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Cabinet
Wednesday, 1st July 2026 at 6:00pm

 
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  1. Councillor Mike Evemy
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  1. Councillor Andrea Pellegram
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
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  1. 03. To approve the minutes of Cabinet held 4 June 2026
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Juliet Layton
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Angus Jenkinson
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. Councillor Andrea Pellegram
  6. Councillor Mike Evemy
  7. Councillor Paul Evans
  8. Councillor Mike Evemy
  9. Councillor Tristan Wilkinson
  10. Councillor Mike Evemy
  11. Councillor Mike McKeown
  12. Councillor Mike Evemy
  13. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  14. Councillor Mike Evemy
  15. Councillor Juliet Layton
  16. Councillor Mike Evemy
  17. 09. Planning Enforcement Update, recommendations 1-2 (as amended)
    Status: In progress
  18. 09. Planning Enforcement Update, recommendations 1-2 (as amended)
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Andrea Pellegram
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Mike McKeown
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. Councillor Juliet Layton
  6. Councillor Mike Evemy
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  1. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. David Stanley, Deputy CEO
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. Councillor Tristan Wilkinson
  6. Councillor Mike Evemy
  7. Councillor Angus Jenkinson
  8. Councillor Mike Evemy
  9. 11. Financial Performance Report - Q4 2025/26, recommendations 1-3
    Status: In progress
  10. 11. Financial Performance Report - Q4 2025/26, recommendations 1-3
    Status: Ended
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  1. David Stanley, Deputy CEO
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
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  1. Webcast Finished

Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:00:07
Good evening, everybody. Welcome to this meeting of Cotswold District Council's cabinets. So
the first item on our agenda is apologies, as there are more members of the cabinet are

1 Apologies

2 Declarations of Interest

in attendance. We don't have any. The second item is declarations of interest. Do any members
have any declarations of interest they need to make in respect of any items on

3 Minutes

the agenda this evening? No, no indications. So the third item on our
agenda is the minutes so they start on page 5 and finish on page 16 of the
agenda. Does anybody have any corrections or observations on the minutes?
Councillor Andrea Pellegram - 0:00:56
Councillor Pellegram. Thank you chair. On page 7 the last paragraph, it's last
sentence actually, it was proposed that no additional containers would be issued
initially. I think that wasn't containers that was sacks.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:01:16
So it's yeah you've updated it online but in their hard copy it so it should
be Sachs okay lovely anyone else got any Councillor Coleman yeah thank you
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:01:32
chair as ever these are as we were used to these are really good minutes so it's
a real challenge to find anything wrong at the bottom of page 9 the most trivial
of changes and the last but one line which reads project and the seek that
should be Project Hunter 2 seek. If that's the worst we can find, we are doing really
well.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:01:57
Thank you, Patrick. I always rely on you to read the minutes very thoroughly. Anyone else
got anything, any corrections or observations on the minutes? No. Then do I see somebody
moving the minutes to the true record, Juliet? And a seconder, Paul. So can we please go
to the vote on the minutes then please.
Sirs press the wrong button you're on yellow now yeah you were there weren't
you you were there who wasn't there you shouldn't have voted for them yeah okay
all right are we so that the minutes are there Tony wasn't there but you were
online so I don't know so he was actually sort of what's the etiquette on
He can still vote on it.
He can still vote on it?
Okay, because you were digitally, oh, now he's now gone to abstain.
So we've got seven votes in favour of the minutes and one abstention.
Thank you very much.
We will now move on to the next item.

4 Leader's Announcements

So the next item is leaders' announcements.
And any of those of you who want to watch some of the football
will be pleased to know that I don't have any, so we will move straight on.
although I doubt we will get through the meeting
before the match is finished.

5 Public Questions

So we'll move on then to public questions.
I don't see any members of the public here
to ask a question.
So, and we don't have any,

6 Member Questions

and there are no member questions being submitted.

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

So then agenda item seven is the decisions taken
by the leader and individual cabinet members.
And we've just got one on page 17
that Juliet made the decision
about the Siddington neighbourhood plan. So I think we just note that. Okay members

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

and then the general item eight is issues arising from the audit overview and
scrutiny and or audit and governance committees. So we do have some
recommendations from the overview and scrutiny committee which met on Monday.
What I intend to do is to take those as we go through each item I think it will
clearer if we do that. So there is a schedule of recommendations and a
response which Nikki has but we will go through that on each particular item.
There's quite a lot of them. So we will move on then to the first one which item

9 Planning Enforcement Update

9 which is the planning enforcement updates on page 19 of the agenda and I'll hand over
to Juliet to introduce this one.
Page 19.
Sorry, I was just reading.
Yes, well, members, we've talked a lot about this and it was an overview and scrutiny Monday
which can be seen on our streaming if anybody would like to look at that.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:05:20
It was talked about in depth. What we're looking at here is we've got a lot of
information about the Planning Enforcement Team and we've got references
to the PAS review, Planning Advisory Service review, which we've been working
through their recommendations. But today we're looking at having a new officer
come in on a on a short -term contract up until 31st of March 2028 and what we do
endorse the chief executive decision under delegated authority to establish
an appointed time limited enforcement leadership role to improve additional
budget provision required to fund the role to be funded from the council's
marked capacity building reserve. This is to help improve and work
with Harry Bolly who's here, who's working very hard on the transition of
the team, working with the systems which is very shaky, which was revealed to
all as quite a shock I believe on ONS, how difficult it was getting
information and data back from our systems. So what I'm asking you is to
approve the appointment of this man. He is a man. So that really is, I haven't got
much more to say about that. I would like to remind people please don't talk about
any live cases in enforcement if we're going to talk about this because,
or any cases of enforcement at all, be they live or what you think might have
been finished because I mean it could be very sensitive and it's a legal
process and this is actually a discretionary function of this council.
This is not a statutory duty to have enforcement. Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:07:21
Thank you very much Juliette. We've got a series of recommendations that came from
the overview and scrutiny committee so Juliet was there I was sat through that
discussion as well they had a different report than we have so they had a more
detailed report into the performance of planning enforcement and performance
action plan that the appropriate parts of the action plan that planning the
planning service are working through so it's specifically obviously Juliet has
referred to the decision around appointing on a short -term basis an
officer to join our council in order to help us improve the service. But yeah
there were a series of recommendations that the overview and scrutiny committee
made in fact there were six. So I'm at this point I'm going to go to the Vice
Chair of the overview and scrutiny committee just to talk to us a bit about the
discussion that the committee and the concerns that his colleagues, he
and his colleagues shared so that they're in the public domain and the
cabinet are aware of them and then we'll come back with a response to what you
have to say. So I'm going to open it to Councillor Jenkinson before I bring
Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:08:41
other members in. So Angus. Thank you very much chair and so I'll try and keep it
brief and to the point and focus on the most important issues. I think it's
important to recognise that there was an appreciation of the value that the compliance team brings
in providing information to members and to the owners, how it occupies the public, and
would like to see that enhanced because of its value. We value the importance of this
service, it is very significant.
But we note from the prior work that was done on investigation
of PAS that there is a critical issue that's still being
addressed, was already recognised and is being worked
on, so we'd like to see a bit more information on the
progress on that.
But a significant part of that is all systems need to be
revisited and improved from time to time, and as are in that
state, we do have a critical need to work on systems and to improve them. So we've asked
the Cabinet to take a look at that particular issue and to take all reasonable steps to
ensure that the officer that's being employed, and we applaud the fact that this individual
is being employed with requisite skills, and that are needed to assess the present situation
and look at how to improve things.
The adequate resources, so far as we can, are allocated
out of the surplus that we have been able to achieve
or other funding because we see it as a really important part
that as we move into local government reorganisation
into the future that we can pass
on a reasonably clean bill of health.
There is always an ongoing process.
Every month we get new cases in,
and every month we deal with cases.
It's an ongoing process,
but we do have a bit of a backlog
that needs to be addressed,
and it is a serious matter to address that.
So we were encouraging the Council cabinet
to look at that matter and allocate the relevant resources.
As I say, there was a great deal of appreciation
of this particular service and of the officers.
And the concern at the moment is to make sure
that they are adequately provided with the systems
that enable them to do the kind of quality job
that they would like to be able to do.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:11:23
Thank you very much, Angus, for that summary.
Having sat in quite a long discussion,
so that you summarised it incredibly well.
So I'm gonna go to other members of the cabinet.
You want to say something?
I'll bring you back in, Juliet, before the end.
But other members of the cabinet,
we want to say something on either the subjects
in our report or in response to the, what ONS has said.
So I've got Andrea first.
Councillor Andrea Pellegram - 0:11:50
Thank you, Chair.
I very much support the recommendation.
I think that bringing in somebody
with considerable expertise
to help address this system is really important.
And I do think that it's important that we as a council hand over a tidy surface that's functioning
to the new unitary authority.
Planning enforcement is one of the most important things for our residents.
I certainly get a lot of mail about it.
And it is in a court of last resort for some neighbour disputes.
So people who are unhappy with their neighbours or their physical situation
where they live usually and they try to seek redress through enforcement.
And enforcement does give a key message to applicants that they must adhere
to the national planning system and that if they are found to be failing to adhere
to that system that there will be consequences.
However, as Juliet said, it is a discretionary service so it is entirely up to us as a council
to decide how important it is to us.
And the key test in planning law is expediency.
And it's not really defined, but it means is it worth it to us to pursue, for years sometimes,
a case in enforcement to make sure that it reaches the bitter end.
And certainly, in my experience, enforcement was used to send out a big message to applicants
to say you better comply with the planning system and with your planning conditions.
So it's for me more than a neighbour dispute resolution system, it's a message to applicants.
So I think that, you know, we've received information that there are inadequate systems
in place and that there's a considerable backlog and that this needs to be addressed.
I think that this incoming person, if we're successful in getting somebody,
is going to have quite a job to deal with this in a very short period of time.
And I think that we need, as a council,
to consider what we actually want enforcement to achieve.
So I'm just saying this to officers, that when this new person comes into post,
if we could have a real serious discussion, perhaps at cabinet level,
about what we want this discretionary service to achieve for us and what are our objectives
for demonstrating expediency and at what bar do we allow a case to come forward for enforcement
because enforcement is very expensive.
To do it properly is expensive.
So we have to make sure that the cases we're enforcing are the right cases.
I'll say no more.
I think this is a good idea.
I understand the scrutiny committee's concerns,
and I certainly endorse their objectives.
Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:15:01
Thank you, Andrea.
Do I have other members?
Yeah, Councillor Paul.
Thank you.
Councillor Paul Evans - 0:15:06
Thank you, Chair.
I just wanted to support Andrea's view
that this is a good thing to do in terms
of recruiting this individual.
I think the fact that we can is testament
to the prudent financial management that we as a council have taken, the fact that we have the
reserves and the ability to be able to fund such post. I'm sure this individual will come in and
give us their experience and their wisdom in the formulation of a plan. I would hope that we can
take regular updates from that individual as to the progress that we are making and look to see
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:15:50
Councillor Tristan Wilkinson - 0:15:52
results soonest on that. Thank you Paul. Tristan. Thank you chair completely endorse
everything that's already been said I think I suspect that once this person
comes in that we will discover some maybe underlying system and kind of
cultural issues as to how we've ended up in this place. I think it's gonna be
really important that when these recommendations are made that we give
them due care and attention and we have a real sense of urgency and determination
to enact those. We don't have long left. I think all of us sitting around
this table have a desire that on our final day we're handing over the most
competent, worthy organisation we can possibly achieve in this period of time
and this is right at the top of that list for me. I don't think I've been to a
parish or town council meeting where this hasn't been brought up as an
gender item. It's the one thing that gets people really, really frustrated. The pace
of change often is very, very slow for very good reasons. We're dealing with legal complexity,
et cetera, and that takes the time, there's due process, et cetera. However, I do think
that this is an area where we can do better and I'm really pleased to see a determination
to do better. And I think we should all support whatever this person comes in and wants to
achieve.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:17:09
Councillor Mike McKeown - 0:17:11
Thank you, Tristan. Mike. So two things really. So first, just echoing some of the other comments
and personal experience with residents just in the last week, actually, I've had two residents
chasing up on planning enforcement stuff and indeed it is very frustrating for them that
it takes a long time and the process is clearly very manual. I'm wasting officers time asking
them what's the status when, you know, any decent system, I should just be able to look
up and tell the resident without wasting the officers time so I think we could be
a lot more efficient I think it's great that we found with prudence that the
budget to be able to bring somebody then does this with my both my digital
services portfolio hat on and as you know as I've run an AI consulting
business this is a superly good one for the AI board to look at when that new
person's coming and look at it because we could probably use that not to replace
Our policy is very clear that the decisions, you know,
particularly something sensitive like this should be with a human.
But the analysis, the ability to read through, I think it's 680 plus applications,
every single planning application that goes with that,
massive pages is very doable.
I do it myself, not to 680, but some of the cases that are being raised,
one where there's planning rules.
I got some great advice based on MPP off my local plan work with a plan our planning officer and got some very appropriate plan
Conditions, but on a planning application recently with the help of that
So I think it could be a huge help not to replace the people but it's good at unstructured data
It doesn't need a big system. It just needs put stuff putting in the right place. It's great at reading text images and so on
I think we could
You were saying the earlier meeting Tony. I think we could really crack through
and not end up with handing the new unitary a long list.
We can chuck off the stuff.
It doesn't make sense.
We can get progress.
We can satisfy our residents with quick results
and fair results and help our officers
to focus on the real high quality stuff
that's important and not the admin nitty gritty.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:19:22
Mike, any other, Patrick.
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:19:28
Yes, thank you, Jeremy. I think this is a very brief point, but I think it's worth making.
You'll see the recommendation is to endorse the Chief Executive decision. And I think
I want to express my gratitude for the Chief Executive taking this action in consultation
with cabinet members to bring to an end what has been a difficult period of time, at least.
And that's what we have a capacity building reserve for,
and that's how we're going to pay for it.
And so my thanks to officers who ensured
that our prudent work over the years
with regard to finances ensured that
when we needed something quite urgently,
the money was there.
And the final point is that this is a relatively
high degree of, this is a district with a high degree
of compliance and cooperation.
And in my own ward, I'm pleased to say that without any significant threat, a wrongly
placed shipping container by a local resident at the back of their garden was removed after
suitable advice from planning officers, which made neighbours trust a little bit more in
their neighbours and indeed in the planning system.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:20:38
Thank you, Patrick.
If I can just sort of follow up and then I'll bring Julia in to respond to some of the points.
I think, yeah, obviously, thank you to, as Patrick said, to the officers in planning
and obviously the chief executive for bringing this to us as an opportunity to improve our
service and get a fresh pair of eyes.
And obviously, the more detailed report that went to ONS was talking about the performance
of the service, which isn't really in here.
So I think it's obviously really valuable that we're going to do that.
Just picking up on what you've just said, Patrick,
though that doesn't mean, yeah,
appointing person doesn't solve the problem
because that person's got to come in
and understand what the issues are
and with their expertise and experience,
work with our offices to improve
the performance of the service.
And I think it's just important to say
that we've dedicated offices working in that service.
The demand has been high because of the nature
of the Cotswolds Districts, I think. You know, we are all the listed buildings that we've
got, the national landscape, so it's not surprising there's quite a high demand on planning enforcement.
And you know, we're obviously, it's been difficult to keep officers, people have moved and a
lot of that's led to some of the delays that we've seen. So obviously we're very welcoming
of the fact that we're putting, we are putting some extra resources in and thanks to the
committee at the ONS acknowledging that. I think what I'm looking for is that we will
get a report back on this so that we can monitor that. I'm sure the ONS committee might well
be asking for that as well, but I think it is important that we do get a report on the
performance of the service to a future cabinet meeting. I think obviously we need to allow
a little bit of time for, and we might have that informally before in a couple of months'
time but I think I certainly would like to see a performance update on the
service probably to our January cabinet meeting so we have we will probably have
some informal discussion I'm sure Juliet will and obviously as a cabinet but I
think it would be good to put something back into the public domain a January
cabinet meeting on what has happened and what we've done as a consequence of the
decision that we're about to take or the endorsement of the decision that the
executive has taken.
So I'll go now to Juliet, unless anybody else wants to say
anything, officers, just to sort of respond,
sum up the discussion.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:23:14
Well, thank you, and thank you everybody for your input.
There are a lot of cabinet members who are far more
efficient with ICT and AI and all those skills than I am,
But I really only saw for the first time last, a couple of days ago actually, what the enforcement
enterprise data logging thing is and how complicated it was if people weren't putting the right
data in the right places.
I think I'm really very, very grateful actually for not only the enforcement team but for
planning team because they also have to get engaged in enforcement. What might
happen of course is that we get somebody new in and then the thing about
enforcement is we're not punishing. The idea is to try and resolve issues not to
slap wrists. So you know there might be something a bit a bit too big on a on a
porch that you then say well would that would that have gone through if the
planning application had been for that size.
And we might be asking for another planning application,
which means there is more work for the planning team.
So there is a knock on in everything.
And if it is a really serious breach, then we have to go to
legal with it.
And so these are some of the reasons that things take a
really long time.
However, with a new person looking at a system and
hopefully not telling us we've got to spend millions
on something brand new that would work really well,
which is rather a worry because I don't think
we've probably got the funding for that.
But hopefully we will get this new man, as I said.
And I'm really looking forward to meeting him
and seeing what comes through,
because I think we need that help.
And I'm really grateful, actually,
for the whole of the corporate leadership team
who have worked so well to do this
and for other areas in planning,
because it's been incredibly supportive where it was difficult before 2024 and it's transformed
amazingly. So that's all from me. So I would like the, you know, do we need to go through the
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:25:36
no recommendations? That's good. Thank you. Thank you, Juliette. So what I was just going to do was
second the recommendations and I'm just going to add another one that says we would like a report
to our January cabinet or before if they're picking up on the point that O &S
have made and they've asked us about resources. I think the point about
resources is we would need to have a report which said from officers this is
what we think we need if we don't have what we need. Looking over at the
offices over there. So I think yeah what I would like in that January cabinet is
a update from the service in terms of how it's performed essentially what
they've done, how it's now performing, how it's looking forward and obviously if
there is a need that needs to come back to us before then for any additional
resources then I would expect that officers will bring forward a report in
the appropriate way. So essentially that's an extra request on to the
recommendations. So are you happy with that? Yes. Okay so we will now go to the
vote then on the recommendations as amended. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
That's unanimously.
Thank you very much, everybody, for your consideration of that.

10 Service Performance Report - Q4 2025/26

So we'll now move on to the next item, which is the Priority and Service Performance Report,
page 27 of your agenda.
And we've got Stuart here to back me up or answer any questions today.
So this is a regular quarterly performance report and I think it's just
worth noting within the main body of the report some of the things that have gone
particularly well in terms of above target. We've also got within here the
performance against the corporate plan targets so if anybody or colleagues want
to pick up anything particularly on that those are those are shown there as well.
I think in generally, particularly looking at some of the performances above target,
it's really pleasing that we've got the missed bins under the target, having been the portfolio
holder for waste and recycling.
It never was, I think, when I was the portfolio holder, or certainly wasn't when we changed
the rounds.
And yeah, looking across at Tony, the gym membership is obviously really positive, particularly
as well. And it is good that our residual household waste is less than the target.
So actually people are putting less stuff in the bin so that's good and
that's great. There are obviously some areas where I think we are performing
below target and these are the ones that we spent a little bit more time on at
the overview and scrutiny committee and we've got the recommendations from the
overview and scrutiny committee on here and one of those was about the land
charges which is one of the areas where we've struggled to meet them within the
timeframe and the overview and scrutiny committee are basically sort of obviously
advising us that they were concerned about that and obviously we would share
that concern and we know that there is a new starter starting so we hope that
things will will come back into line and people will get their searches done
within the ten days that is the target. I think we know there's some historic
stuff around particularly housing benefit changes and council tax support
changes which we have seen some in -quarter performances improved obviously
it's just the final figures for the whole year. Noting also that we have on
planning appeals, we've lost more appeals than we would have wanted to.
Obviously you never want to lose an appeal but we've lost 40 % appeals have
been allowed against a target of 30%. That's different to the government's
target so we're not in danger from designation from the government but
yeah clearly with the loss of our five -year housing land supply
we've lost more appeals and obviously we lost one just a couple of
weeks ago where the committee refused.
We went all the way through the process in Lechele
and the inspector decided to allow the appeal.
And yeah, and then I think the last thing I wanted to say,
and it was about the,
where we are on household waste recycling.
I think we're not alone in struggling on that.
Andrea might give us a bit of extra context around that.
We're still doing well compared to other councils.
We're still in the top 25 councils.
But I think it's fair to say nationally recycling rates have dropped a little bit.
So whilst our residual waste is down, which is good, our recycling rate is down, which
is not so good.
But I'm happy to stop there.
And between, Stuart is here as well to assist in answering any questions or open it up to
members for any observations or questions.
So who would like to say something?
Andrea?
Yeah? No.
Thanks, Chair.
Councillor Andrea Pellegram - 0:31:00
You said everything I was going to say, so yay.
Nobody has to listen to me say it again.
I just wanted to point out on page 83, number of fly tips collected and percentage
that result in an enforcement action.
I just want to make this a plug for our team who work with UBICO.
Our team, they're very proactive.
We go out and we do stop and search exercises.
because we do lots and lots of communications about it.
But when complaints come in or where our fly tips are identified,
they're very fast as a team to come and get it and clean it up.
And we have received compliments.
So I just wanted to say thank you to our team.
Thank you very much, Andrea, if you can turn your mic off.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:31:47
Anyone else want to come in?
Yeah, Mike.
Councillor Mike McKeown - 0:31:56
Yeah, just a couple of positive comments on the performance I picked out on there, particularly
around the climate portfolio area, but probably more importantly to most people, money saving.
I noticed that we are saving the taxpayer more money than expected from our roof.
The solar is overperforming against expectations, and I think it saved us a lot of money, now
many tens of thousands of pounds of operational saving from a very sunny June and sunny year,
so that's been pleasant.
And similarly, the EV chargers, they're also generating income significantly out of the
projected business case, which is good news.
So climate change isn't just about saving CO2 and our beautiful Cotswolds, stopping
them becoming burnt and brown, but also saving the taxpayer money.
So win -win.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:32:52
Thank you very much, Mike.
And slightly remiss of me as well as the O and S also,
but two other things.
One was to commend the offices about how they've improved
the council tax processing time for council tax support,
which is great, thank you for that.
And the other one that they wanted to draw to our attention
was around the increase in empty homes.
And we do have a response around that.
And one thing we were talking about was
how we can categorise those and we've got some in terms of the response that's
being published we've got some information about that so of the 881
that are empty we've got 340 that are we know are available looking for sale or
rent and we've got 186 who which are classed as retirement homes that was
one of the discussion points we had because we've got retirement homes with
the vacancies that flats that have never been lived in as well and the figures
also say in the reply that we've got 504 that have been empty for six to 24
months and so they're classed as long -term empties but they're sort of
obviously my will be things like probate waiting for probate in order to to sell
And yeah, there's a little bit more information about in the response about what the work
Long -term empty offices. So we have an officer that works on this
To encourage people to bring their property back into use and just to remind
Members, we have a premium of council tax as well
So if you keep your property empty for longer you start paying more council tax
On that, I will go to Angus.
Did you want to say anything on the recommendations
or anyone else on this?
You don't have to.
Shake your head if you don't want to.
Okay, that's fine.
I've just talked a bit about them.
Does anyone else want to say anything on the service
performance yet?
Juliet?
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:34:56
Well, sadly, my planning officers have left now,
but on 3 .1, we can see the total planning income,
which has done remarkably well.
The planning team are working incredibly hard.
There are lots of applications coming in.
In terms of, we talked about appeals.
Yeah, we knew that with the way our five -year land supply is,
you know, with the new government housing numbers
that we went down to 1 .8 years.
So we knew this was going to happen,
but we are still winning appeals
on the smaller household older ones.
So we are not just losing everything.
So that's good news, but we are expecting this kind of,
and we're going to have to weather this storm
for a little bit.
So I'm very grateful that the planning team on the other side
are doing remarkably well as well.
And I would like to just say, because I used to have,
I used to go out on the, in Andrea's portfolio,
as ERS going out on the fly tipping events and the, you know, stop and
searches and not only are they finding people who may be carrying illegal
materials, you know, without a licence, but when I was doing it we'd find people
who actually didn't have a driving licence or insurance or even own the
vehicle. So actually, and it's a big partnership working with everything and
I really commend that and Kevin and his team are brilliant.
So I just want to big them up with you actually.
Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:36:38
Julia, anyone else want to come in on this?
No, okay, so we're just asked to note the report.
So thank you.
Thank you, Stuart for coming along.
I'm missing the football.
Go and see the last five minutes
or it might even finish by now.
Okay, all right, thanks very much, everybody.

11 Financial Performance Report - Q4 2025/26

we'll now move on to the financial performance report page 91 I'm gonna
hand over now to councillor Coleman
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:37:08
Thank You chair this is the period for out so it's the out turn for the whole
of the financial year that ended at the end of March this year you can see that
We have three recommendations to review and note the out -term financial position.
Approve transfers to and from reserves, which are laid out in the report.
And they carry forward an unspent capital budget included in paragraph 7 .5 of 0 .858
million or £858 ,000 into the 2627 capital programme.
I think it's fair to say that the year continued through its last quarter in the way that it had done previously,
with generally good results, prudent decisions in the past have borne fruit,
and we have what I consider to be, and I think compared to many other councils,
that would be seen as an overall comfortable and strategically sound financial position.
We don't have that many months left to go, but we do have, we do I think all see that
it becomes as the days pass of increasing importance that we pass over a financial position
that's transparent, that's accurate, that's logical and which complies with our strategy.
I'm therefore very grateful to the financial team led by David Stanley and the really top
people throughout for the work they've done through the year, not just recording what's
been going on but analysing what's been going on and looking ahead to what's likely to happen
and taking that prudent but sensible view.
I really believe we're very fortunate to have such a team and I think some of that credit
It's actually due to you, Chair, for your six years leading the financial portfolio.
So you can buy me a drink later.
I thought there was a bid there somewhere.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:39:26
Absolutely. Okay. David, did you have anything that you wanted to draw to our attention that Patrick hasn't mentioned?
Or anything else?
David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:39:35
Very briefly, I've written a few things down.
So generally really positive performance, table ES1 on pages 94 and table ES2.
Pages 95 to 96 have all the relevant details, but they're also expanded upon, particularly
in section 4 of the report, which is pages 103 to 114.
So overall really positive planning fees, positive, 710 ,000 of additional planning fees.
Car park fees significantly overachieved against the budget.
Vacancy management system early action that was taken by corporate leadership team in
consultation with cabinet to ensure that only postal are actually required to deliver the
council's priorities remained in the establishment which took the opportunity to remove those
posts and budgets where they were deemed to be surplus to requirements in the case of
the changing priorities of the council with LGR being a particular focus. However, I would
draw attention to the not so positive position, particularly on two areas. One was the Yubico
out -term position. So in the quarter three financial performance report that you considered
in April, that was based on Yubico's period 11 forecast, which was delivered to us at
the end of February. That indicated a 60 ,000 overspend. Thirty days later we get the out
turn, it's 160 ,000 overspend. And we weren't particularly impressed with the reasons behind
that increased overspend. It was largely items that should have been predictable and forecast
much earlier in the year in terms of short -term hire of vehicles, agency staff, sickness and
on. So we have had an initial meeting with Yubico as part of our early
engagement on setting the budget for 27 -28 to express our disappointment on
that. We've got a follow -up meeting with Yubico Finance team on Monday the 6th of
July. We will be reiterating that position and encouraging Yubico to come
forward with mitigating actions they can take given the current financial year
will have seen that budget come under pressure from increased fuel price costs feeding through.
Postage and printing was also above budget, but there was a positive reason for a negative
variation in effect. All the communication in response to the lift programme contributed
to that unbudgeted spend during the course of the year. You'll notice significant sums
have been transferred to reserves or being proposed to be transferred to reserves. Table
6 on page 116 and Annex C starting on page 133 sets out those in detail and that forms
one of the recommendations. It's important that we've shown, I suppose, that positive
impact of the variation. So the Q1 to Q3 reports indicate that the Council would seek to take
advantage of the positive financial position reported in the year to mitigate in part what
was coming in 26, 27 and 27, 28. So that addition to the reserves and they have gone up significantly
from no just over 11 million to over 14 million is the council taking that proactive prudent
approach to setting aside funding for particular activities to deliver the priorities such
as the local plan, also to ensure financial resilience, but also we're preparing for the
future with regard to setting aside 2 million for this council's costs associated with the
transition under LGR. There are also some risk reserves, so there is risk still in the
council's budget. There is a treasury management risk reserve which provides coverage not necessarily
for this council but for the successor council because the IFRS 9 statutory override which
is in place to prevent the council having to account for unrealised losses in our longer
term pooled fund investments. That's due to end in 2029 but we've set aside a prudent
amount in that risk reserve should that position still be the case in 2029. There's adequate
funding to cover that. We've also set aside the full $710 ,000 of additional planning fee
income because some of that income will be at risk given the increased level of planning
applications and some of those may be subject to some challenge during the course of the
financial year. We've also set aside some element of the extended producer responsibility
funding, bearing in mind some of the requirements we have to spend that and
a proven set -aside of 30 % was was indicated in that. That's probably all
I've got to say, you'll be pleased to hear, but happy to take any questions.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:44:52
Thank you David and just before I bring others in, they were slightly remiss of
me, I didn't mention, so we had two recommendations from overview and
scrutiny committee on this report. The first one was picking up on the point
you were making David about Yubico and the financial out -turn and they were
essentially telling us they shared those concerns I think and
obviously the response that we've given is in line with what you've just said
that you're monitoring it very closely and you'll keep doing so with our
Yubico colleagues and the other one you also mentioned that the Oviatt
Scrutiny Committee commended us for putting the two million by to pay for
our share of local government reorganisation I think and the point was
made by the leader of the County Council in that meeting that to make it clear
that actually we are paying for that councils are paying for it the
government is giving us a tiny amount of money and essentially it's we're
supposed to pay for it out of the savings from the new council but at the moment
we're putting much like two million pounds of our reserves in order to be
able to pay for the costs of reorganisation in the county.
And just to sort of follow up on a couple of other points,
I think obviously it's, I think it's notable that,
you know, the number of Mount of Earmark reserves
has gone up by, you know, getting on for 3 million pounds.
So, you know, thank you to you and the work that your,
the senior leadership team and I'm sure cabinet colleagues
here do to make sure that you know we are spending the money prudently and
where we don't need to spend it we're not spending it and that's enabling us
to build some of these reserves. We've got less than two years left as a
council assuming that the LGR happens on that on the timescale the government
makes it but at the same time as you said David we're putting money by for
priorities like getting the local plan updated. So yeah, thank you for that. I'm
going to go to other colleagues now on the cabinet who want to say anything.
Councillor Tristan Wilkinson - 0:47:06
Kristin. Anyone that's played Monopoly will understand that horrible feeling
when all of your properties are mortgaged and you run out of money and
you have to keep going anyway. It is miserable. When you have no money you
have no choices and that is not our position because of the fantastic work
this has done. Recently we've managed to invest in extra resources looking at
tourism and today we're putting some more resources behind the enforcement.
We're only able to do those things to meet the priorities of our communities
because of the financial resilience that we've got as an organisation and I just
wanted to stress how important it is and also how unusual it is in these times.
Having money gives you choice and having choice means that we're able to serve our communities much better. So thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:47:57
Thank you. Tristan, I'm looking at the back at Angus obviously.
Do you want to come in now? So in terms of thoughts from ONS.
Councillor Angus Jenkinson - 0:48:05
Thank you, Chair. Yes, I think that in general your point about the government that Lisa made was very well taken by ONS and applauded.
And we also recognised that good work had been done by the Section 151 officer and no doubt other members of cabinet and officers in
Ensuring that there was a positive out turn on the finances and that was much respected and to the point that was just made
by Councillor Wilkinson
It does give choices and a question was asked regarding the matter. We've already discussed which was compliance
regarding funding that. The point was made that it's a political decision and
therefore the choice becomes available and thank you very much to the cabinet
for saying that they will look at this matter seriously and make the
appropriate choices at the time that look best. Thank you very much.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:49:04
Angus, any other cabinet members want to say anything before we go to the vote?
Patrick, I'm going to come back to you. Do you want to add anything you want to add
before we go to the vote, no.
Okay, so we've got, so the resolutions,
recommendations are on page 91.
Review and note the outcome financial position.
A second one, approve the transfer to and from reserves
as set out in section six in IFC.
A third one is approved the carry forward
of unspent capital budget including Paris 7 .5
of 0 .858 million into the 2627 capital programme.
Patrick, you're proposing that, yes?
a seconder. Councillor Wilkinson is seconding for the minutes. Are we okay? So we'll now
go to the... Councillor Wilkinson is the seconder. We'll now go to the vote then, please. Thank
you very much. That's unanimous. So we now get to the, I think the final item on our

12 Strategic Risk Register - Q4 2025/26

agenda this evening, which is the strategic risk register.
So members will note, having read the report,
that this risk register will be considered
by the audit and governance committee
at its meeting on the 27th of July.
And within the sort of council's terms of operation,
its constitution, it's fundamentally the role of the Audit and Governance Committee
to look at the council's risks and risk appetites. But the reason it is coming
here is actually good practise says that we as the decision -makers of the, as the
leaders of the authorities should have sides of the corporate risk register,
should be cognizant of it, should have the opportunity to question and
challenged the corporate risk register, so that's why it is
on our agenda this evening.
So I'm going to sort of stop there,
and obviously we're just really asked to have a look at it.
I have one question, which I did raise in advance
with the chief executive, because I think this is just
probably thinking about this in terms of its public consumption,
but there's, I think it's on page 144, where we talk
Operation Pegasus mighty oak I didn't know what that was when I read the
report I'm not sure that many other councillors would know what that was
either but I don't know David you want to see the author of the report you want
David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:51:52
to say anything before I open it up to members to quiz you just very briefly
Operation Pegasus was conducted in the autumn that was a multi -agency planning
event that mirrored, I suppose, the impact of a national pandemic. Operation Mighty Oak
was the year before, and that was a national power outage that lasted for a significant
period of time. So how would organisations communicate with each other if there was no
electricity, so everything stops, IT, mobile phones, so on and so forth?
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:52:26
Any questions or observations on the strategic risk register?
Anybody want to ask anything?
No?
Okay.
So we're all aware of it now.
We will see it on a regular basis.
And as I say, as the leaders of the organisation, together with our senior team, it's our responsibility
to be aware of these risks and to be discussing them.
There are other risk registers I know that sit below this,
more operational service level.
So if you want to know more about those,
then discuss those with your senior officer in that service.
Brilliant.
So the final agenda item, number 13,

13 Next Meeting

is to confirm the date of the next meeting of the Cabinet.
We don't have that in the papers,
but I think we have a special meeting, don't we,
in advance of the before council to consider the local clan.
So that's gonna be on the 6th of August.
It'll be at 6 p .m. in this room.
So thank you very much everybody
for your attendance this evening.
Safe journey home or to the pub
or wherever else you're going.
Take care everybody, thanks.

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