Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Monday 13 April 2026, 4:00pm

Overview and Scrutiny Committee
Monday, 13th April 2026 at 4:00pm

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Speaking:

Start of webcast

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Councillor Gina Blomefield

1 Apologies

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Councillor Joe Harris
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor Joe Harris
Councillor Paul Evans
Councillor Clare Turner
Councillor Tony Slater
Councillor Michael Vann
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Gina Blomefield

3 Declarations of Interest

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Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor Gina Blomefield

4 Minutes

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Minutes , 02/03/2026 Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Clare Turner
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Joe Harris
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Gina Blomefield

5 Matters Arising from Minutes of the Previous Meeting

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Matters arising from OS 2 March 2026

6 Chair's Announcements

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7 Public Questions

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Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Public Speaker
Councillor Gina Blomefield

8 Member Questions

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9 Report back on recommendations

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10 Financial Performance Report - Q3 2025-26

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Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Patrick Coleman
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Joe Harris
Councillor Patrick Coleman
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Michael Vann
Officer
Councillor Patrick Coleman
Councillor Michael Vann
Councillor Michael Vann
Officer
Councillor Michael Vann
Councillor Patrick Coleman
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Officer
Angela Claridge
Councillor Michael Vann
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Clare Turner
Angela Claridge
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Paul Evans
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor Patrick Coleman
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Officer
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor Patrick Coleman
Councillor Patrick Coleman
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Angela Claridge
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Angela Claridge
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield

11 Service Performance Report - Q3 2025-26

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Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Mike Evemy
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor David Cunningham
Officer
Councillor Mike Evemy
Councillor David Cunningham
Officer
Councillor David Cunningham
Councillor Mike Evemy
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Joe Harris
Councillor Mike Evemy
Officer
Councillor Joe Harris
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Paul Evans
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Tony Slater
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Clare Turner
Councillor Mike Evemy
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Officer
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor Mike Evemy
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor David Cunningham
Officer
Councillor Mike Evemy
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Paul Evans
Councillor Mike Evemy
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Mike Evemy
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Joe Harris
Councillor Gina Blomefield

12 Publica Business Plan 2026-28

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Councillor Mike Evemy
Public Speaker
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Paul Evans
Councillor Mike Evemy
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor David Cunningham
Officer
Councillor David Cunningham
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Joe Harris
Officer
Councillor Joe Harris
Councillor Mike Evemy
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor Mike Evemy
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor Mike Evemy
Officer
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor Mike Evemy
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor Mike Evemy
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor Mike Evemy
Officer
Angela Claridge
Councillor Joe Harris
Councillor Paul Evans
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Mike Evemy
Councillor Gina Blomefield

12 Publica Business Plan 2026-28

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Councillor Gina Blomefield

13 Ecological Emergency Update

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Councillor Juliet Layton
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Joe Harris
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Tony Slater
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Clare Turner
Officer
Councillor Clare Turner
Officer
Officer
Councillor Juliet Layton
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor David Cunningham
Officer
Councillor David Cunningham
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Joe Harris
Councillor Juliet Layton
Councillor Joe Harris
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Paul Evans
Officer
Councillor Paul Evans
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Officer
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Officer
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Officer
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Officer
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Officer
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Officer
Councillor Juliet Layton
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor Juliet Layton
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Michael Vann
Officer
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Gina Blomefield

14 Updates from Gloucestershire County Council Scrutiny Committees

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Gloucestershire Economic Growth Scrutiny Committee (GESSC) Report

Councillor Michael Vann
Councillor Gina Blomefield
Councillor Angus Jenkinson
Councillor David Cunningham
Councillor Gina Blomefield

15 Work Plan and Forward Plan

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Councillor David Cunningham
Councillor Gina Blomefield
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Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically generated, so it may contain errors. Please view the webcast to confirm whether the content is accurate.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:00:07

Good afternoon, and thank you all for attending.

My clock is five minutes slow, which I look at.

That is the correct time behind you, so it is time for us to make a start on this overview

and scrutiny meeting.

A warm welcome to all of you who are here.

There seem to be a few stragglers who haven't yet arrived, but hopefully they'll be here

soon.

At first I was going to ask, I understand we don't have any apologies, so we should actually have a full number of members here, but they're not here at this point.

1 Apologies

Councillor Joe Harris - 0:00:44

Sorry, Councillor Spivey will be here, she's just tied up a shire hole with something, so that is often the case.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:00:51

I don't know if anybody knows about anybody else who will be expecting.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:01:04

Thank you. And I want to welcome Paul Evans, our new member. I'm just going to let everybody

do introduce each other first, who are present.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:01:22

So I'll start with myself.

I'm Gina Blimfield.

I'm the Councillor for Campbell and Vale Ward,

and also Chair of Overview and Scrutiny.

To my right, I have Angus.

Angus, I understand Angus.

I'm sorry.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:01:36

Yes, I'm Councillor Angus Jenkinson.

My ward is Moreton East and Todman,

and I'm glad to be here.

Councillor Joe Harris - 0:01:46

Hello I'm Councillor Joe Harris and I'm the District Councillor for St Michael's Ward in Cirencester.

Councillor Paul Evans - 0:01:55

Councillor Paul Evans representing the Beaches Ward in Cirencester at my first

activity committee meeting so thank you for the welcome chair.

Councillor Clare Turner - 0:02:04

Hi I'm Councillor Claire Turner representing Blochey Ward.

Councillor Tony Slater - 0:02:11

I'm Councillor Tony Slater from A evening in Grumbold's Ash without much of a voice today.

Councillor Michael Vann - 0:02:17

Michael Van Fairfoot North.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:02:21

Thank you everyone for that.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:02:27

Ah, right, thank you.

3 Declarations of Interest

The next thing was the declarations of interest. Does anybody have a

declarations of interest to make on an item on the agenda?

It's not a pecuniary

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:02:42

declaration of interest or anything in that sense, just to say that I have this sort of

form, title of Councillor for Regenerative Agricultures and Ecology, and we're talking

about ecology today. But I had no plot to play in the report.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:03:01

Thank you. And actually I'll just remind everybody it's always better to make a declaration

of interest rather than think, oh, maybe not, and then it could be one that perhaps you

should have declared. So always err on the side of safety. Thank you. The minutes of

4 Minutes

the meeting on the 2nd of March. Now I wasn't there to chair it. Angus, President Jenkinson

chaired it. So I'm not going to make comments on those minutes. I hope that all of you present

will make comments and then we can go forward and put it forward to a vote. Thank you.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:03:37

Thank you, Chair.

I have one point on page 8 in the minutes, which is item 311 in the overall agenda.

There is a point about political membership being suggested to be equal.

This would be for the LGR scrutiny process.

I think it's a bit ambiguous to say that it was suggested that that was the case.

I don't believe that Overview and Scrutiny Committee as a body suggested it.

I think somebody made that suggestion.

But it's a bit strong to say that it was suggested in the overview and scrutiny as if we'd approved that as a suggestion.

We did not.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:04:24

I wasn't there at the meeting so I can't have a view on this. I don't know how you feel

or whether you have any other comments you would like to make.

Councillor Turner. I have noted the same point. I think perhaps

Councillor Clare Turner - 0:04:37

all it needs is at the top of the paragraph before the bulleted list to say members expressed

views rather than the committee expressed views.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:04:48

Thank you. Could we make that amendments to the minutes?

And then for those people who were present at that meeting, could I have a proposer and a seconder and then go to the vote?

Councillor Harris.

Councillor Joe Harris - 0:05:05

Yes, my apologies. I just want to apologise because this is the second meeting I've noticed where I haven't sent apologies for not being there, which is very unlike me.

I did it I think with another meeting planning last week.

So can you accept my apologies for the minutes

that I didn't apologise and I should have offered apologies.

I'm very sorry to the chair.

Thank you.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:05:27

I'm still learning on the job.

So Councillor Slater and Councillor Jenkinson I don't mind

who does the proposal on seconding but Councillor Jenkinson

can propose.

Councillor Slater will second.

And then could we go to the vote please.

No, we have to hand, but you can't go answering.

So we've got Michael, you were there?

You want?

Yeah, well, okay.

We have four votes to carry that.

Thank you.

5 Matters Arising from Minutes of the Previous Meeting

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:06:09

Before we go on to matters arising, I was pleased to see the compost question had been

fully answered. It's very useful to get the follow -up on the questions asked as matters

arising and I find that a very useful document to cheque on whether we have followed all that

should have done. I've talked to Democratic Services about the SIL bidding criteria being

revised and I just, it will be very good that when they've actually decided on that revision

it is going to come back to overview and scrutiny. It is a really important part of our planning

process, the SIL money and often our local communities appreciate knowing exactly how

and what sort of criteria they have to put their bids in to be successful.

So when that has come through, it will be shared with overview and scrutiny.

I see that we have Steven Andrews present who posed the question at the last meeting

on enforcement.

It was quite a detailed question which couldn't be answered at that time.

But all elements of that question are going to be shared with our planning officer, Harrison

Boley, and he's going to be incorporating it, the answers, in the report he brings forward

to O &S in June.

So we'll be looking at it then.

They were very helpful comments and I think they will make that report more effective

and cover ground which might not have always been planned to be covered.

So thank you for that. It will be coming forward.

And then I was just looking at the LGR.

The option seems to be preferred is four for joint scrutiny.

The presentations haven't been made to the Tewkesbury Council.

That's the only one they haven't been to yet.

And of course it is, as the words are, work still in progress.

And final decisions haven't been made yet.

So thank you. Now I should just go on to my chairs and answer. I think I'm rather talking

6 Chair's Announcements

too much. And as I was saying, please, we must make these meetings more succinct. But

I want to first of all thank Councillor Jenkinson for chairing the last earned -est meeting in

my absence, assisted by Councillor Turner as Deputy Chair. And I also wanted to give

my thanks to Andrew Brown, who has assisted me as Chair for the past four years. Not few

years, not four. He's now left CDC and is solely employed by West Oxfordshire who are

very lucky to have him. In the meantime there's an active recruitment programme to find his

replacement. Angela Clarage, our monitoring officer, and Nicky Mpensie -Dirth will be assisting

me today. We have a big agenda, so can I remind everyone to keep their questions simple and

7 Public Questions

direct and include that the responses from the cabinet member or officer are as succinct

as possible. It may be that some questions may need to have a subsequent written answer

in order to respond fully. Please note the indicative times for each topic and I will

endeavour to ensure that these are adhered to reasonably with the help of my Deputy Chair,

but while still aiming to provide good scrutiny.

The full set of papers, as you all know, were delayed as they had to, I think, go to a pre -Cabinet

meeting, but it was slightly unfortunate over Easter and everything else. I hope people

had time to read them thoroughly, but they didn't come with the original agenda. They

had to be supplementaries.

And I just wanted to say, following up on the Exon report Paul James provided for O &S,

on the challenges for hospitality and retail in the Cotswolds.

I'm pleased that a new officer is being recruited to help and

advise these businesses on how they can weather the rising cost

of employment, energy, inputs, and business rate costs.

This is a commercial development post.

And finally, there was a little bit of a muddle.

There is the cabinet meeting on Thursday.

There's going to be a UBICOS business plan is going to be

reported on and presented. We will be looking at that. It might have come, it was indicated

it might come to ONS first, but clearly it hasn't. But we are going to be looking at

their services, you because services in detail in September. So watch out for that. Now I

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:10:59

can now shut up and say have we got any public questions? Yes, I see we do. Thank you.

Thank you very much indeed, Chair.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:11:06

You have two minutes for your question.

Public Speaker - 0:11:18

The question, my name, sorry, is Stephen Andrews.

I'm the Chair of Kempsford Parish Council.

This question is raised with this committee in the context of its role

as the Crime and Disorder Committee under the 2009 regulations and other related legislation

as the matter relates to antisocial behaviour.

The recent deployment of aircraft to RAF Airford by the US Air Force brought with it a large

number of spotters and day trippers.

The response of GCC Highways and GCC Parking Enforcement working with the police quickly

brought order to the very disorganised parking and highways situation.

The yellow lines were enforced where they could be and discussion continues to improve

enforceability of the traffic regulation order in the future.

One area that was not dealt with was the human waste left by visitors behind the hedges,

in fields and gateways and elsewhere.

This extended to the disposal of bottles of urine seen being emptied down drains and culverts.

It is understood that in Gloucestershire, defecating and urinating in public, both illegal

in the UK, are treated as either antisocial behaviour or an environmental crime.

This includes the possible issuance of fixed penalty notices by the local council or more

practically community protection notices covering an area.

In order to help prevent such future antisocial behaviour in

the event of a similar short notice event, we ask that this

committee ensure that suitable procedures are put in place to

provide for the posting of appropriate notices or some such

similar action aimed at least deterring such an antisocial

behaviour through the establishment of a community protection notice and appropriately worded

warning signs.

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:13:32

I'm obviously not able to give you an immediate answer, but we will get back to you.

And I think it is to sort of think ahead for events like

this, which do cause problems.

And I know that fair thought, I mean,

I gather there are those train spotters and,

I mean, train plane spotters, you know,

they descend in their thousands if they're given half a chance.

And it does need to be monitored and ordered.

So we'll bring that forward.

Could we make a note about that?

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for coming today.

Thank you very much, Jeff.

8 Member Questions

The next item were member questions.

Does any member have a question which is not going to be...

No? Thank you.

And I think now we'll go on.

9 Report back on recommendations

I don't think there were any recommendations went to Cabinet from the last meeting as such.

10 Financial Performance Report - Q3 2025-26

So the next item is the financial performance report. We've got

Councillor Coleman here and

assisted by

Michelle Barge

so if you'd like to come forward and

Have the lot of questions no doubt coming your way. Thank you very much

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:15:26

Thank you very much.

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:15:33

Thank you, Chair. Apologies for the over -smart kit. I could have pretended it was in honour

of your meeting, but I'm not very good at that sort of thing. It is actually my pleasure

today to be able to be advised by Michelle Burge. I can remember the days more than six

years ago when she worked for Grant Thornton, who were forever our auditors. Quite a good

team they were too. And they didn't charge as much as the current lot. But more seriously,

she's now worked for us for six years and I know that Michelle has a very important

role to play in the run up to local government reorganisation because she's kind of the first

call cover for when David Stanley's on his 50 % work for the reorganisation that we're

aware of. So I will do a lay introduction as we might say and then we'll turn to the

authentic word of money, word of God. But here we go. So there's not a huge amount of

change from the previous quarter is my summary and those changes that there are are and that

appear to be there a lot of those are just sensible tidying ups where we've had underspends

and moot we. The councils that under spends and offices of with their delegated powers

moot funds to appropriate reserves. I can pick one here. Let's start with page seven

and the bottom of the table. We had a car park surplus. Can we see that right at the

bottom? Transfer car park surplus to revenue contribution to capital outlay. RCCO, one

of my favourite four sets of initials because it means we're going to pay for capital expenditure

to some degree without borrowing, in fact a very large degree.

And that movement is in fact since last quarter is slightly worse than we expect,

that it's 15 ,000 less.

Remembering that on these pages red is good and black is if not bad,

just less favourable because it may mean we've done something useful with the money.

And indeed where you see black figures there are often balancing figures.

We go to the top of this little table on page 7,

The third line is development management fees and appeals risk.

And we had an initial net variation of our last 674, which appears to be worse because it's 400 more.

It's the other way actually.

Yeah.

Well, one of these anyway, I've got the columns wrong.

But basically the movement from quarter two is 274.

And all that, that is balanced by 274 on the opposite page in red.

So if you're good at spotting patterns and similarities, you can see that the evidence

that things are going as well as can be expected, in fact, compared with other councils really

quite favourably.

And you'll be familiar with some of the comments here because they're similar to previous reports

and the details follow over the pages.

You've got an inflation Bank of England chart, which I don't think quite includes the impact

to the Gulf War III or whatever it's called.

And therefore we know, I think all of us, that interest rates are not expected to fall

and the Bank of England may hold them for one more month, but they must be feeling the

need to push them up.

So that won't be very helpful.

But overall, as I said at the beginning, things look at the top level, quite favourable.

however there's always issues below that level and I look forward to Michelle

answering your questions. But perhaps you'd like to introduce. Thank you

Officer - 0:19:17

Councillor Coleman and yeah as Councillor Coleman alluded to it's a fairly

positive position at Q3 and we're not expecting to see much significant change

when we produce the out term report for you obviously it will always find some

variances where we do sort of more of a much more in -depth work at year end to

Identify all of the income and expenditure we need to recognise so there may be some small changes

But I'm fairly confident that that position we're reporting at q3 will probably be reflected

Largely at q4 as well, so there's a positive variation as we said of

45k which is the slight improvement from what we reported to you at q2

16k and just it continues to reflect really our strategy of trying to set aside

any positive variances and set them aside into our EMR reserves to give us a

bit more financial resilience for the future two years. Other things to pull

out I think as Councillor Coleman mentioned 100 % of our planning income

above budget is being transferred into a planning appeals reserve and that's

you'll see that's now called past to be 674 K that we're setting aside.

car parking is also doing very well still I expect that to probably be even

better by the time we look at the year end position but at Q3 we were reporting

256 K higher than budgeted and as Councillor Coleman said we're setting

aside 165 K of that positive variance to fund our new pay and display machines

and that'll be part of the capital programme in 26 27 and we've also I think

As we reported at Q2, we're transferring over 700k of savings from vacancies, recruitment,

the impact of public affairs to our capacity building reserve, and that will just ensure

that we've got additional capacity as we move towards LGR where we're having to potentially

bring in extra resource to make sure we continue with business as usual and support that LGR

process over the next two years.

The variances are all set out as you've seen in table ES2.

Obviously the risks now really are around next year.

As we mentioned, there will be risks in terms of inflation, diesel prices, energy prices.

And we are open to those risks in terms of diesel prices.

We're purchasing diesel at the pump.

So if things carry on, I think in the budget we budgeted for 144 litre, you

know, actually probably all away you've seen the price significantly higher. I

think if it continued at this level it would be about 150k risk to the budget

at this level at the moment. We'd be looking to find savings elsewhere to

compensate for that but it's difficult to know what's going to happen over the

12 months I'm sure you're aware. As we said interest rates have held at 3 .75 we

were expecting them to drop further so our Treasury management income is is

looking quite positive. We're not anticipating a further interest rate

fall in the next few months either. Further on in the report we've got

Annex A in section 5 includes our capital programme and that's also under spent

And that's really largely just due to the sort of the profiling of the expenditure. So it's not that that expenditure is not going to happen

It's just likely to fall into

Q1 or Q2 of 26, 27 now

And then finally Annex B is our non Treasury Prudential Indicator Annex

which will also be reported to Cabinet and this really just highlights that

We are no longer looking to borrow to fund our capital programme.

It can be fully funded from capital receipts, grants and our EMR revenue reserves as well.

Our annual out -term treasury management report will be reported to the Audit and Governance

Committee and that will include more detail on things like our capital financing.

Hopefully that has picked out some of the key themes but happy to take any specific

questions on any sections of the report.

Thank you.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:23:41

Right, thank you. Councillor Harris, thank you.

Thank you very much and thank you both of you.

Councillor Joe Harris - 0:23:46

You know, clearly we know that district councils in particular have not come out particularly well with the reductions to government funding over the past nearly two decades, certainly the last 15 years.

and you know this report clearly shows the council in a balanced and positive

position in Q3 which is good news but it also reflects a year shaped by clearly

favourable timing, volatile income and you know short -term management actions to

make sure we get there which we'd all expect. As we look ahead to LGR and as

we've just alluded to a more uncertain financial environment because of things

happening halfway across the world. Clearly there's a difference between

balancing the books today and being able to absorb those shocks tomorrow whether

that's next year or indeed in a new unitary authority. So question for

Patrick, if you had to just answer one question on this today and it

was is the council financially resilient or just currently solvent, what

would your honest assessment be and why? I know you're very thoughtful so I'm

will have been contemplating this.

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:24:58

What was that phrase that you used?

Is Council financially resilient?

Yes, my honest and informed assessment is that we are, as a Council, financially resilient

and if we are required, there may be a 10 % out of 100 chance to continue for a further

year I don't anticipate that would cause delay to projects or major cuts or other

emergency action however if I could see into the future I'd go and buy crystal

ball that still is a risk that I'm glad you raised because when you get to five

or ten percent risk we have got to look at them I don't know whether you have

any inside information from your professional colleagues yeah I mean I'd

Officer - 0:25:49

agree but I'd say we are certainly financial resilient but there is

obviously risks and that's our job I think to just you know keep a watching

brief on those very closely particularly inflation and energy prices at the

moment I'd say are the main risks to us in the next next two years.

Anybody else got a question that they're ready?

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:26:10

Councillor Fourn and then Councillor Turner.

Thanks.

Councillor Michael Vann - 0:26:19

Several things, please.

In 2 .5, I have to say that I'm puzzled that there hadn't been a single and consistent approach until recently.

And the entire 2 .5.

That's right, page 7.

I was just going to ask you one moment.

How can we...

Well, there is where CLT are ensuring a single and consistent approach to the development

appraisals of proposals and business cases.

Delighted it's happened.

I think it is wrestling, I think it is the world wrestling.

Recycling contracts is where it is.

Waste electrical and electronic equipment.

I too can read just about.

Okay, so no one is any the wiser.

That's all right.

Just going down street services, also in 212, page 8,

is this a £600 ,000 change?

Officer - 0:28:29

point three adverse variation against the trees saving thank you yes this was

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:28:31

an initial estimate I think prior to or around about the start of the

Association for Public Section excellence known as Apsu and their work

are looking at and advising on options with regard to our street cleaning

expenditure which is arguably not as consistent some areas perhaps get more

treatment than others even take when you take account of their need doesn't

always look good however after APSI report it became fairly clear to

to Councillors and I think officers, that the initial estimate of savings was unlikely

to be achieved because we didn't perhaps have the accuracy and precision. And to a certain

extent our officers I think were stretched by needing to work on the waste fleet issues,

but I could be wrong about that. But we knocked off half of that estimate at an earlier stage.

this is David Stanley's decision to do that.

And I agree with it because it's not,

and I think this takes down the rest of it, to be honest,

because having done a nice, a good review

and having had some illuminating results,

the prospect for savings seemed rather unlikely.

Now, I think you deserve a better answer than that.

And I'm gonna ask if the chair will agree

for a written response to be supplied by the relevant chief officers. Is that okay Andrew?

Of course, certainly, if the chair is in agreement.

Councillor Michael Vann - 0:30:05

As a matter of fact, part of the answer is in 421.

No, I'm good.

Councillor Michael Vann - 0:30:23

So your question, was it 600 ,000?

No, it's a flat rate.

A flat rate, right.

Okay.

Okay. On to page 18, 434.

Why were auditors paid 16 ,000?

Does the forecast to be overspent by 16 ,000 due in part to audit fees arising from the

building safety regulator?

Officer - 0:31:06

Sorry, yeah, I'm just sorry.

When you said audit fee, I thought it was the external audit fee.

I've just realised that's the building control audit.

Yeah I probably have to come back to you on that one and get some more detail.

Not sure we didn't know anything about that one.

Who can safely bring you answer?

Apologies yeah. I'll come back to you on that.

Well spotted.

Councillor Michael Vann - 0:31:29

Last but not least.

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:31:34

If I may, Chair, for the benefit of the public it does say in the next sentence,

despite this the service is forecasting a net favourable variance of 44 grand.

That's probably why I didn't think it was too much of a problem. If the

auditors want more money in most cases they just ask for it. In the case of our own

auditors the government tells them all you effectively what they can charge

that's my understanding. So we don't argue about that unless we want to waste time.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:32:00

Sorry before you come in I just wanted to add that our building control have just won an award for being very

good so they're actually doing a great job and that's terrific and I always try

to guide people to using them rather than using I think they are good and

they have got an award so that's good for them how they get on with their

order so that's another thing we'll come back thank you. Part of the overall

Officer - 0:32:24

financial external audit that fee is a separate specific building control audit

just to be clear but yeah I can come up with more details.

Angela Claridge - 0:32:37

If I can just go back to Councillor Van's question at paragraph 2 .5.

You asked about the process for vacancy management, Councillor.

Yes.

So as a member of CLT, I can tell you a little bit more around that process and I can also tell you

about why it was introduced. So you might remember up until November 24, Cotswold actually didn't

employ very many people. They were only about 20, I think, of which I was one. So we didn't have

very many staff. In November 24, with the first phase of the public rein sourcing, we

took on a lot and the second phase, July 25. So at that point, Cotswolds employee numbers

went up to about 140, 145. So it was at that point, which was the same coincided with Jane

Portman, our chief exec joining us, that we looked at how we are managing our vacancies,

but also with an eye on the continued demand for pressures for savings. So, for example,

You may have had somebody, if I give an example from my own

survey, somebody who was in a professional role, say,

as a solicitor, that vacancy becomes available.

Maybe you can look at a paralegal and develop

that person up.

Or perhaps you can do something with a trainee,

or maybe we can look at it.

So it's about saying, just because we've got a vacancy,

we don't have to recruit like for like.

We look at different ways, and knowing that LGR is facing us

now two years off.

So hopefully that gives you some reassurance around the process

that we take and why we've introduced it at that time.

Councillor Michael Vann - 0:34:03

Excellent answer.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:34:07

I think it's now Claire Akersetana.

Councillor Clare Turner - 0:34:13

Thank you. You have partially answered my question, Angela, but I wanted to ask about

vacancy management and the risks around that. Obviously it's good for finances. Are we confident

that we're not introducing other problems, other risks.

Are the teams able to manage their workloads

and are we sure there's no detrimental impact on the staff

or their ability to deliver the services

that we need them to deliver?

Thank you, Councillor Turner.

Angela Claridge - 0:34:44

So I think that I would say that the biggest risk

facing us at Cotswold in terms of recruitment

and retention of staff is local government reorganisation.

So, you know, there is staff uncertainty now.

You know, as a very blanket rule, we would say as part of like a government reorganisation,

staff will 2P into what is transferring to whatever the new council or councils look

like.

But obviously, if you've got an opportunity to apply for a job at Cotswold with two years

left and a unitary perhaps down the road in Swindon, for example, who might be offering

a very similar role, then that might be a factor.

So with that in mind we've got a retention strategy, your timing is

excellent, so we have a retention strategy coming to cabinet this Thursday

while we're looking at what more we can do to recruit and retain our staff but

very very cognizant that this is a risk -wasting us now so thank you for the

question.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:35:39

Do you have another? Does any of the other members before?

Councillor Evans and then Councillor Jenkinson's and then I've got something.

Councillor Paul Evans - 0:35:51

Thank you. Paragraph 212. I noted Trinity Road utility costs were 21 ,000 under budget.

I'll assume that that's energy costs. Does that mean we've effectively been better at...

We've had lower energy usage than we originally forecast, or am I...?

Solar panels.

Solar panels. Okay.

Are we better at using energy?

Or more efficient?

Lower? Good.

Officer - 0:36:21

I think it is a combination of that and we were fairly prudent when we originally set that budget.

I think just to allow for some contingency.

Thank you.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:36:36

Councillor Jenkinson and welcome Lisa Spivey.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:36:45

Thank you, Chair.

I have two questions.

The first is I think I heard you say that the interest rate was a bit better than expected

at around 3 .5%.

Without just in order to demonstrate that something is a

fact as opposed to an invention, I happen to have treasury stock

at 5 % and I happen to have a bank interest rate long -term

at over 4%.

Therefore, I'm not impressed by mid 3 .5 % as an interest rate

in the present circumstances.

Perhaps you could comment.

My second question, and I must say that I'm a little bit,

I am rather grateful.

I am, I must express my appreciation to Councillor Andrews

in the town council, in his parish council

for bringing up the question

of the compliance ombudsman's report.

And we have on occasion in overview and scrutiny

brought up concerns regarding the level of resourcing for compliance. And I believe that

that rarely gets on top of the situation. The Ombudsman has addressed the national concerns

on this front, and I'm reliably informed each time I bring up the problems locally that

they're all over the place. So, you know, what do you expect? So my question really

is are you satisfied that the financing that we are providing for this really critical

area as we are planning for the future has all of the findings that it could reasonably

expect to get under the circumstances and that we would satisfy the Ombudsman if we

felt that the Ombudsman's point of view was something that we ought to be satisfying?

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:38:52

Councillor Jenkins. You may have lost me somewhere in that because

interest rates can be related to borrowing and they can be related to investment. It

sounded to me as if you were advising me that you have made some very wise investments on

which you're earning some very attractive rates of interest.

And whilst it's true that we have some very favourable results

with our treasury income and the pooled funds,

I don't think the reference to the Bank of England,

I don't think I said it's about 3 .5 % actually,

I thought I said that 3 .75 % was the current one

and we've been hoping for a reduction

as have most people this year

until the Gulf War III happened,

which is likely to push interest rates upward.

And I think that's sort of fairly commonly agreed

amongst the non -financial experts, such as myself.

In terms of the relationship between interest rates

and compliance, I'm going to look to the two officers on that

because I may have missed previous discussions

that you've had.

Sorry, let me come up.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:40:06

I wasn't relating interest rates to compliance.

I ask two separate questions.

Are you saying that the 3 .75 % is a borrowing interest rate, not an investment interest

rate?

Because if so, then I misunderstood you.

My question about the compliance issue relates to the allocation of funding to a critical

Officer - 0:40:42

resource within the council. Thank you. Yes you're right I suppose 3 .75

historically wouldn't be a great return on investment but as a council we have

to make sure that that money is available when we need it so quite often

we can only invest it in in short -term investments which we you know would be

achieving a return of around 3 .75 at the moment but we have got some longer

term pooled funds that are performing better in terms of the return, it would be more around

four and a half to five percent on average across our pooled funds. And just to confirm,

no, we don't have any borrowing other than our community municipal investment is about

150K outstanding on that, and that's a rate of 2 .1%.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:41:26

Thank you. And my other question. Oh, by the way, the figure of over four percent was on

a six -month figure, not a 10 -year figure or anything like that.

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:41:39

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:41:41

I'm going to suggest that we, because I think it's an important point that Angus raises,

that we get a written reply as soon as possible on that, because not complying is quite a

major risk if you don't comply, as we all know. And I'm sure it's on the risk register

somewhere which the audit and governments committee look quite quite

closely so I think you definitely deserve a written reply on that one. Thank you.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:42:07

Angela Claridge - 0:42:09

If I could just clarify that we're talking about planning

enforcement compliance. We are so this is not compliance across the council this

is planning enforcement compliance. Yeah absolutely thank you. Just to make

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:42:22

anybody aware that we have this will be coming up at urns at the next meeting in

June, we have a report coming on enforcement.

And it has been mentioned quite a few times,

it's really that we feel, some of us feel,

that it's something which really does need the investment

in it to be effective.

Right.

So I've just got some questions.

I know that we've got Councillor Spivey's arrived.

I actually may have a question, but I'm going to go first.

Yes, I'm Chair.

No, no, no.

It's fine.

First question.

I just see that there's a figure, and I haven't got the page number, which is stupid, but

the support for Chipping Camden dual use sports facility is 10 ,000.

Normally, we used to get about 70 ,000.

You don't have to have the answer now, but I would like to know what the funding is,

because it is in my ward and I care about it deeply to make sure that it is.

I know there have been discussions, David Stanley, with the school on how this dual

use facility is used. Michelle looks as though she is on it. I will do all my questions.

I think it is easier.

Is there a paragraph reference for that?

No, but Michelle has got it on it. It is in one of the expenditure things of spending

on the tables. The legal services vacancy under spend, what type of role is it that

you're looking to, I mean, it does seem that you've got to,

there is an issue there and it'd be interesting to know what sort

of type of person you're looking to recruit.

And I just wondered when the fuel costs for UBICO,

when they were actually last calculated as we see here.

I mean, obviously we've already touched on it.

The, whatever you want to call it, there's things going

on in the Middle East one way or another.

You're not supposed to use the word war,

but it looks like it to me.

When, you know, that's having an indication it changes day

by day, but I just wondered when they were last calculated.

And then the question is that obviously diesel costs more

than petrol, but also now what's the difference currently

between the hydrogenated, hydro -treated vegetable oil

and diesel going forward?

I mean, it's really important for the fueling

the Yubico feet. Another thing on the Yubico really, the waste receptacle

replacements. I understand that if they're damaged by the lorry, but the

lorry has to do this thumping thing to get to shake the stuff out and that

often dislodges the lid and breaks them in some way. They're free I think

to be replaced if that's the case. But what is the current sort of cost when

and then lost or, I don't know, I mean nicked by the neighbour, sorry, whatever, they've

disappeared for one reason, blown away in the wind. And that was on page 24, I didn't

make a note of that. And I also wanted to confirm the cost of the fuel bunkering. I

understood the provision originally was 60k for that. This is the fuel bunkering at the

Crip Clay Depot for Yubico. And now it's, I think the provision has gone up to 100k.

Finally, I have had enough questions, but is the Rural Prosperity Fund being used to

employ the new officer which I mentioned earlier to assist the retail and hospitality businesses?

Is he coming out of, or she, coming out of the Rural Prosperity Fund, I believe it might

be?

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:46:10

Angela Claridge - 0:46:14

If I can, Chair, if I can answer your question about the 31 ,000 under spend in the legal

services that relates to a contract solicitor.

So we have within the service two solicitors who specialise in contracts.

They can work on other areas of law, but that's their specialism.

However, we've been carrying half a vacancy now for a considerable length of time.

We've had five attempts at advertising.

That's where that under spend has come from.

We've now looked at it in a different way, similar to actually the example that I gave

earlier where a paralegal has now been brought in on the service to support who will be learning

with the support of the other colleagues in terms of that so it's a contract

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:46:57

system. Michelle you can come on some of the others. We'll have a go yeah I think

Officer - 0:46:59

I've captured them all. The first one was around the dual use agreement with

Chippinhampton Schools so the 10k is just the variance so I think the budget

was a circuit of 70 and it's it's looking to be about 80 and then we fed

that into the 26 -27 budget following the discussions that have been

ongoing in the last few months. Just to add on to it in Camden that it is a subject the

school and its partnership work with us and its funds that is regularly discussed by David,

well I discussed, David Stanley talks to me about it almost fortnightly because I think

he sees it as an important but tricky partnership to ensure a long -term future for it. I'm sure,

I don't remember the details, that he has shared with me some of the suggestions that

he has made.

At the back of my mind is there are very few schools that manage the running of swimming

pools because there is so little physical activity in the curriculum these days.

But that could all be very different up in Chipping Camp and due to the high quality

of the school leadership.

That is certainly my hope.

Sorry, off you go.

Thank you, no.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:48:08

Before Michelle comes here.

Well, thank you.

I understand and I also have been in conversation with the

school, we understand how complicated this relationship.

It was a, it's a long standing, it was obviously there were

three schools under similar arrangements.

At one time the CDC, Chipping Camden is the only one like

that, the one at Boughton on the water is actually only owned by

CDC, the facility there.

And it is, it is tricky working out the fair allocation of funds

and we do need support so thank you and I'm pleased that David Sander is bringing

Officer - 0:48:47

it up with you. Thank you. Michelle. Thank you chair. I think your next point was

around when the fuel prices were calculated in in our forecast that was

actually done quite late on just before this report was published in February so

I suspect obviously things have gone more in the adverse direction in the

last month but as I mentioned before it's probably around the impact will be

around 12k for that month but that could become quite significant if it continues

into the next financial year. That would be around our energy usage for

the council buildings. We have purchased a lot of that in advance through our

broker for a consortium agreement that we've got with Cheltenham and Forest of

West Oxfordshire as well so we're jointly purchasing fuel so we've got less risk

around that. How many more we got? I've got the waste receptacles.

Yeah we don't charge an awful lot because it's obviously difficult to

prove whether someone's it's been damaged by the waste collection team or

you know somebody else actually lost it so there is a small amount of income but

must say not a great deal. It's largely I think people have to record go onto

the internet and record anything. I imagine that it's one of those sort of

things you just have to but it seems that it's sort of increasing a bit one

way or another and whether we have the waste receptacles which are robust

enough that don't get us damaged I mean I'm just looking to think of those sort

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:50:32

things. I also mentioned about the fuel bunkering costs going up and this rural

prosperity fund which may be used to employ the new officer to assist in the

Officer - 0:50:47

retail and hospitality businesses. Yes sorry just going back to the waste

receptacles I know Peter Johnson is having a look, our head of waste is

having a look currently at the numbers in terms of benchmarking them with other

authorities and I think there's a there's a review going on currently so

might be able to come back to you with more information on that. Yes there's a

line in our capital programme for the fuel bunker and I think it is it has

increased from 60 to 100 K I think. I'll have to come back and confirm that is that right?

And the rural prosperity fund from my knowledge is not continuing in 26 -27 so I

wouldn't expect that role to be funded through that fund but again I can

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:51:32

I just saw something somewhere and I normally wouldn't, anyway there we are but thank you

for that.

Now does anybody have any other questions?

Does anybody have anything that they feel they ought to make as a recommendation to

Cabinet and if not any of those things we can thank Patrick and Michelle for coming

and Angela for assisting them too and move to the next topic so thank you very much.

11 Service Performance Report - Q3 2025-26

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:52:03

The next item is a service performance report with our leader Mike Evermy supported by Gemma

Morey because Alison Borrit is on maternity. I don't think she's had her baby yet but not

yet so thank you for coming.

Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:52:26

Thank you, Chair, Members. So, yes, you've got the quarter three report, October to December,

which one is a little while ago in front of you. And you've also seen within there, you've

got where we've identified progress on key actions in the corporate planning in Q3. Know

about local government reorganisation.

We had the first meeting of our climate board.

We've made progress on the EV charge points in the car parks.

You know, as you've discussed it,

we've made the decision about the capital fleet replacement.

Planning have been working hard

on the planning advisory service action plan

in response to that visit earlier in the year.

We did the Regulation 18 consultation on the local plan.

Obviously that involved a lot of town and parish engagement and obviously public engagement.

The leisure contract is going well with Freedom Leisure and you've got the figures in there

and I know you had freedom here at your committee a couple of months ago.

And just picking up on the point you just made, Chair, we've, the Shared Prosperity Fund and Rural England Prosperity Fund allocations have been made.

and as we've just, we're not getting any more of that money.

So you can see the progress on the action plans

in the corporate plan, sorry, on Annex A

and the high priority report.

And then on the service performance, you've got there in 3 .1,

I won't go through them all, where we're doing well

and we're above target.

Couple where we're not quite at target

and we talked a bit about some of those before.

in terms of processing times for new support claims,

and minor planning applications were 86 percent

against the target of 90.

And there's just, I think it's, yeah,

then there's more detailed explanation for those

where we're not quite hitting the target.

And I won't go into, there's quite a lot of commentary

on those, I believe I had a chance to read those.

And I think I will stop there and ask Gemma

if she's got anything to add before we attempt to answer your questions.

Officer - 0:54:49

Nothing to add, just happy for questions.

Councillor Cunning.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:54:54

Councillor David Cunningham - 0:54:58

Sorry, sorry that cut me off. Where are we in the top 25 of recycling councils?

we're in the top 25 but are we 25th or are we first?

I would have to cheque that one exactly so if you just leave it with me I will.

Officer - 0:55:19

Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:55:22

I know we're not first but yeah in the top 25 is it's pretty good but you know

there's been I think just on that you can see there's it's been a decline

nationally in getting people doing recycling. Obviously the government's now

introduced their new simpler recycling scheme where we've all got to go to a

basic minimum, which we're already doing, but we hope that that will seek to improve

recycling rates and we do have campaigns with the Gloucestershire RAP to encourage people

to recycle.

Councillor David Cunningham - 0:55:53

It says that seasonal factors, what seasonal factors affect that, please?

Officer - 0:56:06

I think it's a fact it was winter and there's less things growing basically so a garden

waste is definitely one of those things that you get lower tonnage rates during quarter

three and also in quarter four as well.

So yeah that's one of the factors we have done been looking to do a bit more of a breakdown

so there's in the actual annex A there's more of a breakdown of the actual tonnage by waste

streams so you can see there's been a progressive decrease in the green waste.

Councillor David Cunningham - 0:56:32

If I just, I think it would probably be a good idea because it doesn't reflect the

reality of it, I think, is to strip that seasonal number out of the overall number. You could

put tonnage down for the green by all means but I think the other recycling, because it

isn't a district -wide thing, it's very much more in the rural areas than it is in the

in the recycling of non -green waste.

Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:57:02

I think the other factor on seasonal is that

December, but particularly December and January,

there's more waste because people are buying stuff

at Christmas, so you get more cardboard,

but potentially you get a lot more residual waste as well.

I think that might be one of the factors that affects it.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:57:22

Thank you, oh, defer to Councillor Harrison

and Councillor Evans, please.

Councillor Joe Harris - 0:57:28

Thank you, Chair. So I'm turning to section 3 of the report. The report says that performance is strong overall,

however when you look at this through a governance and risk lens, I think the conclusion is hard to square with the evidence.

So if you look, for example, at some of the core statutory responsibilities, such as responding to freedom of information requests on time,

processing benefits and completing land charge searches, we're still well below target.

and clearly they're not minor issues, they are legal duties where failure carries a clear risk.

And I think there are also some areas that matter a great deal to public confidence,

so including affordable housing delivery, transparency through FOI and recycling performance

where results are below what the council has, you know, that we've said we want to try and achieve.

And I think finally in several cases the report suggests that improvement is happening,

but the improvement appears to depend on temporary fixes, recruitment assumptions,

or falling demand rather than lasting built -in changes to how the services operate.

And I think that distinction matters when judging whether progress will hold,

improve or indeed slip. So you know given this question to you Mike, what does the

council mean by describing performance as strong overall? How is underperformance

in some of those areas that I've outlined contribute to reaching that

and how can we be assured as a scrutiny committee that any improvements in the

areas in these areas are genuinely built in sustainable rather than reliant on

Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:59:00

short -term factors. Thank you Councillor Harris. I think you know obviously the

officers right the report Alison might add on a little bit more in terms of

making a judgement overall and they'll be looking at the the KPIs both that

we've set and as you said some of those that are nationally reviewed in terms

to look at how we're performing as a council historically and where we've had

changes where things have become more difficult yeah and why those reasons are

the case I'm not I would look to you know clearly our senior officers in

terms of resolving the service performance issues and we've also got

Frank as the MD of Publica in the room where those services are provided by

publica, particularly you've talked about, I think,

FOI requests, which is one of those.

And clearly, you know, you can always do better.

But I think, you know, and it's, you're right, you know,

we can't just be looking at can we just fix it for the rest

of the year.

It has to be sustainable for at least the next two years while

we are still here.

So I think, you know, I look at this and, yeah, clearly there

are always things to improve on and you know particularly I look to my fellow

cabinet members to have those discussions with their respective

officers and some of those things are difficult as you know for us to control

like affordable housing where you know the market determines when housing comes

forward and whilst you know we had an oversupply of affordable housing against

our target indeed at the start of the year, at the start of the period it's

underperforming now. So yeah there's always more to do and I'm in a short

offices and Gemma can add a little bit more to that but you know I do think our

offices are performing well, we are overall performing well but there are

always areas for improvement and I I think it's good that we are very

upfront with those and we're talking quite clearly about what the offices are

doing to address them.

Officer - 1:01:14

Just a little bit to add around the FOIs.

So at the moment for Q4 it's actually looking strong.

So it was actually standing around 90 percent so far but

there's still some to answer.

But I know what you're saying about having the sustained

improvement in there.

I know that the team was, they had a lot of subject access

requests come in which is the same team that does those kind

of things.

So there was a big impact on the team there.

And then for land charges I can talk to you as well because

them with this big improvement plan in place as well but it's not going to be a

quick fix because it's a small team and they've had like quite a lot of issues

going backwards and forwards so performance may well dip again but what

we're trying to do is actually review the entire process so we can actually

get things better going forward more long term. The other services I can't

speak to it as much but I'm happy to come back. Very reassuring answers and

Councillor Joe Harris - 1:02:04

can I just say that wasn't a slight thing you're performing very very well

indeed but um yeah some reservations

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:02:14

um counsellor to open council Evans first and then council Turner thank you

Councillor Paul Evans - 1:02:18

chair my question is really isn't quite as elegant as Joe's and customer

satisfaction reassuring to see it at nearly 99 % a question is is that across

the whole of the services that the council provides or is is there variance

within that number? And if so, what are those variances?

Officer - 1:02:45

So I can come back with a breakdown of each service as well, but the customer satisfaction

is more relative to how the customer service advisor on that team dealt with their query.

And if, moreover, if there's actually kind of negative responses, it's more due to the

service they received, like maybe my planning application hasn't been approved or my bin

didn't get picked up that kind of thing so that's tends to reflect more of the

negative kind of feedback and but they do do deep dives into the actual text

that comes through and act on the way they can

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:03:18

actually I got her out it is councillor Slater who was ahead of cut with the

Turner I will come to you I'll be very quick

Councillor Tony Slater - 1:03:27

according to let's recycle calm we're 25th in there in the league table just

behind West Oxfordshire.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:03:36

Councillor Clare Turner - 1:03:45

Thank you for the updated chart for Miss Binn's collections. I really appreciated both the

unique instances of households affected and also the service failures chart. So that's

That's, I think, new for this quarter.

So, we had asked for it and we've delivered it.

Thank you very much.

Question.

On looking at the corporate plan action tracker on page 53,

there's an amber off -target action around working with

the Cotswold Community Safety Partnership

to improve road safety and reduce antisocial behaviour.

We had a member of the public

talking about antisocial behaviour today.

road safety comes up time and time again with communities and

On my way here today. I saw what appeared to be a horrific accident outside North Leach

Is the my question is the amber status is that related to?

Things that are off target for us as a district council partner, or is that?

Sort of out of our control is there anything more that we could be doing or is that out of our control?

And that's what's given at the amber status

Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:05:00

Thank you, Councillor Turner for the question. Neither the gentleman nor I know the answer

to that. I don't know if Angela knows the answer to that. If not, we'll have to get

a written reply on that. I was looking at this myself earlier and I thought, yeah, I

read what was written in the summary. Yeah. And then I was like, okay, so I don't know

the answer, but I think we'll need to get you a written one. I suspect it's more that

But from reading the commentary that it's more the former, that it's the overall slowness

rather than anything specifically we've done at CDC.

Thank you.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:05:39

Well, I'm sure we'll have it, we'll have the answer for the next meeting.

So thank you very much for that question.

Now, Councillor Jinkins.

Thank you, Chair.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 1:05:47

I've got one question that might be a follow -up on it.

I first of all note that you have been changing the method of reporting using various kinds

of control charts and lines and so on over time.

I recollect bringing a suggestion to that front, so it's important that I thank you

for doing that and I hope that it's helpful and that leads into the question.

Over time, I've had the opportunity to explore the

effect of targets on performance, and sometimes it

leads to all kinds of behaviours that are, shall we

say, not natural, like managing things in order to

achieve targets in ways that are not actually

productive to the system.

And I previously mentioned that if you used a three

rather than a one sigma reporting, you'd be able to find out something about the actual

performance of the system itself.

Now my question at the moment is this.

Is the reporting that you are doing for us, which sometimes produces figures like, you

know, a second decimal place percentage variation from the target as a sort of significant figure

that you are now over target or under target.

Just generally, are this, is this reporting system,

and let's not get in too much into those kinds of details,

but is it actually helping the various teams in CDC

and Publica to do a better job?

Do they find it useful?

And if so, how?

Officer - 1:07:36

So I don't think all services look at this particular report.

A lot of the time they've got their own performance management tools that they use instead.

So as part of my team, we develop quite a lot of dashboards for them so they can actually

monitor their progress and their performance on a day -to -day basis and are much more live

because obviously this is looking back three months.

So I think looking at performance data is absolutely important.

I don't think that the three standard deviation means much to quite a lot of people, which

is fair enough because it's a more statistical thing.

But I do know that the services across the council and publica do use different methods of performance management to make sure that they are

Hitting their targets or not and then putting interventions in place where possible, but it is a bit of a mixed bag across the council I

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 1:08:21

Interpret that to mean that these figures are really intended for counsellors

rather than for an office perhaps some officers and

Rather than for the people who actually use it

Wouldn't it be useful for us to actually find out what the systems are that they use

in order to manage their system better?

Since what we're inquiring about is how well are we managing these systems and how

are we going through processes of improving how they operate?

And I'd refer to the leader on this point to what extent these figures are really genuinely

helpful to the cabinet in such questions as opposed to being able to have a

Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:09:10

series of tick boxes? I'll try and answer that Angus. I think my view is these are

here for us as members to judge the performance of our service delivery and

for us as, so for you as ONS members, for myself and my fellow cabinet members to

be able to talk with our officers for scrutiny purposes about the performance of their directorates

or their teams. The how that is done in my view is the responsibility of the managers

because they're here to manage the service and deliver what we're asking them to deliver.

I think what this hopefully gives us and you know the points made by Councillor Turner

as well and others about and yourself indeed that we are we are getting better

comparator data in the reporting now to help and assist us as members understand

how well our services are being delivered to our residents. I accept your

point that they can always be improved and delivery can always be improved but

My view is it's that's the job of our managers to deliver on the objectives

that we've got in our corporate plan and the services that we're as a council

responsible to deliver to deliver those in the most optimum way possible to

deliver the best services for our residents and everything else. So I don't

necessarily see it as my role or my fellow cabinet members roles to go into

the weeds of exactly into possibly the level you were describing, but I feel my job and

my cabinet member, fellow members' job is to ask the relevant questions of our senior

officers to question them, and that's what we do day to day in the discussions that we

have with our senior officers.

So yeah, that's my take on your question.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 1:11:15

I'm sceptical about those answers but I will reflect on them. Thank you.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:11:20

Councillor David Cunningham - 1:11:23

Councillor Cunningham. Thank you Madam Chair. It was just a bit of information really.

There was a KPI working group that ONS set up about two and a half, three years

ago where all these KPIs were looked at and it was decided that the purpose of

them was to alert cabinet to where there were failures or slippage and it was really just

a rag tool to get people on the case a bit quicker.

But I'm sure that information is still available.

I think it might have been Councillor Coleman that chaired it from memory.

But all the KPIs were looked at, they were all assessed and they were assessed on the

issues more than very specifics.

Officer - 1:12:13

I'd just like to point out that I'm sure that any of the managers would actually come to

their portfolio holder and say if there was an issue, much quicker than three months looking

backwards.

And if I could just add one other thing.

Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:12:25

Where there are specific things that I know as a cabinet member that I want to have more

detail on, I'm asking for that.

and I'm looking at, particularly when I was the finance

portfolio holder, I was very keen to see the car parking

figures pretty much every week to understand,

because that was such a big, you know,

the revenue from car parking was such an important part

of our finances, so having a good,

close understanding of that.

And obviously that's not in here,

and we've talked about that in the previous report.

So yeah, I think as cabinet members, it's our job as,

I think as Councillor Cunningham has said,

is to be looking at, is the service not performing

as we expect?

I think it's the service leaders job to continue to look at how continually they can improve it

And also flag up as Gemma's just said any issues that what there might be with performance

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:13:17

Councillor Evans, thank you. I slightly more mundane question again

Councillor Paul Evans - 1:13:20

on page 49 delivering good services with regards to the

Charging in council owned toilet. I notice off target

Is that because, and the sole, is there anything else that is driving that off

target other than the North Leach pending discussions point?

Is it the only reason?

Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:13:49

I'll let Jenna come in and answer the detail point but just to say something about that yeah

that obviously we've been through a process and this committee's aware of

broadening charging out to all of our toilets and we've closed some where we

had multiple conveniences in the same locality. So my understanding is that you

know we are basically we've got the charging in everywhere we agreed as part

of the budget to increase the charge to 50 pence so that will be being

implemented imminently if it hasn't been already.

And, you know, as reported in the previous report,

we've got something like a, it costs us about 160 ,000

pounds to support public conveniences.

That's the net costs of them.

So there is still a subsidy there.

But I've very much been of the view that, you know,

we wanted to make sure we got charging across the

whole estate.

We've got readers across the whole estate for people

who don't have cash.

And I think we'll be, one of those things that I'm sure

Councillor Coleman, who's now left,

will be closely monitoring as well as Councillor Dale

with responsibility for conveniences, how that's going

in terms of the revenue that we're getting

and how we are looking against the budget.

Because I'm hopeful that, you know, with that,

we will see a reduction in the need

for support going forward.

But Chairman, I'll be asked to answer the detailed question

about why is it AMBA?

I'm going to have to go back to the service.

Officer - 1:15:26

But I will come back with a written response.

Thank you.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:15:31

Actually, my first question is just echoing Councillor Harris's.

These land searches, as I understand it, you have CDCs written around to estate agents

saying you may have to wait 40 days.

And I think this has been, was corroborated last time.

You are working towards the 10 -day thing, but I now, having had your explanation,

it clearly is quite a lot to manage and presumably there's quite a few coming in.

So, but it's definitely something which we need to keep an eye on

because when people are buying and selling houses, delays in the searches

can really add to their costs and difficulties in getting the conveyance done.

And I also agree with Councillor Harris that the figures for the affordable housing

are still very disappointing, but I know that's not entirely in our hands.

And I really, Councillor Cunningham's point on the recycling.

I hadn't realised until Councillor Ebony mentioned it that it is a nationwide problem

that people have been less inclined to.

I'm just wondering what it is that we can do to encourage people to, you know, at least

get the recycling back to the levels that we once enjoyed or improve on that.

I touched on it in my earlier answer.

Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:16:49

I think there are sort of Gloucestershire -wide campaigns on that.

Obviously anything, opportunities that we have.

We've got something in the Cotswold together which will be landing on doormats later on

this month towards the end of the month.

Has stuff about the life, there's got a whole page which talks about the life cycle of your

recycling.

so educating people into why what happens to their recycling to encourage

people to feel it's worth doing the recycling so that there's sometimes

rumours and misinformation particularly online about what happens to the

recycling so I think it's always we've got a emphasising that that you know

what we do with the recycling and how it's valuable to for people to

participate and recycle their waste

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:17:41

Councillor Harris, unless there's other questions, this may be the last before we go to the...

Councillor Joe Harris - 1:17:49

Thank you. Yeah, I mean just an observation. I noticed on the council social media channels the other day

There was a thing about what goes in which bag or box and the comments were amazing

It's like half the people were putting it in the right thing. They didn't know that you know, you had two boxes

They only have one and I think Mike you're absolutely right

just about, you've got to keep reminding people because if you've just moved from the area

from you know Wandsworth then you know you don't know do you? It's new to you and you

don't get you don't tend to get a guide that says you've got to do this and you've got

to do that so I just think programming that into the comms plan is absolutely key and

I think what you will see is that tick up but it's always interesting actually to come

to your point Tony we are 14th in terms of district councils so you know take those pesky

unitaries out. We are, you know, we're doing pretty bloody well I'd say, so I

think it's worth remembering that and actually out of however many

councils there are, 300 plus councils, we are only 25th which I think is a real

success and a real win. Final point, I think it's always interesting how you

can never get a fag packet between us and West Oxfordshire on these league tables, so

you know something's going on there isn't it?

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:18:58

Thank you for those last comments. I think that's all the questions. I don't believe

that we've got any recommendations from Calendert. So thank you. Well, thank you for coming and

12 Publica Business Plan 2026-28

thank you both. And the next thing we're going to move on to is the public business plan.

and Michael and me will still remain with us.

And we've got Frank Wilson here to present.

Thank you very much indeed.

Which of you will be going first?

I will, very briefly.

Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:19:35

So yeah, very brief introduction from me.

As the leader of the council, I am the shareholder of Publica.

and as members I'm sure know but for those who may be listening in to this

discussion Publica is a company that's wholly owned by four councils ourselves

West Oxfordshire District Council, Forest of Dean District Council and

Cheltenham Borough Council and it was formed back I'm getting on for ten years

ago now I think to provide services to those four councils we've also been

through a process of quite a bit of change and why the public a business

plan is coming to cabinet on Thursday so any comments or observations you would

like I can obviously we think about them and consider them when we meet on

Thursday but I said I was keen that it would come before the cabinet and

obviously that for your you're having a look at it as well and obviously what it

does is and Frank will now talk about it for a little bit in terms of their view

as with sort of two years away from local government reorganisation

following the changes in the face following the phase two of the

transition last July where public how it's looking to support the council's

going forward just to also let members know that I'm this year's chair of the

shareholder forum which is the leaders and the chief executives meet on a

quarterly basis to discuss matters about Publica from a collective council perspective.

So I will stop there and let Frank talk to his plan.

Public Speaker - 1:21:29

Thanks, Mike.

So last year's business plan was all about the transition as we dealt with the first

and second phases of the transition of services going back to the councils. We're

now much more much more towards a traditional shared services vehicle now

than we were previously and section 4 of the business plan that's in front of you

kind of summarises what we've called in there reimagining publica and it just

sets out the new governance arrangements. There's been quite a lot of change

Obviously, in terms of the board, we've now got two officers on the board, which is a fairly...

I'm just going to change your mind.

Officer - 1:22:16

Thank you. Fairly recent change.

The new business plan is a two -year plan, as Mike sets out,

is to set us on a clear direction as we move towards local government reorganisation.

Now, at this stage we don't yet know what that means for Publica. We don't yet know

whether there will still be a role for Publica. Clearly we cross two county boundaries as

well, which is an additional complication. But until we know the shape and size of whatever

is happening in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, for that matter we've not got a clear steer

about what that means for us. So this plan, and it really is covered off in

section 6 of the business plan, is about preparing our teams and our

services for what might come next, which is tricky when we don't actually know

what that might be. But we can't just focus on what comes next for us. We've just had

the service performance report. We identified some areas where we're performing well, but

there's some areas where we're not performing well. We need to deal with those. And certainly

delivering great services for your residents is paramount to us. And Section 5 sets out

that. Section six though is about preparing our teams and our services for the future.

So within that section we talk about how we might do that and that really is a, for want

of a better word, a deep dive into each service area, looking at how we're organised and how we

might split those services up, disaggregate those services if we need to do that. And of course the

disaggregation could simply be between Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, or it could be Oxfordshire

and two potential councils in Gloucestershire, depending on what governments say later in

the year.

And that's really the emphasis of what we're trying to do, and we're working with our teams

and our people to do that.

What we want to do is make sure that services are in a good state that can be transferred to the new councils when they're established,

but also give our people the very best chance we can give them to get a good role in the new organisation.

Happy to take any questions on that.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:25:00

Frank, thank you for that introduction. Who's got a question first?

Oh, Councillor Evans.

Councillor Paul Evans - 1:25:10

Thank you. Has there been any contingency thinking should LGR be delayed to the

Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:25:22

business plan? I'll go first on that and then see Frank could talk specifically about

publica. It's a really good question because you know the the timeline that

we're working to I have said on more than one occasion I think you know could

be slipped by a year and still stay within what the government suggested

they wanted within the term of this Parliament so there is a risk on that

and that comes back to the I guess also the finances the earlier report you were

considering is you know if we've got to go another year as a council but

obviously what we are doing in in that sense is a medium -term financial plan

which goes beyond the life of this council.

I'll leave it to Frank to answer specifically about public care

and how they're looking at it.

So in terms of contingency, we're continuing

Officer - 1:26:14

to deliver services on your behalf.

And unless you tell us otherwise,

we will continue to do that.

All we're doing is really thinking

about how we might disaggregate those services if we need

to do that and what the impact of that is.

I mean it's clear a disaggregation of services will cost money.

You know, so at the moment that's not being planned for until decisions are made by new incoming Unitary Councils.

So if it's delayed that's not a problem because we continue to deliver services as they are currently until advice otherwise.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:27:00

Thank you Madam Chair.

Councillor David Cunningham - 1:27:04

Six, Frank can you just talk me through that table on the right hand side?

Officer - 1:27:20

Okay, so is this the, with the colours in them, yeah.

Okay, so all that is really is a list of our groups of service

delivery units, and as you see, there's 22 in those.

We needed to try and profile some work really, so we

identified some areas of priority.

The first priority one areas of small services we thought we'd test out our

methodology in terms of these deep dives

We thought they would be quite easy actually turned out they were quite difficult because there were such small areas

But we reviewed those services and that's largely complete now

we're moving on to the slightly bigger services, and it was just really a methodology to try and

Establishly a work programme and we're now into the second priority

areas. We intend to try and have completed all this work by the time a decision on local

government reorganisation comes out. But it is proving quite difficult to do. It's a little

bit more tricky than we thought it might be. But we've just changed our methodology slightly

and hopefully we can accelerate that again, surely.

Councillor David Cunningham - 1:28:32

Thanks. So the priority is the order in which you did them, not the priority of the service

or the priority of which people you're going to employ or not employ it's just

Officer - 1:28:45

simply a timetable of how you addressed it that's exactly right

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:28:51

thank you just um councillor Harris yeah can I am two questions if I may one for

Councillor Joe Harris - 1:28:55

Frank then one for Mike um how would you say this plan supports councillors

priorities as outlined in our corporate plan during a period when clearly focus

could easily drift towards organisational change rather than

residents and I think that's the real danger. The amount of time we

spend talking about LGR and just talking about it is time we're not spent

scrutinising affordable housing, this that the other, just your view on that

and then I'll come back for another one for Mike. That is absolutely a

Officer - 1:29:32

critical point. And that's really why we've got within the business plan this section about our core service offer.

Because we want our people to focus on

you know, business as usual, you know core services.

You know, we've had a period of time when we have been a little bit introspective.

We've gone through the public transition, which took quite a lot of resource from ourselves

to do.

Of course, our people are also involved in the local government reorganisation discussions that are ongoing,

and we're supporting all our councils to that.

And of course, we're looking both ways.

We're looking at Oxfordshire as well as in Gloucestershire.

And some of our teams, particularly if you think about the ICT team and the HR teams,

are going to be really heavily focused on that.

But what we're saying in this business plan, while there's a specific section with all

our services in it, is saying this is critical to us.

We've got to do with business as usual.

We've got to deliver the core service as well as manage the potential for future transition.

And that's why we're doing these deep dives now, so that we can understand impacts upon

those teams and plan for those ready when the decision comes along.

Councillor Joe Harris - 1:30:56

And then to Mike, one of the things they don't tell you when you become the leader is you

end up on this chair on the board of Public Health. It's fair to say it can take quite a lot of time, can't it?

So how would you sort of health cheque how are relationships with other councils

at the minute? Clearly a lot of change and as a result of leaving

public are there going to be some councils who in the very short term are

probably worse off than others and some will be better off so yeah what's the

state of health in terms of relationships between our nearest and

dearest within the public a partnership thank you I think they're they're good

Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:31:33

yeah I've said I've taken that just taken over as the chair of the

shareholder forum but I've been the shareholder for the last since last May

We did have some quite detailed discussions about the financial

reallocations. Obviously there was a benefit I think of about quarter of a

million to this council but there were increases in what Cheltenham and Forest

of Dean had to pay because there was a lot of work done by Frank and the

finance officers working collaboratively but I think everyone recognised that the

value of that work and that it was a fair allocation.

So I think I would say the relationships are in terms

of between the leaders are good

and the chief executives as well.

And, you know, we've got a shareholder meeting coming up

in a couple of weeks time, Frank and I are sitting down

talking about that next day or two.

But I think, yeah, going through this process,

looking at the, we're all going through this process

of just looking at the plan.

We've got some tweaks to just the arrangements that are going to cabinet as

well on Thursday and yeah we agreed to extend the contracts and put them all on

to the essentially the same basis to go to 2030 so that essentially our

successor councils have time to decide what they want to do and yeah so it and

that's gives us security for public air to know that you know obviously there'll

decisions there for the shadow authority or authorities, well it'd be at least two

won't it, to make about services and how they want to organise them in future. But

my summation is that relationships are working well at the moment in the

shareholder forum and it's my job to maintain that.

Thank you.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:33:34

No, I did not subject to the other.

I think you had a question or not.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 1:33:41

Thank you, Frank, if I may refer, call you that.

I am not sure, but informal.

I am very grateful to Publica for what it does and therefore to you for what you do.

And it's with that in mind that I have a question to ask.

By the way, I wasn't sure whether legal used to be part of public overseas.

Never has been.

Oh, never?

It's not allowed.

Just for the purposes of this, legal has to be.

Oh, sorry, I didn't do that.

Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:34:23

Thank you. Somebody misinformed me.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 1:34:25

Okay, good. So my question is this. I'm a little bit concerned that it might look like

you're planning to terminate Publica. The rationale for me in a business plan, a strategic

business plan, is that it's done in a context in which you can see some kind of environmental

change, some change in the environment taking place, sometimes quite a serious change. And

The purpose of the business plan is to figure out how you will navigate through that change

into a future that you want to be in.

And as part of that, you make things like an assessment of what are the most critical

services that you could offer and who you might offer them.

And as far as I know, you are not restricted to offering them only to the shareholders.

You could offer them to the whole country, is what I've been informed previously.

So I take it that you have a number of critical skills and critical services that could be

of, and would be of, importance into the future.

And the job is to make a plan that you can use to go back to the initial bodies and the

unitaries to say why they must be working with you and perhaps wider than that, rather

than just waiting to see what happens from their point of view.

Put me right.

Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:36:02

If I can go first and then give Frank a bit more thinking time if he needs it.

It's an unusual circumstance, clearly, because Public Air is our company owned by four councils

that will cease to exist potentially in two years time and so to that degree

Publica just a business plan based on looking at the four corporate plans and

the services that they are providing for us but you know they're not a normal

company in that sense because they're owned by us and they're delivering

services on our behalf so the strategic direction I would expect to come from

the councils and essentially the new in this circumstance what we've hopefully

done working with public now is get the position so that essentially if the new

councils wants to decide to continue to run the services as they are on day one

and they don't want to change anything they can do that and public air and

frankly continue to run the services on day one of the new authorities but if

they wanted to do something different then they would have to look at how they

would operate that but that decision isn't ours that decision is going to

have to be for our successor council so I hear what you say in terms of the

future and it's very uncertain because we're in the political environment with

the uncertainty of local government reorganisation maybe Frank can comment

from an officer perspective as the as the MD public how he sees that in terms

of what they're doing and what they're going to do in the next couple of years

in the run -up, particularly I guess once we have the decision, because once we have a

decision in July, we can start to plan things differently, but as I said, the new authorities

won't be elected on that timetable until next year. And we aren't in a position to, I guess,

make a binding decision on them, because they're going to have to determine how they want to

operate their services. But I'll let Frank add any more that he wants to add.

Officer - 1:38:10

I don't think there's a great deal extra to it. I think you answered that very well.

We take our lead from the shareholders, the shareholders' instructors on what they want.

I mean, I've worked in shared services. I've been working across between West Oxford and

Cotswold now for about 15 years and in shared services before that. And shared services

in the context of publica was really about bringing together small teams to

be able to deliver better value for those district councils. Clearly

bringing together smaller councils into unitaries delivers a similar amount of

that value. So the economies of scale could be delivered, continue to be

delivered through the likes of a service delivery vehicle such as publica or they

could just be delivered by bringing together those councils.

I'm a great fan of shared services,

a great fan of public as you'd expect.

I think we can offer something different,

but it is really in the hands of the new councils

as to what they want and given that they've not formed,

that's pretty tricky to determine.

What we can do is say, look, we've got an offer

and this is what I'm saying to colleagues

across Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire that says that there is still potentially a role

for shared services.

And particularly if there is more than one unitary, for example, in Gloucestershire,

what might happen, for example, in terms of an ICT infrastructure?

We have a footprint across the whole of Gloucestershire in terms of ICT because we provide the ICT

services to Yubico who have a footprint across Gloucestershire. So I think what

we're saying is absolutely we're here to continue to be involved but we must

take our lead from our shareholders and until we get that decision I think it's

going to be a continue with a period of of uncertainty but you will note in the

business plan, we do go for a year beyond the organisation date.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 1:40:27

Well, naturally it's uncertain. That's life. The future is always uncertain and that's

why one has business plans that try to take care of that uncertainty, including figuring

out what you might do under various scenarios. What I'm saying is when the unitaries are

informed, we may cease to exist as Cotswold District Council, but the rights, shareholder

rights will pass across to the unitary authority. So they will not be lost. And they will belong

and if there's one or two unitary authorities, if there's one, then there'll be one that

owns it all. And if there's two, there will be two that own it all. And in that sense,

they'll be there in a position to say, well, what services are you going to offer and why

should we carry on? That's why I'm saying, isn't it actually the responsibility of the

company to come forward with a compelling argument, with a compelling set of logic for

what you can offer as to why they would want to exercise their rights of ownership and

carry on using those services and perhaps even expand them more broadly.

I'll just say something that Frank answered.

Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:41:44

Just to clarify, there will be two owners because it's Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

So even if there's single counts of Gloucestershire, there will be two owners of Publica

after when the reorganisation has a minimum.

So there may be three. But yeah, I'll let Frank answer

in terms of how they're planning.

Officer - 1:42:08

And I think really that the deep dive reviews into the services is absolutely going to make

that sort of assessment.

So we'll be in a position to say, actually, this service, if you disaggregate it, these

are the impacts of disaggregating that service.

And therefore, the benefits of aggregating or even further aggregating will offer further

benefits for the future unitaries and the deep dives will allow us to do that

but they need to be done in the perspective of the decision

that is made by government because clearly that decision of particularly

in Gloucestershire whether it's one or two is going to be critical in helping us

do that but the initial assessment we do will then we'll build on that to

provide information back to the councils and indeed to the broader non

share holding councils within Gloucestershire.

Thank you.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:43:07

I've just got two comments.

I'm not surprised, and I think they're wonderful, the ICT,

but they are your biggest employee group.

And I feel that's a service which

would be easily can be continued,

but that's not relevant.

This says it's full time employees.

have you got quite a few part -time employees?

I know it doesn't appear that you'd use much agency staff.

So what is the sort of picture of your staffing levels

because we can't have, you know, 0 .5 of a person

or even 0 .9 of a person?

Officer - 1:43:47

So we have an incredibly large amount of part -time employees.

So for example, if you look at the customer services function change

that was made here 18 months ago, was it, I think,

about that time when we moved our cohort of staff

very much to the time when people call in.

So from kind of 9 o 'clock through till 2, 2, 2,

2 .30 we have a larger amount of people on time.

So they're all part -time staff.

We probably have about a third of our workforce

who do less than full hours.

So we are, in total, we have about 380 employees,

which is a significant larger number than you'll see there.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:44:27

That doesn't include it in this schedule here, no.

The one with the green.

So that's just the full -time equivalent, so that's why you get points of applause.

But no, well thank you for that.

No, well thank you. Has anybody else got any questions on this?

Or should we just be thanking Frank for coming along and for Mike and me for being here.

and it definitely might be continuing to stay for the ecology, or maybe not.

But thank you very much and that was very useful.

Oh, Councillor Jackson's got something to add.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 1:45:05

It's only logical on the basis of the questions I was asking

that from my point of view we ought to be urging Publica to come up with a plan

as that demonstrates what they have to offer,

well beyond the timeframe of this,

and so that they need a business plan,

they need to be able to offer something that says,

we belong to your future.

And I'd really like to see that having a prominent place in your future thinking.

Think positively and make it happen.

So I don't know whether we want to make that a formal recommendation,

but that's certainly what I think you need to do.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 1:45:46

What you are doing, of course, which is what you're doing is very sensible, of course.

Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:45:55

I mean, clearly recommendations would need to come to us as a cabinet and we're thinking

about that on Thursday.

And as I said, I'm the chair of the shareholder forum.

I'm meeting Frank in the next couple of days so we can reflect on the points made this

evening and give some thought. I mean clearly you know Publica we're all going

through a process of trying to plan for the future and that's you know we've got

the different work streams going across in Gloucestershire and I'm sure there's

equivalent things happening in Oxfordshire and Frank as the MD and when

we meet with the other shareholders that's one of the main things we're

talking about is how how are we working in terms of the stuff between now and

the end of the councils, but how are we planning for, how could we organise services after

vesting day?

And obviously that's something that I'm happy to continue to have that conversation with

public about, but it's ultimately it's a matter for, I think for the shareholders to determine

whether that's what they want.

And the shareholders don't exist yet.

They won't exist until they're elected probably in May of next year.

So, yeah, we can give a view, but we can't bind our successes.

So, but I accept the point that Angus makes, you're making Angus that, you know, see Frank's

still going to be here and Publica in of itself can give that consideration.

And from my experience of working with Frank and colleagues in Publica, they've always

been willing to share their view about how they thought we should take things forward.

to say. I'm sure they won't be shy about saying what they think.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 1:47:43

I'm sorry to follow up again, but I'm not sure which, whether it's the monitoring

officer or someone else who can answer this question, but in my understanding of businesses

normally and shareholders is that the people who are running the business come forward

with ideas to the shareholders. And in particular, what shareholders do not manage the company

in detail. They do not develop management plans and so forth. What they do is sign off

on the investment that's required when necessary,

and otherwise they report on whether they think

the company is running well or not financially.

It's up to the management of the company

to develop that company and develop its strategy.

Is it different in a tech -hole company?

Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:48:30

It is, my, I mean, officers give you an answer as well,

but because it is our company that we set up

with our fellow councils.

So the strategy for public, you know,

essentially we decided that we wanted to bring services

back in house, looking over at the former leader

who led on that, because we felt that we could deliver them

and they align better with our strategic requirements

within this council and we were able to do that

because it was our company.

So I think it is different to shareholders,

a large number of shareholders of a private company

or another public company. It's a tech or local authority owned company that is

there to support and deliver services and projects on behalf of Council. So I

think it's different. We are setting the political, the strategy sorry for

Officer - 1:49:29

how we want that but I'll let Frank answer. I mean one of the areas where tech companies

is fail is when they get too far away from their shareholders.

I guess that might be an issue for general companies as well, I suppose.

But when you've got such a small number of shareholders, it's very apparent.

So we work really closely.

That's why we have the shareholder forum.

That's where we have the operational forum, which is an officer -based thing.

And obviously, we come to events like this.

So it's important that we understand what the councils want us to deliver because actually

you let the agreement for services and we, you know, we if we if we don't comply with that then

you will take that services agreement away from us and you know we're here to deliver best value

for residents and that's what we're trying to do and we do that best when we're working in close

core concept with the shareholders?

Angela Claridge - 1:50:27

Just a suggestion which is not particularly answering your question around the role of the shareholder,

but we know at some point, we don't know what those plans are going to look like yet,

but we do know that we've got joint scrutiny coming at some point and perhaps

the arrangements for not just Publica but the other council -owned companies such as Yubico

might be something that as a joint scrutiny would want to go on their

forward plan at some point in the future so that you can explore what the options

Councillor Joe Harris - 1:50:58

are for those companies. Yeah and I think in my experience you know there is a

clear distinction between a tackle company and you know a private company

and the tackle companies were set up for the benefit of local authorities

predominantly in order to basically offset some of the financial liability

while at the same time retaining an element of control as if it was still a

bit of an in -house service. So you know I think I think that's the distinction and

yeah it can take a little bit of bit like the LGA actually the way we sort of

set the LGA up it's sort of this politically led organisation but we're

directors of it's all a bit they're unique structures so I think to compare

it directly to a private company yeah it is they are two different things.

So...

Can I just add a little bit more detail on that?

Councillor Paul Evans - 1:51:46

I think a quick search on GovUK says very clearly that there is a control test and that

the public authority must control the company as if it were an internal department.

So I think it is significantly different from a private shareholder.

Thank you.

The joys of AI research.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:52:08

I just wanted to make one point, is that I think whatever he's looking for here is the

continuity, if it is possible, if it is against the continuity of the experience and the skills

and the local knowledge that the public has built up over the years, if it was going to

be replaced by something else, this would be, you know, it would be driving into the

deep end without any water wings. So my feeling is that what we would like to do as a community

I think most people here would like to continue to support publica and what it's trying,

it does work.

We want to have clarity, yeah, but when it's available.

So I don't feel there's any particular recommendation, but thank you.

Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:52:58

Could I just respond to that, Chair, and the point without being on the microphone to my

left around clarity, and I think, yeah, we're all living with the uncertainty of local government

reorganisation.

And most importantly, I think that's the staff are living with that uncertainty because it's their livelihoods.

And I just sort of wanted to take this opportunity to recognise that and to publicly thank,

I can do it again on Thursday, I suppose, the staff at Publica for all the work that they do

and that they're going to be doing under this plan.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:53:28

Thank you. I think that's a very good way to wind up this particular bit of the debate.

So thank you for that. And now we should go forward to the...

Shall we have a 10 -minute break?

Oh, yes, oh, for a ten minute break, we're on almost two hours.

Thank you.

12 Publica Business Plan 2026-28

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:54:02

Thank you everyone.

We've had our short break and we have our next topic, which is the Ecological Emergency

13 Ecological Emergency Update

Action Plan. Judith Layton who's the cabinet member responsible for these things. And also

I'd like to welcome Daniel Berry, and the first of your meeting and the first time I've

met you. So thank you very much for coming today.

Yeah, very friendly. So Judith, would you like to introduce the item or are O's Danny

going to do that?

Councillor Juliet Layton - 1:54:41

I'd be very happy to do that. I'll have a script because otherwise I forget important

bits and then go muddled. So this is the Council's Ecological Emergency Action Plan and the progress

update in your papers there. And the progress update shows what the actions were in 2020,

recent actions and what's going to be ongoing. So it's very simple actually to see what

you know, the format of that.

In July 2020, the council declared an ecological emergency

in response to accelerating decline of nature.

Nationally, one in six species

is now threatened with extinction.

And here in the Cotswolds, our limestone grasslands,

ancient woodlands, river corridors, and the water park

are all under pressure from habitat loss, pollution,

climate change and increasing recreational impacts. The action plan

recognises that our natural environment is essential to our health, our economy

and our climate resilience. The plan sets out a clear commitment to embed

ecological recovery into everything the council does and that means ensuring

that planning, housing, land management and infrastructure decisions actively

support nature rather than contribute to its decline. It also means aligning ecological

recovery with our climate work because healthy ecosystems store carbon, reduce flood risk,

support pollinators and help us to adapt to extreme weather.

There are several key areas of focus in the documents you've got. First is planning and

And through the local plan update, we are strengthening policies on green infrastructure,

natural capital and biodiversity net gain.

We are working with the Gloucestershire local nature partnership to map ecosystem services

and identify where habitat creation will have the greatest impact.

This evidence base will guide development and long -term land management.

Secondly, is partnership working?

Nature recovery cannot be delivered by the council alone.

We are collaborating with the Wildlife Trust, the National Trust, Natural England and the

Environment Agency and landowners across the district.

We are also helping to shape the county's local nature recovery strategy which will

set priorities for habitat creation and species recovery across Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire LNRS fulfils a national strategic requirement that 48 LNRS cover every area

in England. There are no gaps and no overlaps and that gives us great corridors for wildlife.

Third, land management. We are reviewing how council -owned land can be managed for biodiversity,

creating new habitats wherever possible.

We are supporting tree planting and rewilding in the right places

and working with farmers and land managers to promote nature -friendly, low -carbon farming.

Fourthly, the Cotswold Water Park, which is quite often known as Cotswold Lakes now.

This is one of our most significant ecological assets

and the plan commits us to working with partners to deliver a nature recovery plan

that enhances biodiversity, improves water quality,

and balances recreation with conservation.

And finally, community engagement.

We're supporting parishes and neighbourhoods, planning groups,

to integrate biodiversity into their plans

and encourage residents to take part

in local nature recovery initiatives.

Over the past year, progress has been steady.

We have strengthened our ecological evidence base,

delivered priority actions across planning

and land management and secured a two -year strategic access management and monitoring

contract for the Cotswold Beechwood Special Area of Conservation. Finally, the Ecological

Emergency Action Plan is not just an environmental programme, it's a long -term investment in the health,

resilience and prosperity of the Cotswolds. By restoring nature we protect our communities,

support our economy and safeguard the landscapes that make this district so

special. Thank you and we're open for questions. Thank you and Danny do you want to say anything

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:59:21

ahead of the questions? I'm happy to go to questions thank you. Thank you.

Officer - 1:59:26

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 1:59:28

Councillor Joe Harris - 1:59:31

Councillor Harris. Yeah it's great to see this come to Council.

I remember quite a long time ago now, isn't it,

that we signed this off, so I'm very welcome.

A question for both of you, I guess.

If this report was read

without the 2020 emergency declaration that we undertook,

would it look materially different

from standard planning service update?

Yeah, so there are a couple of things.

Officer - 2:00:03

One of the biggest things following the declaration was the seal contributions.

So previously 10 % of seal was allocated for the ecological and climate emergencies and

that followed this.

Moving forward, as you heard earlier, there's going to be a new matrix devised and I'm going

to have input as well as the rest of my team into what that matrix will look like to ensure

that those projects that come forward, if they demonstrate they're going to tackle the

climate and ecological emergency, will be supported.

So yeah, there are other projects outside of development management that would not have taken place without this

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:00:41

Thank you, Councillor Slater. Thank you, I'll try and get through this.

Councillor Tony Slater - 2:00:45

Thank you for the report

If I had a pound for every time the phrase work with strategy or discussions was in there

I'd have quite a good day in the office

Bear in mind the words emergency and action are in the title.

I am wondering what actual outcomes we can see.

So there's a lot of, for example, in the first paragraph, recent actions, it says planning

policy officers attended meetings.

If somebody gave me a report in my working life that said I attended a meeting, I'd throw it back at them.

I appreciate what's happening, but that's not an action, that's part of the process.

So as a result of those meetings and discussions and contributions to strategy,

we've got two years left probably of Cotswold District Council.

When I am driving around, what can I point out to say Cotswold District Council did that?

I will address the first part of your point first.

Officer - 2:01:57

So with regard to that particular point, that is about draught local plan policies.

I cannot be more prescriptive at this time.

You will see the policies in a few months time at ONS.

That is why I could not give you specifics there.

But those discussions were not taking place.

I would say six months ago, it wasn't until we recently,

there was an appointment recently

with the county -wide climate and planning manager

that now these discussions are taking place

to make sure that those policies

across the county are uniformed

so that when we become a single or two unitary authorities,

we are tackling the climate emergency together

because that's kind of the only way to do it

is at a landscape scale,

whether it's ecological or climate related emergency.

And we do that at the point of what you can physically see.

The report details the fact that Sherbourne Estate, for example, has been in receipt of

two SANG bids so far and a third one is currently under review.

They've done improvements to the Sherbourne Estate to make it more accessible for people,

so to draw people there instead of to Cotswold Beechwood, which is an internationally important

site.

We've got two new offices.

One's already appointed and already out working.

The other one, the job advert, is going to go out in a couple of weeks' time at Wiltshire.

That's for SAM offices.

So that's strategic access management and monitoring offices.

So they're going to be there to interact with members of the public to tell them, you know,

when you're using these sites, how to use them so that you're not causing further damage

because often people aren't doing these things intentionally, of course.

But also to educate people on the importance of certain plants and species that you may

interact with in the, in these sites that you wouldn't necessarily have taken any notice

of beforehand.

So those are two other things.

Another one is the infill tree planting across the district.

We don't own much land, but where we do own land

We are always looking for opportunities to make betterment and secure betterments

That's one of the projects that's ongoing at the moment and we've secured those trees from County Council

But yeah, I take your point into consideration and I do appreciate where you're coming from, but I couldn't be more prescriptive in some areas

Councillor Turner

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:03:58

Thank you

It's always quite difficult to scrutinise

Councillor Clare Turner - 2:04:02

items that are not statutory but are still very important.

And I recognise that in many ways CDC are achieving more

than other councils are.

I'm very thankful for all the work that's done

and all the occasions when nature is being considered

such as within the context of a local plan

and development planning and so on.

But I think I would echo the point

that I think Councillor Sator was making.

I think it's quite hard to know if any of this activity

is really worthwhile if we're not measuring what is the impact of these actions on the

ground.

And on occasion, the link between the actions set out in the plan and what's been done undertaken

since has seemed a little bit tentative.

But as I say, I'm appreciative of everything that is done because it's an incredibly important

issue and it is not such a responsibility to address this.

I have a couple of questions, one of them each relating to a specific action, so action

L was to provide advice for local communities on how to incorporate biodiversity, green

infrastructure and natural capital into their neighbourhood plans and other initiatives.

My question is what are those other initiatives and how is this support delivered in practise

if it doesn't relate to a neighbourhood plan?

And the second question is around item I, the council owned land and buildings which

are managed in a biodiversity friendly manner.

My question is to what extent is the council still using pesticides?

I think the street cleaning team do use pesticides.

So are we, have we taken any action to reduce that or even measure the extent to which that's

happening?

Thank you.

Officer - 2:05:59

To be frank, the point regarding other initiatives, I don't know.

I didn't devise this action plan.

I take your point into consideration.

I spoke with the neighbourhood plans policy officer and he advised on those neighbourhood

plans in which biodiversity is being considered at this present time.

I don't have those policies to hand.

If they are available to share, I am sure I can share them with you and I can come back

to you on that matter.

But in regards to what other initiatives, I would have to, I am not sure I would have

to take that away.

Chair, with your permission, can I just come back on it?

Councillor Clare Turner - 2:06:32

So I suppose that another way of phrasing that question is how do communities who want

to do something, who are not necessarily creating a neighbourhood plan, is there a resource

within the team to support them and how would they access that?

Understood.

Officer - 2:06:48

So members of my team, many of the biodiversity officers,

sometimes the tree officers attend for various meetings

across county.

So whether that involves other ecologists from the county

or whether it is other external stakeholders.

So for example, the local nature partnership

is an excellent external stakeholder that we engage with.

So they will often come to us if there are people

in the local community that wants to do enhancements.

For example, I have discussions ongoing at the moment

with at least two landholders that are looking

to improve the green infrastructure on their site and make it accessible for members within

Sire and Cessna.

So those discussions are ongoing, but again, I can't really provide much more detail at

this point in time.

But those connexions that you're referring to do exist, and we are present at several

board meetings or steering group meetings, and it often isn't us going out into the public

and saying, has anyone got any ideas?

Because like you say, there is a resource constraint there.

However, like I say, there is a really good link with various external partners that they

often will contact us if they hear of something that needs support or some

guidance in the local community. I have to repeat that second question though

Officer - 2:07:54

Councillor Juliet Layton - 2:07:57

apologies. I think the second question was about the street cleaning and what

chemicals and pesticides and that is a question that has been raised and we're

looking into that and I haven't got an answer for that at the moment.

Thank you perhaps we might have an answer coming forward.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:08:15

Before Councillor Harris I've got Councillor Cunningham. Thank you Madam Chair.

Councillor David Cunningham - 2:08:25

Danny is the local plan updates being a hindrance to you in delivering some of

this stuff? I ask that question is whether or not it's worth hiving some of

it off to one side to allow you to move on or is the update giving you the

to bake in a lot of things that you wanted to get in there and is it worth it?

It's half and half and to be honest the planning policy

Officer - 2:08:47

team have been very kind to us and given us a schedule like a work

programme so we knew when the pinch points were coming up so when those pinch points

arose we were able to you know stop what we're doing elsewhere and focus our

energy and time there. On the other hand of that it does mean like you say we've

been able to have discussions with various planning policy officers and go

actually that didn't really work very well and all maybe we should also think

about this such as integrating biodiversity net gain

the glossary local nature recovery strategy and various other matters into

those draught policies that you'll see in a few

few months time. So short answer is it's been a bit of a pain but it's worth it.

Councillor David Cunningham - 2:09:23

Yeah and the policy team have been able to accommodate us quite well by

Officer - 2:09:27

providing us with that work schedule so that it you know we like I say we're

able to juggle both both jobs.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:09:39

Councillor Harris. I was going to say on the removing the use of pesticides I

Councillor Joe Harris - 2:09:42

think we'd all support that I think what is important a bit of feedback is that

that doesn't mean people want to see weeds everywhere particularly in town

centres or you know lovely Chippin Camden which is getting a nice deep

clean courtesy of CDC and GCC tomorrow so I think the I think the key point is

that when we remove things like that we're doing it for good reasons but

often there are unintended consequences and what do we know it's the people in

the Cotswolds want it to look nice and clean particularly our town and village

centres and we've got to have a way of sort of replacing that so don't need you

to comment on that I think it's just an observation that if we're going to

remove pesticides then let's make sure we've got a way of cleaning the weeds

and if that's talking to the town and parish council saying we can't do this

anymore. Could you maybe do some weeds? Maybe we do that. But yeah we've got to

have an alternative because what we found at GCC is just that stop using

pesticides all the weeds grow up and everyone's annoyed at you. I think

Councillor Juliet Layton - 2:10:39

there's if I can just sort of add to that I think if we started saying you

know we're not going to use the pesticides in the street cleaning we've

then got to because that would be a council driven objective is that we

would then have to start looking at any land management or green open green

space management and developments where people like to see nice green lawns in

their gardens and you know what are they putting on those you know how do we this

is offsetting something else but we would have to look at all the

developments that are likely to be coming forward and how that land

management will be a very practical example the county council stop using

Councillor Joe Harris - 2:11:19

pesticides to spray curb channels. What's happened is on a lot of our main roads

there are weeds that high growing out of them because there's no provision to

cleanse them. That has a knock -on effect of not looking not only looking

unsightly to some people but it also means that water doesn't flow as easily

as it might do. Grit and detritus builds up and then blocks the drains. CDC aren't

cleaning enough because we can't compared to 15 years ago. We end up with

block drains, flooding, and then potholes.

So, you know, just a plea to everybody, you know,

come on, let's sort it out.

Councillor Evans.

Thank you.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:12:01

Councillor Paul Evans - 2:12:03

Delighted to see that we've hit three of the measures,

criteria on the emergency scorecard in paragraph four.

On the fourth one that we haven't on paragraph 4 .3,

how close are we to hitting that 30 by 30 commitment?

And what are the plans in place to get us towards that?

So as you're aware, we don't own much land.

So the discussions following putting this report together

Officer - 2:12:27

have started to take place.

And I have asked the question as to what are we doing already.

Is it that, in fact, we are doing a lot

and it's not easy for the assessors to review?

Because that could be a possible issue.

I mean, they didn't ask us for this information.

They've gone about putting this information together themselves.

So those discussions are ongoing.

And then it will be a case of looking at, okay, well,

what are we doing?

Are we doing enough?

Are we nearly there?

And if we are nearly there, what resource would we need to apply

in order to satisfy that fourth criteria?

But at the moment, I don't have a specific answer to give you.

Councillor Paul Evans - 2:13:01

Could you find out what the actual number, how far we are

off that 30 -30?

Yeah, I've asked the question, so I'll be able to provide you

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:13:17

an answer shortly. Thank you. Councillor Jenkinson, did you want to do your answer question now?

Yeah, if there's no one else. I'd like to echo some of the comments you've already heard,

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 2:13:33

which is thank you very much for tackling this really critical issue.

It's a really important factor and I'm very grateful that it's being done.

I note that you have three full -time equivalents.

That's some kind of indication of commitment by the Council and that things are happening.

So I'm very grateful for that.

I noted the introductory remarks by the Cabinet member and the way

that you, Juliet, referenced some of the really important things that we need to address.

And I'm therefore appreciative also that you take these things seriously. Thank you.

I want to first of all bring to your attention, or everybody's attention, that we are in the

context of the report that DEFRA published by the Joint Intelligence Services, which

I've brought into Council before, to the effect that every single critical ecosystem services

on a pathway towards failure.

So when we say there's an ecological crisis, we do not mean it's a bit of a nuisance.

We mean we are facing an existential crisis in the future.

And this existential crisis in the future is not something for 200 years away.

It's like 30 years away or 10 years away in a number of cases.

And we have a very limited number of, for example, farm harvests on current basis, a

few decades' worth.

So I point that one out, and I reference also, because you were talking about ecosystem services,

the UN noting that we need to measure not just on financial but on other

factors and we are so that's really good. I also note that we signed up the four

and four per thousand measure at COP in Paris which is the addition of four

parts per thousand of carbon to the soil and along with many other countries

around the world, we signed up for it.

And the importance of this measure

is that if we achieve it, then the climate crisis goes away.

So you make a very good point that ecology and climate

are connected.

And they're critically connected in the soil.

So that, for example, whereas, Juliet, you

mentioned a nature -friendly low -carbon farming,

I want to see nature -friendly high -carbon farming,

meaning that we are farming the carbon.

We are capturing the carbon in the soil.

and soil is the central place for this.

So with those kinds of remarks, which is saying,

it's great that we've declared an ecology crisis,

it's great that we've declared a climate crisis,

it's really important that we take it

really, really seriously.

So question one, we are working a lot

with the National Trust.

They are a large, substantial, well -funded body.

Are we supporting them just because they're convenient

and they're coming and they're getting more money from us?

Or are they really the best partner that we can work with,

given that they have so many resources of their own already?

I presume that's in relation to the SANG payments.

Is that what you're referring to?

Officer - 2:16:57

So let's be specific about the SANG then.

So the reason that the national trust have been successful is

because in order to be successful for sang you have to show that your land

will be there in perpetuity so natural England will take issue if we were to

allocate sang money to a landowner that potentially may sell it in 20 years time

so we had meetings with National Trust and Natural England in

attendance and we went through whether it was an appropriate location and

whether their ongoing management and commitments and furthers, which natural England were happy

with.

So that's one of the reasons that they were successful.

So it's not simply because we know them and they're good.

It is because the land is going to be in their ownership for a long time.

So that's one of the reasons we wanted them for the sang.

The other reason being is simply that people don't come forward with these opportunities

and put these bids forwards.

We do a call, we put out a call for still bids and at the same time we put out a call

for sangbits and it often is only the national trusts that come forward

because for instance Natural England have some sites that they could

potentially manage but however there is prevention at the moment to increase

their headcounts so they can't take on these projects.

Reach out to the local cluster groups, catchment partnerships and so on as well?

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 2:18:18

Officer - 2:18:23

Yes I do, so I do that by contacting the Gloucestershire Local Nature Partnership

sorry, too many acronyms. Yeah, the Gottschur Local Nature Partnership and

I'm part of the board as well so I'm in contact with a lot of people and yes we

do we send out kind of a big email to everyone once the bid opens but yeah so

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 2:18:42

far just the National Trust. Thank you and so you've emphasised the 30 by 30

and 30 by 30 is an entire national land so it's not just council owned so in

And we've signed up to that, so we are responsible, obviously in partnership with other authorities

like Gloucestershire, for achieving that 30 % of the land in Gloucestershire, or in Cotswold

District in this case, is protected, number one, and number two, up to scratch.

So what we do within our own land is a tiny part of the impact that we are trying to achieve.

It's very small.

But even in there, I think it's worth noting that something like weeds, farmers who are

on nature -friendly paths recognise that weeds are their friends.

For example, key weeds come along when you've got compacted soil, so -called weeds, and the

soil is really poor quality, so they invade it and they stay until they've sorted the

soil out and then something else takes over.

And so if we're constantly just planting, which we do across the whole of the Cotswold district,

monoculture, ryegrass, that's basically an ecological desert. Would you agree?

Officer - 2:20:02

Yes, I would agree. Weeds, like you say, are to the benefit of the soil,

particularly those with deep taproot systems. They bring up the nutrients to the surface,

which then make them available to other plants. And yes, planting any sort of monoculture,

no matter what it is, is always to the detriment because you lose those niches that are so

important to protected and priority species.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 2:20:25

So if we want to do 30 by 30 and given that 80 % of our area is national landscape and

most of it is farmland, and we want to get more than that, so more than we need to get

30 percent, we really need to address the fact that we are going into the farm area

and working with them.

This is another of those areas where it's discretionary for us, but we make a decision,

we declare a crisis, and therefore we commit resources.

Can you tell us what work you are doing with farmers at the moment?

You mentioned farming.

Thank you.

Yes, so at the moment we're supporting the County Council with this matter.

Officer - 2:21:04

So the Gloucestershire Local Nature Recovery Strategy, which is a document I've already

referred to earlier today, is a document that they are responsible for.

We are supporting authorities, we helped in the preparation of that material.

And that document will be used by various stakeholders, not just local authorities,

but it will also be used by landowners and farmers.

And for those that want to integrate ecological gains of any sort, they should be using that

document.

So for example, the County Council have appointed

a local nature recovery strategy officer.

And she at the moment is currently engaging

with various stakeholders and including local authorities

to basically bring awareness to this document.

So they've now produced the document

and they've published documents

and that's all about the implementation stage.

So as I was talking earlier about these steering groups

and et cetera, I'm meeting one later this week,

I think Wednesday.

And that will be a topic there about how we reach

various stakeholders across the district and the county.

Thank you. Last question then.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 2:22:02

I mean, I got loads of questions I could ask, but the time is short.

Not possible.

I want to bring something you didn't mention in the report for kind of obvious reasons, but

my ward is in Moreton -in -Marsh and it includes the Fire Service College.

It's very prominent in the media at the moment about the problem

of PFAS and forever chemicals.

It's a huge issue, and it's a potentially huge issue

in our area.

And we have developments being planned in areas that were once

or we have got developments that took place in former Fire

Service College land and others in areas

where forever chemicals have been reported.

Have we done, I know we've done some tests, I know the Environment Agency late, after

much being pushed around, did do some tests, but can we declare to the residents of Moreton

in Marsh that we are thoroughly confident that the state of the land there is safe for

then and that it would be safe for new developments in that area or should we commission an investigation

and assessment that gives us a really solid understanding of the situation there and what

we might need to do?

Officer - 2:23:34

That's a great question but unfortunately I'm not the correct officer to be asking.

It's probably a question for environmental health and the contaminated land officer.

I don't cover those aspects. So sorry, and I didn't include it in my report. It's not part of the aims. Sorry

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 2:23:48

Okay, it's not your it's not your remit, but as an ecology it from an ecological point of view

This is an ecological issue, isn't it?

It is but it's not something that I cover

Officer - 2:23:56

I mean my team is very much limited to development management and the local plan review

Which is why councillor Harris and others have brought that up this afternoon

But, yeah, we have separate offices that deal with the

contaminated land issue, and I'm sure they'd be more than

willing to provide a response.

I'd have to go back to them on that.

And they certainly are working on it, I can assure you.

Councillor Juliet Layton - 2:24:16

That there are, there is work going on about that

contaminated land.

So you're saying that there is already an assessment process

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 2:24:26

going on on the situation there on that land, including,

for example, the land near the evenload road off the A44 to assess it and to declare it

safe or not safe?

I don't know how far they've got with it.

Councillor Juliet Layton - 2:24:45

You're talking about the leaching, the run -off, wasn't it?

Yeah.

I'm not sure how far they've got with that, and I haven't spoken to them for a while,

so I can't give you anything updated.

And it's kind of not, I mean, it's not now in my portfolio.

So I knew about it when I was the portfolio holder

for that area.

Dr. Anne Poulton -McKellen Well, thank you.

Thank you for that.

I've got some questions.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:25:09

I know that time's running short and there are some people

who need to get home or even to London.

So I was on page 18.

You talk about the special tool which is for the local

niche recovery.

Would that have implications for planning decisions?

It says plan and something or other decisions,

but would that cover it?

I'm going to give you all my questions,

and then I find it easier that way.

Well, I hope you find it easier, too.

There's a statement that the council supports

car -free Cotswolds, and I want to know how this funding's

provided and what is being done for a car -free Cotswolds.

And the thing about we've planted a lot of trees,

huge numbers about, oh, six years ago,

everybody was talking about tree planting.

I lost the county council and said it was going to plant

two million trees or something.

And I'm just wondering how many trees really have been

planted in the Cotswolds, if you have the numbers.

But also, where are the in -filled tree planting?

And you've got it down as in Stowe, Sarnes,

tester, wool as a port on the water, et cetera.

It would be interesting to know where these sites are for those

tree planting.

Thank you.

So the first question about the local nature recovery strategy,

I think you said about both plan and decision making.

Is that what you're going to say?

You can use it as, sorry, whether you can use it as a

reason to refuse a planning application in a nature

sensitive area.

Officer - 2:26:47

It's not supposed to be a tool that's used to prevent development management.

It's supposed to be a tool that shapes development management.

So when the planning policy team are looking to allocate their strategic sites, they should

be using that tool to sift out those that really shouldn't be developed and should

be left for nature.

Or where they are going to allocate those strategic sites, they're saying, for example,

oh, well, the Westin corridor should be secured, and that should be infilled with a woodland

cox because it connects ancient woodland to the south and to the north.

So, it's supposed to be a tool in that sense.

It's an opportunities tool.

With regards to decision -making, so developers where their

applications are subject to biodiversity net gain, they now

have to demonstrate that they've delivered net gain by using this

tool, and if they deliver it by using the measures described

in this tool, they get a better uplift, which means they actually

have to do less, but it's to incentivize them to create the

right habitat in the right place.

I'm sure you've heard it before about the right tree in the

right place.

Well that goes across all appetite types.

So that's the motive behind that when I'm referring to plan and decision making.

I'm interested to come back on that one.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:27:52

I do get that and I do see, I mean sometimes developers take that biodiversity net gain

elsewhere and they're still allowed to do that.

But the real issue which is coming up is that by having a lot more green space within a

new development, there have been problems with the maintenance and the cost of the maintenance

going forward because of course what you're doing is putting in areas which

cost more and that is it's for the people who bind those properties often

as though it turns out to be a negative despite the fact they like to hear the

Officer - 2:28:28

trees. Yeah that's a fair comment and there have been instances in the past

where it has been difficult to get developers to plant what's been agreed

so I'm aware of those applications but moving forward and what we have really

tried to do since the BNG went live and become mandatory,

is ensure that what we are securing on site

is actually achievable in those 30 years.

So it's lovely when a developer says,

we're going to plant this wildflower meadow,

and it's going to be species rich

and what we call a good condition within 30 years'

time.

But in actual fact, if you look at most residential

developments, they don't achieve that.

And that's because you do want children to use those spaces,

and you want people to be able to walk their dogs, et cetera.

You want people to be able to use that green space.

That's what green space is for.

And so now, what we're trying to do

is set realistic standards for these developments.

And then if they can't achieve 10%,

let's say they achieve 8%, that's

when they look at off -site and they go and buy units

from an off -site provider.

So it's making sure what we do on -site

is deliverable, because they have to demonstrate it is,

and ensuring that what they say they're going to plant

is actually planted.

It is really the future management,

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:29:32

because of course the developer passes that responsibility

over in the future, and that's when the issues arise.

So yes, in the last thing it was really about, well it was about the carless transport, car -free

transport or COTSPODS and also the amount of trees and where they're planted in those places.

Officer - 2:29:54

So with regards to the car -free, the reference I referred to in the table, I don't know too much information about that.

I'd have to go back to Joseph and his team, Chris in particular, and find out a bit more information.

I wasn't able to get that in time for this committee.

and the final question was about in field tree planting again this the

precise locations I can go and find that for you I was just provided that

information by our tree officers thank you I think that would be appreciated so

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:30:15

thank you now I've got a counsellor van we are actually what's right oh not that

clocks fast so a bit more time several of 20s our

deadline thank you no I'll be I'll be very quick because some chair very

Councillor Michael Vann - 2:30:30

nicely use the word etc for places and one of those is the little town of

Fairford and I'm going to say that I'll write you if I if I may so that you can

get in contact as to where these infill schemes are because it would be really

helpful to know. Yeah that's absolutely fine not a problem. Most of the infill

Officer - 2:30:58

planting because obviously the Cotswolds as a national landscape is those kind of

open rolling hills so you don't want great big copses of woodland being

planted. What it often is is it's leftover lands that we owned where we've

sold off land in the past and we just own road verges or whatever it may be

and those are the areas that we're looking to plant trees but I will come

back to you with more specific detail.

Thank you. I mean it's been a very interesting report and actually something we've

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:31:27

looking forward to. So thank you very much for that and presenting it so clearly.

Were there any other questions or anything else? I don't think we've got a particular

recommendation except sort of keep going with the work and thank you. And it's

very interesting to understand more how you're working with GCC and other

authorities as well. It's a comprehensive thing. It's not just Cotswolds. It has to be looked at

Thank you.

Did anybody else?

Thank you.

So thank you for your time.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:32:14

And now we've got the updates from the GCC Scrutiny Committee.

14 Updates from Gloucestershire County Council Scrutiny Committees

We've got one member of the Scrutiny Committee here who has provided us with his report.

in advance and we've also now had the one from Dydis Neil on HOSC. I don't know if you've

all had a chance to read through them or whether you've got any comments to make. They're always

actually very interesting reading. Again, this is just talking about cross agency or

cross council working. I always find both of them very good. Did anybody have any questions

they wanted to ask Councillor Jenkinson?

Very good report.

Councillor Michael Vann - 2:32:51

Excellent report. So thank you.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:32:53

But thank you for the time and effort you put into the reports.

And it does help when we give them in a task.

Can I ask a question?

Yes, you can.

Thank you. It's very kind of you.

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 2:33:06

It's a bit difficult because I'm writing the reports before we get the minutes.

And that means that I'm relying on the original papers

papers, any reports we received, and my memory, and whatever I noted down. The minutes would

obviously add more, but it would mean that you'd be waiting longer to get it. So the

question I've got is, is it best that I just carry on the way I do, or would you prefer

...

The only thing I would say, Angus, is if you think there's anything in here from the minutes

Councillor David Cunningham - 2:33:38

after where you need to correct it, just put that in as an addendum on your report.

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:33:48

That's an excellent suggestion, but I do think they're useful reports, so thank you for those.

Now we've got the work plan and forward plan. I mentioned earlier that we've got Yubico coming

15 Work Plan and Forward Plan

in September. Was there anything else that people feel urgently needs to be or should be looked at

an advance of cabinet or any other suggestions. We obviously are going to be

doing local plan and LGR as they come along. So, there's plenty to be doing so

but thank you all for your time and we're slightly ahead of time which is a

Councillor David Cunningham - 2:34:33

13th April to the 1st June. That's not a typo, I thought it would be the 1st May. We do like

to have an ONS meeting every four weeks, don't we?

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 2:34:48

We are having two meetings in June. So don't you worry. May has a lot of bank holidays

which fall on Mondays.

So I think that's the reason.

So the first of June is the next meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, everyone.

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Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Monday 13 April 2026, 4:00pm - Cotswold District Council Webcasting

Overview and Scrutiny CommitteeMonday, 13th April 2026 at 4:00pm

Agenda

Slides

Transcript

Map

Resources

Twitter

Forums

Speakers

Feedback

Votes

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:00:07

1 Apologies

Councillor Joe Harris - 0:00:44

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:00:51

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:01:04

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:01:22

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:01:36

Councillor Joe Harris - 0:01:46

Councillor Paul Evans - 0:01:55

Councillor Clare Turner - 0:02:04

Councillor Tony Slater - 0:02:11

Councillor Michael Vann - 0:02:17

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:02:21

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:02:27

3 Declarations of Interest

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:02:42

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:03:01

4 Minutes

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:03:37

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:04:24

Councillor Clare Turner - 0:04:37

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:04:48

Councillor Joe Harris - 0:05:05

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:05:27

5 Matters Arising from Minutes of the Previous Meeting

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:06:09

6 Chair's Announcements

7 Public Questions

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:10:59

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:11:06

Public Speaker - 0:11:18

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:13:32

8 Member Questions

9 Report back on recommendations

10 Financial Performance Report - Q3 2025-26

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:15:26

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:15:33

Officer - 0:19:17

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:23:41

Councillor Joe Harris - 0:23:46

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:24:58

Officer - 0:25:49

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:26:10

Councillor Michael Vann - 0:26:19

Officer - 0:28:29

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:28:31

Councillor Michael Vann - 0:30:05

Councillor Michael Vann - 0:30:23

Officer - 0:31:06

Councillor Michael Vann - 0:31:29

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:31:34

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:32:00

Officer - 0:32:24

Angela Claridge - 0:32:37

Councillor Michael Vann - 0:34:03

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:34:07

Councillor Clare Turner - 0:34:13

Angela Claridge - 0:34:44

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:35:39

Councillor Paul Evans - 0:35:51

Officer - 0:36:21

Councillor Gina Blomefield - 0:36:36

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:36:45

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:38:52

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:40:06

Officer - 0:40:42

Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:41:26

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:41:39

Overview and Scrutiny Committee
Monday, 13th April 2026 at 4:00pm