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Cabinet
Thursday, 10th September 2026 at 6:00pm

 
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  1. Councillor Mike Evemy
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Nickie Mackenzie-Daste, Officer
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
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  1. 03. To approve the minutes of a Cabinet meeting held on 1 July 2026
    Status: In progress
  2. 03. To approve the minutes of a Cabinet meeting held on 1 July 2026
    Status: Ended
  3. 03. To approve the minutes of a Cabinet meeting held on 6 August 2026
    Status: In progress
  4. 03. To approve the minutes of a Cabinet meeting held on 6 August 2026
    Status: Ended
  5. Councillor Mike Evemy
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  1. Councillor Juliet Layton
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Tony Dale
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. 09. Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace Spending 2026, recommendation 1
    Status: In progress
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  1. 09. Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace Spending 2026, recommendation 1
    Status: Ended
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. David Stanley, Deputy CEO
  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. Jane Portman, CEO
  14. Councillor Mike Evemy
  15. Councillor Tony Dale
  16. Councillor Mike Evemy
  17. Councillor Juliet Layton
  18. Councillor Mike Evemy
  19. 10. Corporate Performance Report Q1 2026/27, recommendations 1-6
    Status: In progress
  20. 10. Corporate Performance Report Q1 2026/27, recommendations 1-6
    Status: Ended
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  1. Angela Claridge
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Paul Evans
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. Councillor Tony Dale
  6. Councillor Mike Evemy
  7. Councillor Juliet Layton
  8. Councillor Mike Evemy
  9. Councillor Tristan Wilkinson
  10. Councillor Mike Evemy
  11. 12. People and Culture Strategy Implementation Plan Years 2 and 3, recommendations 1-2
    Status: In progress
  12. 12. People and Culture Strategy Implementation Plan Years 2 and 3, recommendations 1-2
    Status: Ended
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  1. Officer
  2. Officer
  3. Officer
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. David Stanley, Deputy CEO
  6. Councillor Mike Evemy
  7. Councillor Tony Dale
  8. Councillor Mike Evemy
  9. Officer
  10. Councillor Mike Evemy
  11. Councillor Juliet Layton
  12. Officer
  13. Councillor Juliet Layton
  14. Officer
  15. Councillor Mike Evemy
  16. 13. Private Sector Housing Civil Penalty Policy, recommendation 1
    Status: In progress
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  1. 13. Private Sector Housing Civil Penalty Policy, recommendation 1
    Status: Ended
  2. Officer
  3. Councillor Mike Evemy
  4. Councillor Paul Evans
  5. Councillor Mike Evemy
  6. Jane Portman, CEO
  7. Councillor Mike Evemy
  8. 14. Health and Safety Delegated Responsibility Framework, recommendations 1-2
    Status: In progress
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  1. 14. Health and Safety Delegated Responsibility Framework, recommendations 1-2
    Status: Ended
  2. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  3. Councillor Mike Evemy
  4. Councillor Paul Evans
  5. Councillor Mike Evemy
  6. 15. Grants Management Policy, recommendations 1-2
    Status: In progress
  7. 15. Grants Management Policy, recommendations 1-2
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Paul Evans
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. Councillor Paul Evans
  6. Councillor Mike Evemy
  7. Councillor Mike Evemy
  8. Councillor Juliet Layton
  9. Councillor Mike Evemy
  10. Councillor Tony Dale
  11. Councillor Mike Evemy
  12. 16. Counter Fraud and Anti-Corruption Policy, recommendations 1-2
    Status: In progress
  13. 16. Counter Fraud and Anti-Corruption Policy, recommendations 1-2
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  2. Councillor Mike Evemy
  3. Councillor Tony Dale
  4. Councillor Mike Evemy
  5. 17. Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Policy, recommendations 1-2
    Status: In progress
  6. 17. Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Policy, recommendations 1-2
    Status: Ended
  7. Webcast Finished

Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:00:00
officers to this and welcome to this meeting of the Cotswold
District Council cabinet. We're going to start off with apologies for absence.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:00:16
Nickie Mackenzie-Daste, Officer - 0:00:17
Apologies, Nikkei. Yes, good evening. We have apologies from Councillor Andrea
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:00:22
Pellegran. Thank you. All other members of the cabinet are present. So the second

2 Declarations of Interest

item is declarations of interest. Does any member or officer have any interest they wish
to declare in relation to items to be considered at this evening's meeting? No, can't see anyone,
so they don't. So we're now going to go to the minutes of the meeting. And we've got

3 Minutes

two different sets of minutes to consider. And we'll, I guess, have to vote on those
separately? Yeah so the first is the minutes of the 1st of July which start
on page 9 and run through until page 19 indeed. Yeah so they not page 17 yeah so
does anyone have any corrections on the minutes of that meeting? No so I'm happy
to move those as a true record seconder. Kristin Wilkinson seconded so can we go
to the vote on that then please?
We have a problem with Juliet's setup.
hopefully it will be it seems to be on this is one over here Tyler but that
doesn't does that need to be taken off to be able to put this one on okay
Okay.
Apologies, well we just, let's see if we can.
Can you revert on that?
Right, I'm gonna, in order to move us on,
can we add a hand or do we all need to put hands up?
We can add Juliet's hand onto that.
So we've got seven votes in favour of the minutes
of the 6th of August.
Sorry, the 1st of July, sorry.
So now moving on to the minutes of the 6th of August.
Before I say something, does anyone have any corrections they wish to make
on the minutes or observations on the minutes of the 6th of August?
No? Nope.
So I've just got something I wanted to, it's not a correction in terms of accuracy,
but just for explanation.
When we considered this at the meeting on the 6th of August, we removed one of
the sites, site Adelphin Way, Upper Rissington, from the list of proposed
sites as part of our material changes that we made and that went to Council
subsequently. It wasn't explicitly explained why we had done that and there
was part of that, which was a drafting error
within the same box, but there should have been
some additional narrative provided
about that proposed deletion.
So obviously as members will recall,
we were quite pressured on time
in terms of providing that information.
So my apologies that we didn't do that at the time,
but happy to clarify it was on representations
made by Councillor Thirlane of the importance of that site to the residents
of Upper Rissington so that was why we decided as a cabinet that we would take
it out from the housing allocation. Okay so I'll now move to so we have a
proposer for the minutes of the 6th of August Juliet a seconder Patrick yeah
okay we'll now go to the vote on the 6th of August if we can.
Could you try both?
.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:05:52
This council that the decision on the future of councils in Gloucestershire was to be paused.
That obviously came as a surprise to all of us,
given that the government had been very clear
that following the decision we got in July
from the previous Secretary of State,
that we were obviously all working to implement
that decision with effect from essentially
for the new councils to start on the first of April 2028.
So obviously there's been lots of discussions
that I've been involved in, that the Chief Executive has been involved in, the
implications for members of staff and for us as members and our families and
staff members families is obviously significant and this has created a lot
of uncertainty at a time when we thought we had certainty and clearly that's not
something that we were expecting or particularly are welcoming. So I think
And obviously, I was also in attendance together
with Councillor Coleman and other offices at the Overview
and Scrutiny Committee on Monday.
And we've got a comment from that committee on the decision
which was essentially coming out that afternoon.
We will be, when we get to that item on the agenda,
there's a published response which I've given,
which we will be essentially agreeing to from me on behalf
of the council but what I did want to say and I won't read therefore go into
detail about it at that time but clearly you know as I said it's an area a time
of uncertainty and not uncertainty that we welcome but we have been said
responding to that announcement on Monday I met together with fellow
leaders and all the chief executives in Gloucestershire councils this morning
to discuss that decision.
And we have decided to write collectively to the Secretary
of State for Housing Communities and Local Government
about its impacts on us and our ambition that the review
that the government is undertaking is genuinely rapid,
as the Junior Minister told us in a call on Tuesday morning,
so that essentially we can continue the work preparation.
What the government have made clear is
that this is a pause, that they're still behind the
ambition of our local government reorganisation.
So, you know, we would very much welcome that pause being
as short as it possibly can be.
We're going to meet as leaders together again on the 18th
of September to review the impact of the decision and
really sit down and consider what our key asks
are of government.
But, you know, there will be cost to this delay, not just,
you know, in terms of the implications for financial costs,
but also, you know, personal costs, and that's understood.

4 Leader's Announcements

And we've asked our chief executive to meet with officials
from MHCLG, and they've arranged that they're going to meet face
to face with them on the 24th of September.
So really, just to sort of finish off on that,
it is a period of uncertainty and, you know,
recognising that that has an impact on us all in the room and many people
outside it and to get to a decision as quickly as possible for Gloucestershire
is what our ask would be to give us certainty again so that we can
plan for whatever future there is. The only other thing I was going to
to let cabinet members know is that I have had a letter from the Prime Minister.
I think it's the first time I've had one of those as leader of the council and I
have shared it with you all and I've now had a hard copy
that's arrived on my desk that was sent on the 26th of August. It's called
rewiring the state and I think it's been referred to quite a lot by and it is
being referred to by ministers quite a lot and clearly within there it talks
about their ambition for devolution and that's something
that I will be discussing further
with my colleague leaders when we meet up next week.
Okay, we'll now move on to public questions.

5 Public Questions

Don't see any members of the public in the room
so they're answering it.
Member questions?
Don't think we've had any, Nicky.
No, we haven't.

6 Member Questions

7 Issue(s) arising from Overview and Scrutiny and/or Audit and Governance

So item seven then is issues arising from overview
and scrutiny or audit and governance.
We had overview and scrutiny on Monday, as I mentioned.
Councillor Coleman and I from the cabinet
were in attendance.
And we've had, so circulated, and I'm assuming
posted online so that people can see
what we are talking about,
is a comment around land charges.
And we might come onto that when we deal with the item
on performance.
but we have a response that Juliet has agreed to that, which I think I'll prefer
to take in discussion on the item if we can. Then there was a comment from the
committee about funding for SIL and how we had an unspent on the budget and just
reassurance I think in the response from Juliet that we have the offices in place
to do the jobs that we need to do with regards to CIL.
Then there's a further one about information
in the contextual information, and there's an answer there.
And, you know, obviously officers heard the request
from the committee about when we can put more contextual
information in that we will.
And then there's a comment response,
which I've just outlined in terms of their request
around writing to the Secretary of State
about the local government reorganisation.
So those, are we, anything anybody wants to say on those?
Otherwise I'll take those as read and they're published
so people can see the responses.

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

Then we'll move on to agenda item eight, decisions taken
by the leader and or individual cabinet members.
I think this time around, page 29, I think this time
around it was Juliet and Patrick, all of your decisions.
So are there any questions or any observations on those?
Nope, okay, thank you.
So we'll now move, we just have to note those decisions.
So we'll now move on to agenda item nine,

9 Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace Spending 2026

suitable alternative natural green space spending 2026.
And I'll hand over to Julia for this one.
Thank you.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:12:50
Yeah, everything's working on my microphone, that's good.
Okay, so between March, the 1st of March and the 7th of June 2026, the Council invited
bids from infrastructure providers and relevant partners to assess available suitable alternative
natural green space, SANG funds, associated with the Cotswold Beechwood Special Area of
Conservation, shortened to SAC.
The SANG projects provide other green open spaces for visitors and minimises pressures on the Cotswold Beechwoods.
The Council received one bid only, submitted by the National Trust, seeking £20 ,000 to deliver accessibility improvements at Sherborne Park as part of the Sherborne Big Nature Better Access project.
The proposal involves upgrading a 425 metre missing link path from poor quality wood chip
surface to a fully accessible permanent gravel route for those with mobility impairments,
families with pushed chairs and dog walkers.
This enhancement is intended to increase the attractiveness of Sherborne as an alternative
recreational destination, thereby diverting visitor pressure away from the Cotswolds beech
in line with the recreational mitigation strategy of 2022.
The bid was assessed by officer's panel
and it achieved an 86 out of 100 score.
The threshold was 75 out of 100, so it did well.
And the funds are available to support the proposal.
So I asked the cabinet to approve the recommendation
from the officers.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:14:45
Thank you very much Juliette. Oh sorry. Yeah I'm just gonna say something just
because I think it should say it it's not an interest declaration but I am a
former employee of the National Trust. It's more than four years now since I
worked there and so if anybody, some people may know that so just to clarify
I don't work for them anymore and the pension entitlement was not a final
salary pension, it was a personally funded one, so it's
now my personal fund that's not contributed any more by
National Trust.
So I'm going to hand over to Tony to second this one, I think.
Thank you, Mike.
Councillor Tony Dale - 0:15:23
Yeah, I think this is a good thing.
And it's kind of simple.
Effectively, we are saying there are some areas of scientific
interest of biodiversity that we would like to continue to
protect as much as we can and there is funding to do that.
The National Trust, as we all know and I believe the public
believes, are good custodians of biodiverse areas and that
is great.
It is wonderful to see that they have chosen to apply.
Sad that more haven't, but I'm glad that at least the National
Trust have applied and that they are proposing to do something
which will really genuinely enhance an area which is popular
with walkers and cyclists which I do love because from a sustainable tourism
in the Cotswolds point of view it's the right thing to do. People will tend to
turn up at Sherborne on the Big Nature Project and walk and cycle and enjoy it
as they come and they take photographs and they leave any footprints. I wish all
tourism was like that if I'm being totally honest but this is a great thing
to do. It's good for Sherborne in the round it means that more people will be
doing the right thing and fewer people will be damaging relatively sensitive
scientific areas. So I'm thoroughly supportive of it and I do hope that the
residents of Sherborne will join with me in welcoming it. Thank you. Thank you Tony.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:16:51
Obviously the ward member for it covers Sherborne as well which you didn't say.
Anyone else got anything to say on this one? No? Okay so we're asked to
agree to fund the following bid,
Sherwin Big Nature Better Access Brackets National Trust.
We can go to the vote, please.
We're gonna have to add Juliette manually
to the, it takes like all evening,
but that was a, or we might have another go
to see if we can get it set up on a different,
might need to move so you can vote.
I'm voting for one against.
I'm voting for four.
Thank you, darling.
So have we got seven?
We've now got all seven.
Oh yeah, there it is.
So do we need Juliet to sit there
and to get that to work?
Would you mind, Juliet?
I don't mind going ahead.
Right, okay.
Right, we'll now move on while you're doing that.
Thank you, everybody.
Thank you, Juliet, particularly.
To Agenda Item 10.
So this is the Corporate Performance Report.
If we can, yeah, I'm sure you're gonna take it back,
the vote back off the screen, somebody.

10 Corporate Performance Report - Q1 2026/27

So, yeah, the corporate performance report for first quarter, so that's April through
to the end of June.
This I think is the first time we've had a combined version of that report.
So the three elements being the financial performance, the service performance, and
the strategic risk register.
As I mentioned, Patrick and I, together with David Stanley,
we're at the overview and scrutiny committee on Monday
and answering questions on this report.
So, obviously, David between, David and Patrick,
between them can cover the financial elements of it.
And we're, have you got a question right now?
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:18:53
So, sorry, so David and Patrick will obviously be able
to cover the financial elements.
We've also got colleagues here to answer any tricky questions
that I can't answer.
Stuart's here for that purpose.
So I think obviously for those of you who are familiar with it,
we have looking at our performance, so we've got metrics
on our services and also we've got essentially our corporate performance
report against our corporate plan so all of that is in there. On the land charges
obviously there was concern about that at the overview and scrutiny committee
but you know in terms of the response that Juliet has given that we've just
approved earlier I think the the team there are really on the case of him to
improve, not only improve the turnaround times which was one of the major concerns
but also make the service more resilient and sustainable. So I'm not really going
to take a lot of time to talk about particular things in the performance.
Other than note that the report obviously goes through some of the areas
where we're doing particularly well and you know a few and the risk register and
obviously making sure that we're looking at that as the leaders of the council,
that we are cognizant of what's in the risk register.
So I will stop there and hand over to colleagues to present elements of it.
So who wants to go next, Patrick or David?
Patrick and then David.
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:20:31
Oh, thank you, Chair.
As you identified, it's the first time we've had this set of information arranged
in this way and I'm sure we'll get used to it.
It's a little bit complex because we've got annexes
which themselves have annexes here and there.
If I might look at briefly before we get any further discussion
at the recommendations, you'll see
that the first recommendation is to review a note
of financial position set out in Annex A and indeed in Annex A1.
I have a note here saying that Annex A runs from page 65 to page 80, and I think Annex
A1 follows that.
Most importantly and most welcome, the second recommendation to approve an increase of £27 ,000
to the capital programme for the installation of swimming pool covers at Portland Under
Water and Chipping Camden leisure centres, funded from the remaining balance of the community
municipal investment.
That's laid out in section 4 of Annex A.
The next recommendation is to approve additional transfers to earmarked reserves,
transfer any year -end planning fee income over and above the budgeted level,
planning appeals earmarked reserve, transfer any year -end investment income over
and above the budgeted level to the treasury management earmarked reserve,
transfer any remaining year -end surplus to the capacity building earmarked reserve.
So that's the reserve transfers that we need, the transfers of reserves that we need to approve.
It's the third part of the recommendation.
The fourth one I'm slightly rewording from what's printed and I think needs to go delegate
to the, resolve to delegate to the Strategic Head of Housing, Property and Assets, the
Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer in consultation with the Cabinet Member for
Finance, which is myself, to progress to disposal the Hereford asset as set out in paragraph
412 of Annex A1, which is found on page 76.
The fifth recommendation is to note overall progress on the council priorities.
This is quite a substantial section, of course, because we go into a lot of detail.
And the last one to review the strategic risk register
and mitigation measures as set out in Annex C. That's a nice short one.
That starts with page 161 and goes on to 167.
Seriously, the colour changes and the layout changes make them relatively easy to find.
I think that the announcement you've made regarding local government
reorganisation delay is going to impact on our budget setting in ways that have
not yet been clearly identified or in clearly and choices that have not yet
been clearly identified but I'm sure that the officers and members working
together will find a way to continue this council what looks like at least
one extra year. And I suppose the thing to do is to say, well, at least we start from
a better position than many of our district council colleagues who have been asked to
last an extra year. Now I would love to pass to the chief officer. No? There he is. Sorry.
I think he's more smart than you.
Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:23:47
Thank you, Patrick, to David, and then I'll bring you in,
Paul.
Okay, David.
David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:23:53
Thank you, Lida.
Brief background on this.
So you'll notice that we've changed the way in which we
refer to budgets and some of the key variances.
So in previous reports, we followed the order that cost
centres dropped off the natural system.
But that meant you might have seen building control at the top of the list.
That didn't necessarily mean it was the most important variation to look at.
Its cost centre is BUC001.
Waste and recycling, which starts with WST, was right at the bottom.
So what we've done is we've mirrored what we did in the February budget papers.
There was an annex to that budget pack, quite a long pack as well, where we highlighted
the structure of the organisations.
We have governance, resources, communities in place, chief executive and everything non -service.
We've organised the way we report based on the organisational structure to give it a
little bit more sense and consistency.
policy. And that's followed through in all the tables, particularly in the financial
performance. Overall, there is a summary report that this pulls together the performance across
both financial service performance and strategic risks. That is being co -authored with AI.
I took each of the reports in turn, asked copilot, please can you summarise this in
500 words or less that would be suitable for a cabinet member to read, and then I pasted
that into the report.
So this is very much would appreciate feedback from cabinet in terms of how you felt those
summaries read, good and bad.
But overall in terms of financial performance, 122 ,000 positive variation or net underspend.
we're projecting at the end of Q1.
That's a healthy position.
The positives are there is an underpin in effect
on the revenue side from fees and charges in effect.
So particularly for car, parking,
come to better management fees.
That is offsetting a couple of variations
that are worth noting.
One around vacancy management across the council as a whole.
So members may recall when we set the budget
for the current year we included within that a vacancy factor of three and a
half percent that was recognising in prior years we had tended to underspend
the salary budgets who were taking some of that benefit at the start of the
financial year that meant we were putting a degree of risk back into the
budget because in order to be balanced you've got to maintain a level of
vacancy management reporting 149 ,000 adverse variation against that that
doesn't mean to say that means the job is done.
The corporate leadership team, Helen, Angela,
myself and Jane will be scrutinising every vacancy
that comes forward to CLT for approval
to ensure that we're taking our responsibility
as CLT seriously and ensuring that we can bring
that back in line.
The second significant adverse variation is around
the human code contract, that's 171 ,000 adverse.
Unsurprisingly, a fair proportion of that is because of the fuel price risk increase.
And if you've noticed, Brent crude went above $100 a barrel yesterday.
Pump prices are back around 180, 190, depending which forecourt you visit for diesel.
That is playing out in that budget.
But there's more work to do on that.
And again, as was discussed with overview and scrutiny members,
part of our responsibility as a leadership team and also there is roles
for for Andrea as the cabinet member to play is holding you to account and
ensuring that where they're identifying a cost pressure they're also coming
forward to us as a council and saying well if there's an overspend here here's
some mitigating actions that can be taken we bear the risk of price on what
they deliver so we specify to you because please can you collect waste and
recycling from all our households in the district and they will say that will cost you an amount of your budget poor
But we pay them what it really costs. So if there is an increase in cost that is our risk
So it's imperative that the messaging back to you because from both officers and members is to ensure that they're looking for those
opportunities to reduce that cost pressure
In terms of more widely in the report. I did go through quite a bit with over you and scrutiny
I won't do here, but I would draw your attention to,
particularly paragraph 4 .9 and 4 .13 in Annex A
of the report that covers capital,
which is the delegating authority
to strategic head of housing and assets,
myself and the cabinet member for finance
to progress the disposal of the property in Hereford
that the cabinet approved,
marketing that at a previous meeting in July.
That has reached the point where we are able to exchange
contracts and given the time pressure around that,
we don't want to miss the opportunity to dispose.
We're taking it through that decision -making route.
So with cabinet's support, that is what the proposal is
in this report.
But I'll stop there and happy to take questions
or bring in other members as you see fit.
Thank you, David.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:29:39
I've got Paul and then Tristan.
Paul and then Mike.
Thank you.
Councillor Paul Evans - 0:29:45
Just on paragraph 412, 412, I think the recommendations call
out that paragraph in Annex A1, and I think it's probably Annex
A. It's very minor, but probably to...
I thought you were going to cover it when you were talking
to the rewriting.
but no I just just cheque on it it is an X a page 76 yeah the other point I
wanted to make was reading reading through this is is it's well laid out
certainly for me as a relative new boy in town to be able to get the right
information and I think the most pleasing thing about it is to see the
healthy position that this council finds itself in financially so I'd like to
congratulate our RFO and Chief Financial Officer and cabinet member and cabinet colleagues
for getting us into this position. It's very refreshing to see a surplus at the end of
Q1.
My final comment is on the risk management. I live and breathe risk in my professional
day -to -day work. So to see a risk articulation so well thought through is really quite refreshing.
So I'd like to congratulate colleagues on that as well.
Live and breathe risk.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:31:04
Right.
That's for you, Paul.
OK, Tristan.
Councillor Tristan Wilkinson - 0:31:11
Thank you very much.
As somebody who didn't do very well in O -level maths,
I'm very close to understanding this.
So thank you very much.
I liked the fact that there were lots of arrows pointing up
and down, which I found really easy, mostly up,
which was brilliant.
The serious point is, I think it's really important
that we measure trends over time,
so we get a sort of a good indication
as to how we're doing over time.
I found this really easy to dig into.
It surfaces the important information,
which is when there's this much is really important.
So no, I'd like to echo Paul's comments
and commend to the officers work for this.
I think this is something we could iterate a little bit,
but I think we're definitely on the right track.
Thank you.
Mike?
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:32:00
Councillor Mike McKeown - 0:32:03
Thank you again.
Great.
Very solid performance, which is excellent to see,
like those upward green arrows, as Tristan spotted.
A couple of comments from my own portfolio.
Delighted to see is the report on the EV charging rollout
complete, and everything's up and operational.
And I'm sure David, as well as me,
is delighted to see that it's actually above budget
in terms of the income generation.
So a bit like our solar, which is the same, which is a good reminder that climate action
actually has big co -benefits, financial returns as it does with our residents.
In fact, we've had a very strong summer of lots of installations on Cotswold Home Solar
as people enjoying the benefits of extra sunshine.
On the subject of climate, we got a nice report just recently come through, an independent
report as part of auditing our climate action. We came out really well, scored
highly with lots of commendations. They particularly called out the climate
board that we've been running for a little while now. So thanks to Jane and
Mike and other senior officers and members who are part of that that's
really been effective from driving action. I think we may be getting a bit
of a benefit out of the unexpected benefit out of the LGR stuff from our
forward planning. So we put some focus on planning this building and our
leisure centres and how we can reduce costs and carbon by improving the energy efficiency
of those buildings and getting rid of some of the gas in there.
So that's, I know we approved some work on that now.
So I hope you will see some more nice, more benefits in a future report from that.
On digital, I was obviously delighted to see David using AI and effectively probably you
should tell it to write the stuff 500 words suitable in language that's
suitable for a 10 year old because then us lot will probably then get it.
Someone who just got a maths solo.
Yeah, maths solo, we'll only get us on there.
But seriously on that, I think a few of us went to the LGA conference just recently
and there was a lot of really good case studies of what councils are doing with
AI to really help improve services to their citizens and their businesses and
drive efficiency. There's another little maybe LGR delay bonus on that. We now have an AI
board and one of the setups of that, the problem we hit with that was there was very little
ICT resource at that time because it was basically being consumed by all the LGR work. So hopefully
we can now, that work has probably come off, we can accelerate what we can do on that and
improve our services.
So that's something for us in my other portfolio
to focus on, which I think sort of benefit.
Finishing off maybe the dark side of that
is the risks that's in there.
We highlighted cybersecurity as a high threat
and that's definitely something that's getting worse
and I'm afraid that's the dark side of AI.
It does make us and everybody more open to attack,
which is A, a big thing, of course,
for our ICT team to protect us against,
but it's for all of us officers and members
to be increasingly vigilant because a lot of that is about breaking in isn't just tech
stuff in the background, it's about manipulating us into doing things and AI can be used badly
for that as well.
So I think in net more benefit than threat, but we need to be vigilant but also grasp
the opportunity and I guess our extended life gives us more opportunity to do that good
stuff.
Thank you, Mike.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:35:38
I mean, the chief executive just wants to come in.
I mean, I think all I would say is it was only on Monday.
We got the announcement.
And I think, you know, there's a lot of work that Jane
and other offices have got to do.
And, you know, the polls could be, it could be rapid.
You know, we could have a decision in a month's time
and we could all be back on.
So we've just got to be mindful of that as well
in terms of priorities.
but Jane just wanted to say something, but I've just said what you were going to say.
Jane Portman, CEO - 0:36:10
Sorry. No, that's fine. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify a point which may be
quite nuanced, but given this is a public meeting, I understand that a lot of the
public have translated pause into either delay or cancelation, and neither is
actually yet to be the case. So all we, I just want to be really clear, all we know
at the moment is that the government has paused the implementation of the decision whilst
they undertake an internal rapid review, which they expect to let us know in the not too
distant future. Therefore, they're using the word rapid. But for now, I just want to be
really clear that we cannot assume that the pause translates into anything. We can't assume
pause translates into delay or cancelation. Thank you. Yeah we've all
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:37:09
been trying to work out, understand exactly what that means and things may
become a little bit clearer but Tony.
Councillor Tony Dale - 0:37:20
Thank you Lida. Just a couple of things I probably ought to highlight on the
financial report. Cabinet's very kindly letting me have a little bit of money
for the pool covers at the leisure centres.
So, Chipping Camden will get a new leisure centre pool cover,
and so will Portland Water, which is good as well.
It's using money that we would have wanted to use within the
climate agenda.
It will save heating bills.
It's an absolute no -brainer in terms of return on investment,
but thank you very much, cabinet colleagues.
It is also good for me to be able to report that the leisure
centres are doing pretty well anyway,
so that's good that they continue to do so.
Their memberships are still a little bit up against target and their visits are definitely
up against target, which is great to see.
Often a bit tricky through the summer, especially when we had such a hot summer, but it's good
that those centres continue to perform, so that's good.
All that leaves me to say is I do welcome the government reflecting long and hard on
its decisions and whether they're right or wrong, but I do hope during that time they
understand that the cost of that reflection, such as a pause, doesn't mean
that people's salaries pause and all of our efforts stop. So I do hope that when
we restart, which I'm sure Jane will be rapidly, then I'm sure we shall restart
with a little bit of extra budget to cover the cost of the pause. So thank you
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:38:46
Jane. Yeah I think we all hope that Tony and we certainly I know we will be
making that point to the government and to their representatives that you know
there is a cost. We don't know because we don't know as James says we don't know
if there is a delay or not we don't know what the cost will be but there will be
some cost in almost certainly in terms of the implication the decision to
to pause the implementation
of the local government reorganisation in Gloucestershire.
Can't see anybody else.
Juliette, yeah.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:39:29
Well, I'm just going to make a comment on government
and rapidly because, you know, as we have pause in one hand,
excuse that sort of slight pun, but rapid,
my goodness they've been rapid in some of their other decisions
that they've made and certainly to do with planning and housing numbers which
segues me into talking about that the planning development management team who
have done incredibly well because not only have they been inputting into the
local plan with the forward planning team but they've also been dealing with
all the applications that have been coming in which are heavy and they are
suspect that will change because of we're in in a state of unbalance with
our planning and local plan because it's a tilt, we're not allowed to use tilted
balance anymore but there's a presumption and favour as because we have
no five -year land supply. So speculative planning will cause more
appeals which is unfortunate but hopefully we'll be able to fight those
and win but I'm just one to recommend that they are doing a brilliant job
under extreme pressure actually so thank you all the DM team and the local plan
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:40:55
team. Thank you Juliet. So yeah just just from me I think just to sort of sum up
really yeah obviously a really good performance a couple of areas we've
Talks about land charges we need to do and we are doing the work to improve the service
But as Juliet said yeah, absolutely doing some great stuff
In planning and getting those decisions out and Mike's talked about the stuff. We've done on the charges and getting them out everywhere
So there's some really great stuff that we have been delivering as a council and you know the extra work that they've done
There's also obviously come with extra fees which you know as we talked about that means that we can put
put money aside to cover appeals, potential appeals.
So we're proposing to do that in recommendation three.
Then the other thing I would add,
obviously welcome the fact that we're doing the pool covers
at Boughton on the Water and Chipping Camden.
So that's great news.
But even more personally to me,
the fact that we look like we might be selling
one of our out of district properties.
I think that's something I've been discussing with officers
for many years and looking at those
and that we've got to the point
whereby we believe we can sell it.
And obviously that will generate a capital receipt
for the council, which obviously will help us
in terms of our capital position.
Whilst we don't have necessarily delay according to LGR,
You know having having a bit of extra money in our capital receipts reserve can't be a bad thing. So yeah, it would welcome that
so I'm going to
formally move the
Recommendations to have a formal a seconder Councillor Coleman is seconding. So can we now go open the vote, please?
Patrick voted.
Councillor Coleman, have you voted?
That's not showing so on the screen.
You have now? Right, that's all seven of us voted in favour. Thank you very much.

11 Establishing a Voluntary Joint Committee - Local Government Reorganisation

We'll now move on to Agenda Item 11. I'm withdrawing Agenda Item 11 about the establishment of a Joint Statute Stroke Statutory Committee
in light of the pause of the government's,
the government's re -pausing of the implementation
of the decision for Gloucestershire.
Obviously that is very much part of that implementation
of that decision, so that's why we're drawing

12 People and Culture Strategy Implementation Plan Years 2 and 3

that agenda item, so we will now move on
to agenda item 12, people and culture strategy
implementation plan year two and three.
I can see, I thought we were joined by Carmel,
is there at the back and Angela is also around as well to assist me in presenting this report
to you. So you'll recall that a year ago we agreed a new people and culture strategy and
the report outlines the progress that we've made in strengthening the organisational culture,
key achievements, embedding our new workforce values, implementing revised
organisational structure, developing a more robust performance management rate
framework, refreshing our onboarding and mentoring arrangements and delivering a
retention strategy. So an awful lot there. Obviously this report was written
before we got the news on Monday so there's references in here to obviously
local government reorganisation, which will be the case in essentially some of
the other reports as well. But obviously the report really talks about what we've
already done and then goes on to talk about the implementation plan for years
two and three and what we're looking to do going forward. So I'm gonna stop there
and not present that. If either Carmel or Angela wanted to talk about a little bit
more about what we're looking to do going forward. Who would like to say something,
Angela Claridge - 0:45:31
Angela? Thank you, Leader, and thank you, members.
Thank you to my colleague, Carmel, who's worked very much with me on this report. You've very
nicely covered what we've done in the last 12 months, lots of achievements, which is
thanks to many colleagues. It's going to be some more of the same, building on the successes
over the last year. You could guess I was going to talk about the demands of LGR, and
of course, Monday's announcement has made that even greater. Essentially, in a nutshell,
we're looking very much to maintain service delivery and organisational stability during
the uncertainty. That will involve several strands or factors to our strategy and our
implementation plan, supporting colleagues through change, whilst building future capability.
we want our colleagues to develop and flourish and thrive.
So development opportunities,
but also supporting the workforce through change.
The more retention and stability and recognition
for all of the good work that goes on across the authority.
And of course, continuing our good plans
around internal communication
and ensuring that we take on the employee voice.
We're just about to start our,
we've just started our next employee survey
and that will continue to inform the direction that this piece of work goes
on but very much commend it to your leader and cabinet to approve. Thank you
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:46:52
very much Angela. Are there any sort of questions or comments from colleagues?
Paul I think you were going to second this one. Do you want to just say
Councillor Paul Evans - 0:47:04
something? Yeah I think I'll play the I'm the new boy in town card again. I won't
be the player for much longer I doubt but I'm going to on this occasion. It has
been refreshing to come into an organisation and observe the culture as one of supportive
of continual improvement of transparency. So I'm delighted to hear that we plan to do
more of the same. I think, like you, I read this and thought, of course, there's a lot
of LGR in there. The message I do take out of it actually is that a lot of those things
are generically towards being able to support an organisation through change and by definition
uncertainty. So I'm encouraged to see that we have the mechanisms in place to be able
to do that, whether that's LGR or uncertainty caused by pauses on LGR as well. So yes, I'm
supportive of this. Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:47:59
Councillor Tony Dale - 0:48:02
Paul, Tony. Thank you, Lita. I'd like to think it's providing the very oxygen for
those that are living and breathing risk within the transformation.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:48:15
We've all learnt to live and breathe risk. Okay, Juliette. Yeah, I just thought, I mean,
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:48:20
this is very well written. I don't know whether this is AI, but I'm liking the
reading of this. I support what everybody has said about this, but I think one of
the things that we've talked a lot about staff retention, things like that, and I
know it's a really difficult time because, you know, where is CDC going to
be in the future, you know, causal or rapidly changing. But I think one of what
we hear a lot about, and I've heard a lot about it certainly in planning, is that
we do grow your own. So we have people coming and maybe they're looking at
validation of a planning application. Maybe they've come from customer
services and have been able to reply on the phone and give information and these
staff are moving across and growing and going into the planning
department and learning and there is lots of support and lots of training for
them in there and maybe a you know a big bright future and I'm really I really
applaud that because we see it a lot and I think that's a fantastic
recommendation. It could happen on many other departments but I only know really
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:49:35
Councillor Tristan Wilkinson - 0:49:37
about the planning. Thank you. Thank you very much. Juliet, Tristan. Culture, the red blood cells
pumping through the arteries of the organisation. I just want to pick up on Paul's bit.
Actually this is really important. This isn't a sort of nice to have actually
in times of uncertainty, if the culture is dysfunctional,
then those headwinds become really serious problems.
And I think the fact that over the last couple of years,
we've paid particular attention to this
and taken it so seriously,
it's gonna stand us in good stead
for the next couple of years.
So joking aside, I think that it's one of those things
that people think they're getting right,
but often they don't.
So I think the fact that we are taking it so seriously
is something we should absolutely continue.
Thank you very much.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:50:19
So, yeah, I've just come back to the recommendations.
Just formally moved them, and I think Paul, you seconded them
already, yeah.
So we're resolving to approve the year's two and three
implementation plan as detailed in Annex A, so that's August 26
to March 28, and delegate authority to the Director of
Governance and Development in consultation with myself to make
minor amendments to the plan in response to emerging
organisation or legislative changes.
So can we open the vote, please?
Yeah, we've all managed to vote that time.
Thank you very much.
That's seven votes in favour.
Brilliant.
Okay. We've managed to master the technology.
So we're now moving from Agenda Item 13, page 211.

13 Private Sector Housing Civil Penalty Policy

Obviously, we're without Andrea this evening, so,
but we have got Phil Measures, our officer there.
So I'm not going to say very much, Phil,
and invite you to say a little bit.
But essentially, obviously, we've had a policy.
We introduced it last year.
But since we introduced a civil penalty and enforcement policy,
we've now got the Renters' Rights Act enabled.
And that places a greater demand and expectation
on the stat to improve standards in the private sector which obviously hopefully
is a good thing and so they're looking the government is looking to us to
enforce those standards through civil penalties where we need to so we need to
make sure the policy is up to date and in line with tribunal decisions and
legislation so I'm gonna hand over then to Phil to say a little bit more but if
I've said everything then that's fine too.
Officer - 0:52:17
Thank you.
Thank you, Chet.
Yes, it is exactly that.
It's to take account of the additional powers
that have been provided by the Renters' Rights Act
and it allows us as an alternative to prosecution
to lay a civil penalty where a landlord is in breach.
Officer - 0:52:42
Officer - 0:52:44
It's not the microphone, I think it's the floor for you, Billy.
I'm going to speak a little bit louder.
We've got members in the room and there's several people watching at home.
Thank you.
So yes, I was just saying it's to...
Yes, it's to allow us, it's to bring the current or the former civil penalties policy in line
with the new powers that the Event as Rights Act has provided so that as an alternative
to prosecution where there are breaches by landlords, we can apply a civil penalty rather
than have to go to prosecution.
I should say that we'll still follow the informal approach.
The idea is we don't let it get to that stage
that we try to avoid enforcement action where possible
and get things resolved more quickly,
simply because whether you go to prosecution or civil penalty,
there's an awful lot of work involved in getting it
through those stages.
One thing we have introduced is to have regular meetings
with legal services so that where we are looking to apply a civil penalty it'll
be in discussion with them, final approval by them, but that at least the
discussion will be taking place beforehand to try and get as much
resolved before it gets to a stage where perhaps there's an appeal in place. So
So that is really it in a nutshell.
As I say, it is bringing an existing policy up to date.
I should say that, and I think you said this,
that it is a national policy.
So we've taken what has been recommended nationally
and made it bespoke for Cotswold District.
And there is a whole formula that the officers will use
to calculate the civil penalty as well. Again, it's to ensure consistency between local authorities
that the hope is for the same breach, they would roughly arrive at the same penalty.
The values have gone up slightly, I should say, it's from 7 ,000 up to 40 ,000, but again,
those figures are lowered or raised according to the seriousness of the offence. So the
point is perhaps 7 ,000 for certain types of offences, but it might come down depending
on the mitigating circumstances to a much smaller fine. So again, they look large fines
and they can be, but it isn't automatically at least 7 ,000, it could be less than that.
And finally I would add that the fines themselves, they are set through a whole formula, so it's
something that the local authorities make up if you like according to their
own costs is nationally set and it's there as a sanction rather than a sort
of income -raising stream although you the money that we do receive from fines
because it's imagine the actual work involved is costly to a local authority
taxpayer the fines can then go back to the service to the housing regulatory
services once they're levied, so at least there's some return on the work if a fine
is successfully issued.
So, yes, any questions?
Thanks very much.
Phil, can I ask, is my question, if you turn off your microphone, maybe more for David
actually.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:56:23
So, to your last point, so it sounds like obviously if you do use these penalties, there's
a lot of work for your teams, but there's also quite a lot for our legal team, presumably,
to do as well.
So is there a process that we've got essentially or is that to be defined when we do get any of these?
How we sort of divvy up the cash between the department and legal department?
David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:56:51
Thank you leader there's already a process in place through counter fraud enforcement unit we take successful
cases through the courts and there's an award of costs back to the council.
So there is some monitoring of that money coming back
and that's then applied back to the cost
as they were incurred in those cases.
So my word of warning is whilst the council
may get an award, it might take several months,
if not longer, for those payments to come through.
So it's recognising there will have been a cost incurred
by other council in taking that action.
That's where that money will go to around that.
but is also recognising that part of the future work could be funded from that penalty, because
the point of the penalty isn't to raise income for the council, it's to bring properties
back into use and maintain the standards, so on and so forth.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:57:47
Okay, thank you. Anyone else on this? Tony?
Tony?
Councillor Tony Dale - 0:57:54
Not wishing to change the policy at all, but trying to alleviate excessive bureaucracy
either for legal or accounting.
Is that on page 11 of the policy, it sets out 12 bullet points, I haven't gone over
for financial mitigation should the landlord suggest that the fine is too big.
I understand that every landlord frankly would want to suggest the fine is too big, but for
us to then have to process three full tax years of assessment, three full tax years
of SA302 documents, three months pay slips, three P60s, I could carry on forever. It would
take me at least a week to get through that. So I do feel rather sorry for the poor person
asked for administering this. So perhaps I could merely suggest that in using the policy
we exercise thoughtfulness and restraint and a modicum of free thinking about how we use
our diligence in assessing fines, that's all. Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:59:15
Thank you, Tony. Phil, did you want to say anything in response to that? Or is that something
that lists that you have to do and everyone's doing, or is there some flexibility as Tony
describes?
Officer - 0:59:27
Thank you. I'll gladly take that away. We can look to see what other local authorities
do to try and deal with issues like that. There will be some good practise out there
so we can learn from that and apply it ourselves.
Thank you very much.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:59:46
So in terms of coming back to the Juliet, you were happy to second this.
Did you want to say anything?
Councillor Juliet Layton - 0:59:52
Yeah, I think this is really important that, you know, it ensures that we, with the ability
to enforce against Paul Houn standards, we are supporting our residents.
and this is doing it with open and the transparent investigation about with HMOs
illegal evictions poor housing conditions and things and I think it's a
really important document I certainly hope that with the fines I think we're
looking at as Phil said about we are we try and make things better first so
we'll be mitigating again with I guess my people have to be rehomed if things
are that bad but you know there will be mitigation before we move to fining
which the perhaps way we don't have to go through the list of 12 told me to do
that and I would possibly suggest that that's what land lords or you know
letting agents would prefer to do but I'm and it might be in this paper how
many people have actually I've got a question as well of my second thing how
many people have we pursued well in the last year letting agents or landlords
and have we had success either in making things better so the residents you know
not everybody wants to move do they so it might be you know residents would
like to stay and have things made better or how many have we fined? Thank you.
Officer - 1:01:31
Yes, the intention is to make things better. Most of the cases we deal with
are about improvements to the property and not so bad that prohibition
notices have to be served. So the bulk of it is about improvement as you say and
at the start and from the outset you're trying to resolve it informally rather
and going to the formal stage of fine and prosecution.
So there aren't that many, and I can think of two cases,
I won't mention the names, at the moment where it's going
through the process, if you like.
The first stage is where you actually send them,
if you like, a draught.
You send them what the fine could look
like to grab their attention.
So they get that warning to start with.
And in both cases, quite large organisations.
So our hope is that when they receive the initial estimate
of what they could find, that they take note and take action
to deal with it.
So two at the moment since.
So we've been quite keen to get the policy in place,
because then we can apply the new policy for the Renters
Rights Act as opposed to relying on the old policy.
Councillor Juliet Layton - 1:02:52
Just have another brief question because we kind of think of the private landlord and
letting agents, I think there's a sort of term, we have no housing stock so does that
also include registered providers?
Officer - 1:03:08
Yes, the legislation applies to RSLs, housing associations, trust fund trustees. I mean,
technically the act actually applies to private householders as well, but we tend to leave
them alone unless they really want us to inspect. But no, it's RSLs, trustees, your private
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:03:35
sector landlords. Thank you very much. So just bringing us back then the
resolution is to approve the housing still penalties policy proposed by
myself seconded by Juliet can we go to the vote please
I made it there all seven thank you very much that's in the last rap when I move

14 Health and Safety Delegated Responsibility Framework

on, thanks Phil. Agenda item 14, page 269, health and safety delegated
responsibility framework. So you've got a paper here about work on health and
safety and improving that and doing a framework but I'm, I've got Claire in the
room so I'm going to pass over to Claire to give a little bit of introduction
which I'm sure will be much better than me doing.
Thank you, Lida.
Officer - 1:04:27
We've been conducting a comprehensive review and refresh
of our health and safety policies, and that has led us
to conclude that we need more detail, particularly around the
specialist technical policies, so things like asbestos,
electrical safety.
So we have procedures in place at the moment, but we need to go
further in terms of documenting those.
So we've looked at what we need to do, and actually there's a
lot of policies, guidance documents, generic risk
assessments that we need to have in place.
So we want to take a pragmatic approach.
If we were to bring every document before you, you would
probably have to plan an additional cabinet meetings.
I would draw your attention in Annex A to the report.
At the very end, there is Appendix 1, which is a flow
chart and if you look at that it shows the breadth of policies and documents
that we need to have. So a lot of this work is very technical, very operational
and it's also based on statute and statutory guidance. So there's not a huge
amount here where there would be room for debate. It's about taking pragmatic
planned action to make sure that we are protecting the council, its employees, its
members, visitors to the building, and those that we
employ so they are suitably protected.
We need to make sure we get that all in place.
So what we're proposing is we have this umbrella framework
that broadly covers what we intend to do, but that we seek
delegation so that the chief executive can actually agree
these individual policies as we develop them.
It means that we can be really efficient with our time, and as
and then approved rather than waiting any and more for more approval process.
So it's about getting our house in order, making sure that we've got the right
measures in place and making sure we've got a swift and efficient way for
agreeing those policies as they come forward.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:06:37
You play definitely did that much better than I would have done so brilliant. So
are there any questions or observations on this? So I'm going to formally move
the recommendations a seconder I think councillor Evans we've been a second that
yeah I'll be second it I think the observation I have is that it makes
Councillor Paul Evans - 1:06:55
perfect sense to be able to respond quickly through delegation rather than
keep having Quebec back to cabinet I suspect having are having Jane having
oversight of this is probably preferable to us with her greater knowledge on
these matters so yeah it makes sense to delegate that means we can respond more
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:07:17
quickly. Thank you and I think as if I'm right and Jane will correct me if I'm
not as our sort of as our chief executive you hold a sort of corporate
Jane Portman, CEO - 1:07:28
responsibility for health and safety don't you Jane? I do and if I don't get
it right then I can there are severe penalties on a personal level I can
actually be imprisoned if we don't get health and safety right in this council
and that's on a personal level, it's not a corporate responsibility.
So I do take health and safety very, very seriously.
As Claire set out, we need to be very responsive to this.
So if there are some changes to policies or procedures that we need to make,
we need to get them in place as quickly as we can.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:08:06
It's so engaging to you essentially to make those policies so that you can do that.
Absolutely. And keep me out of prison.
And keep you out of prison, which is what we all want.
Okay, so we're now going to move to the vote then please on this one.
Okay, thank you very much colleagues, that's unanimous.
I will now move on to Agenda Item 15, page 291, Grant Management Policy.
Over to you, Councillor Coleman.

15 Review and approval of Grants Management Policy

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 1:08:36
Thank you very much, Chair. Sometimes, having had a few years involved in local government,
I come across a paper and I think how do we manage without one of those new policy, new
strategy, new approach? But I think we certainly would welcome, I think it's just, I don't
use the phrase common sense, but it's straightforwardly obvious, I think we should have a grant management
policy, not least because the central government never tyres of thinking that it can solve
a few problems by competitive bidding to supply grants to us, or indeed by more rational systems
of allocating money.
So this is a new policy, it's Agenda Item 15, pages 291 to 314.
The Council now has a widened scope for the delivery of multiple grant schemes to residents
and businesses.
This can be in the form of locally agreed community grant schemes or via the distribution
of central government schemes and emergency funding.
To ensure funding is distributed properly and spent lawfully, the policy sets
out to minimise risk while maximising benefits for the community.
Policy details roles and responsibilities, funding agreements, outcomes,
eligibility criteria, assessment and awarding process, conflicts of interest,
segregation of duties and due diligence cheques.
It sets out the processes to be followed when managing grants,
including applying for external funding, developing
and launching a new grant scheme, verification
and due diligence cheques, and the distribution of funds.
To minimise fraud and error and mitigate effects,
the Counter Fraud and Enforcement Unit has developed
a grants toolkit.
It provides guidance on the minimum verification
and due diligence cheques which must be undertaken.
These cheques should be determined at the start
of the grant process and relevant documentation should
be provided with every new grant application request regardless
of whether an organisation has received funding before.
This toolkit will support this policy.
I should say that I'm grateful to the author
of this introductory statement because it says see you on Thursday regards to
McCaskart to whom I'm sure any questions given will be superbly answered. Thank
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:11:05
you somehow I thought that you hadn't written that Patrick I wonder why. Emma
is sat at the back as you've read out very well I'm sure what she's written
for you is there any I'm looking at her she probably doesn't need to add
anything to that. So is there any question on the policy or anything
anybody wants to say about it? Other than Patrick, sporting his new glasses I
Councillor Paul Evans - 1:11:33
noticed. Paul? Just wanted to say, I know from being the community's
portfolio holder how vital grant income is to hundreds of voluntary
organisations in the district and our support is is always gratefully received
but but it is of course essential that we make sure that that allocation and
those grants are being rewarded based on need based on transparency based on
fairness and according to the law so I welcome the policy here. Thank you very
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:12:07
much so can't see anybody else Tristan you just happy to second I think so yeah
proposed by Patrick seconded by Tristan will go to the vote then the
recommendations bottom of page 291 to approve the grant management policy as
attached and delegate authority to the deputy chief executive and CFO to
approve future minor amendments to the policy in consultation with the cabinet
and for Finance Assistant Director, Counter Fraud and Legal Services.
That's unanimous. Thank you very much.
Thank you. It's a trio of reports with Emma's name on, I think, isn't it?
So we're now going to the next one, which I'm sure you've got another

16 Review and approval of updated Counter Fraud and Anti-Corruption Policy

introduction for that one, Patrick, the Counter Fraud and Anti -Corruption Policy.
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 1:12:58
The policy has been reviewed and a new section has been inserted regarding the Economic Crime
and Corporate Transparency Act to confirm the introduction of the new Failure to Prevent
Fraud offence. Councillors and senior management received a detailed briefing note regarding
this legislation. Sections have also been added in relation to cybercrime responsibilities
and due diligence activities undertaken regarding tax evasion. For ease, new text is coloured
read and text to be removed is struck through mandatory fraud awareness
training is currently being delivered to all staff within the council thank you
very much Thank You Patrick and Thank You Emma
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:14:05
there any questions or comments on the updated counts of fraud and
Councillor Paul Evans - 1:14:15
anti -corruption policy yeah Paul just just a very quick one I'm I'm delighted
to see the track changes on this report that make it quite easy to see what has
changed so yes thank you thank you for providing providing those to report
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:14:28
thank you I know when we make smaller changes we try to do that but when
sometimes the change is so wholesale that actually track changes makes it
more tricky but in this case that's actually made it easier obviously for
us as members to particularly those of us who've seen it before which won't
necessarily include yourself.
So, all right, has anybody got anything else
that they want to say on that one?
Councillor Paul Evans - 1:14:54
Just is that, is it appropriate that that training
for anti -fraud is also given to members as well,
as well as staff?
Just to note that if it is.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:15:05
So are there any plans to train members on anti -fraud?
If we have responsibilities, Emma,
that Patrick just mentioned in the introduction.
Is there going to be some training for us,
or could you arrange some?
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:15:36
Just for the people watching at home,
anybody still watching us?
Emma just said yes that she can talk to David about putting some training in
Councillor Juliet Layton - 1:15:48
for members. Okay Julia yeah. Yes Emma perhaps if you could talk to Nicky and then we can do it in our member development group.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:15:56
Thank you very much. So we've got that was proposed by Patrick these two recommendations
got a seconder. Tony I'm looking at you I think you said you might second this
You don't need to say anything.
Councillor Tony Dale - 1:16:08
I did want to say something because in my previous professional life I went through
the process of money laundering and serious organised crime training and it was onerous
then.
I can only emphasise to my colleagues as well as officers that the emphasis now is even
and more onerous on you to behave in every way correctly under the Nolan principles and
to ensure that even if you only suspect fraud, you must report it to someone in authority,
the money laundering reporting officer or the chief executive.
It is really important, even if you only suspect it, not if you think, oh, it's not my problem.
It is your problem.
under these changes, it's very, very clear that we have
corporate accountability.
I wasn't sure about it at the time, but I have to say,
in the modern world where cyber crime is now almost cyber crime
and online financial crime is now by far and away the greatest
economic hurdle to economic success for any country,
and where state -driven interventions are causing us
all problems, you can reference Jaguar Land Rover to see
what the impact of that was over a billion pounds to the UK economy, then it is really
important, it is terribly serious. I am greatly encouraged to have Emma in charge of our counter -fraud
unit and leading these policy changes because she knows what she's doing and I appreciate
that. I'm really glad to have an expert behind us and I know that the Chief Executive Team,
the Chief Leadership Team will appreciate it as well. I couldn't be more delighted to
I'll second this.
Thank you very much, Tony.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:18:02
So I'm just going to bring us back to the recommendations now on page 315.
To approve and adopt the counter -fraud and anti -corruption policy attached to the report,
and to delegate authority to the Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Finance Officer
to approve future minor amendments to the policy in consultation with the Cabinet for Finance
and the Assistant Director, Counter -Fraud and Legal Services.
If I open the vote, please.
Thank you very much.
Very quick that time.
All seven votes in favour.
And I think we're now on our last substantive item of the day.

17 Review and approval of updated Proceeds of Crime and Anti Money Laundering Policy

So the third of the trio from Counter Fraud, the Proceeds of Crime
and Anti -Money Laundering Policy.
Over to you, Councillor Coleman.
Thank you, Chair.
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 1:18:52
There is a context here, of course, and colleague Councillor Day,
I did mention money laundering, his very informed contribution.
Money laundering gets mentioned a lot these days
and various types of retail, many of which
are in practise, I'm sure, blameless,
but they are grouped together.
Weird Turkish barbers were mentioned by a political party
as something they would challenge.
Sadly, anybody that's cash only now has a shadow over them,
I fear.
and of course these convenience stores all over the country that have no customers but seem to still survive.
If I understood how to be a criminal better than I do, I'd understand how it all works.
So this is an existing policy outlining the responsibilities of the Council,
the nominated money laundering officer and the approach regarding due diligence in this area.
The policy has been refined with revisions or significantly new sections shown as red text.
Any operational or procedural elements relating to the disclosure procedure,
the reporting officer's considerations, or client's stroke supplier identification process,
have been removed and are now detailed within the supporting internal procedure document.
The majority of the other amendments are minor and are shown as insertions
in red. To act as a quick reference guide for anyone who wishes to raise concerns, etc.,
a supporting flow chart has been designed and will be provided to employees during the
awareness sessions with the more detailed internal procedure document. Perhaps I can
merge this into the first question, which is to ask our Assistant Director, Counter
and Enforcement Unit, Madam Akaskar, to confirm whether members will also be provided with
this supporting flowchart and indeed some awareness sessions. Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:20:59
Thank you, Patrick. Emma says put a thumbs up, so a microphone isn't working over there.
So yeah, I think that was, presumably that can be wrapped together with what we were
about earlier in terms of the counter fraud work.
Anyone got anything else on this?
Tony, I think just formally second
because you've already said what you were going to say
on the previous item, is that right?
Councillor Tony Dale - 1:21:26
Of course it is, Mike.
I completely formally second it without saying anything.
Thank you very much.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 1:21:33
So I think we've got that one.
So we'll go to the vote then, please, Nicky.
You're getting very swift at this now.
All done.
And that is the final item on the agenda.
Thank you very much for your time.
Meeting closed, 7 .25.
Thanks.

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