Cabinet - Thursday 5 March 2026, 6:00pm - Cotswold District Council Webcasting

Cabinet
Thursday, 5th March 2026 at 6:00pm 

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  1. Councillor Mike Evemy
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  1. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. 03. To approve the minutes of a meeting held on 5 February 2026
    Status: In progress
  4. 03. To approve the minutes of a meeting held on 5 February 2026
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Juliet Layton
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. David Stanley, Deputy CEO
  6. Councillor Mike Evemy
  7. Councillor Tristan Wilkinson
  8. Councillor Mike Evemy
  9. Councillor Juliet Layton
  10. Councillor Mike Evemy
  11. 09. To approve the Biodiversity Action Plan, recommendations 1-2
    Status: In progress
  12. 09. To approve the Biodiversity Action Plan, recommendations 1-2
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Juliet Layton
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Mike McKeown
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. Councillor Juliet Layton
  6. Councillor Mike Evemy
  7. 10. To approve the Gloucestershire LNRS, recommendation 1
    Status: In progress
  8. 10. To approve the Gloucestershire LNRS, recommendation 1
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Juliet Layton
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Mike McKeown
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. Councillor Tony Dale
  6. Councillor Tony Dale
  7. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  8. Councillor Mike Evemy
  9. Officer
  10. Councillor Mike Evemy
  11. Councillor Juliet Layton
  12. Councillor Mike Evemy
  13. 11. To approve the CIL Infrastructure Funding, recommendation 1
    Status: In progress
  14. 11. To approve the CIL Infrastructure Funding, recommendation 1
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Juliet Layton
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. Councillor Juliet Layton
  6. Councillor Mike Evemy
  7. 12. To approve the HomeSeekerPlus Policy Review, recommendations 1-2
    Status: In progress
  8. 12. To approve the HomeSeekerPlus Policy Review, recommendations 1-2
    Status: Ended
  9. Councillor Tony Dale
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  1. Councillor Mike Evemy
  2. Councillor Juliet Layton
  3. Councillor Mike Evemy
  4. Councillor Tony Dale
  5. Councillor Mike Evemy
  6. Councillor Tristan Wilkinson
  7. Councillor Mike Evemy
  8. Officer
  9. Councillor Mike Evemy
  10. Councillor Tony Dale
  11. Councillor Mike Evemy
  12. 13. To approve delegation to award contract (Parking), recommendation 1
    Status: In progress
  13. 13. To approve delegation to award contract (Parking), recommendation 1
    Status: Ended
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  1. Webcast Finished

Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:00:05
Good evening everybody and welcome to this meeting of Cotswold District Council cabinet.
Let's just start with apologies. I know we have apologies from Councillor Andrea Pellegram

1 Apologies

and the rest of the members of the cabinet are here. Agenda item two, declarations of

2 Declarations of Interest

interest does any member have any declaration of interest they wish to

3 Minutes

make no they don't okay so move on to agenda item three in the minutes they're
on pages 17 to 20 of our papers does anyone have any corrections or anything
on the minutes no Oh councillor Coleman
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:00:57
Thank You chair just to observe and not request any changes or even in the
future it's a bit blurred for the page numbers but we it many 196 covers them
about two and a third pages with the interesting public question that you
generously and correct me I'm sure I've allowed a lot of time for so I'm
grateful that we got such a full record and I I don't think we'll be making a
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:01:28
common practise will we sir. No thank you Patrick for that so I'm not seeing
anyone with any correction so I'm happy to move those from the chair as a true
record I have a seconder for that someone who was here at the last meeting
Tony, Councillor Dale seconded, so we'll go to the vote then. That's all six of us voted
in favour. Thank you very much. So we'll now move on to the next agenda item. Agenda item

4 Leader's Announcements

is my announcements but I don't have any this evening unusually to make to the

5 Public Questions

to the cabinet so we'll move on to public questions any members of the
public I can't see any here ready to ask a question nobody's written in no no

6 Member Questions

one's here okay member questions we haven't had any member questions here
and I can't see any members that aren't members of the cabinet in the room so we

7 Schedule of Decisions taken by the Leader of the Council and/or Individual Cabinet Members

move on to a gender item 7, decisions taken by the leader and or individual
cabinet members. I don't think we've got any of those today unless I've missed them.
I can't see any of those so none today that's a standard gender item. A gender item 8

8 Issue(s) Arising from Overview and Scrutiny and/or Audit and Governance

is issues arising from overview and scrutiny and or audit and governance
committee. There was a meeting of overview and scrutiny committee that
took place on Monday, was attended by some of us and considered
matters to do with local government reorganisation, how that would be
scrutinised and also looked at the sill paper that we're going to cover under
agenda item 11 but there weren't any specific recommendations coming out of
that I don't believe. No there weren't so okay so we'll move on to our first

9 Biodiversity Action Plan

substantive item then this evening which is the biodiversity action plan starting
on page 21. I'll hand over to Juliet, Councillor Layton. Thank you very much.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:03:36
Yeah this is the biodiversity duty report we have here and we are being
cabinets being asked to approve this today and to delegate presentation and
minor editorial changes to the Assistant Director to Planning
Services and to myself as Cabinet Member.
This report marks an important milestone for the Council.
The Environment Act of 2021 strengthened the legal duty on
all public authorities to conserve and enhance
biodiversity.
And now it requires local planning authorities to publish
a formal report showing how they're meeting that duty.
It also requires us to report on our performance in delivering
biodiversity net gain, which became mandatory for most developments in February 2024.
What this report demonstrates very clearly is that biodiversity is not an isolated work
stream.
It is being considered across the full breadth of our services.
In planning, we are constantly applying BNG requirements and ensuring ecological assessments
are robust.
In our green spaces, we are managing land in ways that support pollinators and habitat
creation. Through our climate and sustainability programmes, we are aligning
biodiversity with our wilder ecological and climate commitments. And through our
partnerships with organisations such as Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and the
local nature partnership, we are contributing to a joined -up approach
across the county. We are now, sorry, where and how nature recovery would have most
impact to inform and identify sites where BNG is placed.
And I want to highlight our strong performance
on biodiversity net gain.
Between February 24 and December 25,
Cotswold District Council discharged 24 biodiversity
plans, more than any other authority in Gloucestershire.
And that reflects the quality of our processes,
the expertise of our offices, and the constructive way
we work with developers to secure meaningful ecological outcomes.
So, thank you very much all officers, some of whom are here tonight.
And looking ahead, the report identifies opportunities
to go further over the next five years.
A key action will be the development of biodiversity action strategy,
which will set out targeted and measurable steps to conserve
and enhance biodiversity across the district.
This strategy will be informed by the Gloucestershire's local nature recovery
strategy which will guide where habitat creation and restoration will have the
greatest impact and by the forthcoming review of our ecological emergency
action plan ensuring our approach remains aligned with national policy
and local priorities. We also recognise the need to strengthen how biodiversity
embedded in corporate decision -making, whether through
procurement, asset management, service planning,
or community engagement.
And we will continue to improve our monitoring and reporting
so that progress is transparent and evidence -based.
Adopting this report ensures we meet our statutory obligations,
but more importantly, it sets out a clear direction of how
we will protect and enhance the natural environment that is
so central to the character and wellbeing of the Cotswolds.
As I said, we are just being asked to approve the
biodiversity report for publication and to endorse
the development of the biodiversity action strategy.
Thank you.
We have officers in the room.
Should you need any more technical questions?
Thanks.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:07:27
Thank you very much, Juliette, for talking us through that.
And I think if we weren't already familiar with it after having read this report, BNG,
it's not some sort of Roald Dahl character.
It's biodiversity net gain.
But it's really, really important, as you've explained in what you've presented to us,
noting that we've, as a council, discharged 20, we've agreed 24 plans.
And there are also, I note in the report, two 106 agreements
with significant biodiversity net gain on site.
So who would like to say something on this, Patrick?
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:08:05
Yes, in paragraph 5 .2, financial implications, we're reminded,
I should say, that in the local government finance settlement
for the upcoming financial year,
The biodiversity net gain grant has been consolidated into the revenue support grant.
And this in one sense is good because it should be down to local authorities to decide how much to spend
rather than being given specific grants.
On the other hand, there's a risk which I think we're all aware of, which is that we might be pushed
and pressed to somehow unring fence or reduce the money that in previous years has been available.
And so I guess I'm just taking this opportunity to say that I think I can be certain that everybody here
And indeed almost certainly across the whole council will be determined not to see any reduction
if at all possible and practicable in the
financing for this grant
Assuming that demand is there and the need is there in the forthcoming years
But I can't make any definite statement because it's too early to say
Thank you.
I haven't talked to the chief finance officer about yet.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:09:22
I was going to give him the opportunity of the back of that contribution Patrick to come in and obviously noting that yeah, it does talk about only a mark reserve to be drawn down whenever you could add anything to what Councillor Coleman has said David.
David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:09:39
Thank you, Chair. Just to give members the background. So the Council received an email
from DEFRA back in February of 2026 on the day the final settlement was published. And
that indicated that because biodiversity net gain funding had been rolled into revenue
support grant, that local authorities will not have a separate allocation for BNG. And
Following that change, it will be up to the local authority
to determine their spend on BNG,
and therefore you would not be able to unpick
from the revenue support grant,
which is an un -ringfenced grant
that supports all of the council services,
specific funding for things like biodiversity net gain.
So the reference in the financial implications
refers to the amount of biodiversity net gain grant
that we've had in prior years that has remained unspent.
So in the context that there isn't a specific allocation going forward, the view in the
financial implications is to make use of funding that's been provided in prior years before
then working through the wider implications of additional funding that might be needed
to match that expenditure, but take into account what's set out in that report and the duty
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:10:59
that we have got as an authority around BNG. I could just follow that up David
just to clarify from my perspective. So we've got the 45 ,000 pounds which is in
a reserve that you can draw down but we haven't at this point got a budget
allocation over and above that. If there's a requirement for more funding
than that then the officers in that area have to come and talk to you about it.
Okay thank you. Any other questions or comments? I think Tristan you're just
going to second anything over to you. Thank you I think it's yeah this is
Councillor Tristan Wilkinson - 0:11:32
something that's necessary but also important so nothing over and above that
I think Juliet's given a really good summary of this. Thank you anything
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:11:42
Juliet you wanted to add or any of the officers wanted to say? No. Any Juliet?
No not for me I just wanted you know officers satisfied with everything good
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:11:51
I've given a report and I will be giving more about some nature recovery in a
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:11:59
moment. Thank you. So coming back to the recommendations then on page 21 we're
asked to approve the bio -diversity duty report within annex A for publication
and delegate to the assistant director for planning services in consultation
with the cabinet member for housing and planning to make presentation on minor
editorial changes in advance of publication. So we can go to the vote, please.
Thank you very much. Six votes in favour of that. Thank you very much, Juliette. And we'll go on to the next item,
which is, as you mentioned,

10 Gloucestershire Local Nature Recovery Strategy

also in your portfolio area. So it's the Gloucestershire local nature recovery strategy starting on page 57.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:12:48
Thank you. Well the local nature recovery strategy for Gloucester has been
approved by Gloucestershire County Council so this is coming to us now. It's
commonly known as LNRS which is a statutory requirement introduced by the
Environment Act of 2021 and every area of England is now covered by one of
these strategies. That's 48 in total and there are no gaps or overlaps.
Gloucestershire County Council was appointed by DEFRA as a responsible
authority for our area and the strategy has been developed collaboratively with
district, borough, city councils as well as key partners including the Gloucestershire
local nature partnership. The LNRS is a spatial tool. It maps opportunities for
nature recovery at landscape scale and identifies where habitat creation,
restoration or expansion will have the greatest impact. Importantly it's not
prescriptive, it provides guidance to help public
landowners, farmers, and voluntary and private sectors
target their efforts in places where they will deliver
the most benefit for biodiversity.
It supports landowners and farmers by highlighting
nature recovery opportunities on their land and advisors
where it might be eligible for grants or funding.
In particular, important, I'm sorry, the central
The strategy is identification of areas that could become
particular importance for biodiversity.
These are areas where nature recovery measures
should be prioritised.
Landowners delivering habitat creation or restoration
in line with these identified opportunities may be eligible,
as I said, for grant funding or enhanced payments
through national schemes.
This creates a strong incentive for nature -positive
land management and supports the rural economy. For local planning authorities,
the LNRS has a direct statutory link. We must not only conserve and enhance
biodiversity under the strengthened biodiversity duty, but also have regard
to the relevant LNRS when doing so. That means the strategy will become
important reference point in planning decisions, policy development and wider
corporate activity. Cotswold District Council is already putting the LNRS
into practise. Working with the National Trust we've begun establishing a
Habitat Bank at the Sherborne Estate aligned with the emerging LNRS
potential measures. This positions as well to support high quality
biodiversity net gain delivery and demonstrates our commitment to
proactive partnership led nature recovery. The local LNRS was approved by
the County Council's cabinet in January 2026.
And in endorsing it today, the CDC is aligned with the,
ensures that CDC is aligned with the countrywide approach
and ready to integrate the strategy into our planning
and land management biodiversity work.
I'm sure you've all read the report.
It's actually a fabulous document.
So anybody online will have access
to this document online. Very beautifully presented and full of lovely pictures so
it's a really good read which I recommend to people and to the cabinet. Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:16:21
Thank you Juliette, yes absolutely it's a very comprehensive document and just
sort of you know it goes into details about specific species though adders are
mentioned in there and various different species of bats as well as the more
general things that you might expect field margins so there's an awful lot of
detail in here which I'm sure you know will will aid in terms of both ourselves
as an authority but the other partner authorities the other six councils
across Gloucestershire in terms of how how we can improve our nature in our
County so that's great is there anyone got any comments or questions that they
have on this.
Mike, we're happy to say a few words in seconding.
Please.
So I agree that I think the local nature recovery
Councillor Mike McKeown - 0:17:17
strategy is a very important step in bringing together
both how we restore and strengthen the nation
across the nature, sorry, across our district
and, indeed, Gloucestershire.
And it gives us a good, important framework
for protecting habitats and improving biodiversity
and directing those efforts to the places that
make the biggest difference.
And from a climate perspective, my portfolio, I think,
it's pretty clear healthy ecosystems are one of the most
effective tools we have in climate resilience.
So, you know, restoring things like woodlands, species -rich
grasslands, you know, help store carbon much more effectively
than those less diverse.
But they also help things like flood management.
I recently saw quite an eye -opening demonstration
where they'd taken a field and one part of the field was farmed using regenerative
farming techniques which are great for biodiversity and the other was more
traditional and then they poured water from you know a big huge pipe onto both
halves and the one that was that was regeneratively farmed just soaked the
water up the other one it poured off the off the ground you know bringing that
home you know what just last autumn I was helping residents in Kenberwick who
were suffering pretty bad flooding during storm Burke which was partly
brought on by climate change and you know their nearby land very green
and pleasant but rather you know not by diverse and didn't absorb water well so
it ran off the fields and it ran you know down their streets and into into
some houses in there so there's really you know there's real good hard benefits
to that as well as firefighting climate.
So I think it's, you know, pretty important and valuable
for us to be doing this.
Hence, I'm delighted to see it.
I think for districts like the Cotswolds where our natural
landscape is really our defining asset,
this work is particularly important.
It supports the climate commitments we've made in our
climate and nature recovery emergencies while protecting
biodiversity and making the Cotswolds the beautiful place
that we all enjoy.
So I'm very happy to support it.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:19:30
second it you very much Mike's anybody else want to say anything or come back
to Juliet want to say anything else as you've mentioned others all right well I
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:19:42
I was at the a 417 the devastation of our country countryside up there but
making what was a very necessary road but they thought they were going to have
to rehome something like about 80 -odd adders up there,
in a very large area, I have to say.
But they had thought they were probably going to be 80,
and they were nearer 1 ,000.
So they're doing very well up there.
I hope with all the measures they're putting in,
these will come back, because, you know,
they don't really need to be, you know, rehoused for too long.
I don't mean they're going to bring back the families of adders,
but hopefully they will reintroduce themselves.
but it was just because you mentioned others.
And the tree planting is vital.
And I wish we could make people be regenerative,
but that is actually not under our remit.
Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:20:37
Yeah, good to hear.
I'm not a huge, anyway, I won't talk about that.
You're not a huge advocate.
No, no, not really.
But try to get over childhood fears.
So if we can move to the, you've moved to the second
of the recommendation.
It's on page 57 as we endorse the Gloucestershire Local
Nature Recovery Strategy.
We'll move to the vote, please.
Thank you very much.
That's six votes in favour.
Thank you, everybody.
So we'll now move on to the next agenda item, which is on page
219, agenda item 11.

11 Infrastructure Funding - Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Project

Community Infrastructure Levy, brackets, SIL,
Enhancement Project.
Back to Juliet again.
Sorry, you've got me again.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:21:31
And again, I have an officer here if we need any other
more questions after I've given a presentation.
Just very quickly, SIL funding is,
the Community Infrastructure Levy is collected from
developments, from most developments.
It is to deliver strategic fund for our residents needs. It's a community
collection. 5 % goes to administration, 15 % goes to towns and parishes with no
neighbourhood plan, 25 % goes to towns and parishes with a neighbourhood
development plan and those towns and parishes have five years to spend their
SIL money. We don't have a restriction on time for our SIL money. And as you've probably
seen in the papers, we're only on our second round of bids from 1929, no 2019, I apologise.
So this item seeks delegated authority to modernise and strengthen our community infrastructure
levy process. It's got nothing to do with the way we collect the money, it's how
we're taking the bids forward after that. So since adopting CIL in 2019 we've
run two full strategic bid rounds and that experience alongside stakeholder
feedback shows that the system is working but now can be improved to a
better support sustainable growth across the district. At present we operate a
short challenging single annual bidding window from March to May but where bids
are assessed by an officer panel using high -level scoring framework and whilst
this has provided clear and consistent route for allocating funds the review
highlights opportunities to make the process more transparent more strategic
and more collaborative so what we're proposing to do which is seen at three
in your papers is sharpened alignment between still spending and our
corporate plan and the infrastructure development plan. The bids
window is to be extended for a year -round bidding and considered by
officers between October and December. That will improve
transparency and communication with parishes, community groups and
infrastructure partners. It will strengthen the assessment process so
that bids are prioritised against clear strategic criteria,
ensure that we continue to allocate SIL
legally, responsibly and accountably
in line with the regulations,
and it will also enhance monitoring and reporting
so we can demonstrate impact more clearly.
As I said, it's not a change to the SIL charging schedule.
It's about improving how we allocate funding
so that infrastructure delivery keeps pace with development and supports thriving communities.
The recommendation is simply to delegate authority to the Assistant Director for Planning Services
in consultation with me as cabinet member to implement the enhancements. It will allow
officers to refine the process and bring forward improvements in time for the next cycle bid.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Juliette.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:25:01
Just to follow that up, I think the enhancement programme is a key
sort of obviously the heart of this report and it's about
saying how we think we can do this better and learn from what
we've done in the first couple of cycles and you've talked us
through that process and obviously there's more work in
terms of fleshing out the detail of that that officers will be
doing and yeah you'll be obviously guiding them and working with them on
that but you know that those things in sections 3 1 & 3 2 around how do we make
sure that what we are using how we're using these funds is in line with you
know the corporate priorities of the council and delivering the
infrastructure that you know our communities would look for without
substituting what should come from other sources,
such as 106 agreements and the like.
Who would like to come in on this?
I've got Mike.
I was going to say two related things.
So, one, I do like the idea of the sort of the updated
Councillor Mike McKeown - 0:26:05
governance on it, particularly the community engagement part,
I think is very important.
It's good to have a rigorous mechanism where the officer's
managing, you know, scoring the bids,
the importance of engaging with members
where it's in their, where something's in their ward
and the town and parish council is in there
as not as scorers, but as consultees
to give their input and involvement is important,
I think, and valuable to get everybody on board
and personal experience, that's worked quite well.
I've, you know, my ward being recipient
of a reasonable chunk of SIL funding
for the Kemble to Syrinsester cycle path which is ultimately a multi -million pound investment
that will make A a really pretty route for people to cycle from Syrinsester all the way out through
the lovely countryside out to Kemble which is a nice area to be in any way with the water park
and stuff around it but also from a sustainability perspective rather than everybody riding on their
or driving in their cars to commute from the railway station.
They'll be able to get on bikes or other ways of getting in there that's much more sustainable and healthy.
So I was pleased to see that in there and that was a good example of what I was alluding to on the council.
The parish involvement. So there, Kemble Parish Council were very involved in looking at the route, giving advice on that.
and we ended up, we've got a really good, solid plan
that's got lots of local buy -in for a great route
and facilities to do that.
You know, hopefully sets us up for tapping
into a nice large grant that I understand are now increasingly
available to get us to build the thing, hopefully fairly soon.
Thank you, Mike.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:27:56
That's a great example of how things can go well with SIL.
Any other observation?
Tony?
Councillor Tony Dale - 0:28:11
Yes, I think it's relevant at this point just to say, in the past, lots of money generated
in this way would have gone to good old -fashioned village halls and parish halls as we knew
them maybe 50 ,000 years ago.
But the interesting thing is that if you look at where the deficiency is now in particularly
rural England, there are just not enough places where people
can gather to share, shall we say,
physical and mental wellbeing.
And when you look at the deficiencies of where our
communities are today around the health agenda and around the
wellbeing agenda, particularly the mental health of our
younger parts of the population, I think if we can set up the
future governance of SIL money so that it's absolutely and
correctly focused on corporate priorities which reflect those
needs, our leisure health and wellbeing needs,
our mental health needs, our ability for everyone to have
a safe, dry, warm home to live in.
It sounds like nature's basics, but actually they're sometimes
very hard to find in the Cotswolds as a dispersed area.
So absolutely, this is the right thing to do as long as it really is officers are really thinking about
What is the infrastructure which will tangibly make a difference to our communities?
Councillor Tony Dale - 0:29:39
Tony Patrick, I think you were going to second do you want to come in now?
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:29:50
I don't think I can really add anything better than what's already been said.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:29:55
Any other comments looking over at Helen for off -subspective, anything you wanted to add?
Just one quick point that we have given some thought to how we might split the allocations
Officer - 0:30:05
between strategic climate emergency and sustainable and healthy communities.
Our current thinking, although not finalised, is rather than to allocate percentages to
make sure the scoring matrix gives appropriate weighting to that so that you do get that
mix of different infrastructure and we'll address some of the points that you raised,
Tony.
Thank you.
Thank you, Helen.
Juliet, do you want to say anything else?
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:30:28
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:30:33
Well, only that I know that Helen has been writing notes about what everybody said, so
you'll have heard that.
and we also talked about this at ONS, so we need to make notes for that so we can take that forward. Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:30:48
Thanks very much. So if we can, the recommendations are on page
220, so a recommendation singular is that the cabinet resolves to delegate authority to the assistant director of planning services in
consultation with the cabinet member for planning and housing to implement
CIL, Community Infrastructure Levy, Enhancement Programme, detailed at Section 3 of this report.
If we can open the voting then, please.
Thank you very much. That's six votes in favour. Thank you. We'll now move on to the agenda

12 HomeSeekerPlus Policy Review

item 12, page 229, Home Seeker Plus Policy Review. Back to Juliet.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:31:31
I'm apologising I'm doing an awful lot of reading but I've had a lot of reports
that won't stay in my head so it's it's it's off the page. So this is the Home
Seeker Plus policy review. As sat out in the report before us the Home Seeker Plus
policy has been in place since 2016 and was last reviewed in 2022 and since then
there have been significant legislative changes,
shifts in national guidance and operational learning
across the partnership.
It is now essential that we update the policy to ensure
it remains fair, transparent, and legally robust.
MHCLG sets out the statutory guidance,
and local authorities have to ensure that all affordable
social rent and social rented accommodation is made available
through choice -based letting.
Sorry, choice -based letting scheme allocated fairly to those in the highest housing need.
The policy needs updating because of legislative and regulatory changes, as I said, and these
include new statutory duties, particularly around domestic abuse, the armed forces'
governance and updated case law affecting eligibility, priority need and local connexion.
Ensuring compliance is vital to protect both applicants and the Council.
The Partnership has identified areas where the policy would benefit from clearer wording
and stronger operational processes, and this includes tightening definitions around medical
and welfare needs, overcrowding, underoccupation and how we interpret threatened with homelessness.
These refinements will support more consistent and transparent decision -making across partner
councils.
The revised policy will improve verification, review and engagement processes, and this
includes clearer evidence requirements, more consistent reassessment points and further
processes for suspending or removing applicants who do not engage.
These changes will help ensure the register remains accurate
and the applicants are treated fairly.
The policy incorporates updated best practise
from across the sector, and this strengthens safeguarding
consideration, improves support for vulnerable households,
and ensures the policy remains aligned
with national expectations.
And the report notes that while there is no statutory review
cycle for allocation policies, the revised HomeSeeker Plus
policy is expected to remain in place until after the local government reorganisation.
This gives us a stable and consistent framework during a period of wider structural change.
We have the recommendations on page 229. We have two officers here. I think if you want
questions because it is very sensitive a lot of things are confidential there are
lots of nuances so if you've got questions about the the policies here I
would direct those to the councillors please thank you I think you mean the
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:34:55
councillor I mean we've got yeah I do mean the council officers sorry I'd say
We've got Caroline and Tom here at the back.
Councillor Coleman.
Questions are really, it's an opportunity, isn't it?
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:35:10
I was looking at page 242, and just finding the right bit.
Here we go.
The second blob, emergency banding for downsizing.
And this describes how emergency banding, and thus
high priorities sometimes awarded social housing tenants who agree to move to
smaller housing at present social housing tenants in Gloucestershire and
West Oxfordshire who are willing to move I'm just checking that's the whole of
Gloucestershire is it even though Gloucestershire County isn't a housing
authority it's a it's a universal policy that's all yeah I misread it I thought
it was just Gloucester City. No that is right it's it's the whole of Gloucestershire for
for the... I forgot the choice banding... oh I forgot what the terminology now is.
Yeah no no no for that yes and that changes slightly changes the
priorities of that or the unit to make sure that we are getting the housing
that we need from that. Yeah absolutely. One of the most difficult things to do is
persuade people to downsize isn't it? Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:36:24
questions or anything so I'm going to second the recommendation just to note
that we've got a word we don't need surplus word in the penultimate line so
we're talking about we're going to consult obviously on the policy and the
delegation should read in the last line to adopt the new policy following
considerations of college following consideration of the consultation
responses don't need the word subject it's following consideration so you're
just to follow up what Juliet obviously has outlined to us housing overseas one
of the major services that we provide and thank you to Caroline and Tom and
your colleagues for all the work that you do to help people in our district
find housing, stay in housing and you know not fall into homelessness and
that's obviously really really important work and obviously whilst we're talking
here about some small changes to the overall policy work with in terms of how
to allocate policies I think it's you know it's a good opportunity for us to
put our thanks in public to the work that you do in the housing team to
support you know people in often most challenging circumstances so obviously
very happy to support the consultation so we're gonna go out and consult I
think it says in May because this policy will be subject to decision I understand
from all of the other council councils as part of the partnership and then
you'll be going out to consult on that in May and then we'll obviously have to
consider what comes back from that subject.
Sorry, following consideration of that,
then we can adopt the new policy.
So thanks very much for all the work
that you have done on this and will be doing
in the coming months.
So I'll now move us to the vote on this.
Oh, sorry.
I just wanted to say for clarification
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:38:36
from Councillor Coleman's question,
I'm just gonna read 2 .3 just for the problem.
Home Seeker Plus is a choice based lettings,
why I couldn't remember choice based lettings
two seconds ago, I don't know.
A scheme run by seven local authorities
in partnership with social housing landlords
operating within Gloucestershire and West Oxfordshire
and that enables the social housing landlords
to advertise their homes for applicants
to bid for properties they're interested in.
So it is totally the whole of Gloucestershire and West Oxford.
So it will stand in good stead
as we go through and beyond into LGR.
Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:39:19
Indeed, there are six districts and boroughs in Gloucestershire.
So you have the one in Cheltenham.
I'm sorry, the one in West Oxfordshire, so you get seven.
All right, let's move to the vote then, please.
Lovely, we have six votes in favour of that.
So thank you very much, Julia.
I think that's your last one of the night, so you'll be pleased about that.
Have a sip of water.
And we'll now go to Agenda Item 13, page 249.
This one's yours, Tony.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lida.
Councillor Tony Dale - 0:39:55
So this is really about, finally, procuring replacements and the operation of those replacements
for our parking estate across Cotswold District.

13 Delegated Approval to Award Contract (Parking)

We've struggled on for many years with machines that are
gradually becoming more and more outdated with technology.
It's very clear that we need to refresh our machine park,
as it's called.
There are a number of features around the machine park in the
car parks which are out of date, fading, need more maintenance.
We're clearly at the point where we need to refresh that.
I think we were rather longer ago than I would like to say.
So I'm pleased that we've managed to accelerate this
procurement a little bit, which is always good to hear.
The idea is now that we have thought about the types and the
locations of the machines that we believe we need, that we've
made that clear in the tender process.
We've made it very clear the expectations of the machines
that will be procured, installed, removing the old machines and then operated, commissioned
and serviced for the forthcoming period.
All of which will be great news for residents and visitors alike.
I very, very much hope they will be much easier to operate, far faster to take payments and
much cleaner and easier to use from a user perspective.
I really do empathise, I will say it publicly, I really do empathise with anyone visiting
one of our car parks that was instructed to press the green or the yellow button where
currently there are two aluminium buttons because the paint's worn off both of them.
But there we go, I do understand these things, it's a perfect example of why we're refreshing
them.
I'm proud that we're getting on with this really, really quickly.
The procurement will take, the tender's out, it will take four weeks.
There is then a very focused parking and procurement team that will do the evaluations.
We very much hope that we will be able to make decisions about that very early in the
budget year and get on with getting the installation organised, getting the new machines out there,
and I hope having much faster, swifter and easier payments for residents even in this
budget year it will be truly wonderful.
So that's about the nuts of it.
It's really about giving authority to that closed team of procurement and expert professionals
on parking and procurement to get on and decide which is the right tender for Cotswold District
Council residents, for subsequently the cabinet to approve that and then to get on with procuring
it.
Any questions?
I am very happy to feel, but I am genuinely delighted at last to bring this to cabinet.
Thank you very much.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:42:57
I've got Juliet to my right first.
Thank you.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:43:01
Thank you, Tony.
I'm really pleased about this because I have stood in car parks and you're waiting,
and especially if you're in the beaches in Cirencester and waiting to catch the National
Express bus, and you're thinking, when are you going to print the ticket?
Or you haven't yet approved my card, even though my phone's pinged to say the money's
gone, and then you're waiting for the ticket.
And if you don't know about them and you're new,
you're waiting behind people who are getting more and more anxious
and worried because I don't know how to do it, I've done it wrong,
why isn't it doing it, paying, you know, et cetera, et cetera.
What I would like to ensure, you've assured us about
they're going to be quicker and easier and clearer.
The clarity bit I think is really important on a screen
because sometimes you can't read the screen,
you don't know what the price is, the sun's in the wrong direction or whatever.
And the other element is actually, is the screen going to be readable for somebody, say,
in a wheelchair that hasn't, can't be looking as, you know, you and I,
that, well not you and I actually, turning at the moment, but standing up, you know, can they,
is somebody in a wheelchair going to be able to read that screen as well? Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:44:22
Councillor Tony Dale - 0:44:24
Yes, Juliet, I very, very much like to say that I really hope
all those things are addressed and taken into consideration.
One thing I will say is the world is not perfect.
All of the machines from all the best providers, with all the
best installation and all the best operation, and subsequently
all the best software and electronic maintenance are not
all going to have all the features we want all
in the same place.
Ultimately, the team has to make a decision on the best answer
for us.
I know that one of the things that really matters to our users
doesn't matter if they're local residents or visitors from afar,
is simplicity, clarity, and speed.
I will echo those three things again.
Simplicity, clarity, and speed.
If we can achieve those, then many of the other things we can
compromise a little bit on.
But if the process is simple, if it works in an obvious way for
our users and it happens quickly,
I've used parking payment machines across the UK and in
many other countries, and I know that it is perfectly possible to
have a tap -to -pay machine that issues a ticket very quickly.
It is possible, and I'm sure that we can procure that and
get it right.
What I am determined is that not only will we get it right for
simplicity, clarity and speed, but that also in the long run,
this is, these are going to last us for a number of years,
that in the long run, these as far as we can,
future -proof our parks will enable users to use mobile
pay applications.
Of course they will.
But they will also enable us to update,
maintain and service those machines effectively and in a reasonable time
scale. I have been very frustrated in the past officers know that it takes too
long to get services up and running again which should be very very quick
and easy so I am expecting fitness for purpose to be included in having more
than one software programmer for example so you get a flavour of my determination
as your cabinet member to get this right and I really have lots of confidence in
my parking team and the procurement group to do a really good job with this.
It is very, the spec is very clear, our aims are very clear. If we have to
compromise at least I will come back to cabinet and make it crystal clear where
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:46:57
we have had to compromise. Thank you Tony. Yeah, I've got Tristan and then I'm going to go
to the offices if they want to say anything before I sort of bring things
Councillor Tristan Wilkinson - 0:47:08
together. Tristan. From the briefing we had on this and hearing the comments this
evening I think this is a really good example of having real clarity of the
requirements and being really user centric. I'm really reassured that we
thought through the experience that you know a single mum holding a kid in one
arm you know trying to get her parking paid you know thinking about all those
scenarios. I think I'd like to see that across other things that we do as a
council as well so I think this this to me looks like a real role model approach
of kind of being user centric and thinking through that experience and
that being reflected in our procurement as we do other things along this you
know in this sort of procurement way that interact with the public. It'd be
great to see that philosophy follow through because I think it creates a
much better outcome obviously, but also I suspect the officers find that the procurement
process almost writes itself when you have that clarity of outcomes because when you
get the bids in, when you've got a really clear criteria against which you're judging
it, the ones that don't meet those criteria kind of get knocked out quite quickly. So
I think this is, I'm really excited to see the outcome of this. Parking machines are
most exciting thing but they can drive you nuts when they don't work properly.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:48:34
Thank you Tristan. Yeah officers Claire or Maria did you want to say anything on
this before I sort of bring it to a sort of conclusion? I think I just add that we
Officer - 0:48:45
have learned from the frustrations of our customers and captured all of those
things within the specification and obviously the team that will be
evaluating the tenders are acutely aware of all of those things as well. So yeah,
we will move forward to a more positive parking experience. Thank you, thank you
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:49:07
Claire for that. So yeah, just just to pick up on, bring us back to the
recommendation, just to pick up on Tony what you were saying, I think we're not
intending to bring this back to cabinet. We are intending to delegate the
authority to David as our section 151 officer in consultation with myself and
Councillor Dale to award the contract for the supply installation and ongoing
services to the most advantageous suppliers so ultimately that's what
we're being asked to do in this. Did you want to come back and sort of sum up Tony?
Councillor Tony Dale - 0:49:46
Yes absolutely right Mike and part of that is because we put a lot of thought
into getting this right.
I would much rather it happened in a timely fashion to get this
going very, very, very early in our new budget year,
you know, starting in April.
So it's absolutely the right decision in the right place,
being made by people who are absolutely, you know,
desperate to get this service right for our wider public and
for visitors.
So very, very happy with how it's been written and the way it
should go ahead and proceed.
I am determined also it should happen in a timely manner.
So I will be watching very carefully
if there are any delays.
So don't worry, cabinet.
If you don't hear anything, it's all good news.
If you hear something, then I will
be here to tell you why it has taken longer than I wished
and what I am doing about it.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:50:43
I'm just going to formally second the recommendations
and go to the vote then, if we can, please.
Lovely. Thank you very much. That's six votes in favour. So I think that's the last item

14 Next Meeting

on the agenda is just to note that the next meeting of cabinet will be on the 16th of
April at 6pm. So thank you very much for your attendance. Thank you to the officers and
members for all the attendance and the work you put into tonight's agenda and wish you
all enjoyable rest of your evening. Thank you very much.

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