Cabinet - Thursday 16 April 2026, 6:00pm - Cotswold District Council Webcasting

Cabinet
Thursday, 16th April 2026 at 6:00pm 

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  1. Councillor Mike Evemy
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  1. 03. To approve the minutes of a Cabinet meeting held 5 March 2026
    Status: In progress
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. 03. To approve the minutes of a Cabinet meeting held 5 March 2026
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Andrea Pellegram
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Tony Dale
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
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  1. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Mike Evemy
  4. Councillor Andrea Pellegram
  5. Councillor Mike Evemy
  6. Councillor Juliet Layton
  7. Councillor Mike Evemy
  8. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  9. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  10. Councillor Mike Evemy
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  1. Councillor Mike Evemy
  2. Officer
  3. Councillor Mike Evemy
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  1. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Officer
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. Councillor Tristan Wilkinson
  6. Councillor Mike Evemy
  7. Officer
  8. Councillor Tristan Wilkinson
  9. Councillor Mike Evemy
  10. Councillor Mike Evemy
  11. Councillor Tristan Wilkinson
  12. Councillor Mike Evemy
  13. Councillor Tony Dale
  14. Councillor Mike Evemy
  15. 12. To approve the amendments to and delegation of the Discretionary Rate Relief Policy
    Status: In progress
  16. Councillor Mike Evemy
  17. 12. To approve the amendments to and delegation of the Discretionary Rate Relief Policy
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Tony Dale
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  4. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  5. Councillor Mike Evemy
  6. 13. To endorse and recommend the adoption of the Publica Business Plan 2026-28
    Status: In progress
  7. Councillor Mike Evemy
  8. 13. To endorse and recommend the adoption of the Publica Business Plan 2026-28
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Mike Evemy
  2. 14. To approve the changes to and delegation of the Publica Governance and Extension of Service Agreement
    Status: In progress
  3. Councillor Tristan Wilkinson
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. 14. To approve the changes to and delegation of the Publica Governance and Extension of Service Agreement
    Status: Ended
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  1. Angela Claridge
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Andrea Pellegram
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. Councillor Juliet Layton
  6. Councillor Mike Evemy
  7. Councillor Tristan Wilkinson
  8. Angela Claridge
  9. Councillor Mike Evemy
  10. Councillor Tony Dale
  11. Councillor Mike Evemy
  12. Councillor Juliet Layton
  13. Councillor Mike Evemy
  14. 15. To approve the Retention Strategy 2026-28
    Status: In progress
  15. Councillor Andrea Pellegram
  16. Councillor Mike Evemy
  17. 15. To approve the Retention Strategy 2026-28
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Tristan Wilkinson
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Mike McKeown
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. Angela Claridge
  6. Councillor Mike Evemy
  7. Councillor Juliet Layton
  8. Councillor Mike Evemy
  9. 16. To approve the Advertising, Sponsorship and Endorsement Policy
    Status: In progress
  10. 16. To approve the Advertising, Sponsorship and Endorsement Policy
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Mike McKeown
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Officer
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. Councillor Andrea Pellegram
  6. Councillor Mike Evemy
  7. Councillor Juliet Layton
  8. Councillor Mike McKeown
  9. Councillor Mike Evemy
  10. Councillor Tristan Wilkinson
  11. Councillor Mike Evemy
  12. Councillor Andrea Pellegram
  13. Councillor Mike Evemy
  14. 17. To approve the AI Usage Policy and AI Adoption Strategy and Roadmap
    Status: In progress
  15. Councillor Mike Evemy
  16. 17. To approve the AI Usage Policy and AI Adoption Strategy and Roadmap
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Tony Dale
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Andrea Pellegram
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. Councillor Juliet Layton
  6. Councillor Mike Evemy
  7. Councillor Tony Dale
  8. Councillor Mike Evemy
  9. 17. To approve the AI Usage Policy and AI Adoption Strategy and Roadmap
    Status: In progress
  10. Councillor Mike Evemy
  11. 18. To approve the recommendations 1-3 for the creation of a Commercial Development Post
    Status: Ended
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  1. Officer
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Andrea Pellegram
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. 19. To note and endorse the UBICO Business Plan 2026-27
    Status: In progress
  6. 19. To note and endorse the UBICO Business Plan 2026-27
    Status: Ended
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  1. Nickie Mackenzie-Daste, Officer
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Webcast Finished

Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:00:00
year. Welcome to everybody in the room and those watching along online either
live or watching us on catch -up. I think they term it now. So apologies for
absence there are none as I can see all seven cabinet members are sat in the

1 Apologies

2 Declarations of Interest

room. So the second item is the declarations of interest. Does any member
of the cabinet have any interest or any officer have an interest that they wish
to declare at this point.
I'll see if you subsequently become aware of that.
You can declare it as soon as you do.
Okay. Then we'll move on to the minutes then.

3 Minutes

They're on page, start on page 9 and run through to page 20.
Does anybody have any corrections to the minutes?
Looking around, nobody has.
So I'll take it that members are content.
So we need just a proposer for the minutes and a seconder for the minutes.
You can do that for me.
Juliette is going to propose and then Tristan to second.
So we will now go to the vote then, please, on the minutes.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:01:13
I think that's six in favour and one abstention.
Andrea wasn't at the last meeting.

4 Leader's Announcements

So moving on then to leaders announcements. I start off this evening
with a sad announcement to relate to members the sad passing of Michael
Patrick Wilkes last week. Michael had worked with Cotswold District Council
since 2013. He was a very valued and diligent member of both the independent
remuneration panels and also as an independent person for us working on
standards matters with Angela, Angela Clarage our Director of Governance. I
know his advice was very much appreciated by officers and councillors
alike and personally I also play tennis with Mike so you know very sad news and
our thoughts are with his family at this time. Moving on I just wanted to make a
observation about, I had a letter this week from the Secretary of State about the Renters
Rights Act and the first phase of which comes into force on the 1st of May, 2026. And this
is quite significant legislation that the government have put through to change how
tenancies work. And there's been quite a lot of publicity around that. And obviously, we
will be doing our bit as a council working with our landlords locally and
we've got officers who are looking into the detail of how we'll be doing that
and with a little bit of money that the government has given us sixty thousand
pounds to give us opportunity I think they in their letter it suggests that
that one you can Avery Council that's the lowest that any council is getting
but there are quite a few getting the same we can use that money to employ
someone to support the work of the council on that. So that's just
come through. And then just wanted to touch on planning matters. So members will
be aware that I recently received a further letter from the government in
response to our continued representations on housing targets
and we published that earlier on this week. Those of you, I'm sure members here
have seen it but anyone who wants to have a look at it you I think you can
find the letters on our website but yeah what you'll see is that the ministers
has politely said no we're not going to change the housing numbers but there is
recognition in the letter that we got about the significant environmental
infrastructure and sustainability constraints that we've got in the
Cotswold district as we all know our housing target sort of more than doubled
18 months ago.
And that means we've got to deliver over 1 ,000 homes a year
in one of the country's most protected
and sensitive landscapes.
So my letter that was sent off back in February,
which went alongside representations that had been
made from various parishes, town councils, community groups,
individuals, yeah, really, I think, told, said to the
government that it's unrealistic for an authority like ours
and really the target that is and doesn't really reflect how dispersed
constraints districts can function. But the government has been incredibly
consistent in its response. This is the third letter I've sent and the third
response we've had. They're clear that we must address this in our local
plan through our local plan process and we have to use the targets as a starting
points. So that is obviously what we we are doing and you know we obviously
remain committed to doing that and the plan led system and we're progressing
our local plan but and it is frankly obviously very frustrating that we
haven't been able to shift their shift their view at all. But you know as I said
that you can see there's a reflection in what they've said in terms of
acknowledging it but they're not making any change to in their policy or in any
action. So we'll obviously continue to think about what we can do working with
our MPs and representing our communities but you know that's the environment
which we are operating in. And then that takes me on to the second thing I wanted
to mention in my announcements about planning. The council this week took a
difficult decision to withdraw from the planning appeal
relating to a proposed 195 home development
on land located east of Moreton in Marsh.
On the recommendations of officers,
the planning committee had refused the application
last year on sound planning grounds
and the council was prepared to fully,
prepared fully to robustly defend
that decision at the appeal.
However, following detailed review of the evidence
that was emerging as part of the local plan process
and further changes proposed by the government
and national planning policy, we've received independent advice
that the chances of success that we might have
at the appeal were extremely limited.
Continuing in that appeal would have exposed local taxpayers
to a significant risk of very significant costs,
potentially running into hundreds of thousands of pounds
with very little prospect of winning.
So I wanted to reassure members of the public watching that this isn't about
the fact that we've withdrawn from this appeal, it's not about a lack of resolve
as a council, it is about a planning system that is now weighted very
deliberately in favour of housing development even where there are local
concerns. The increased housing targets, expanded use of tilted balance and new
presumptions around development near transport hubs have fundamentally shifted
the goalposts since the application was refused last October and where we can
demonstrate clearly demonstrate harm we will continue to challenge proposals but
where we can't our focus must be on securing the best possible outcomes for
our communities and really what I've just sort of kept draw to a close on is
that this situation really demonstrates why progressing and getting a sound
local plan is the only realistic way that we can regain meaningful control
over where and how development takes place in our district and that process
as we have agreed as a council will essentially restart from a public
perspective in the in August when we take a decision as a council to go to
Regulation 19 consultation on the 12th of August and then that consultation is
due to start in the last week of August. Thank you. We'll now move on to the next

5 Public Questions

item on our agenda which is public questions. Can't see any members of the
public here to ask a question. So we'll move on to member questions and we

6 Member Questions

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

haven't had any of those. And then item 7, Schedule of Decisions taken by the
of the council or individual cabinet members.
We've got in our papers on page 21 to 24,
decision taken by Juliet, cabinet member
for housing and planning.
But I don't think there's any need to discuss any of those.
So we're just noting those.
Then we'll move on to item eight,

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

issues arising from overview and scrutiny
and or audit and governance committee.
So we had both of those met very recently,
audit and governance last Thursday,
Ovi and Scrutiny on Monday.
I'm sort of looking to offices.
I was at most of both of them,
but we haven't had any specific recommendations
for us to consider this evening.
Although obviously we will be looking at the items,
particularly that Ovi and Scrutiny looked at
in the course of our agenda.
the first one of which is the next item on the agenda.
So I will then move on to agenda item nine.
I'm conscious we've got a very long agenda.

9 Service Performance Report 2025-26 Quarter 3

So I'm moving at a little bit of pace,
hopefully in this evening,
but we will see endeavour to do to diligence
to all of the items on the agenda.
So the first one item nine is the service performance report
for the third quarter of 25, 26.
So that's running from the pages 25 to pages 88 and that was back in the third
quarter which was October to December of last year. So just by very way very
brief introduction and then the members have had the chance to have a look at
What the report, and we've got Gemma here to answer any questions that members may have,
and she was ably doing that on Monday with me at the Opioid and Scrutiny Committee.
It really, obviously the key things that, some of the key things we delivered were our
response to the local government reorganisation request from the government.
We had our first meeting of our climate board.
We got the EV charges, I think, in across car parks.
We were looking at the capital fleet replacement.
And yeah, we did the Regulation 18 consultation
on a local plan I was just talking about,
which is very significant.
And we've had some good results out of leisure contract
from our leisure centre.
So I'm probably going to stop there and because I don't want to just read a list
but I'm going to open it up for questions or comments from members and
obviously Gemma and I will do our best to answer your questions so who would
like to kick off with something on this? Andrea? Yeah. Thank you chair. I don't
Councillor Andrea Pellegram - 0:11:53
have any questions. I just wanted to compliment officers we've got here today
On the environmental regulatory services, we had 100 %
of premises inspected for high risk food
and other high risk notifications.
So please take that back to the team, which is really great.
And we're also making really good progress on waste.
The waste recycling has actually dropped slightly.
That's because of the hot summer and the green waste fell.
However, in terms of gloss assure
everybody else's waste dropped as well.
so our recycling levels dropped as well.
So we're not special
and we're still doing very well nationally, which is good.
I think we're a good news storey on recycling
and we're also making good progress on our priorities
with the fleet replacement.
We're now in an advanced stage of procurement.
We're looking at the configuration of the vehicles
to make sure that we're ready for the flexible plastics
that we have to start collecting next year.
And we're making progress on installing our fuel tanks
so that we can move to the HVO fuel.
So it's all good news.
Thanks very much, officers.
Thank you, Andrea, for that.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:13:02
And there was a little bit of discussion about where we were
in the league table at the Ovian Scre
and it turns out we're 25th.
But as Councillor Joe Harris pointed out amongst district
councils, I think we're something like 14th.
So we're definitely top quartile.
And, you know, clearly there has been a national reduction in some of the recycling.
And that's obviously we talked about how the government is introducing changes,
which obviously largely we're already doing.
The plastic film you mentioned is the one to come next year.
But obviously we've already been collecting food waste on a weekly basis for the last seven years.
So that's not new for us.
Anyone else got things to say?
Tony.
Yeah, it's only a very quick one, Mike.
Councillor Tony Dale - 0:13:58
It's just so nice to see that lovely rare point where the leisure services are doing
really well for once.
And it's so nice to see that the memberships are up, which means that the staff are delivering
in whatever ways are appropriate, we're delivering a service that people want to make use of.
And remember, the upside of that is that the more of our residents we can get through our
leisure services facilities, whether it's swimming, the Learn to Swim lessons are going
up, then it's good for our general health and well -being,
and that means it's good for our general health service because
we will be making fewer demands on our health service
in the future.
So it's all around a very positive thing.
It would be a shame given that I also have the cost of air
and car parking.
We also, not to remind people that actually more people are
coming to park in all of our car parks across the Cotswolds.
So despite any sort of relatively small fees we have
in parking, the general receipts we take from car parking are also supporting what we do
in all these other non -staturacy services such as providing leisure and cultural services.
So I'm chuffed to bits with this.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:15:05
Thank you, Tony.
And I think on the next report we'll have a look at the numbers around car parking.
Anyone else got anything they wanted to say on this before I bring note? Okay so I
think it's a note report so and I think we'll just yeah note obviously the
progress and the priorities and service performance. So we did spend quite a bit
of time at the overview and scrutiny committee so anyone who wants to watch
that back and get a little bit more of the scrutiny side of this report then
please do watch that back on our webcast. Okay thank you very much and
thanks Jammer for being here and not having to answer any questions. We'll
move on to the next item which is the financial performance report item 10 on

10 Financial Performance Report 2025-26 Quarter 3

page 89. So we've got Councillor Coleman and David Stanley is
online. I can't see him but he's somewhere in the ether. Right okay so over to you
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:16:15
Patrick. Thank you chair. The quarter three report which takes us up to the
end of December last year shows generally almost completely steady
progress and positive impacts through just about everything on our income
which is the details of which are provided in the report.
The Evergreen extruding committee will be assured to hear that we are fiscally sound
and not needing to borrow any money.
And you can see some of the details of that when I go up to 12 where there's a couple
of under achievements in income, but there's half a dozen improvements or additional income.
I made that something like 165 ,000 extra just in that little paragraph.
There's a general policy continuing, which I think most members are aware of, in that
where funds have become available through overachievement and the cutting costs, they
go into one of our key reserves, which is to help us be certain that we've got enough
funds to get through to the local government reorganisation and to achieve a balanced budget
for the last time we set it, because I think we do have to set a budget in April.
I don't think I need to anymore other than to again thank David Stanley and his team,
both for the work they have done in preparing this, but also for the quality of the answers
supplied at the overview and scrutiny committee which I was very grateful for.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:18:00
Thank you very much Patrick and I can now see David on my screen. Is there
anything David that you would like to add to what Patrick has just said? If
you heard any of that I don't know. Oh I heard that loudly and clearly so
thank you chair for the invitation to make comment. I would draw members
attention to page 92 of the pack that has table ES2 which sets out the
variations that make up the overall bottom line variation of 95 in our sorry
95 45 in our favour particularly draw your attention to the variation on
planning fees which I know has been covered that's increased to six hundred
£74 ,000 worth of income that the council has received over and above the budgeted level
but members will note from previous comments that that has been transferred in its entirety
to the planning appeals reserve given the risks that there are around planning appeals
and challenges given the local plan position. As mentioned by the chair, car park performance
has remained positive. We are reporting a slight increase at the Q3 level, but for those
members with a calendar in front of them, you'll probably realise we've already reached
the end of the financial year. I'm fairly confident that number will be higher in the
out -turn report that members will receive for the end of the financial year. But we're
transferring 165 ,000 across to the EMR reserve to enable the car park ticket machines to
be purchased during the first quarter of the 26 -27 financial year.
And the other thing I'd point out is the Treasury management position.
Given section three of this report, which follows on pages 95, sets out where we are
in relation to the external economic environment.
members would appreciate that this would have been won't have an effect on the Q3
position and is unlikely to have a material impact on the Q4 position but
there is a cautionary position set out in the section 3 around where fuel
prices energy prices may be heading and the ability for the council to manage
that external pressure given interest rates are likely to increase although I
to the Bank of England has either yesterday or today indicated they're more cautious about
pushing those interest rates up than may have been suggested immediately after the Iran
war commencing on the 28th of February. But fuel prices are still under pressure. I think
they have stabilised, although stabilised at a significantly higher level than has been
allowed for in the 26, 27 budgets. We just need to keep that under review. But clearly
the strong financial position set out in this report for Q3 and for 25 -26 will
allow the council to take some decisions in the out -turn report to ensure that
financial sustainability can be maintained during the course of the
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:21:21
current financial year. Thank you very much David and apologies if I kept my
microphone on then and people didn't see you I've just realised. So anyone got
Any other questions?
Yeah, Andrea, or points?
Point, it's not a question, Chair.
I just wanted to say, even though I just said
Councillor Andrea Pellegram - 0:21:37
that everything is looking really good in waste,
I've got to fess up here.
There is a little bit of adverse, we're 63 ,000,
yeah 63 ,000 pounds adverse against budget on UBICO.
They've had quite a bad year with regard to our stuff.
They've had problems with staffing and vacancy.
And they've had to hire vehicles because our fleet is falling
to pieces but we're and they are have training expenses,
sickness, but of course item 19 is the Yubico business plan
where they're addressing these things
and of course the key thing is
that we're actually replacing our vehicles
so they won't be breaking down so much so that should be good.
We also have to look next year at our container,
waste receptacle container budget which looks like it's not good enough because
we're getting all these new houses thanks to the planning side and they
need to have new bins so we're going to have to look at that budget but other
than that everything's looking quite good thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:22:40
Thanks Andrea anyone else got anything yet Juliet? Well I was just going to
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:22:46
mention about development management fees and the fact that you know they're
incredibly well and there's a good side and a bad side to that. The bad side
is because we you know the five -year land supply but the amount of work
they're doing is phenomenal to be turning over this amount of
work so all credit to them in that department. And I'd also like to mention
building control which I know that I think we used to run about sort of 40 %
the market, which was a steady rate for us.
On this paper, it's saying we're up to 68.
When I said 40 percent, it was quite a while ago,
but I believe we're now at around about 75 percent,
which is huge, actually, for the amount of people
doing the work down there.
So getting all this work in puts another impact somewhere else,
and I think, you know, we can look at figures and think,
oh, we'll look, you know, that's in the red,
we're in the money.
that looks great but there are other concerns that come with it. Absolutely
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:23:56
and that's I think how why we're looking at this report in conjunction with the
last one where you know the pressure on that service is a good example of demand
led and but we're getting more money but then they're they're having them more
pressure put on them similarly with obviously with the planning service and
the planning offices. So there's no more I was just going to sort of yeah see
particularly highlight you know I think the point made around yeah the planning
fees that's a very significant amount of money and as I said in my announcements
earlier yeah planning appeals can be very very expensive because applicants
you know who want their appeals potentially are able to spend a lot of
money on them and they do carry a lot of risk for us so having that ability to
have some money doesn't mean that and it's that we will always be able to
defend all of them and obviously we've had one where we feel we couldn't but it
does give us the opportunity as a council to robustly defend appeals where
we think we have a good chance of winning them and we're not conceding
because we can't afford to do it. I think that's the important point that yeah
that we're able to do that off the back of obviously a lot of applications that
we've had and as generally I would just want to pick up yeah obviously it's a
great thank Patrick and David for the work that you know they and the David's
team are doing to give us such a you know a pretty rosy report financially
and there's many other councils that would like to have a report like this
one I think but obviously noting what David was saying about yeah the bits in
the report talking about the the future of the economy and how uncertain all of
that is and there was quite a lot discussion that over the inscrites knee
wasn't there Patrick I'll let you come back in and sort of some aid but there
was a lot discussion about fuel price and how that the assumptions that we've
got in here which from memory I think David we were talking about £1 .44 or
something for a litre of diesel and you know those of us who drive diesel
vehicles know that you know it's nearly it's nearly £1 .90 now so you know
that's a very significant additional cost that you know we're having to find
at the moment so yeah it's a good position to be in at the end of Q3 but
as I said, we have and hopefully we will see something even better at Q4 in terms
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:26:46
of our outter. I'll go back to Patrick just to say anything in summation. Yes
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:26:48
thank you Trip. Perhaps I'll just reinforce the point about the difficult
decision on the question of the Morton planning application because it is
rather more than seven years ago that our planning committee refused an application
for one particular type of dwelling along the Fosse Way, rural agricultural workers'
dwelling against officers' advice, against expert advice. We were sadly influenced by
an impressive local councillor who no longer sits on this council. The upshot was our expert
witness couldn't come to support because they'd said we should approve it. We had
to get another expert witness to the appeal and they found our case was so
weak that they left us as well so there was no way we were going to win. That one
bungalow cost us eighty six thousand pound. I'm not saying we'd have paid a
hundred and whatever it is fifty times as much if we'd lost an appeal at Moreton but
when you've got highly paid experts of the sort who all pulled out and wouldn't
that wouldn't said we had no case you best listen it to them and it's a really
hard thing to do particularly if you're the local member but if you're sound in
finance which we weren't in those days different times then you'll follow the
experts advice but I appreciate how hard that is chat. Thank you Patrick and just
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:28:11
to clarify that is before our administration is knows under the
previous administration but obviously it's a decision of the Planning
committee just Angela's just pointing out to me and that Dave is just made a
comment so in terms of where we are with the fuel as particularly that was a
particular interest and is see the risk on that is that you BK are committed to
providing monthly financial reporting on fuel costs and purchases to give
assurance to members around how they're controlling and how we're working on the
fuel costs so I'm gonna we're just noting that report so there's no need
for a vote. I'm going to move us on, Mike, sorry. So we're going to move on to the
next item which is item 11. Thank David, I don't think he's staying for this as

11 Strategic Risk Register Q3 2025-26

well. Okay right so this one is the strategic, oh yes of course, it's got his
name on it, the strategic risk register. So yeah we've got this as a trio of
reports now to go alongside our performance and our finances looking at
our risks and the risk register has in the past just come to the Audit and
Governance Committee but it's I think we felt it was important idea that it came
here as well as the executive of the council that we have cited the
risk register and are able to comment on it and make any ask any questions around
So you've obviously got the register.
We've got a new risk around PCI DSS,
which is to do with payment cards compliance
and how we used that information.
But David, do you want to say anything to the report
before I open it for questions or comments?
Yeah, thank you, Chair.
Just to say this report on the Strategic Risk Register
was considered by Audit and Governance Committee at their meeting earlier in the month. We had a
very good discussion at that meeting around the risks and in particular, I suppose the focus of
that committee was on the risk register on page 132, the very first risk that's flagged there
around our preparedness for a civil contingency or a major event. And what that discussion was,
was asking us as senior officers whether we felt our business continuity plans were as
robust and up -to -date as possible. As members may appreciate, the Audit and Governance Committee
approached this from a slightly different perspective. They're wanting assurance that
the risk management arrangements, policy and the strategy are robust and fit for purpose.
There was an earlier report that that committee had considered around the annual governance
statement action plan that had also highlighted as a significant governance concern for 2526,
the state of our business continuity plans. So to reassure members, we do have business
continuity plans in place. They're in the process of being updated. Business impact
assessments have been undertaken for all the services that the council is responsible for.
Publica have done the same and there is a piece of work that is being undertaken in
conjunction with the corporate leadership team to review the business continuity plans
that would flow out of those business impact assessments and that will be completed by
the end of May.
So that's where a lot of the discussion was within audit and governance and also as the
has pointed out there is an escalated risk around the payment card industry data security
standard PCI DSS risk. That has been held as a service risk up until the review the
corporate leadership team undertook in February of this year. And that's largely because the
council is not compliant. And I know that there will be considerable debate around whether
or not. The council is in tier one, tier two, tier three, tier four. There are four tiers.
We're in the lowest tier. The likes of the Amazons and the multiple retailers who are processing
hundreds of thousands of transactions every day are in the top tier. We're in the bottom tier,
so in terms of the actual risk that is placed on the organisation. It's around the management
of those transactions where the card holder is not present.
And what this risk sets out is that we need to get
to a compliant position.
And John Cholton, the Chief Technology Officer,
has provided me with a fairly detailed assessment
of where we are, what those options are,
and it's more to work through.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:33:15
We might have lost David. It's more to work through. I think that's where he stopped. We
lost you David. We didn't hear anything after work through so I don't know if you can recall
your last of the 10 seconds and you want to reprise it or you feel that we've got the gist
by earlier on in what you said? I think you got the gist but what I was saying is
John Chawton, the Chief Technology Officer, has provided a very detailed
assessment of what needs to be assessed and considered as part of that further
mitigation. Thank you and John is actually in the room this evening so I
don't know, John did you want to say anything about that briefly? Yeah, thank
Officer - 0:34:03
Thank you, Chair. I don't really have much to add, actually.
I mean, it's been a risk for the council for many years.
The payment card industry standards change very regularly.
And it's always, you know, the council's always trying to catch up.
But we are in a very,
a very good position compared to some other councils in the area.
Thank you. Thank you, John.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:34:24
So back to members, do we have any questions or observations on the risk
register around the room no okay all right well I just want to say obviously
thank you and I think this is really useful that we have this here and we can
all by putting it on the cabinet agenda you know even though we're we're not
talking about it a lot we've all had the opportunity to read it and understand
what these risks are that we are holding on our corporate risk register so thank
you very much I don't think we need to vote on that because we're just noting
it so thanks David are you now going to leave us are you gonna yeah right well
thank you very much for joining us remotely yeah take care see you soon

12 Discretionary Rate Relief policy

okay so we're now going to move on to gender item 12 page 135 discretionary
rate relief policy I'm going to go to Councillor Coleman and we've got Mandy
father's business manager here as well. So over to you, Patrick.
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:35:31
Thank you, Chair. The discretionary rate relief policy is built on previous versions. We have
a couple of government initiatives which have had a fair amount of attention. It's worth
giving them a bit more today. I think paragraph 3 .5 reminds us that from the 1st of April
this month. A new 10 -year business 100 % business rate relief has come in for
standalone electric vehicle charging points and electric vehicle only four
courts. Guidance not yet published but the relief is in and perhaps with a
wider impact announced on the 27th of January and details on page 153. The
government announced eligible pubs and live music events in England get a 15 %
reduction on their business rates bills for the 26 -27 financial year. There are
eligibility criteria for the pubs and live music venues. I suspect that 15 %
will be welcome but probably leave a lot of these venues struggling but every one
of them is different from the others and there will be cases where that does make
a big difference. So it's not the easiest thing to follow. The District Council
pays 40 % of the subsidy and the County Council pays 10 % and Central Government
for once pays 50 % you'll see that in paragraph 4 .3. And as you may be able to
tell from my presentation, this may be the first time I've looked at this in
detail but we fortunately have Mandy Fathers here who is a renowned expert on
almost everything to do with these matters.
If there's any questions.
Thank you, Patrick.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:37:16
Does anybody want to ask a question?
Or shall I just dive in?
So, Mike probably is a bit more my question or observation.
So, in Addendum 3, we've got the supporting small
business relief.
So, this is another new scheme from the government.
if I've read that correctly.
So I suppose my question is to Mandy,
are we already doing these things because essentially we
they start from the 1st of April as far as the new
sort of reliefs year. So obviously we're formally essentially
we're going to have to agree the the policy that obviously
we've written out but essentially a large part that's come from the
government telling us this is what you've got to do and I think obviously
we've got the second recommendation which is they haven't actually got the
detail yet about the what they're doing with electric vehicle charging points so
we've got essentially delegates to Patrick also to David in consultation
with Patrick to do to agree that so maybe that wasn't much of a question
Mandy but maybe if you could just confirm I've sort of got that right yes
Officer - 0:38:44
that is correct for all the new annual bills that went out February March time
those reliefs should all be showing on those bills already but I would urge any
businesses who feel that they're missing out and they should get it get in
contact with with the council with the revenues department thank you thanks so
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:39:00
your team have basically decided what's a pub and what's a live music venue based
on essentially what we've got in here because there's a description of how
what is a pub and what isn't and what is a live music venue and what isn't which
obviously you have to use then to determine who gets the relief and who
doesn't. Anyone got anything else? Yeah, Tristan. Thank you chair you'd have to be
Councillor Tristan Wilkinson - 0:39:23
living under a rock to not appreciate the struggle a lot of small businesses
in this country are going through at the moment.
So I think my question to Mandy is, are we confident
that we are doing all we can
to communicate the opportunity to businesses?
I know a lot of local business owners in my community,
and a lot of them are very busy.
They might not be paying attention.
So I think we should be doing everything we possibly can
to make sure that this is an option for them to apply,
And also the application process is as frictionless and easy
as possible.
These are busy people trying to keep their businesses afloat.
So I just wanted to make sure that we're doing all we can.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:40:08
Thanks, Tristan.
Do they have to apply?
I think that some of them are mandatory, but are there some
they can apply for and some that they will have already got,
yeah, out and done by you?
So the discretionary side of things is an application.
Officer - 0:40:22
So they do have to apply for that.
and then they go to Councillor Coleman for approval.
And all the cons will be built after that.
Sorry, and in terms of us being proactive on the cons
and kind of letting people know
Councillor Tristan Wilkinson - 0:40:37
that that's available to them,
have we got a plan for that?
How's that done?
Is it sent in their bills and things like that?
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:40:45
So we amended the information on the backs
of the business rate bills this year,
and we've done a lot of signposting to our website
where we've updated all our website pages to give as much information there
as possible. So yes. There is also obviously our own business matters I
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:41:05
don't know if we've put anything in that often fronted by you Tristan I think. So
yeah the opportunity just to if we haven't already, Mandy, if you just cheque
pick that up with our communications team about the reliefs. Obviously it's
sort of clear what Appendix A there shows sort of what charities are entitled to
community amateur sports clubs and other organisations.
So last point that I think that's all really good, but I think that all relies on
Councillor Tristan Wilkinson - 0:41:37
businesses kind of you know
being curious enough. One thing I'd like to do is all by kind of fellow councillors of any sort of creed or colour
when you're attending your parish councils is to make people aware of this.
I think we can be more proactive. I think I often get questions when I go to my
town and parish councils about what supports available so I would encourage
my colleagues to make sure that we are talking about this as every opportunity
so those who don't sign up to business matters or are looking at the council
website which is going to be the vast majority of small businesses that you
know they have every opportunity to understand that this is a really good
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:42:18
thing that they can apply for. I think we've got a lot of businesses signed up
to business matters. Tony used to front it very regularly, he might even know
the number but yeah but I take your point Tristan. Well I don't quote me on
Councillor Tony Dale - 0:42:31
it but I think we used to have nearly three and a half thousand businesses
signed up to business matters so I know an officer will correct me if it's not
three and a half thousand but the important thing to remember if it's
three and a half thousand Tristan then that's out of only six thousand micro
businesses and there's nine thousand businesses also in the Cotswolds we've
got a huge coverage we really how we do pretty well I'd love it if every
business signed up I really would because business matters carries all the
really useful information about what is happening to the business taxation side
of government if you like so it's really valuable to all businesses whether
small or large and what's more just so the businesses know if they are watching
tonight, the valuations office agency, the VOA, is being very, very focused on reassessing
business rates this year for small businesses. And I have already had two examples where
business rates have gone up by over 300%, which is ludicrous. And those businesses quite
rightly are appealing that scale of rise because no business can handle that. And the right
answer, if they get that scale of business rate rise, is to appeal it to the VOA. There
are ways to do it. I've already been told that that process is tortuous. And it's no
surprise to anyone the process is tortuous because the rise is algorithmically driven
and the process to appeal, which is tortuous, includes things like you have a lift and you
have disabled facilities, please can you provide us the receipts when you put those in? And
And then when the business tries to say I don't have those facilities, they then want
the receipts for when you took them out.
So I mean that's an example, that is a living example of the process some poor business
is going through.
And I really empathise with small businesses having to deal with this approach to taxation.
It's really not my style of government.
So I do encourage any businesses watching, sign up to business matters, do think about
with the VOA are really giving you the right business rates, rating and make sure that
you make your case known. By all means get in touch with Cotswold District Council if
you think you have a case to hear. And I know that Mandy Fathers and her team, whom I have
worked with for many years and is an inveterate professional, will absolutely give them the
right hearing. So thank you Mandy for what you do.
Thank you Tony.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:44:58
Anyone else got anything else on this one?
No?
Okay, so we've got some recommendations to vote on this time.
So, well I'll come back to you Patrick.
Oh right, okay.
You're proposing and I think I was going to second.
So we proposed and seconded.
So recommendations are to approve the amendments to the discretionary rate relief policy as
detailed in the report.
And the second one is to delegate to chief finance officer
in consultation with the cabinet member for finance.
Any future amendments to the policy in respect
of electric vehicle charging points
and electric vehicle for calls?
We'll go to the vote then please.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:45:47
Thank you, that's seven votes unanimously in favour.
thanks Maddie for your work as Tony said that your team does. So we're

13 Publica Business Plan 2026-28

moving on now to agenda item 13 the public business plan joined this evening
by Christine Gore who's the chair of the Public Board and Claire Locke is one of
the public executive directors. So just to introduce this as the accountable
person. The business plan that you've got in front of you was consulted with the
shareholder forum and that is a forum which I'm chairing this year. It's of
the four leaders and the chief execs of the publisher Publica councils. Frank
Wilson the MD of Publica and I also attended Open View and Scrutiny committee
on Monday and answered questions from the members there. Publica is still a
key service delivery partner for us as a council and the business plan here sets
out the services it's continuing to deliver on our behalf. As we know there's
been a significant period of change with the the transition of services back to
councils. Publica is now looking to the future and particularly thinking about the challenges
that we all face with local government reorganisation. So within the business plan, there is a two
year sort of plan looking at the work programme to prepare Publica, its services and its people
for local government reorganisation. And just to remind members of Publica's service council,
West Oxfordshire over the other side of the county boundary as well as three
councils in Gloucestershire. So there has been no decision yet about the
future of Public Ur and obviously we haven't got the decision about the
future of local councils in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire yet either.
So really what's in here is what the organisation is going to focus on in the
next two years, how it's looking to work together with the partner councils to
prepare for local government reorganisation. So I'll sort of stop there and
open it up to members for comments and questions. I know Christine and Claire are
happy to help me answer any questions that you might have. Who would like to
Councillor Tony Dale - 0:48:29
say something? Tony. Yeah I've got to be honest and having written an awful lot
business plans over an awful long career. I do empathise enormously with Frank as Managing
Director and with Christine and Claire. Trying to write this must have been like trying to
hit a moving target. And how on earth you managed to produce something coherent, ready
for local government reorganisation is, well, credit to you, well done. The point being,
and I do think it's important to note, on behalf of the member councils and the shareholders
within it is that keeping my experience is keeping your options open when you are heading
into major transformation is always a good thing, providing that it doesn't add any additional
cost. I think we might be in the lucky, the rare position here of actually being able
to constrain and manage forward our costs even better because we have this ongoing arrangement
and it retains the flexibility of making choices about services
in the future as we go into local government reorganisation.
I think that is a nice thing to have.
And I actually am really rather pleased that we are seeing a
little bit of a vision of how that might work over the next
couple of years, even potentially as far forward as
2030, which is obviously four years away yet.
So I'm pleased to see it.
I think it's a good thing.
I like to look on it as more of an assurance policy than an insurance policy.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:50:03
Thank you very much Tony. Any other members want to say anything about this report?
I can see Patrick flicking through it. I'm sure he's had a chance to look at it before.
So it looks like he's poised to say something, Patrick.
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:50:19
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:50:21
I was wondering if I should declare some sort of an interest here because I've known Christine
Gore in a previous location probably for more than 30 years now and it feels like I've known
Frank almost as long.
I really do appreciate the talents of these two and indeed of the others leading Publica.
They've had a fair bit of change over the last few years but I was struck that we've
a couple of it is criticals in their foreword and certainly it is good to see
that the priorities and the challenges have been clearly outlined. On balance,
well more than on balance, it's clear to me that the new council will be pleased
to acquire to all councils the new shape of Publica because it has got a pretty
good track record over the years of being flexible, providing us with
suitable leadership and excellent advice from time to time.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:51:21
Thank you very much Patrick. Anyone else got anything or any questions for our
colleagues? No? Okay so I'll move the recommendations then so to endorse the
public of business plan 2026 to 28 and to ask the leader as the shareholder
representative to recommend its adoption to the board. I have a seconder for that
I think Tony you were going to second.
Yep.
So it's seconded by Councillor Dale.
If we can go to the vote please.
Thank you very much.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:51:59
That's unanimous seven votes in favour.
So we'll now move on to the next item which is also about Publica.

14 Review of Publica Governance Agreement and Extension of Service Agreement

On page 181, item number 14.
So as part of the sort of work that Publica are doing, looking at making
themselves fit for the future, it was identified that they needed to have a
little look at some of the governance around Publica and the service
agreements. So I think this has gone to other shareholders and it was at the
that discussed at the last meeting of the shareholder forum
where Jane Portman, our chief executive, and I were present.
So I was chairing the meeting.
Essentially, what this is asking us to do is to agree
sort of to tidy up really the legal arrangements
for public agreements following the return of services
during phases one and two.
And it was basically that was the trigger for doing this
was obviously the insourcing of services in those.
There are some minor amendments
and they're sort of detailed in the report
to the articles and members agreement,
but the more significant ones
are for the service agreement and the specifications
and they are sort of, read them out,
but they are shown in the report.
The key thing really here is that the,
is to extend the agreement until October of 2030
so that we all move to that point.
And if I remember correctly from the Shell forum,
I think Cheltenham had already done that.
They had, Christine's nodding.
And it was suggested and we agreed that made sense
for all councils, the agreements to run until October 2030.
Not in any way to bind our successes,
but to give them the time to be able to make a decision
about how they wanted to run the services
and the future of Publica.
And so that if they wanted to, they could carry
on running the services through Publica after transition,
give them time to work out what they wanted to do.
So that was essentially the key thing.
What that does mean, and we did discuss this,
that there is still a flexibility
and there is still a clause that allows exit of some
or all services prior to that date with due notice.
And obviously that's the process that we've just been
through with the phase one and phase two transition.
So there's still that option to bring services back
to the council if those councils should deem it.
But we're essentially moving them all
onto a common agreement going to the end of,
to October, sorry, 2030.
So I will stop there.
Obviously we've got Christine and maybe also Angela,
I think you've sort of been involved in that.
So open it up to any comments or questions
from colleagues on the cabinet.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:55:06
None of you want to say that that's fine.
Okay, so I think then I'll just move to the recommendations.
So one is that we approve in principle the changes
to the governance agreements, which are set out in section 3.
Two, we delegate authority to chief executive in consultation
with the leader to finalise and enact appropriate legal documentation.
The detail changes to the agreements in line with the principles agreed.
And three, to delegate authority to the chief executive in consultation with the leader
to prove minor amendments to the scope of services delivered by public to Cotswold District
Council in advance of local government reorganisation.
I'm moving that for a seconder for that.
Councillor Dale has put his hand up so seconding. We'll then go to the vote then please.
Councillor Tristan Wilkinson - 0:55:59
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:56:08
Thanks everybody. We've got seven votes in favour. Patrick you managed to change your vote.
Press the red button rather than the green one. I'm sure by mistake.
So thanks very much to Christine and Claire if you want to disappear.
Fine, or you can stay with John for the other ones.
Down to you.
Right, we'll move on.

15 Retention Strategy 2026-28

So Agenda Item 15 is the Retention Strategy.
The Retention Strategy sets out how the Council will attract and retain a skilled, resilient
workforce to deliver the corporate plan against ongoing recruitment pressures and
obviously with local government reorganisation on the horizon. It's
based on the local government association 6P's framework, strengthening
workforce planning, leadership, engagement, inclusion, career development and
employer appeal. Strategy reinforces a positive organisational culture, strong
leadership and effective communication supported by a clear measurable action
plan. Some measures may have financial implications which will need to be
applied lawfully and managed within existing budgets. Overall the strategy
aims to reduce workforce risks, improve stability and well -being and ensure the
Council can meet current future service and sustainability priorities. I'm just
going to take the opportunity, Angela did you want to say anything at this point
and obviously you're between us for endeavour to answer questions. No thank you
Angela Claridge - 0:57:49
chair really just as you say happy to answer any any questions but retention
is a key focus for us over the next just under two years now. So I just before I
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:58:00
open it up I just observe it's called the retention strategy but it also
talks about recruitment isn't it? So it is also about how do we recruit
people in the unusual circumstances that we are currently in where potentially in
two years time this council won't exist anymore. Open it up for comments and
Councillor Andrea Pellegram - 0:58:21
questions. Andrea. Thank you chair. I very much support this strategy. I think that
I've said this before our staff are the whole council you know we think without
our without good staff we won't we won't be able to deliver and there's been a
lot of talk now about AI and how it's taking jobs and I expect that some of my
colleagues will be raising examples here of jobs that can be lost but there's
some jobs that AI can't do at least right now licencing enforcement planning
applications negotiations and being sympathetic and providing assistance for
people who live here and might need our help and it's a tough old job market out
except for some areas it's really hard for local authorities to recruit and retain.
And the fact that we're going to be abolished,
the uncertainty of local government reorganisation, all of these things, I'm sure,
make staff think, ooh, am I in the right place?
Am I doing the right thing for myself?
You know, cost of living is getting higher.
It's easy, I think, to be seduced by a higher salary and I know my own son gets calls,
you know, once a week from recruitment agencies saying,
oh, would you like to work for us?
And I'm sure that Councillor Layton will give some examples
of what it's like in the planning department right now.
What I think is really good about this is
that it there's this whole section here
on flexibility and pay.
And it's nice working in local government
because it's a little bit less stressful, a little bit.
The pensions are usually better, a little bit, you know,
But on the other side, you know, it doesn't always pay as well.
So this flexibility and pay on page 202, I think is really good.
It talks about golden handcuffs to try to keep important staff to stay until the end
because we need everybody to stay until investing day.
And then, you know, some of them are going to be moving
into the new organisation, whatever that might be.
and also allowing the executive, the chief executive, sorry,
to make discretionary supplements above 15 % for basic salary and retention.
So I think, you know, the fact that we have to acknowledge sometimes you do have to pay
for talent and I think it's just really very sensible.
So I am going to support this.
Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:00:49
Councillor Juliet Layton - 1:00:54
Thank you very much, Andrea. Juliet, you have virtually said what I was going to say, because
I really do support this. We have seen cases where we have lost staff and you just think
they are really settled and they are working very well and the teams are working well together.
You can't deny that people leave for all sorts of reasons, pay being one of them, the private
sector are offering lots of jobs, as you said, lots of
salary, but not only do we lose a really valued member of the
team who's working, it actually breaks up the team as well,
and that needs to be rebuilt every time we bring somebody in.
And if we have to bring agents, staff, agency staff in,
they are all working well as well, but it does
disrupt things slightly.
I absolutely do support this, and I really hope
it works and but I think having it here shows also how much we value the staff. I
mean you know as you said we're a council but we're absolutely nothing
without the people who are doing all that work you know and I think the fact
that we've got this here maybe it shows that we really are thinking and really
caring for how how they're working with us here now and supporting us with all
our roles, but how we are looking for what their future is going to be and how
that goes forward because we said, you know, a long time ago when we heard
about when we heard about LGR that we wanted to leave the council in a really
good shape, we wanted to leave officers, staff, with really good potential to
move forward with LGR and I hope this helps.
Thank you very much.
Juliet Tristan.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:02:42
Thank you, Chair.
Councillor Tristan Wilkinson - 1:02:46
A slightly different tone to my two colleagues, both of whom I'm sure will be here to the
bitter end and are worth every single penny of their allowance and won't be replaced by
AI anytime soon.
My question was, we've been talking about this for a while, and have we actually seen
more attrition since LGR was announced?
and so I'm just I'm just interested in the numbers and to what level our
concern is being matched by by the data so I'm just kind of interested in a bit
of the substance behind some of the rhetoric if you've got any of those
Angela Claridge - 1:03:22
data's. So thank you for the question Councillor Wilkerson. I haven't got figures with me
but I can provide those in a written answer to cabinet. I mean what I can say
is we are we are seeing colleagues looking around we are we have seen
colleagues leave but I obviously need to give you the hard facts rather than just
give you sort of commentary on it. I suppose what I would say is in a
district where we know we've got less than two years left if as an example
Swindon a unitary that isn't going through the changes that we are you know
is offering a comparable role that's the sort of thing that is attractive to
employees but to answer your question about numbers I'll give you a written
response if that's okay, Chair.
Thank you.
And yeah, I mean, I just wanted to say, I'm sorry, bring other
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:04:06
people in if they want to, but for me, just pointing back to
the risk register that we were looking at in the earlier
agenda item, I think it's on sort of the second page of that.
And the inability to recruit and retain suitably qualified and
experienced staff to deliver services is, you know, one of
significant risks as an organisation and I think I have many conversations with
the Chief Executive about this indeed. She alerted us to it, those of us who
were doing our interview, you know the importance of the risk to us going
through LGR of staff moving particularly to other authorities and that's one of
she's been very focused on from day one and that's about how do how do we and
obviously she joined us just as we were people with a large number of staff were
an additional number of staff were coming back from publica and almost the
first thing that she was able to do was to stand up in this room to you know
pretty much standing room only I was and you were in that came in the back didn't
you Patrick and yeah to show the leadership to the staff to you know
obviously to seek to motivate them obviously to work on our behalf but also
you know the importance of you know doing everything we can and that and
our leadership team Jane and obviously Helen and Angela and David as a
corporate leadership team to you know essentially encourage do everything we
can that people don't want to leave because you know obviously people
leaving at this point and the more of that happens obviously the more risk
we're under in terms of service provision and also our corporate plan
which is one of the other things that's listed on here on the next page about
delivery of our corporate plan and we don't have the officers to do it so it's
really really important I very much welcome this anyone else got anything
yeah Tony yeah I mean I don't I don't really want to labour old history but I
Councillor Tony Dale - 1:06:14
I do think it's important and I would try to encourage the senior leadership team to
look at things in addition to pay rises and retention bonuses in golden handcuffs.
Time and again over the last 30 years when I've been in business, surveys including from
really illustrious groups like McKinsey prove that less than half the workforce is motivated
We're motivated by more money.
We're motivated by working for inspiring leaders, by working for inspiring strategies, by doing
work that really matters and makes a difference, by being proud of what we achieve and what
we deliver.
And my recognition of the time ahead of us, the next two years, and indeed particularly
the two years that follow from now until 2030 is going to be a time of enormous
local government change wherever you are and the realities of that and of our
staff at all levels experiencing it, getting to love the concept of change,
understanding what responsibility comes with that change and learning how to
respond positively to it and make really good decisive
choices for their careers and their roles and the services
they provide is a really integral part of what they're
going to do over the next two and four years.
And I just want to really encourage from the bottom of my
heart our leadership team not just to think about money and
retention bonuses, but to get out there amongst our council
staff, get out there amongst your transformation colleagues
on the other councils and inspire the people to want to stay and make Gloucestershire in
the future a marvellous place.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:08:07
Thank you very much. Tony, anyone else got anything else to say on this? Yeah, Julia.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 1:08:14
Well, only just in reply to Tony in that almost all of what you said we have had discussions
about. There's some things you don't necessarily put in the table, but the whole thing of the value
of making sure people know that they're valued and that they are rewarded by recognition and not just
the money. We have had those conversations, so it's not something that is, you know, we're ignoring at all.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:08:47
Indeed, I had the pleasure of attending the Public Care Awards online just a couple of
days ago and some great stuff in there.
I was looking at Claire who was presenting some of those awards that stuff we're doing
and it wasn't just to employees of Public Care, indeed one of our employees got an award
as well.
So yeah, the recognition, Tony, you're talking about and the interesting work and everything
else is really, really important.
important. I'm sure Helen and Angela are in the room and David and Jane are cognizant
of that and obviously will be doing everything they can as our senior
leadership team working with Frank and Claire and the publicer team to
inspire our staff to perform and not to leave. So okay I'll then sort of bring it
back. So we've got I'll move the resolution to approve the retention strategy. I think
Councillor Andrea Pellegram - 1:09:54
a seconder Andrea a seconding that. So we'll move to the vote then please. You got in there
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:10:07
Patrick, yeah, we've got you.
You've got to, unfortunately you've got to leave us.
So thank you very much for that.
Seven votes in favour.
We're gonna move on to the next item,

16 Advertising, Sponsorship & Endorsement Policy

which is 16, advertising sponsorship and endorsement policy.
So this is a new policy,
providing clear framework for managing promotional activity,
ensuring legal compliance, transparency,
and reputational protection.
It recognises both the benefits and the risks of council endorsement, particularly where
proposals could conflict with council's values or create some perception of bias.
We define in the policy what advertising sponsorship and endorsement are, setting out acceptable
categories, the governance requirements, approval thresholds and responsibilities.
It includes robust controls to ensure objectivity and compliance with statutory guidance, sports
by declarations of interest due diligence and legal services oversight
and there'll be central recording formal approvals and regular review will
strengthen the consistency governance and audibility so it's you can see
you've got that there in front of you so obviously it's quite a simple policy
It's only a two -page document and we've got a single checklist on there.
Angela, you've been working on this. Is there anything that you wanted to add?
Okay, I'll open it up for questions and comments. I've got Tristan and then Mike.
Councillor Tristan Wilkinson - 1:11:48
Thanks, Chair. This might appear a really trivial and somewhat
Trust is beginning to erode against lots of institutions in the world where AI means that
it's really hard to tell what's fake and what's not.
I think that actually an organisation like ours that is in the public domain and does
fortunately have a large level of public trust, I think it's important to actually think about
how we portray ourselves publicly and how we reinforce that trust.
when I go online, for instance, and see lots of things
attributed to us which I know to be untrue.
So I think it's really, really important
that we have a policy that says when we as an organisation
say something, that it's authentic
and it's got a structure around it.
So this might seem really trivial,
but actually in a world where there's
lots of mischief around, this feels actually really timely.
So I think this is a brilliant initiative.
Thanks, Tristan.
Mike.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:12:51
Councillor Mike McKeown - 1:12:55
So I want to of course to support this policy this evening and I'll be voting in favour of it.
I agree with Tristan. I can make clear framework around advertising response.
Endorsement is important for ensure we've got transparency, consistency, proper safeguards.
However, I do want to pay something on the record. I have to be candid. I am frustrated by how long
it has taken officers to work through the issues around community energy and Cotswold Business
solar which is related to this. We're now seven months into this process and the progress has felt
slower than the urgency demands. Climate change is not waiting and neither are local businesses
facing high energy crises as Tristan so rightly pointed out. So that's why I'm really grateful.
I want to thank Angela for having identified a potential solution around this, working with our
partners in climate leadership, Gloucestershire, the Community Energy Forum, which all the
councils in Gloucestershire, including ours, are part of.
So I'm welcoming that progress.
So hopefully we find a solution soon.
So relative to the policy, I do want to be really clear and on the record that community
energy organisations are fundamentally different from commercial companies.
They are community -based, not -for -profit organisations established to deliver public benefits, lower
costs, carbon reduction and local resilience.
They should and must be recognised and treated accordingly within the framework of this policy.
The Financial Conduct Authority recognises them uniquely as community benefit societies
and community interest companies.
This isn't a theoretical issue.
Supporting community energy is already embedded into our corporate plan, as always said very
squarely, it's on page one of the cabinet on my portfolio responsibilities.
And it's very consistent with the wider liberal dem policy on climate and local energy resilience.
In many ways, we actually are the party of community energy.
We've campaigned for many years, including our own leader, for greater recognition and
support.
And we're really delighted actually to be quite recently successful in getting them
formally recognised within GB Energy.
and government has now as a goal of a thousand community energy projects by 2030.
We all observe we're in the middle of a community of an energy affordability
crisis caused by Trump's war in Iran. Businesses across the district could
benefit materially from reduced energy costs through the Cotswold Business Solar
Scheme and we already have clear evidence that this really works well so
the model and what the middle model can achieve.
So we have community, we already have Cotswold Home Solar,
which has supported more than 60 homes across the district
over the last couple of years,
with many more in the pipeline,
which has led homes to big savings
in carbon and financially.
So while I support the policy,
I want it to be clearly understood that my expectation
is this should be to enable not unintentionally
obstruct proportionate partnerships with community energy.
organisations where that directly advances our climate, economic and community objectives.
And I would welcome officer confirmation for the record that this policy will be applied
in their spirit and we will move quickly to resolve that and get that programme out.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:16:28
Thank you Mike. I'll let officers comment in a minute. Yes, obviously I'm aware of your
frustrations which I think you know articulated through what you just said
about the time it's taken to to get the the business solar off the ground. I
think actually my comment about in part of the difficulty we had was not having
a policy like this and you know therefore and I'm just picking up I
guess on the points that Trista was just making about wanting to be seen to be
transparent and not biassed and in a world where there's a lot of cynicism
out there. But as you say, community energy is usually important and we're
already, you know, we've got the scheme already with Cotswold, the home solar,
which has been running successfully for a few years now. So I'm hoping that, you
know, obviously I know that you've spoken with Angela that we will be able to
deliver a scheme that can run for small businesses but, well, we won't be
delivering it correct myself but we can support a scheme that will be working
with small businesses to encourage them to use solar energy as well so I'll hand
over to Angela to respond so thank you chair and thank you council McEwen yes
Angela Claridge - 1:17:41
as you as you've said we've we have talked about how we promote community
energy companies and you'll notice that one of the I suppose objectives or
headings in our checklist at number five is about inclusive promotion so that we
are promoting sectors and I feel that the proposal that myself, Helen and
others have talked to you about in terms of how we use our community, well we use
our climate leadership Gloucestershire platform to promote not just business
big solar but other organisations as well provides us with that in the
framework of the policy if it's approved tonight.
Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:18:21
Angela, have we got anyone else that wants to comment on this one?
Juliet?
Councillor Juliet Layton - 1:18:27
I'm going to second this, but I would just say that first.
But I think it's really important that we have this because people trust us.
And I've been talking quite a lot about, when I was the cabinet member for ERS, about putting
things of information on our website so people could be reassured about maybe
taxes, we've got a register now of those that have got licences and things. People
look to us to find out what's right really because we're not selling
something that's come off Facebook and we're not flashing up an advert for
something that doesn't exist. So I think this is really important to have this
and the strength behind that.
I'm very happy to support this.
Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:19:15
So I propose that.
And Juliet second.
Anybody else want to say anything else?
No, we'll go to the vote then, please.
Recommendation is to approve the advertising sponsorship
and endorsement policy.
No, we've got all six.
So, Patrick's obviously not voting, so he's left the room.
So, thank you very much.
We'll now move, thank you to Christine.
We're now going to move on to the next one, 17, page 221,

17 Artificial Intelligence Adoption Strategy

Artificial Intelligence Policy and Adoption Strategy.
So, I'm going to head over to, back to Mike, and then we've got
John Cholton in the back row as well.
All right.
Councillor Mike McKeown - 1:20:02
So, obviously, this item sits very firmly within my digital
services portfolio, so I wanted to take a couple of minutes to explain why I'm
recommending the cabinet approves both the two policies, so the AI usage policy
and the AI adoption strategy. And I should say at the outset that AI
transformation is what I do professionally, so I've led AI
transformation across a global company and I now have a consultancy business
helping organisations do similar, but I should be clear that I have no
commercial interest in this for
related what we were first discussing,
but a personal interest in it for sure.
So I do bring some practical experience,
which hopefully helps us move this forward
and just as importantly,
make sure we adopt it responsibly and well,
because it certainly might what I do professionally,
I see it adopted well, and sometimes not
or inappropriately or slowly.
So what we've been designing together
should enable us to do this very well and responsibly.
And that matters because AI is not just
another technology upgrade.
It will impact on how we work, how we deliver services,
and how residents and businesses interact
with the public institutions is likely to change
more significantly than anything we've seen
since even before the Industrial Revolution.
Now that's not hyperbole.
The pace of change is extraordinary.
councils that wait too long to engage will find themselves playing catch -up
and that definitely won't be won't be us because I think we'll be at a
responsible forefront. So the good news is CDC isn't waiting we've already
rolled out things like a co -pilot AI chat to officers and members. AI is
already being used to help us in administrative work, drafting minutes,
summarising reports and document services and recently in customer
services AI is being used to improve the quality and speed of things like email
responses to residents and we'll be soon upgrading our website with AI
capabilities as well which will give residents great interactivity and
responses 24 -7 rather than just office hours. And in planning services we're
working closely on a government programme to explore how AI can improve
consistency and speed up and that's something you're working on Helen with
your planning team on there doing some innovative stuff
that should help us in planning.
Never taking away, as we'll hear in a moment on the policy,
that humans are there taking the decisions.
So these are practical examples of AI
can help local residents and businesses,
not just in the abstract, but right now.
So faster responses when someone contacts the council,
more consistent planning decisions.
Officers freed up from repetitive admins,
so they can focus on the work that actually requires human judgement, local
knowledge and as Tony said, you know, give them purpose and helping helping our
local residents and business. So this, what this policy and strategy do is a
proper framework around that adoption. It establishes some clear principles of
transparency so residents know when AI is involved. Accountability, so humans are
being always involved in reviewing AI outputs
before they inform decisions taken by humans.
Fairness, so we're actively guarding against things
like bias and data protection because the public must trust
and we're protecting their data.
And an AI oversight board is created by the strategy
that will scrutinise business cases, assess risk,
and ensure every AI initiative meets these standards.
And crucially, it will also actively drive adoption, identifying opportunities across
the council and making sure we're getting the most from this technology.
And I'd encourage every officer and every councillor to engage with this.
Think about where you encounter friction in your work, the tasks that take too long, the
processes that feel unnecessarily complicated, and raise those with this new AI board.
and that's how we'll identify the best opportunities,
the best opportunities to an AI starts becoming a tool,
helping us with specific tasks.
Over time, as confidence and capability grow,
it becomes more like an assistant,
handling broader pieces of work under direction
and eventually for well understood businesses
with proper oversight,
it can operate more like a member of the workforce
completing defined work within clear boundaries.
with humans remaining oversight of all outcomes.
So I want to be clear, this is not about replacing people
or removing human judgement from important decisions.
It's about giving our officers better tools
and freeing up their time for the work
that really matters most.
This also has a direct connexion
to local government reorganisation.
AI can deliver quick wins now,
improving services and reducing costs in the near term.
And by embedding AI, how we work today, we'll be better prepared for LGR because the new
unitary authority will undoubtedly need these capabilities from day one.
In fact, I was just talking to John earlier and I gathered, I think, the next cabinet
meeting, Gloucestershire County Council, are making some pretty substantial investments
in AI.
We'll be able to sync up with those things for the new unitary.
So I think the strategic, the explicit plans for portability will ensure that what we build can transfer into the new authority.
So I'd also make this point, AI is moving fast and it's accelerating.
So even in the last few months it's changed and what it can do has been really quite remarkable.
So that by the time the new unitary authority is established, it's likely AI will be capable of far more than it can to do today.
So investing in the foundations now with the governance and the skills and the culture
means we'll be ready to take full advantage when the new authority comes.
So like climate change, which is the other half of my portfolio, AI is a challenge no
single organisation can address alone.
But we can and should play our local part by adopting AI thoughtfully with strong governance
and clear focus on residents.
we can help shape a positive future for public services in the Cotswolds.
Last thing I just wanted to say is a bit of a word of thanks.
So John Trolton, our Chief Technology Officer here from Publica,
and Frank Wilson who's not here but the Managing Director who worked very closely,
we worked very closely together to co -author the policy and the strategy.
So I'd like to say a big word of thanks to John and the rest of the team who's worked on this.
Thank you very much.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:27:04
Mike, before I bring Andrea in, I'm just going to, I'm looking over at John.
Is there anything you'd like to add to what Mike has said?
It was very thorough.
So it might not be much left for you to say, but I'll give you a chance.
Officer - 1:27:15
What I would say is my, I'm very comfortable with the strategy as it stands.
I think it strikes a very good balance between making sure that we go
into this new world safely and securely.
Most of the other times I'm in this room is to talk about cybersecurity.
and we've made sure we built that in every step of the way. We're also making
sure we built in the human into every step of this. So I'm very
comfortable with the way we're moving forward and I think we're also going to
do it in a very sensible way, making sure that we don't invest an awful lot
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:27:50
without making sure we're going to get a return. Thank you. That was something
that struck me from certainly what you've said to us before.
When something's the next big thing there's always someone
that's selling it to you. I'm sure Mike is doing it very well but there might be
other people who are not doing that and taking advantage of what is a very
fast -moving something that people think they might know a little bit
about but not a lot and yeah obviously we don't want to get burned by buying
software that actually doesn't do what it says or yeah isn't then used so yeah
That's really important.
Andrea, I wanted to come in.
Thank you, Chair.
Councillor Andrea Pellegram - 1:28:31
I confess I am a bit of a Luddite.
I like to use my own brain, my own wet wear,
because I think my brain is a muscle,
and if I stop using it, it's going to start deteriorating.
So I do try to think everything through myself.
However, I do support that we have this policy.
I think it's necessary.
I hope that the policy is capable of evolving because as you say everything moves quickly.
So we might need to revisit this in a few months.
That's quite possible and I hope that you feel that that's something that you should
do.
I think it's really important that we need to work collaboratively with all of our other
stakeholders who are also developing their own AI strategies.
In this one report pack, we have heard that Publica is using AI, Yubico is using AI.
We just heard GCC is using AI.
We're using AI.
So we really need to make sure that all of these systems all join up
and that we don't all keep reinventing the wheel because, of course, as we know,
reinventing the wheel is another way of wasting money.
So, you know, I hope that there's a lot of collaborative working.
Training is absolutely critical and I'm glad to see that in here.
But at the end, I've got to make a plea.
you know, we've got to retain our personal judgement.
I saw the Grace and Perry show yesterday
where a woman actually married her AI husband
and I just thought, oh my God, that's not where I wanna go.
That's not where I wanna go.
Yeah. Anyway, just finally, I would like to have a change made
to this report and I don't know if I need to do
that as a motion or what.
But under in the strategy under section 5,
roles and responsibilities, there is no mention
of the councillors, members.
And I think that we are always communicating with the public.
So we really need to be included in this with, you know,
we have responsibilities as elected councillors.
So I would like to see that change made if possible.
Andrea, just on that particular point.
Sorry, have you finished?
And I'll get you to come back.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:30:38
They are, it's not bolded, but that, it says members
in the first bullet point there.
And have a read of that.
I'll let you come back and see if that does cover what you wanted.
Maybe it just needs a folding, but you can come back in a minute and have a read of that.
Juliet wanted to come in.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 1:30:57
Andrea, you've stolen my metaphor because I was going to say, I don't think I'm a ludder and I
have used AI, I have confessed. And it's such a new thing and I wonder if when we were inventing
the first wheel, I'd be the one that was saying, yeah, but my square one's not going to run away
with me down the hill. Yeah? I felt hours for that and you came in with the wheels.
I do worry about it because I know that I've put something in after a brief... You gave us a
briefing, Mike, which was really interesting about how we should engage, you know, just speak to it
like normally. And I put something in and it came up very quickly. I mean, it's like instantaneous
and you think wow. But it was wrong and what I'd asked would have been a
perfectly normal question for anybody who would have understood what I was
asking for. But because it's not a human reading what a human wants it was just
using the words I put down I got wrong information and you have to read through
everything to make sure that that's not happened to you because
otherwise you'd be extremely embarrassed probably.
The other thing I was, we've got machine learning on three
on page 230, systems that learn and improve
autonomously from data.
As I said, I don't know anything about it,
but I have heard that AI can be hallucinogenic
or it can do that to itself.
But by having the same data coming in,
it thinks it knows an answer.
And I'm thinking maybe you mentioned planning, that queries in planning that
need answers. It could be actually then coming up with one rounded answer for
everybody because everybody's kind of asking the same thing, but every one
of those different conversations or calls or emails will be nuanced to a
particular planning application. So everything will be different but it
might come up with something rounded. The only other thing I'm thinking about is
that I too watched Grayson Perry, which was fascinating. We've just talked about
the trust that we have in the council and the public trusts us. If we've got AI
answering or making comment or whatever, we need to know that they are going to
stop trusting us because we haven't got a human being at the other end of this.
Yes, I think you make really good points on those.
Councillor Mike McKeown - 1:33:30
The point about, you know, does AI hallucinate, which is kind of a well -known thing where
it basically comes up with something very plausible sounding that isn't true.
And we kind of address that critical issue in two ways.
One is the gut, how we manage the use of AI, because the difference between just sort of
people randomly using consumer AI versus something that's set
up in the council, grounded in our knowledge, grounded in our
policies, makes a massive difference.
I've done that in my previous company and, you know, the
change, the accuracy improves dramatically when you do, when
you do that.
So that would be important and the training, which you are
absolutely right.
And the other part, which is critical, is the, you know,
the human making, reviewing and making decisions.
And so we don't, you know, if it still makes a mistake,
we can't have a circumstance where that just the critical
decision on somebody's council tax is made by an AI,
a professional officer needs to review that.
It should speed them up and help them.
As we're doing, for example, in customer services already,
we still have the humans reviewing the messages sent in.
It sends back very quickly answers to, you know,
some, some straightforward answers and links.
And I think we're already finding from data
that's resolving a lot of cases quickly for people, which is great for the residents and
lets our officers focus, but we're always still reviewing them and that's a critical
part of the policy, that human in the loop, I absolutely both agree with you.
Thank you, Mike.
I've just done that.
Thank you, Chair.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:35:03
Councillor Tristan Wilkinson - 1:35:07
I think everyone's fully aware of how passionate my colleague Matrix Mike is on this.
I'm AI, Mike, hang on.
You've been promoted.
Excellent.
I think a lot of the points have been made.
I also work in an industry that is heavily using AI and work for a consultancy that keeps
organisations safe on this sort of thing.
So I think my point, many of which has been raised, is we're actually starting to see
in the market some quite horrific examples of where AI goes feral.
There's quite a high profile one at the moment where somebody who was standing to be an MP
in the latest by -election has published a book.
This is clearly written by AI because they were too lazy to proofread their own book
and left lots of references and quotes in that are clearly referencing their own kind
of prompts, et cetera.
And I think some of these things aren't that hard to resolve.
Training is absolutely one of them.
I think that having consistency across the organisation about how, when, and what the
safeguards are and kind of having that training reinforced is really important.
The other one which is not that hard but it's actually proving to be quite elusive to lots
of people in the world at the moment is read what it says.
If you're too lazy necessarily to write something that's one thing but if you can't even read
something that you're going to put your name to then that's something else.
And so I think that and I fall a foul to this myself and I'm not going to get into the world
of IT, but also IEI creates lots of vulnerabilities into an organisation and I have every confidence
we've thought about those and have those in hand. So I think that on balance there are
some pitfalls. I think as an organisation we've thought about those, we're mitigating
them, but we can't not do this. It's just as simple as that. So let's do it safely,
let's do it well and let's make sure that it benefits our community and our staff at
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:37:07
time. Thank you very much. I'm just going back to the members point so looking at
that I think that's very much in members is in our role as decision makers
within the council and holding our officers to account and questioning them.
I think so I'm very very comfortable with that I just think it's worth maybe
this is one for John and Mike to take away and not to detract from what we're
agreeing tonight is I guess the point maybe I want to put words in your mouth
Andrea but the point about members using AI for their own work essentially as
councillors which I don't think is quite covered in that description there and
it's I know it's a little bit trickier because you know we see we're
individuals you know and we are all elected and obviously we can say what we
within the bounds of the confines of the law but we'd also have responsibilities
to the council to make sure that you know what we are saying is based in in
truth so I just think there's something there about and I'll bring you out back
in Andrea about I don't think obviously we're not going to finesse some words
now but we'll let you take away and think about it about guidance for
members about how to use AI if that's not covered or if I've misunderstood
because it obviously talks about offices and about awareness of the policies and
things like that but whether that would just be umbrella covered by to cover
members as well or what do you think there in might be something else that
you might need to do for members and I'll bring Andrea back. Thank you. First
of all apologies that members were referenced there I didn't see it because
Councillor Andrea Pellegram - 1:38:47
it wasn't in the last version and I was just skimming my previous version from
last week to this week to see what had changed.
And I missed it, sorry.
The reason why it's so important for members
to be included in here,
cause I said this somewhere else.
In law, Cotswold District Council is the elected members.
That's who the council is.
It's not the officers, it's not the systems, it's us.
We're the council and everything else is here to support us.
So that's why I think members really have to make sure
that they understand how this works.
Thank you.
I won't talk anymore.
Thank you very much.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:39:27
Anyone got anything else to say?
So, Mike, you're proposing that, yeah?
And seconded by Tristan.
I will go to the vote then.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:39:46
That's six votes in favour, none against.
That's everybody.
So we're now moving on to our penultimate item,

18 Creation of a Commercial Development Post

gender item 18, creation of commercial development lead role.
Handing over to Tony.
And thank you very much to public colleagues
for John and Claire.
Tony.
Thank you, Nida.
Councillor Tony Dale - 1:40:09
So I wonder if I'm at risk of moving
from hyperbole to do banai here.
The Cotswolds absolutely does need commercial leadership of our cultural sector.
If you look at the generally accepted statistics around culture, we know that we create about
£1 .25, £1 .23 for every pound that we spend on cultural investment.
So we know we will be supporting one of our biggest industries, which is the visitor economy.
The thing is that the culture of the Cotswolds is so extensive, it's so long -lasting, stretching
from bronze prehistory through Roman Britain, through the mediaeval wool trade and the beautiful
churches that we have now, the birth of the arts and crafts movement and even right up
to the present day where I think we are leaders in having a green, truly green environment
from our biodiversity right through to our green and sustainable industries, growing
through the green and sustainable economic growth strategy.
We care about this, our residents care about this, and I will not face the future of this
authority or one heading into local government reorganisation without some understanding
of how the cultural aspect of the Cotswolds will be led now and in the future.
It's absolutely vital, it's really simple.
Back in July 25, only a few months ago, this council approved and adopted the Creative
Cotswolds cultural strategy for Cotswold District.
But we have no means to implement it, no means to make it real.
We have no resources.
And yet we have assets, we have the Carinium Museum, we have people who operate out of
Brewery Arts and we have so many other both public and private sector cultural opportunities
in the Cotswolds. In my humble opinion it's absolutely vital we take some leadership in
this area. It is not simply an indulgence, there may be some that will say is this really
the priority as we come towards the end of Cotswolds District Council. It's an absolute
priority because at the moment our cultural area within my portfolio is investing over
a quarter of a million pounds pretty much in trying to keep the cultural offering afloat.
We don't need to do that. So many visitors come here. Visitors spending 380 million pounds
a year. We need such a small fraction of that to be spent on the cultural offering of the
I am very clear that the person who takes on this role, the Commercial Development Officer,
will be focused on helping the Carinium Museum get back into a positive balanced budget,
will help things like the New Brewery Arts sustain a profitable and viable organisation
and continue to network and pull together all of the cultural offering that the Cotswolds
has to offer in such a rich diversity.
There are no particular limits. They'll be doing it for the benefit of our residents.
It would effectively be pounds money well spent because if they do this, they will be
returning about 10 pounds for every two pounds we spend on it. It's absolutely the right
thing to do and I strongly encourage my cabinet colleagues to support this cultural commercial
development officer.
Thank you very much.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:43:48
Tony, Andrea, over to you.
I'm always the first one to raise my hands.
Thank you, Chair.
Councillor Andrea Pellegram - 1:43:56
I was unsure about this when I saw this report in draught
and I thought, oh my goodness, do we need this?
So I spoke to Councillor Dale.
We had a long chat on the phone and he's convinced me
that this is actually necessary.
And I'm coming at this from a very parochial standpoint
as a Sire and Sister resident and town counsellor.
We've got some key identity assets in Sire and Sister which is our, you know,
main settlement in the district that CDC actually supports,
the Carinium Museum and New Brewery Arts.
And these are two institutions that are really, really important for the identity
of Sirencester and to lose either of them would be, I think, catastrophic.
So, Councillor Dale has assured me that this new post will actually be spending significant
time looking at these Sirencester assets, which I do consider are at risk
through local government reorganisation because, you know, the emphasis
on the new unitary authority is not going to be on little museums in Sirencester.
So we have to make sure that they're actually on a safe footing when we go into the new world.
So I will be supporting this and seconding this. Thank you.
Thank you very much Andrea. Julia?
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:45:20
Councillor Juliet Layton - 1:45:25
Yeah, well, culture and museums and theatre are vital. It's really, really important.
I was sceptical and I spoke this evening because I was concerned about having another wage,
another salary.
What I've read and how you've spoken about it, about what the return could be is great.
I'm slightly concerned that we are incredibly, and this conversation around here has been
very siren -centric.
I don't think Longborough needs anything because I think they're doing really well,
but we need to be moving forward.
I mean, I know North Leach used to have two museums maybe, which I don't think either
of them.
They're a bit small and they're probably privately run.
There are other things out there that I'm sure, and which would also move tourism around
if we can find those, and maybe we can do something about North Leach, the stalls for
the museum as well.
So there are lots of opportunities and I will support it.
I know I was very sceptical before, but I think it's a positive move
and it's very good for our well -being to have those there
and to know that they're safeguarded, which I think is really important too.
Thank you. I'll let you come back, Tony.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:46:50
Just I'll say something first and then I'll invite you to sort of sum up if that's okay.
Yeah, I just wanted to add my support.
I mean, when Tony came to me with this proposition,
we had that conversation about,
yeah, okay, it's another head.
It's we've got to spend some money,
but we've got to spend some money to get some money.
And it is something that, you know,
in terms of my previous portfolio as finance lead
for the council, I've always been aware
that essentially the way that the Leisure contract operates
is that surplus is generated largely from Sire and Cessna Leisure Centre and it's used
to fund particularly the museum. It's the single biggest essentially recipient of a
subsidy through that contract because it's all bundled up together. And clearly the risk
if when a new council takes that on is that they look at well yeah this one's paying for
itself but this one's not and do we want to keep on operating that. And obviously we have
It was an amazing museum in Syrinsester.
And it's not the offer that's not right.
It's the fact that we're maybe not making
as much of the offer as we could
in terms of bringing money in.
And obviously Tony's got years of experience of work
around sort of looking at businesses
and advising them about.
So to me, it makes absolute sense.
We've got a great museum.
We can make more of that.
and we can make more of that and generate more revenues, we can make it
sustainable as Andrea says into the future. Similarly, you know, it's been much
publicised that the financial challenges of Newbury Arts, particularly
with the uncertainties of funding around Arts Council and funds that they lost, so
whatever we can do to help them generate more revenues from commercials,
activities to put themselves on a secure financial footing for the future is really, really important.
So I'm really supportive of this and want to see us make it happen.
So anyone else before I go back to Tony?
No, I'll go back to Tony.
Thank you, Mike.
I mean, I think you summed it up very well in a nutshell there.
Councillor Tony Dale - 1:49:10
I do think it's important to remember that this role is conceived as a whole Cotswolds
role.
It's to take on board the cultural strategy that we created last year and to make it real.
We've watched others do this.
We've seen the festivals organisation grow from tiny, tiny acorn -like beginnings to becoming
a national significance, the Chutnam Festival's organisation.
I've been to bath pump rooms. Those are a Roman remain and we have Roman remains, Roman
artefacts, the envy of the pump rooms in Bath and the pump rooms in Bath get a million visitors
a year and turn over 25 million. And I just feel there is so much untapped potential in
our cultural resources across the Cotswolds. I would mention places like the Tetbury goods
Shed, the Cider Mill Theatre, the Arts and Crafts Museum in Chipping Camden.
There are so many wonderful cultural destinations.
We suffer a lot from fast tourism from Instagram snappers and TikTok video artists.
I want people to engage with the rich history of the Cotswolds, to take time here to try
slow tourism to understand why it just it is as beautiful as it is today.
and that's absolutely underpinning what this is all about.
When we get our 25 million visitors a year to come, to look, to listen, to understand
and to stay and engage with the cultural experience of the Cotswolds, we will have no problem
ensuring that our cultural assets are well funded and that's for the whole of the Cotswolds.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:50:56
Thank you very much Tony, very well put there.
So just before we vote on the resolution, so I've got them proposed by Tony and seconded
by Andrea, I think you said that.
So what we're going to just do is separate the second recommendation in your bullet points.
So we're going to stop it after years and then make the grants delegated authority into
separate resolution and just knowing we've got a slight typo Tony has health
culture and visitor experience as any one of him so it's cabinet member for
okay so all right let's go to the vote now please then
Thanks very much.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:51:50
That's all six votes in favour.
So we're now going on to our very last item on the agenda.

19 UBICO Business Plan 2026-27

And Peter has been waiting there very diligently and has been doing some other work while she's
sitting in the back there or do whatever she wants to.
So we've got the UBICO business plan that we're being asked to look at today.
I'm the shareholder on behalf of Cotswold District Council for UBICO.
In there the draught business plan at the back.
Peter as our waste head of waste and environment is had some input I hope in
terms of some discussions with you because on this so essentially what
we're being asked to do is to to note the plan and basically in endorse me to
essentially signed to approve it. So I'm going to hand over to Peter if he wants
to say anything give any more detail and then see Andrea as the portfolio holder
for waste and then I'll open it up. Thank you chair and I think the main point for
Officer - 1:53:12
me is looking at the UPCO business plan it is obviously a plan that covers the
entire UPCO business and so some of the things that are being committed in there
relate to other partners within Gloucestershire.
So the main point for us as an authority
is to ensure we understand exactly what the commitments
are that are specific to us and extract those,
monitor them on a monthly and quarterly basis
so we can see what the progress is against some
of those key areas.
Things like, for example, UBICOM moving
to having a dedicated climate lead,
seeing how we can take benefit of that.
And other areas such as, all councils will have this,
But the delivery of flexible packaging with that commitment
that we've got for simpler recycling for next year.
So yeah, that's main points for me I think.
Thank you very much.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:54:00
Peter, I'm going to go to Andrea now.
Thank you, Chair.
Just to add to that, I'm going to say it again.
Councillor Andrea Pellegram - 1:54:06
This is Yubico's business plan, not ours.
And Peter is working with Yubico
to actually finalise our subsidiary agreements.
And she's working very hard on that.
I know we just discussed it in detail the other day.
So broadly, this Yubico plan does align
with our aspirations and that's helpful.
And I think the thing that's now starting
to exercise everybody's imagination is how we're going
to move into the new unitary structure,
whatever that might be and we seem to be waste,
seems to be one of those areas that sort
of lagging behind other areas
and we don't have dedicated staff in place
yet to start carrying this forward.
I am happy to see that there's a five -year strategic roadmap
and its emphasis is really on how we go
into the unitary authority and just for those
who don't understand,
to Yubico delivers a different service for every district.
So the question is how do in a new unitary, how do you bring
that all together while still maintaining a perfect service
through the transition.
So it's not actually a small thing.
So there's an organisation called the Glossinger Resource
Waste Partnership.
It's sort of a coming together of all of the districts
under Yubico including Yubico.
because they sometimes attend to talk
about waste in Gloucestershire.
I'm going to be chairing that next year.
So I've got four meetings in a year to try
to take our objectives forward in Gloucestershire with the mind
of unifying and harmonising under new authority.
So we're going to be focusing on litter and street scene,
local government reorganisation, reuse in the third sector
because we think we can extract more value from the waste
and use it with charities.
And then maximising our income from Recyclit,
which I didn't actually talk about in the budget paper,
but it's actually an important source of income.
So yes, and that's all I've got to say.
We're working on it.
Thanks.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:56:37
Thank you Andrea. I omitted in my introduction to talk about one of the key
things that is in this plan that is UBICO is doing and has been subject
I'm sure certainly amongst leaders to scrutiny and discussion is the work that
UBICO is going to be essentially taking on a new partner with Wiltshire
starting in August and obviously Wiltshire is a council scale.
It's not quite as big as Gloucestershire because it doesn't include Swindon,
but I don't know, geographically it might even be larger at the area,
but it's a very large contract. They're going to be doing the waste and recycling collection for Wiltshire.
And one of the discussions that we as leaders and our chief
executives have been wanting to impress upon you,
because obviously what we wanted to ensure was that the way in
which that was set up and taken on wasn't potentially having a
negative effect on the service that they're providing for us
and the other partners.
So there's lots of work they're obviously doing on that.
I know they've got separate teams set up to do that.
Obviously, it's a significant, I think from memory, it's
something like a 40 percent increase in the size of Yubico.
It might even be bigger than that.
So it is quite a significant change, but, you know, it gives
them some more scale.
And as Andrea has said, you know, the challenge of LGR in
this space is a challenge.
Well, inevitably, you know, Wiltshire isn't changing because it's not, it's already unitary.
West Oxfordshire will be in some sort of Oxfordshire unitary, maybe with West Berkshire.
And we may or may not be in unitary, well, all of the Gloucestershire authorities currently
within UK, aren't they, as well as the county council.
So we'll either be in one together or we'll be in two.
So the way in which things work going forward, and as Andrea said, changing,
essentially changing waste is a very, very tricky thing to do. Like a pizza in
terms of waste collection services, because it's a universal service we provide to
every house. And so, you know, nothing's going to probably change
overnight, but as Andrea said, we need to be thinking about that in terms of the
future and once we've got a decision I think that little bit hopefully like a
lot of things that'll be a little bit easier to work through when we know how
many councils were dealing with but yeah it will be to our successes decide what
we're gonna do with bins and bags and I think and wheelie yeah wheelie bins and
all the bags and stuff but for now obviously it's about the work that Peter
and Andrea are doing is linked up to the Recycler Collection which we need to
doing don't we from next year so any other questions or observations about
the Yubico plan so the resolution is to note so are proposing that Andrea you
happy to second you are so a proposed from me a second by a councillor
Pellegram to note the drop you could go business plan 26 27 endorse the leader
of the council shareholder representative to sign the written
resolution to approve the draught Yubico business plan 26 27. If you can go to the
vote please. Thank you that's six votes in favour. All of us so brilliant thank
you very much for that. Now as you'll note that was we've got to the end of

20 Next Meeting

our papers those of you on the old -fashioned paper. We are the last item
on the agenda says next meeting to confirm the date of the next meeting of
cabinet and it doesn't have the date in the agenda and I'm so I'm looking over
to you Nikki and hopefully you've got the date so we can just formally put
that into the into the minutes. The next meeting is the 4th of June.
Nickie Mackenzie-Daste, Officer - 2:00:42
4th of June so there's no meeting in May so we've got our annual council meeting
Councillor Mike Evemy - 2:00:46
next month and the next meeting is the 4th of June. Thank you very much
everybody for your engagement and attendance, particularly to our officers,
particularly to Peter who's to stay for the end just for that item. But we've
managed to close the meeting at something like seven minutes past eight.
Thanks very much.

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