final public question. Hello everyone, Ben Eddles and Councillor from Stonewall.
Hello Councillor Eddles. What a title. If you could hit the button Ben that would be great.
Public Speaker - 0:24:58
I'm aware we're under a time constraint, so this is my way of
putting things to you in a brief manner.
Star in the World is a tourist hot spot.
However, we're dismayed with the toilets that we've got.
The old of 8 zoos and the often filthy state
are making many visitors quite irate.
Letters and emails are coming to our clerk
that when they finally found a space to park,
the toilets are deplorable, the worst they've ever seen.
40 PTUs them is quite obscene.
What can be done to help our little town?
We're embarrassed to be caught with our trousers down.
Please CDC, can we together make a plan to have a better place
for our toilet pan, ones that are clean
and working all the time without that smell
and the filth and grime?
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:25:58
Public Speaker - 0:26:06
So I will continue just a second. I am aware that CDC are aware of this and I believe that
we have a meeting next week. But if you came to our toilets you would be disgusted. I'm
sorry.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:26:16
Who would like to... Councillor Hodgkinson if you would like to...
In my opinion.
Public Speaker - 0:26:21
Please, please, please.
Councillor Paul Hodgkinson - 0:26:25
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:26:26
Yes, how do I follow up?
Councillor Paul Hodgkinson - 0:26:27
I could speak to you in French, that's my speciality, but I won't do that.
First of all, thank you for coming.
Thank you for having the skill to write that ditty, which was incredible.
But clearly this is a very serious subject, isn't it?
Personally, I take it very seriously because I do not want any criticism of public toilets.
I think when you spend, well it used to be a penny didn't it? When you spend 40 pence
then you should at least have cleaning there shouldn't you? And you should have clean toilets.
So I'm sorry, I have heard about it and I gather you're gonna have to meet next week. So
when I heard about it previously, I did raise it with our officers who again talked to our
contractor, that's Dan Foe. You may know that's Dan Foe.
So they do three cleans a day at the moment and I guess the point is that in the summer
we've had where you've had so many tourists not only in Stowe in Boughton on the water by every it
It's been around this summer hasn't it because of the fantastic weather we had
You know the toilet only ever going to be as clean as the person who you followed into that toilet
So we're up against it. I think in terms of those numbers
Having said that we need to look at it. We need to understand what we can do better and
and clearly the meeting next week will help do that.
So, yes, I take it seriously.
I'll mention it again to officers,
and I'd like to see the standards improving.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Edels.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:27:54
Thank you, Councillor Hodgkinson.
Okay, right, that's it for public questions,

6 Member Questions

and we go to member questions now.
And these have been submitted,
and they've been responded to in writing,
and they are on the desk.
the responses are on the desks and on the website.
The questions on the agenda are presented in the order
that we received them, and each question will be asked
where they have a supplementary question.
They'll have one minute for that supplementary question,
which must arise out of the original question
or the response.
I will then invite the cabinet member to respond
to each supplementary question, and they'll have two minutes.
Okay. Sorry, what was that?
Right, question one is from Councillor Delis -Neil to Councillor Juliet Leighton. I think we know
what this is about but let's go for it. Deputy leader and cabinet member for Housing and
Planning on the status of two long -term vacant properties in Stowe. Councillor Neil, do you
Councillor Dilys Neill - 0:29:00
have a supplementary? Yes, I do. I'm sorry, I've made myself quite a nuisance over these
properties. I've been asking about them for the last three years. The rat infestation
was the last nail in the coffin, if you like.
But there's been a fire in one of the properties which
affected Nikki's house before she moved in there.
There have been youths breaking in and drinking there.
The police are aware about it.
We had a visit from the Environmental Services
and the Empty Properties team there about four months ago,
but the situation simply hasn't improved.
And it's very frustrating.
I mean, Councillor Layton's response, it says,
you know, we're having difficulty engaging
with the owner of the property.
And this is the response all the time.
Every time I call the empty properties team,
they say, oh, we'll get in touch with the owner.
And he doesn't seem to be prepared to do anything.
And the properties are an eyesore in our lovely town.
It's not quite in the conservation area,
but it's adjacent to it.
And I'm just wanting to ask,
is there really nothing else we can do,
no enforcement action we can take
against the owner of this property to make him make the properties better and
more attractive. Thank you Councillor Neill and it's our job as Councillors to
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:30:11
be a nuisance so there's no problems there. Councillor Layton is there anything we can do?
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:30:23
I don't think I can go further than what we what the detail you've got
already in your paper in the answer. I can push further because we've got to
engage with the owner of the property.
We don't own that property.
It's sort of a civil case perhaps.
I mean it's something we need to look at legal with.
So I don't know how we enforce that.
Maybe now we've got connexion with the guy
and he's come back to us and he's gonna do something.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:31:06
I am really sorry. I don't know. I was just saying, people listening, that I
didn't think the CDC we had a responsibility to deal with private
owned properties in that case and I think it's a legal issue, a civil thing.
So I'll do my best to follow it up and see what I can do but I can't at
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:31:33
moment I'm sorry. Thank you Councillor Layton. In my own ward we had an issue
with a property which it was different but there was an environmental health
got involved then so maybe that's something we can we can look at then
plumb every depth on that one. Right question two thank you thank you
Councillor Neill, Councillor Layton. Question two is Councillor Tom Stote,
Councillor Juliet Layton again on monitoring the number of social houses
sold on the open market by housing associations within the district. Do you
of a supplementary Tom. Yes thank you a Councillor Layton for your written
Councillor Tom Stowe - 0:32:06
response. It seems to me that knowing about the level of disposals of social
housing by housing providers across the district is incredibly important. I'm
aware of several properties sold being sold off across Camden Vale Ward over
the last few months. If that is a trend across the districts it's not impossible
that we're actually seeing a net reduction in social housing. Will
So Council Layton commits a writing to all registered housing providers across the district
requesting that they advise CDC of any disposals so that we can start to build a clearer picture of the situation. Thank you.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:32:45
Actually, I think that's a good idea and we do have a very good relationship with our
our piece, so they might be compliant to that.
But I was asking Alan Hope,
who's our strategic housing officer,
for a bit more of an update.
And he's saying that they are not required
by section 176 of the Housing and Regeneration Act
to notify the regulator of social housing
about any disposal of a dwelling that is social housing.
He's...
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:33:38
And then the camera comes to me sort of looking vaguely into space.
Thank you, Councillor Stone.
Thank you, Councillor Layton.
Question three, Councillor David Fowles.
Again to Councillor Layton on identifying sites
for affordable homes.
You're a supplementary, Dave.
Thank you.
Councillor David Fowles - 0:33:58
Thank you, Julia, for your response.
I've had a lot to do with Alan Hope who just mentioned.
I think he's an excellent appointment, excellent officer
with great private sector background.
And I hope that at least one, if not two of the sites
that identify him are in the ward, in my ward
because I've put names to him.
Could I just, simple answer to the question, am I right therefore in assuming from the
answer that at this moment in time no houses have reached the planning stage from these
eight sites?
Is that correct?
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:34:32
Sorry, keep an eye on that, Mike.
I haven't, I don't think that's right to be talking about the sites when they're coming
forward so I can't be naming anything.
We don't know and we're working on that. We've got to look at viability so
there's an awful lot of work as you know as you know with work we've done with the
local plan and you've done in the past with local plan about you know the
feasibility of sites and we've got to work on
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:35:07
I'm being timed maybe sure so the answer is no I can't tell you that because I
know that they've all come forward yet and whether we've got applications into
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:35:22
the planning. Thank you both. Next question is from Quenchenford Councillor
Tom Stowe to Councillor Stuart Layton again and this is on the provision of locally
accessible defibrillators devices and whether the council remains committed to
providing these as part of the local plan. Your supplementary. Once again
Councillor Tom Stowe - 0:35:40
Thank you Councillor Layton for your answer. It's very reassuring and I'm just
wondering at what point during the adoption of the new emerging local plan
that's being worked on can officers start to incorporate the information
about the need for community access defibrillators into pre -application
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:36:01
advice? Well as soon as we get through regulation 19 and our plan is
adopted that will be in you know will that will be a policy and we'll be
looking at that up until then if the information is with the planners they
can be asking for that and I do believe it's already down there with the planners
and I think that's already happening but in the meantime we've still got the
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:36:33
grant so we can do you know residents or areas can put in the relators okay so
That's still live.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:36:38
Thank you very much and with question five, Councillor David Fowles to Councillor Hodgkinson on
Sion's Estuary Rugby Club car park, which I know a bit about.
Councillor David Fowles - 0:36:49
Thank you Councillor Hodgkinson for your reply. I don't think in my question I was
suggesting that it was the little Democrats that had made the original decision to invest in the Rugby Club car park.
Having checked up the information with Democratic Services, the decision was made in October 2017 to spend £320 ,000 on the Rugby Club.
The Chairman of the Parking Board at the time was someone who has a huge amount of knowledge of science and car parking, and that's our esteemed Chairman.
Having made that decision, when the new administration took over, a subsequent paper was presented to this Council in January 2020
when Councillor Mark Harris was the portfolio holder at which a decision was
taken by council to spend a further £192 ,000
making basically half a million pounds worth of capital investment. So I'm not
arguing the wherefores or the whys or wherefores of that decision. I think it's
a shared decision at the time. I have to say I think it's the right decision
because we were planning on building the Waterloo. The issue now is that it...
Yes, thank you. The issue now is that it's pretty obvious that it's not being used.
I wondered if you could just inform members as to the current arrangements with the Rugby
Club, whether you have any thoughts to change that and what happens at the end of the arrangement
with the Rugby Club. Thank you very much.
Yeah, no, thanks for raising this, David. It's something that does exercise my thinking
Councillor Paul Hodgkinson - 0:38:25
a lot, actually, and I've talked to officers about it. At the end of the day, I'd love
that car park to be well used. Absolutely love it and officers have worked very
hard actually with businesses, the Sun ancestor Chamber of Commerce to actually
generate more interest in it and you know if you actually had a season ticket
for the White Way, not you personally but anyone or you you could do it, it would
cost you substantially less than anywhere else in Sun ancestor so it's
worth putting that on the record again. But despite all that it's not being used
So, or not being used enough.
So I think at the moment there's no prospect of trying to undo the arrangement we've currently
got.
But I gather I think 2028 is the time when it can be reviewed.
That's not too far off.
And obviously it coincides with when this council is almost certain to be abolished
and replaced by someone else.
So I think there's a long way of saying that yes, we constantly monitor it.
To get to a different situation whereby you would change the terms of the usage,
or you would say perhaps to all the season tickets holders and so on and so as to say that you must go there,
these are very strong decisions that would have to be made,
and at the moment I'm really not prepared to make that decision yet.
So all options are always on the table.
I think, well let's keep trying to plug away to get more people in it.
Anything you can do with your contacts business contacts and so I assess to to to tell people just how much money
They'd save every year if they parked in the white way would be good. Thank you
Thank You council, Hodgson
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:40:01
I'm actually itching to get involved in that but I'm not going to and we're going to go to council and Wilkinson
Then Wilkins, sorry and back to council Paul Hodgson and we're going to the toilets again
Councillor Len Wilkins - 0:40:14
Yes, thank you Councillor Hodgkin for the answer. Could I just ask who's going to be on the
parking strategy? Would it be possible for residents to be part of it? We'd be
very grateful to give you our input.
Councillor Paul Hodgkinson - 0:40:33
Thank you, yeah I think the parking strategy is something we've been working
on for quite some time. So actually last year it was kicked off actually under my
predecessor Tony Dale who's I'm pleased to see here today Councillor Dale and
actually there was a public consultation then that was last year and then last
summer we actually came and spoke to Borton Parish Council I'm not sure you
were there I can't remember Len but we did actually have a tour around we
looked at the car parks we looked at the car park sorry and we looked at what
was going on and all of that is fed into what the parking strategy will be we've
all over the district talking to people. We've had a survey, we've had hundreds of
responses and in November we will be publishing the results of that so it's
very imminent now and I'm very keen to try and be a bit flexible with Borton in
terms of how we charge, when we charge etc. Similarly with the public toilets to
look at the opening hours on those two. Very much in tune with what the parish
council is saying. If you just wait just a few weeks for the strategy to come
through and then you'll see what we're proposing. Okay. Thank you very much.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:41:42
And question seven is Councillor Gina Bloomfield to Councillor Layton on local
sewage systems. Thank you chair and thank you Councillor Layton. We're keeping you
Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:41:55
very busy this evening. This is such an important issue when considering future
housing development, especially as there are many places across the Cotswolds
where sewage capacity is very challenged. And just to say actually in the Camden
Bail Ward it is 7 Trent who's responsible for this, the sewage or
wastewater. I just wanted to have any further advice. We get asked again and
again by residents what is the best way of them, they like to record it, they
like to have evidence, what is the best way for them to share that evidence with
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:42:38
Planning Department. Thank you. Well that's an interesting supplementary. How do they...
I don't know. I mean we've got people out there who you've probably met,
like the Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, who take readings from rivers
and for any kind of sewage outfall and everything they report that in.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:43:14
Is it to the Planning Department that needs to know that because actually it's
Thames Water or 7 Trent and the developer that have the agreement about
sewage if we know that there's going to be a real problem we have to put
conditions on but they are you know they have the water company has to take from
the developer and the developer has to come up and provide what the water
company wants and within the Gloucestershire there is a whole lot of
infrastructure teams working for future developments and how what the
infrastructure is needed but for submitting that evidence I absolutely
don't know but it's something we can find out about and I'll see if I can get
back to you is what I can say. Thank you. Well I do have one more question that
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:44:05
I'd like to get to you. So would you like to pick it up with
Councillor Layton afterwards. Thank you very much. Question 8. Councillor Laura Hall -Wilson
isn't here so there won't be a supplementary there. Question 9. I know
this is an important subject. Is Councillor John Waring to Councillor Mike
Ebony on tourism in Borton and do you have a supplementary Councillor Waring?
Councillor Jon Wareing - 0:44:27
Yes, I do. Thank you, Jack. Thank you, Councillor Eberly, for a very comprehensive response.
I can appreciate that many of you may not really fully understand really what's going
on in Baughton, particularly this year. You may have seen one or two items in the news,
I don't know, but let me help you. Baughton is not simply just very busy occasionally.
It is always overwhelmed and it is being overwhelmed until 8 o 'clock, 9 o 'clock, 10 o 'clock at night.
And this is every day.
Imagine our village green essentially having a music festival on it all the time and the waste associated with that.
It's a nightmare.
Residents are struggling with stress, isolation, vulnerability, their privacy is being violated.
They are receiving verbal abuse and threats of physical abuse.
And they are being forced to contemplate relocating from the place that they've lived in.
Some for many, many years.
Because they can't bear the constant sensation of being under siege and the threat they feel
due to overtourism.
This is really, really serious.
It's the worst it's ever been.
And so Mike I really like you to acknowledge that you are hearing that you're listening to the pain that residents are feeling because it's really important.
This isn't about tourism per se, that's like arguing about gravity.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:45:54
John, could I ask you to get to your question please, thank you.
Councillor Jon Wareing - 0:45:57
I just want you to acknowledge that you've heard and understood just how serious this is for residents of Borton. Thank you.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:46:07
Thank you, Councillor, and thank you. Go for it, Mike.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:46:13
Thank you, John, and for members across the Chamber to let you know that John and I have
a number of conversations, starting I think with the overview and scrutiny committee where
he raised this matter a couple of weeks ago. And clearly, you know, obviously he's only
given you a flavour in the minute he had then to talk about the impact on
people's lives in Boulton and what they have had to deal with this year which
has been worse than any previous year. I think John isn't it? And I suppose what I
wanted to say in response and hopefully you got that from my written answer but
I want to make that really clear is as the leader of the council I'm listening
to John as their representative, David who's not in the room at the minute who's a representative
for Bybury which is another locality within the district that has particular problems
with the volume of people and sometimes as John has just described the unacceptable behaviour
of some people who come to our district. Clearly you know we are a visit we have a visitor economy
people want to come here it's a lovely place but we have a duty I believe as a
council to do what we can for our residents who live in those beautiful
places so that they don't have to experience what John just described you
know and he's told me many more things in private than he was able to say just
now about how people that he represents you know are afraid to go out because
last time they went out they were abused or they can't drive out of their house
because people won't let them get over the bridge or shout abuse at them. So we
here in John I think we as council officers and members need to work with
you and other members across the chamber who represent people who experience
these issues and continue to work and you'll see in my answer we've got the
tourism levy we need to use the money from that to help in Borton. Ben has gone
now but we are looking at whether we might do that in Stowe as well but we
need to recognise that visitors are an important part of our economy but they
bring challenges with them and particularly if they don't behave
appropriately and actually there's more the work we need to carry on to do with that.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:48:38
Thank you Mike, thank you. Thank you for your question John, big issue we're
facing in this district. Okay we're moving on to item 7 now which is a

7 Corporate Plan 2024-2028 Update

corporate plan and the purpose of this is to seek council adoption of refreshed
corporate plan for the period 2025 through to 2028.
And while the extent corporate plan was agreed last year,
there have been significant changes nationally and locally
which are reflected in the refresh plan, which Mike will
expand on in this session, in a section in a second.
It's worth noting that this has been through overview
and scrutiny, but feel free to scrutinise it yourself.
and I'll go to Mike to propose the recommendation to Council.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:49:28
Thank you, Chair. Hopefully the microphone will work for me.
It wasn't working for Councillor Layton earlier.
Just to pick up a couple of small typographical missing words.
So on those of you who have hard copies, page 54,
For those of you who don't have a hard copy, it's supporting communities and the second
line.
The Cotswold district is one of the safest with, it says with levels of crime, it should
be with low levels of crime.
We do have low levels of crime compared to other places.
And then on page 55, next page in the second bullet point, it talks about the work of charities
and activists to form the Cotswold Food Network.
It talks about tackling hunger.
It should say provide healthy food and minimise food waste.
And then there's one further one that I picked up or we picked
up is that on page 48, delivering good services,
our commitment on the third line is there
to tackling climate change.
We're not committed to climate change.
We're committed to tackling climate change.
So thank you eagle -eyed people out there.
And I'm sure if anyone else has some more before we get
to the end of the debate, please feel free to share them.
So I'm very pleased to present this revised and refreshed corporate plan for the Council's agreement this evening.
It's an evolution of the one we adopted last year, but it's been updated to reflect the different contexts that we now face.
We've had changes both nationally and locally.
Obviously we know about the change to local government reorganisation that's coming,
the government's proposals to essentially abolish this council and
others across Gloucestershire within this Parliament. And obviously
at the local level we have agreed to bring forward a new local plan for the
district which will fundamentally shape our work and several of our services
have also transferred back in from public as since the last plan was
agreed at the start of last year. So the plan is refreshed, it's not only timely
but I think it's necessary.
What we've got here is not a wholesale rewrite,
but it is a strategic recalibration.
It's been reviewed by the overview and scrutiny committee
and it was debated and agreed by the cabinet before it came
to you today for adoption.
It's been shaped with input from officers and members
and it reflects a share understanding that we want
to finish this council well even as we prepare
for a transition to something new.
We've added a new priority, planning for the future,
to reflect that this council probably won't be here
in three years time.
But if I can just be clear,
it doesn't describe everything the council does.
That really wouldn't be possible.
Instead, it's about setting priorities for us as councillors,
for our officers, and for the work we do with partners
and in our communities.
And it's a public statement also of our intent.
So looking at section 3 .5 of the report you can see the clear priorities that we
have set out. Planning for the future. As mentioned we're going to adopt a new
local plan that reflects the aspirations of our communities and the
distinctiveness of our district, help manage sustainable development housing
and transport for future generations. Second priority is to provide
good quality services amid the uncertainty service quality and
reliability remains vital. We need to continue to invest in our core services
and listen to feedback as we were earlier on in the meeting. We're still
committed to tackling the climate emergency as one of our priorities,
delivering on our climate commitments, making our operations greener
and supporting community -wide action to reduce emissions and promote
biodiversity. We want to continue our work on housing to use all the tools
that we have to deliver affordable and suitable housing, tackling empty homes as
we heard about earlier in the meeting and to reduce homelessness. We need to
continue supporting our local economy, focusing on enabling a resilient economy
in our high streets, in our visitor economy and our sustainable local business
growth and we as a council also need to look at how we become more efficient as
we prepare for that transition when we go on and talk about budgets in months
to come we will see the financial pressure that is on us as a council and
we will need to continue to update and modernise and improve our financial
sustainability and providing value for money for our residents. So although
we're heading towards the end we still have all these responsibilities and our
residents I think it should expect and do expect of us to be leading leadership
action and delivery and this plan believe helps focus our efforts align
our resources and communicate our aims clearly to our staff to our communities
and to the authorities that come after us so tonight I'd like you to agree to
to adopt the corporate plan that we have in front of us,
subject to those small amends
and any other ones we find in the discussion,
and to delegate to the chief executive
in consultation with myself,
the authority to finalise the design and presentation plan.
You've also got an action plan.
So you can see there some more detail
about things that we'll be looking at.
And obviously members will be able to keep track on that
through the cabinet and through the overview
and scrutiny committee.
Just like to finish off by saying, you know,
the next few years are going to be challenging,
but they're also a unique opportunity.
This corporate plan gives us the clarity to finish this chapter
of local government here in the Cotswolds,
both strongly and responsibly,
and to ensure whatever comes next,
we're handing over a strong legacy to our successors.
So I commend it to the council
and formally move the recommendations.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mike.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:55:38
Now, before I seek a seconder, do we have any questions for clarity on this?
I know quite a few of you are on overview and scrutiny, including you, Councillor Cunningham,
but for clarity that wasn't made clear, doing overview and scrutiny, go for it.
Thank you, Mr Chair.
Councillor David Cunningham - 0:55:55
Unfortunately, I was not at the meeting when this was discussed.
I would just like to ask the Leader, given how much we've got to do, rehashing this,
and I've looked through it.
I don't really see a great deal of difference
between this and the one that was already there.
There's an additional thing put in.
Looks like a lot of work was done.
Can you point out where it's different
from the one that we had last week?
Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:56:22
I don't think it was last week, Councillor Cunningham.
It was the start of January of 2024 from what I recall.
If he wants to sit down, and I'm sure he could,
and do a direct comparison, what he will find
is that those things that this council has delivered have been taken out. And one of
the first things I did actually when the new chief executive started on her very first
day was I sat down to her and said, we've started a process of looking at our local
corporate plan. And we've had a couple of cabinet away days on this. Can you please
work with the officers to get a new one ready for this council meeting? And after the slight
sharp and take a breath. She said, yes, absolutely, I'll do that. And she's led the officers in
the work that they've done to get this document in front of us. And I think if you do go through
that exercise, if you do have insomnia tonight and you can go and have a direct comparison
between the two, you will see there are definitely things that have come out. There are some
new things in there. And I said the new priority about preparing for the future. Because I
At the end of the day, this is setting a direction,
is giving our officers particularly,
setting clear expectations
of what we're asking them to deliver.
And obviously they've worked this up,
so they've looked at,
well, what can they deliver with the timescale?
Joseph Walker at the back there has led on this
together with the chief executive.
So I'm confident that we've got a plan that is deliverable,
that we have clear things in there
about what we're looking to do.
We've got names of members who are accountable.
We've got officers that are working on it.
And we've got delivery dates
when we're looking to achieve them.
So I believe that we're doing what you're asking for, David.
Thank you very much.
Councillor Mark Harris - 0:58:11
Any more questions for clarity?
No, good, okay.
So I think Councillor Layton is seconding this.
Would you like to reserve your right to speak
or would you like to speak now?
I'll speak later, thank you.
Okay, fantastic.
Now, is there anybody who'd like to speak in debate?
Councillor Tom Stowe - 0:58:33
Councillor Stokes. Yes thank you chair. So when I spoke here at full council
back in the summer we were in a time of uncertainty. Councillor Evermy had just
recently taken over as a new leader. We had a refreshed cabinet. A new interim
CEO had just been appointed and phase two of the public a transition was
complete. I was clear that despite this uncertainty this was a real time of
opportunity, a time to reflect and reset the strategic direction of this Council
as we navigate our way through the impending LGR process. An opportunity to
leave a lasting legacy as this Council is more than likely to be abolished and
absorbed into a new unitary authority. With this in mind I eagerly look forward
to the updated corporate plan being published and that is where we are today.
This document, rather than offering a bold forward -thinking vision, comes across as
somewhat underwhelming and I dare say a little rushed.
It seems that the administration had to be seen to carry out a refresh on a set time
scale and this refresh seems more like a tick box exercise in the strategic reset.
The administration has simply rehashed the previous plan with the continuation of many
vague aspirations and carrying forward a lot of actions that they failed to deliver in
previous few years.
It simply asks more questions than it answers.
It does highlight some of the challenges we are facing but doesn't address them
directly. It isn't clear about how these things will change and very importantly
it isn't clear about how the outcomes are going to be measured so we can track
success or otherwise. As is expected there's a lot of celebratory bump about
what has been delivered and what has been done. However there is little
reflection or accountability for what hasn't been delivered over the past few
years. If we take the climate section as an example and sorry Mike but
there is a subsection titled what have we done. It claims carbon emissions have
reduced 41 % against the 1990 baseline from 4 .7 million kilos of co2 in 1990 to
2 .76 million in 2022 -23. But what exactly do these figures refer to? There's no
indication of the scope are we to assume these numbers apply to the Cotswold
District as a whole? More importantly the implication seems to be that this 41 %
reduction, approximately 2 million kilos of CO2 annually, is the result of CDC
policy. In reality we know that this is not the case. The vast majority of this
reduction if not all has come from areas beyond the direct influence of
Cotswold District Council. The report then references the Cotswold Home Solar Scheme
Highlighting the installation of solar panels on 27 homes with another 18 planned.
Now while that's a positive step, there's no consideration that many of those homeowners
could well have installed solar panels anyway.
The bigger issue here is what's missing.
Where are CDC's own targets for carbon reduction?
What are the numbers you're working to?
How much of the remaining 2 .76 million kilos of CO2 is this corporate plan actually aiming to eliminate?
And just as importantly, how is the Council planning to achieve those cuts?
None of this is outlined in the plan. There are no clear targets and all we have is a
focus on reporting historical reductions unrelated to CDC and some vague
aspirations. Despite declaring a climate emergency in July 2019, the reality is
that despite the narrative very little has been done to make any meaningful
difference. As many organisations, without an honest assessment of what hasn't
words, it's difficult to change course and make sure we make the most of the
next couple of years. This conservative group were also very interested not only
in the headline priorities but the various actions arising from those
priorities. Again many of these seem vague and it looks like an existing, it
looks like existing ongoing work streams have been shoehorned into the action
plan to essentially bulk it out. To sum up, we're not totally against this
document. It's clear that this is the best that the administration can come up
with. It's just a little uninspiring and underwhelming. I feel this is a missed
opportunity to really outline an inspiring strategic direction for the
next couple of years and to be frank we are expecting more. Thank you Councillor
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:02:54
Councillor Nikki Ind - 1:02:57
Stowe. We're going to go to Councillor Inde. Thank you chair. Leading on from
Councillor Evermy there just a couple of admin points page 52 at the bottom what
we will achieve. Second line I think should be all, not all. And on page 59, on preparing
for the future, developing the workforce, I can't see the whole text in the box, so
I don't actually know the whole sentence, so that would be helpful. But one of the points
that really sort of came up to me when I was looking at housing and I wanted to highlight,
and Councillor Layton's really being,
you know, the focus is on her this afternoon
or this evening, is the second point
where we talk about ensuring that existing homes
and communities are resilient and ready to respond
to the challenges of the climate emergency.
So resilience is absolutely key
in this changing environment.
And I've received reports of older housing in Tethbury
Where we are suffering from mould and damp in properties
So these are socially rented houses, and I think we really need to confirm that our registered providers are
Actually monitoring this the progress that they're making with these houses. You know are they looking at it? How often are they?
Reviewing the situation and have they got plans to update these properties because across the district
I'm sure we're not alone in Tepary and having these older properties which aren't made for the future
So I'd just like to highlight that. Thank you
Thank You councillor in council, McKeon
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:04:36
Councillor Mike McKeown - 1:04:39
Yeah, thank you. Just responding few the points raised on the climate change stuff. First of all, I'd probably
heckle a bit or hackle a bit at the being lectured by the Conservative Party that
has a leader that's backpedalling faster than a clown on a funny bike on climate change very publicly to follow up after
Even worse, Mr. Farage who's a climate change denier and wants to raise all of our bills
Let's talk maybe some specific points raised there was a cabinet report produced by our excellent
Olivia McGregor our climate officer that actually does break down
All the reductions, which you can read online, it was published a couple of months ago.
In specific answer your question, those reduction figures are ours.
So it's our own reduction, so that's things like putting solar on the roof here.
Heat pumps in our leisure centres would be other examples of things we need to do to
cut, or have done already to cut our own emissions, which is part of what we do.
and the other half is helping our residents and businesses make their own
reduction. So for example as we go forward we'll be a big part of focus is
decarbonizing the waste fleet because that's our single biggest emitter and
making sure we hand over to the new unitry a clean fleet in one way
or another and the other one will be more decarbonizing this building for
example. But importantly I mean we're I think we're less than 2 % of the entire
emissions of the Cotswold. Most of it's outside, it's with our residents and our
businesses, so it's helping them reduce their own carbon footprint and
receive the many other benefits from doing it. So Cotswold Home Solar, which is
now up to 40 homes installed, is saving tens of thousands of pounds a year off
people's electricity bills. I agree with you on the home
insulation, so we have the excellent Retrofit Officer, Justin Mallinson, who's
touring around the district telling people how they can make their
homes warmer and more cosy and less damp as well as saving their
energy costs and carbon footprint. So lots more of that to do and indeed the
rollout of the electric vehicle charges that we've been doing as long with the
County Council helps greater adoption of electric vehicles which are important
help reduce people's running costs and are over 70 % less lifetime carbon
emissions so they make a big difference. The other thing I guess is you know
what's the benefit beyond climate it's we've highlighted some of them already
it's cutting yes cutting energy bills making homes more cosy it's cutting air
pollution which saves money for the NHS and makes people healthier. It also helps
us attract green local jobs an interesting one was literally the news
So we, the Cotswolds, we're in BBC News just today.
So there's a second zero emissions aviation company
set up in Cotswold Airport,
which is basically pioneering the future
of zero emission flights that joins the existing one already.
So there's a lot going on here
and that's creating great green jobs here in the Cotswolds,
which is very pleasant to see.
So investing in climate has lots of benefits.
I'm glad people are asking about it
Very interesting. Thank you.
Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 1:08:13
Thank you very much chair, and thank you very much for this
proposed report for us having been through it already in overview and scrutiny. I
don't need to make some of the more nitty -gritty
comments that were made there or more detail.
I'm rising to make just a few points.
One is that I simply don't agree with some of the comments that
have been made around the question of blandness.
The issue here is not whether the words that are in this have
objectives and so on set, but I'm going to come to that in a
moment, but whether they are serious.
high -level statements of intent in an organisation are fundamental to driving that organisation forward
and giving guidance and governance to the whole organisation.
If there is genuine intent behind those words, then it really matters and it is effective.
My own conversations with the leader and others on the cabinet leads me to believe that there is such intent,
and I'm very pleased about that.
I want to note in particular that there is a connexion that's being made between climate
and ecology by specifying the need to become green to the core in tackling climate.
And if members of the Cabinet would like any advice on how we can absolutely transform
the effect through green to the core of climate across the whole of this district and the
I'd be happy to oblige.
But the thing I really want to focus on at this point is there's an emphasis on housing
and communities.
Now, as I've already said, this is a government statement.
It's a statement of intent.
And governance is intended to provide steering.
There's a specific issue that I think we've had in the past, and I would really like to
have assurance that we will be focusing on steering this.
Building houses is not building communities.
Supporting communities certainly needs houses, but it also needs the follow -through.
We have too many issues in which houses get built, not quite finished, the issues aren't all sorted, roads are not adopted,
the issues that are supposed to be addressed in terms of environment are not being dealt with sufficiently by the developers,
and I can only expect an open house on this.
Can we be assured that there will be a commitment to joining up the dots in this process so
that we really are able to hand over into the future a really healthy situation in the
years to come?
And I think it's incredibly important that we put Planning for the Future into this plan.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Jenkins.
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:11:00
Councillor Layton, would you like to?
Yes, if I may, just to address some of the things that Councillor Inda was saying, our
registered providers are monitoring all their old housing stock. We keep our plans up to
date and we need to have, I have regular meetings with them and if you've got particular housing
Councillor Juliet Layton - 1:11:26
areas that I can bring forward, I'm very grateful for you to
give me those and I can make sure I ask about those and where
they are in their programme.
Because they do have programmes for refurbishment
and for regeneration.
And at the moment there are several large regenerations
going on which are providing air source heat pumps,
solar panels, electric vehicle charging points, bicycle sheds,
all the things that we would want and that's happening
from our registered providers.
We've got some small ones that have already happened
and been completed in Moreton.
And the local plan, when it is our new local plan,
when it is adopted, we'll be ensuring
that all those things will happen in all our developments.
There are developers that will not be doing that at the moment,
or trying not to, although some of them are taking it up.
But our RPs are looking, and they are doing that already.
but if you can give me information that I can take forward, that'll be fine.
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:12:33
Thank you very much. I'm going to go to Councillor Hodgkinson, then Councillor Coleman,
and then I'll probably, unless anybody's got any arguments,
they're going to flip the whole thing on its head.
I think then what we'll do is we'll ask the seconder to speak and then go to a wrap up.
Councillor Paul Hodgkinson - 1:12:47
Yeah, I just wanted to take Councillor Stowe to task, because, you know, you said this is uninspiring.
And I'll tell you, I'm going to give you two good reasons,
a minute why I think it's very inspiring.
But what saddens me is you say it's uninspiring,
but I didn't hear a single new idea or proposal from you
as leader of the Conservative group.
Where is the inspiration from the Conservatives?
Well, I think we know the answer to that question naturally,
but I'd love to see that.
So it's a bit rich you say it's uninspiring.
I'm gonna give you two reasons why I think it's inspiring.
Two things under which I'm responsible for in the portfolio.
One is creative cotswolds.
So this is the thing, this is the initiative that I launched back in July at the cabinet
meeting there, which was about really boosting the potential of our arts and culture sector,
places like the Sydenham Theatre in your backyard and Gina's backyard, the Tepra Goodshed in
Ian Watson's backyard, the Barn Theatre in all our science, says to Councillor's colleagues
backyard.
These are amazing places and the whole point about Creative Cotswolds is to provide inspiration
to actually boost the economy, boost tourism in those places where over
tourism exists less and also to promote and cross -promote
those wonderful things that the Cotswolds offer. So there's one bit of
inspiration and the second one is the community safety partnership which I
share every quarter. We kind of quietly do this, we bring the police together
with social services and other charities and we focus on the bread -and -butter
issues which people really care about, reducing crime, promoting road safety and cutting down
antisocial behaviour. These are inspirational things that I think people in the COTS board
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:14:38
would actually love. So there you go. Thank you, Councillor Hodgkinson. Very inspiring.
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 1:14:44
And Councillor Coleman. It's always good to be inspiring actually, yes. And I remember
I was being very surprised when the first version of this corporate strategy and plan appeared, I think, pretty much in the pandemic,
and with the five columns, and this was, as far as I could see, almost entirely to the credit of the then interim chief executive, Christine Gore.
I must declare an interest. She is pretty much a good friend of mine, particularly now she serves as an independent member of the Science and City Council.
Council, I have known her husband since the 1980s, when we both served on the North Yorkshire
District Council. This is irrelevant, of course, but except that, I do have to declare the
interest. The point is, it is not often that you open up something like a corporate strategy
and find yourself to be really positive about it. The structure was right and carried through
and the latest revision is right.
The other thing I want to do, having heard Paul speak so well
about the importance of creativity,
is to, that's a really important point.
If you ever go to, I hear a good sermon on this issue,
you might hear that Christians believe
they're made in the image of their creator in some way.
And since our creator is creative, so they say,
and so do I actually believe, so creativity
is what makes life worth living.
That is in some way.
The other final point I want to make is how pleased I am that our Conservative group,
especially in a way, but the others who aren't here as well,
actually do engage with climate change.
I am genuinely, I sympathise greatly with the struggles that the Conservative Party is going through locally and nationally,
and particularly because we were in a small place for a long time too.
And it's not great, but I think we've got a good collection of really good committed community champions amongst pretty much every one of our opposition.
And we've got lots to disagree on. I like the way it's led, it's challenging. I like the way people engage with the difficult work.
and as I say I'm really pleased personally that we've got as far as I
can tell no reform councillors in the Cotswold of any type and I'm glad you've
helped to keep it that way. Thank you.
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:17:12
Councillor Stowe with some inspiration. Yes thank you chair and yeah so
Councillor Tom Stowe - 1:17:19
obviously we found this underwhelming a little wishy -washy and we understand
that this is a high level documents but I think what Councillor McEwen and
Councillor Hodgkinson have just demonstrated,
is if you just put a little bit more meat on the bones,
it would have provided a little bit more clarity, okay,
as to where we've been, where we are now,
and where we're heading.
And regarding Conservative input, Paul,
I mean, I'm sure that Councillor Efremi,
he has my phone number, if he needs help,
formulating the strategic plan going forward,
I'd be happy to come and help you out.
But as it stands, I haven't had that instruction yet,
it is not the job of the opposition to write a policy such as like this for you
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:18:04
so thank you. Thank you very much council Sturd. So it's always the challenge of
how much meat to put on the bones isn't it with these documents too much and
it's unreadable or undigestible. Right I'm going to go to council later now who's
going to second this and you'd like to make your comments and then we'll go to
Councillor Juliet Layton - 1:18:21
council Edmy. Thank you yeah well I think this is an important document without the
because I think we know the meat, we talk about it a lot.
And it's a document for both councillors
to, you know, for the aims and the priorities,
but also more importantly,
that our officers are very aware of our aims and priorities.
And I think this will generate down through the council.
So we're all working to the same points.
In the action plan, which is very interesting, I was looking at it and going,
mmm, local plan keeps coming up under every single item,
which really shows that we made a very good, strong decision
when we decided to go forward and do our local plan,
because it underpins nearly everything we do in the council.
And all the things we've talked about, about climate change,
about housing, about registered providers,
about communities and it is there for everything. So I'm really pleased to see
that and I think you know working together we can we can achieve these and
the future having you know we've got to look to the future before we didn't have
to have that because our future was infinite now we've got a short time and
we've got to do this in that short time to leave this this district council
being strong and and showing everybody that we've really worked hard for our
community for our district and I think this this this will really help to do
that we've just got to get it through everyone
Councillors officers all the staff and I think that's important thank you thank
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:20:12
you so go to council me to sum up refresh or rehash definitely a refresh
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:20:19
not a rehash chair.
Thank you everyone that's contributed to the debate.
I've written down the phrase somewhat underwhelming
as the faint phrase from the leader of the opposition,
but it is evolution and not revolution.
This document, you know, we've had priorities for six years.
We are now expecting that this council will last
for a further three years from that point.
So our administration will serve for nine years
on the assumption that the council comes to an end
in March of 2028.
I think Mike McEwen, Councillor McEwen has answered
the points on climate change.
I'm hopeful that when the designer gets to this,
it won't be underwhelming, it'll be quite dazzling.
So that's the job of the designers to bring it to life,
which clearly what you've got is just words.
Thanks to Councillor Inge for pointing out a couple of typos.
The point she highlighted though in terms of the missing words,
that should have said in my understanding,
keeping staff informed and engaged.
And that's so critically important as we head
into local government reorganisation.
We have a Chief Executive who's been through that twice before
and she is, as the leader of our staff, is totally focused
on working and engaging and working to make sure that our staff are informed
and engaged because we need to keep them bluntly you know we need the services to
keep running and there's a definitely a risk when you're in an authority that
isn't going to exist into the future. I agree with everything that Councillor
McEwen said and he responded. So Councillor Jenkinson yeah absolutely this
is a serious statement of intense it's not war and peace it's deliberately
relatively short so that our staff could read this and people can read it and
it's accessible and then they get a sense and they have an understanding
what it is that we're trying to do and then they can look at the the things at
the back in terms of the plan and see what specifically that might mean for
their area of responsibility if they're an officer and thank you for
raising the point about climate and ecology working together that's very
much part of our plans. In answer to your point about housing communities, I'm not a
planner and I've not sat on the planning committee but I'm very mindful of what
you say about why we and particularly as we move into the looking into further
discussions about how we want to shape the future of our district with a local
plan we want communities we don't just want houses and that's really really
important and you make the point that in some of the settlements what they've had
was housing without any more thought about how that could strengthen a
community and in fact if it doesn't strengthen the community it weakens the
community so I think we all need to be mindful of that as we move through the
process of the local plan.
I'm sure Juliet is here as our planning lead on the cabinet
and obviously she'll relay that back to the offices
as well in that area.
To Patrick, I won't really say any more
about our conservative opponents,
but yeah, it's clearly he likes telling us about
his experience in Wiltshire as he and I
have known each other a long time.
I think, you know, and so Paul absolutely brought forward some things that are going on in his portfolio
and just to remind people what I said in my speech proposing this.
It's not everything the Council's doing, it's a high level statement of intent, it's our priorities as an administration,
what we're asking our officers to deliver on our behalf.
So my challenge back in terms of response to Councillor Stowe's point is we have plenty of other strategies and documents with targets and numbers.
This isn't what this is for. This is about what is the hearts and minds stuff that we as a council want to deliver as an administration we want to deliver and that we would like our officers to deliver for us.
Juliette highlighted the point about how the local plan is embedded across the whole of
this document in terms of all of our priorities and how important that piece of work is when
we get to it.
So thank you everybody for the contribution to the debate.
It's a local plan.
If we agree this corporate plan now, obviously we will be using this until we cease to exist,
unless we decide we want to have another one of these when we know the outcome of the discussion
of our local government reorganisation and whether that will make a difference.
But we will look at that in the future, but for now I'm very happy to propose that we agree this
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:25:12
corporate plan that's in front of you. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Evney. Okay, so I'll just
read the recommendation to you. This Council resolves to adopt the corporate plan 2025 to
28, subject to any agreed modifications, a couple of which we had, to delegate authority to the
the design and I think that's it. Let's go to the vote.
Okay
So, have we got everybody in?
Well we've got 19, 4, 5 extensions.
24, 23.
There's 26 of us here and there seem to be 24 in total.
If somebody's moving around a lot and I'm counting them twice.
Can anybody not see their name there?
Oh, Councillor Stowe.
Okay.
Oh there's Councillor Stowe. I know but I wasn't counting him in the 20s. Anyway it's
carried 1946 abstention so thank you very much for that. Right now we're going to
our next item 8 Treasury Management Out -term and we're going to receive
discuss details of the council's Treasury management performance
April to 31st of March 2025. Sorry, that's April 24 to March 25
and
You should note the Treasury management out turn report was considered by audit and government's committee in
July and we're going to go to the to account for Patrick Coleman to propose a recommendation
To the council and see if you can get any religious philosophy in there. I'm intrigued
I know that we've had enough of that.
Put some of it there.
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 1:27:43
Or some of us feel we're reduced to prayer
when we see what's going on internationally, don't we?
So thank you very much to the Audit Committee, first of all,
who've given this very thorough consideration.
I've just been received a minute,
which is over two pages long.
And indeed, I have in my hands the chair
of the Audit Committee's proposed comments to full council.
And that particular meeting of the committee was chaired by...
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 1:28:20
So the Chair of Audit and Government's Committee comments to Councillor as follows.
The Audit and Government's Committee commended the Treasury Management Out -turn Report
for 2024 -25, and expressed satisfaction with the Treasury management activities as they
aligned with the approved strategy, prudential indicators and statutory guidance. No breaches
were identified. The Committee acknowledged the Council's prudent approach to ensuring
internal cash balances were ample to accommodate operational and capital needs, while emphasising
the importance of security and liquidity in investment practises, especially given market
volatility. And there's a recommendation. The committee recommended that future reports
incorporate more clarity regarding expectations for long -term investment performance. Now,
of course, if our Chief Finance Officer was able to be here tonight, he might have a go
at that one now, but that's certainly one we will consider, and say we being me and
him and probably our Chief Executive as well. So turning to the report, and some of you
be familiar with these. It's a little bit in history, it's kind of five months since
the year concern ends. A lot of the content refers to investments that have been held
for quite some time. We continue to, we believe, I certainly do, to be well served by Arlene
Close, who have been our advisors on this for some considerable time. The general results
that were, as you're probably already aware, very positive.
When we get to page 71 and section 4,
the investment performance, you'll see a table
with the Bank of England DMADF.
And I'm sure you'd like me to tell you the results
of my research.
So that does not stand for debt may achieve dodgy finance.
And it doesn't stand for don't manage a decision finally.
It stands for Debt Management Account Deposit Facility.
It's provided by the UK's Debt Management Office.
And its key objective is to provide users such as us with a flexible and secure facility
to supplement their existing range of investment options while saving interest costs for central
government.
That's like squaring a circle in short, but they do it and that table looks positive too,
as far as I can tell.
We therefore are in a better position, as we would expect to be, than many other councils,
and having resources carefully and wisely invested with sound professional advice in pooled funds, in the REIT and so on.
The report at the annex at the end is pretty historical since it refers to the Darling
Closes analysis of the previous financial year.
And the table that we'd all like to be higher up in, exactly halfway down, is on page 76,
which is our income only return on total investments, internal and external, compared with pretty
much well a load of other there's 121 local authorities supported by our
in close and we're 60 we'd like to be higher you can see it's a fairly flat
table in the middle and apart from that I think that's enough for me I've been
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:32:02
very interested in any comments people or suggestions people have thank you
Anything that Councillor Coleman said you're unsure about that you'd like him to expand on?
No? Okay. I'm going to look for a seconder. I think that's Councillor Robbins.
Do you want to speak now or forever hold your peace?
Councillor Nigel Robbins - 1:32:24
I could speak now unless there's anybody desperately anxious to say anything.
I support what Councillor Coleman has said.
Yes, if you are bamboozled by the figures there, just look at page 77, you'll see we're
absolutely in the middle, in the mean average position of other local authorities, which
is slightly better than it was, and that's because our expectations were a return in
this particular financial year of £1 .2 million from investment, turned out to be £1 .6 million,
pounds, partly because we didn't make the capital spend that had been planned, and also
because the returns from the investment were higher.
Although the total value of those investments in pooled funds, I won't explain that now,
but I'm sure you get some idea of what that's like.
The total value has gone down, but the returns were better.
but it's a pretty satisfactory outlook and achievement and we could be higher risk but you know what that means.
We could do as some authorities have done invest in wild property schemes and fall flat on our faces.
So this is a prudent way of proceeding and I recommend it to you.
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:33:47
Thank You councillor Robbins. Okay do we have any anybody wish to comment speak on
the matter? Oh council Bloomfield. Thank you chair I thought there'd be loads of
Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:34:01
people wanting to jump up. I've wanted to make a few commentary. A
fundamental I looked up the REIT which has been referred to it actually
provides housing for people adults who've got special needs and things like
So it's extremely, it's a worthy investment in every way
and also gives a decent return.
So I was very interested to see that.
I also wanted to ask about the, on page 70,
it says any borrowing undertaken will be subject to approval
by either cabinet or council as appropriate.
I just wanted to know when, I think it's to do with the value
of the borrowing, whether it would go
to council or to cabinet.
That's everything. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:34:49
Is that one for Michelle to answer? Yeah the council currently
Officer - 1:34:55
doesn't have any borrowing but if we were to take out any borrowing in the
future yeah that would come before cabinet and then the council through our
strategy. Is this a specific place in the report?
It says we subject to approval by either cabinet or council and that was why I was
it is at the moment but we'll get back to you. I think Councillor Cunningham is right but I
wouldn't want to say so definitively.
or in public.
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:35:51
What about anything really?
Councillor David Cunningham - 1:35:55
It would be good to have clarification on that. Thank you.
Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:36:01
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:36:03
We'll come back on that. Have we got any other questions or any other items?
In the absence I will ask then...
Yes, in the back.
Oh, sorry, Councillor Jenkinson. Always sneak in there with one, don't you?
Just when I think we're going to get home in time.
Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 1:36:18
I do apologise, Chair and Council.
Just looking for comparison against inflation rates,
I understand that the return that's been achieved exceeds
the general inflation rate in this, over the last year,
in this country, but is pretty much the same as the rise
for services, which is probably our core area. That would suggest that in terms of a prudent
approach we've managed to stand still in terms of the overall value of our investments in
real terms. Is that a fair understanding?
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:37:04
I'm going to look to Michelle for a response.
Officer - 1:37:10
Yeah I suppose it is yeah. Not all of our costs have risen by what we've achieved in
terms of our investment income. So we've achieved on average I think 4 .6 percent. Our costs
overall probably haven't risen by that much. So I would say overall it's a positive position.
But yeah, the two do obviously balance each other out to some extent.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:37:42
Any final?
Right.
Okay.
With that in mind, quickly, I'm going to go to Councillor Coleman to sum up if you'd like
to do that.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to colleagues for engaging.
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 1:37:57
Thank you again to the Audit Committee for the work they do on this.
and I look forward to the vote. Thank you very much
Councillor Mark Harris - 1:38:06
Councillor Coleman appreciate your brevity. So the recommendation this
council resolves to note the council's Treasury management performance of the
period 1st of April 24 to 31st of March 2025 and 2 to approve the Treasury
Management Out -turn Report 24 to 25 and let's go to the vote. Sorry it sounds
like a quiz show or something. But hey, why not?
Okay, well, we've got 23 for.
we've got no against no abstentions it sort of feels like somebody's so we got
25 now well done sorry yeah that's all right I know there's a slight delay in
there that's the votes coming from Latvia or something like that and so yeah
that's that's passed so jolly good next item is notice of motions and I'm one we
no motions have been received and also we don't we haven't had any sneak in
before the meeting.
So which leads to item 10, the date of the next meeting,
which will be the 26th of November, 2025.
And it will start at 2 p .m.
Yeah.
Enjoy the rest of your evening, whatever you choose to do.

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