Cabinet - Thursday, 9th May, 2024 6.00 pm
May 9, 2024 View on council website Watch video of meetingTranscript
Hello everybody. Welcome to the May Cabinet. We'll start with apologies. We've got everybody here. There aren't any apologies. We've got declarations of interest up next. Councillor Blummer has advised me that she'll be leaving the room on item 8, so she's got a pecuniary rest as she rents property from the council, so she'll be leaving the room for that. Minutes of the last meeting, ages 5 to 10, refer. Councillor Layton, you've got something that you've let the officers know in advance. That's right, I have, yes, that was on page 8. That's been altered. I don't suppose I need to read that out. I think that's fine. Councillor interjecting. No, okay. We'll then subject to Juliet's—we'll go to the back. Thank you. Okay. We've got six for zero against and two abstentions. Right, we move on then to Leader's announcements. I want to start by I think the issue that's filling up all of our post-bangs at the middle, certainly our inboxes, which despite not being within the purview of this council, lots of people are very steamed up about, and they're contacting us at a frustration to demonstrate leadership. I am, of course, talking about the closure of the Tesco roundabout, Kingsville Medo, roundabout, and Sirens sister. I want to put on the record on behalf of this council. It is a totally unacceptable situation that a main arterial route through the Cotswold, not only Sirens sister, has been closed for such a long time. The communication from the County Council has been desperately poor. It's been really, really poor. I haven't heard anything from the Cabinet member associated with it, and it just feels to me like, sorry, there's nothing we can do, so we're just not going to say anything. On behalf of this council, I want to put on record how totally unsatisfactory and unacceptable we all find this, and the impact that inevitably it's having on the local economy. We all have anecdotal evidence, certainly, of people that are going to just bothering driving around Sirens sister, any war going somewhere else, because it's such a nightmare to you to get around. Indeed, I had an email from a business just within the vicinity who said that their trade is down 50%. So it's quite an unacceptable situation, and I know that we've all lobbied the County Council. I think the good news is we have now got a bit of a plan together, but again, there's been no public comment on that. It's gone to individual councilors, but no public comment. Really frustrating, and on behalf of all residents in the Cotswolds, I want to reassure you that we find it just as gawling as you do. Clearly, a lot has been left to be desired, so hopefully that will be open as soon as possible. That's only one from me this evening. We move on then to public questions. We haven't got any members of the public here. Member questions, we haven't had any submitting prior to the publication of the agenda. We therefore move on to item seven, which is issues arising from overview and exclusion of the audit committee. We have got one, and that's a recommendation from the overview and exclusion committee meeting. Clearly, that was on Tuesday this week, which hasn't given us really adequate time to consider or review that. We will defer our response to that to the next cabinet meeting, but just for property, I will read the recommendation out from ONS. The cabinet considers a necessity to increase resource for ecology, given our goal, declare an ecological crisis and increase legal monitoring obligations. So noting that, I know a few cabinet members were at that meeting, but we will respond at the June meeting, and we will respond informally, hopefully well ahead of that date to the members of the overview and exclusion committee meeting. We move on then to our first item, which is the asset for decision, which is the asset management strategy. We're agreeing to adopt an asset management strategy, providing a clear strategy for future decision-making and investment in the Council's land and property assets. Council revenue is going to give us an overview and a very succinct appraisal of this report. Thank you, Leader. I noted very succinct in your introduction. I'll do my best. This is a really important document for the Council. What it's endeavouring to do, and what it will do if we agree it this evening, is give us, as a Council, and split clear, our officers a clear framework about how we want to manage our assets. Picking up on the point about overview and scrutiny, this was looked at by a view and scrutiny on the meeting on Tuesday, which I attended together with the Deputy Chief Executive. Some of the points I'll try to bring in that were made into my presentation this evening, one of them being assets in the local government jog and inter-finition here. Really, we're talking about land and property, but it was certainly pointed out that the Council does have other assets other than land and property, other obviously technology and all that sort of thing. Fundamentally, this framework is about land and property. You can see within the report, we have a valuation on that, and we go through a process of valuation of our assets in order for them to be valued for the accounts on an annual basis. Some of them are actually done every year, some of them every three years, I think. But currently, our assets are valued at around £64 million in total, and we have just about £5.4 million of those are commercial investments that were purchased by this Council within the last term of the previous administration, I think around about 2017. And then the bulk of the remainder are buildings and land that we own and lease in order to provide the services that we provide for the residents, and our biggest single asset being the building here in Syran's sister that we're sat in this evening. I thought it was useful, although it is already published on the website, for a list of assets to be published, and you can see those as an XA. Inevitably, when you do this, there may be one or two minor, tiny little errors in there, and two apologies, particularly to Northleach with Eastington. It's a town council, not a parish, isn't it, Tony? And I think there's a couple where we've excelled as formatted as if they were dates rather than actually numbers of houses. So I'm sure officers will pick that up, but I do think it was useful exercise so that all members, and indeed members of the public, have visibility of the assets that this Council owns. Moving back on to the strategy, though, and that's really where the meat of my presentation will be, is around how do we as an organisation use the land and property that we have to deliver on our goals and objectives we have as a Council, and to deliver the services that we are required to deliver both statutorily and those which we choose to deliver. So Annex B is the strategy that we're being asked to agree this evening, and what our document really can serve is the context of the Council, and then we look at, obviously some of the, I've mentioned the assets that we have in the list, and obviously we map them out in there, where they're freehold and leasehold, and what we, what we, what sort of assets they are, whether they're investments, whether it's land, whether it's residential assets. Most importantly, I think in terms of how we manage them going forward are the principles that are on page 12, you see a numbering in the white out of the blue in the corner, so everyone can see that, including those of you looking electronically. And the principles there that we want assets that fit for purpose, cost effective, and well utilised, sustainable and efficient and commercially managed. And then on page 13 of the objectives, I won't read all those out, because there are eight there that members can see. And then the importance of assets with the capital programme and how that links in with our budgets is covered on the next page. And then it just really lists some of our, going forward, some of the major assets that we have. I've already mentioned this office. We have the area centre in Morton. We have the leisure centres and the museum. And we have public conveniences and other buildings are mentioned in there. And there's also a section on the investment property. So I mentioned those that are held outside the district and how we're looking to manage those and what we might do with those in the future is in outline there. And then we have some investment properties within the district and a managed by our team here that work for us through publicer. And then it goes on to talk about opportunities potentially with our car parking, car parks and some of our major assets. And obviously we are looking about, particularly with siren sister with the largest number of them are located, how we may use those in terms of the redevelopment of siren sister. Obviously there's a master plan process that's going on for the town centre at the moment. There's also a little bit more about the commercial opportunities within the document. And there's a reference to the local plan and the context that we're operating with our local plan. And we know obviously we're in a process of updating our local plan at the minute. Very importantly there's a section about sustainability, climate change and decarbonisation and our priorities and principles around net zero. And then just finishing up really the last two or three pages governance. There are obviously financial rules about how we make decisions as a council. And you can see those shown on page, little page 25, where if we want to currently in our current financial rules, make decisions in current property with over half a million pounds that needs to go to the full council. And the portfolio holder for assets, authority is limited up to a quarter of a million and with cabinet being the amount in between. I think quite importantly here you can see what we are looking to do is set up a strategic estates board which will be a subset of the transform working group to look at some of these opportunities for assets, bring it through the cabinet transform working group through to the cabinet and onto council. Should that be necessary? And then the last couple of pages of the strategy really deal with the recommendations around how we are going to deal with our assets going forward. And then an implementation plan is on the last page. And particularly this was picked up as well on Councillor Jenkinson is here this evening. He raises and in the ONS meeting about how we are going to make assessments of properties. We are looking to do a qualitative scoring criteria but I know Angus I remember you talking about Boston matrix which we are happy to talk I am sure about as we go forward and if we can develop our assessments of assets. Essentially we are looking at assets whether we need to keep them for operational reasons, for investment reasons and also other things around what value they provide both in service to delivery, social value to our communities, potential to co-locate. Those things are listed out on the last page of the strategy and I will commend it to you and I will stop there, Leader. Thanks very much. Do we have any questions Tony? Thank you Mike. A great baseline document to start from. I do not think we have ever had this in my lifetime in Coswell District Council. It is an immense piece of work and I suppose I did want to flag up but it is now an opportunity for every single person, all 96,000 residents across Coswells to say that little bit there. I wonder if we could do that with it. So immense piece of work. Thank you for working with so many officers to get the baseline established which is absolutely vital. One thing I did want to flag up is that as part of how we manage our strategic assets going forwards most cabinet members were in the throes of a combined parking strategy for the Coswells. Looking across all of our assets there are still three key settlements for the Coswells that have no district wide provision for car parking so I do want us to keep our minds open not only to where we get some of the better returns from our assets but also where we might need to invest in the future to create the same provisions whether it is for residents or for businesses or visitors in those parts of the Coswells that we do not currently serve as well as some others. So let us keep our minds open to this being the baseline for potential future growth of our strategic asset base as well as perhaps revising it and getting rid of some assets that we do not really get a return. Thanks Tony, anybody else? Paul? No thanks Mike for giving us very comprehensive documents. I just wanted to point something out page 41 when the report talks about leisure services and although it is correct to say to quote the report there is no need for significant change to the buildings or the leisure centres as we currently have there is three of them in Sir and Sister Portman, Chipping Camden just to flag up here publicly that very shortly there is substantial work being done at Sir and Sister leisure centre which will completely revamp some of the changing room facilities it says there is a major investment going on so I just wanted to flag that because I think it is important that although some of the outside fabric of these buildings may not need changing, inside things do need to be done and that is a substantial investment from this council which is coming and which customers will see a real payback from once we get to the end of the summer. Okay, Mike? Okay fantastic report thanks for all the great work Mike and the rest of the officers and Tony for everybody on the assets just as a climate person just say it is obviously important to make sure our assets are as decarbonised as quickly as possible so getting rid of our gas heating out of our buildings for example getting rid of the diesel out of our waste truck assets and so on is important I think we all agree with that and we are very much going to the course, I just wanted to highlight it is it is a critical one and the climate changes predominantly caused by fossil fuels about 90% so that is kind of a critical thing that should be always in our mind to do with any assets is never by anything that has fossil fuels involved in it going forward and seeking to remove those things as quickly as possible as well as in energy efficiency which of course helps our running costs greatly so I am sure we asset teams know very well so thank you again thank you Mike right we are in danger of violent degree with each other so I am going to second that and we are going to is it a new point because we are going round the houses a bit complimenting yep comment. Yes I do think it is an excellent strategy and I will say that again what I particularly like is the fact that it is very clear and whilst there is obviously you know some detail in this it is very clear and I particularly like the principles and the strategy is really important and my only point was that as we move forward with this is to ensure that there is adequate meant and as a one we have been reports forward to look at specific things and time to do that because I think you know we all know these much of it when we look at annex A and the little patches of land in particular might not seem a lot and especially to those that are perhaps sitting here in Trinity Road but that little strip of land in a chipping canton or in summer for decades or in the town of North Nietzsche the members all know very very well and I think it just want to reiterate the point that it would be great for members to have some involvement in that process thank you very much. Yeah I will pick that up I think it is something that has been fed back to all of our senior officers actually in their appraisals that we need to get better at short of consulting letting go letting ward members know what is happening in their own ward so if we are doing something with I do not know the old station Councillor Rassington needs to be updated if it is somewhere else you know the ward member needs to be updated and I think we have fallen out of doing that a little bit as an organisation so again all three of our senior officers have had their appraisals that has been fed back and I think the last ones tomorrow so that will be that will be fed back again no doubt it is also something that the constitution work and group are going to look at so we can formalise a process for doing that across the board. Lovely okay then along in a second that so we have two recommendations to adopt the asset management strategy attached it and it is B to our papers and instruct consultants cost generous to review existing assets in line with that strategy like any final comments. Thank you sorry to interrupt I did not mean to. I just wanted to come back on a couple of the points that have been made by colleagues obviously agreeing with those. I think Tony York point about we might and was made at the ONS meeting with each other you were there as well about actually we may want to acquire assets in localities where we can currently have them we may feel we need to for operational strategic reasons so that obviously would be underneath the framework that we're talking about this evening and Paul thanks for reminding us about the capital program allocation for the leisure centre development which is there so yeah I'm happy very much to propose and Joe has seconded the resolution so he's just read out. Brilliant okay then we'll go to the vote. Lovely that's unanimous if we can get council blue in the back of the room. Okay then we'll go to our next item which is a proposal of a property important in the water council revenue back to you. Thank you and I just remembered that what I was going to say in my summary was to thank very much Claire Lock and her team for the work they've done on the asset management strategy so sorry Claire I forgot I was going to say it and then I forgot so I'm saying it now as we go to the second piece of work that's been done and I'll see Jasmine here as well from the assets team. So this is the first thing you'll be asked to take under the framework that we've essentially just agreed. You'll see from the report that we have a property in Borden on the water that has been vacant since February I believe that was previously the visitor information centre for Borden but essentially that organisation who was renting it chose to shut down and surrender their lease so clearly we have a property in Borden we need to work out what to do with it and obviously we've taken some advice on that and Jasmine's obviously here to go on spending more detailed questions about it about whether it's in our best interest to keep it let it or sell it and what we haven't identified is any strategic use for it for us as a council we don't offer any adjacent land or buildings so the recommendation for you this evening is that we should look to sell the property clearly there's some figures in here based on what evaluation but obviously you can only sell it whatever value somebody's willing to pay for it so these are obviously indicative but we have a indicative figure of 240,000 being the value of the asset and with it costing us approximately 5,000 pounds to sell it so there would be a capital receipt of estimated of 235,000 pounds if we were to go ahead this evening and agree this. Obviously there are some alternatives so we could look to let it out for retail or other appropriate use and obviously that would obviously require us to continue to manage that and we could generate a revenue from it but it obviously it is currently in good condition but obviously then it would need to be maintained but I mean it's clearly the recommendation before us this evening is to put it onto the market and put it up for sale and I therefore move the two recommendations that are on page 55 that we approve the recommendation dispose of the form of history information centre building in Victoria's street port and on the water and that we delegate authority to the deputy chief executive and chief finance officer in consultation with myself to approve the final terms of the sale including the sale price. Great. Any questions or comments? No? Okay. I'm happy to second that then. Anything to add? No. We'll go to the vote then. Okay. That's unanimous. Thanks very much. We're going to move on now to cancel a day. He's going to introduce the legal services partnership agreement. Don't go over to you. Thank you. Thank you. So the legal services provision to the three publicer councils, Cotswold District Council, Forest of Dean Council and West Oxford Church District Council have been shared for some years now since about 2016 on a very collaborative and cooperative basis. That situation has been reviewed by cadence innovator specifically to look at the nature of it and whether it is both economic, efficient and effective. And in particularly to look at some of the elements surrounding it regarding the strategy, the governance, the people, processes and technology. Cadence innovator done a good job and a very straightforward job in assessing what is missing at the moment, what needs to happen, not least the fact that it has continued for some many years now as a relatively informal agreement, albeit under those arrangements such as allowed by the local government act. But what I'm seeking from cabinet and what legal services are seeking from cabinet this evening is permission to move to a more formal agreement under section 113 of the local government act 1972, which would enable them to, if you like, underpin the strategy and there's in annex a clear list of the services that legal services now provide to all three councils. Under governance, that would remain largely as it has done under the existing cooperation and collaboration. So that is the group of the three chief monitoring officers who each work together with currently the head of legal services and the legal transformation project manager and that they continue to do so under the formal agreement, which they're seeking to sign and receive approval for this evening, that they would continue largely with the structure that has been created during that time. I was amazed as you might be to discover that we've been surviving each of us as councils with fewer than three FTEs to run each of the three councils, which is remarkable. We're closely up to about four FTE per council now, which should provide a much more full service. And remember anything that our legal services team can't do tends to end up going out to agency and costing us more money in the long run. So hopefully we're moving towards a much more stable and the more process driven the legal services team. The processes which were reviewed by cadence in a will participate will happen if you like. That's the right word on icon, which is the soft legal software system that's been implemented. All the proper procurement processes followed in order to do that. Icon is now up and running. It means that all of our legal case management is now properly tracked through that software. Each of our legal officers uses it to interact both with the case and with any external partners to monitor its progress. It also integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 regarding documents and email management. So I hope that will reassure you all, Cabinet. Our next steps really, and we're in the very closing stages of this, are to see if we can sign off the partnership agreement. And we're asking for your permission, the Chief Executive of myself, to sign that in conjunction with the Forest of Dean Council and West Oxfordshire District Council so that we can move towards the first of what I hope will be very successful, shared managed service across the three councils, which is wholly run by the councils for the councils benefits in the future. This will form a successful and transformative working model for councils moving forward. Thank you, colleagues. Brilliant. Thanks, Tony. It's very useful informative. Any questions or comments? Yeah. Right. Yeah. Just really pleased to see this report. It feels like some while ago when we sat through presentations from our legal team and from an alternative provider and decided that actually this was the route that we wanted to go down. And so we brought cadence in of our in. And it's great to see that work coming to fruition, particularly I think the, and you mentioned quite a bit about it, the case management system I can giving the ability for a much clearer view about what our officers are being asked to do. And to make sure that they're being asked to do work that is properly theirs to do and not other officers seeking to use the legal services as a support service for themselves. So I think it's really, really important that, you know, we are investing in that service and it's providing a good quality service to colleagues across the three councils and, you know, with the case management system in place, they'll be much clearer and more able to see the volume of work they're doing and what nature of it is and for which councils they're providing the work. So I'm really, really pleased to see this and very happy to second the recommendations. Great. Thanks, Mike. Any more for any more? No? Okay, then I'm happy to second that. Did you get there first? Sorry. You know what? I just zoned out there a bit. Brilliant. Okay, then we'll go to the vote in that case. Okay. Okay, lovely. That's unanimous. The next item then is over to Councillor McKewen just acknowledging its successful grant application for EV challenging points over to you. Thank you. So we sit here on our lovely warm spring day in the early 20s, enjoying the beautiful green and pleasant Cotswolds. But we have to be reminded that last year was the second hottest year on record in the UK, the year before was the first time the UK ever went over 40 degrees. If that continues, we won't be sitting in a green and pleasant Cotswolds. It will be brown and parched rather like southern parts of Europe. So, and as Councillor Jenkins and usefully shared a report just a couple of days ago, scientists are saying that the climate change impact is actually going faster than projections were suggesting. So the problem of climate emergency is very well founded. This is important. Why this is important is because transport is the Cotswolds biggest carbon footprint as it is in the UK and our cars are more than half of that. Therefore, driving EV adoptions has one of the biggest most meaningful impacts on carbon reduction that we can get in a short period of time. There's some negative stuff but there's also some great positive that I'm sure Tony would appreciate that there's great opportunities for the business community as we move to green technologies. So also accelerating that has some big positive upsides. Now, for EV adoption, 30-40% of homes do not have our street parking. So if they're going to adopt, they have to be within a short distance. So our strategy is to make sure that people are within, wherever possible, within about a 10-minute walk of their home to plug in and charge if they purchase an EV to encourage them and visitors to the Cotswolds to adopt. So it's very important we work with a county council who are deploying chargers on the streets and utilise our car park assets to do similar. I'm delighted to say I plugged in only this week to our newly installed chargers here at Trinity Road that are available to residents in this part of Sire Ancestor and it's shortly going into the Resington Road up in Porton on the Water I think in the next couple of weeks. So we were delighted to receive 190,000 plus pounds of grant funding from central government which this proposal is to agree to match, to deploy around 66 chargers across 11 of our car parks over the period of up to March next year. Because of the scale of the investment it will go to full council for sign off and give opportunity for the officers to coordinate the exact plans aware, make sure we're working closely with Gloucester County Council to maximize our deployment. So my real call to action is, you know, stand with us all, take a very important action on climate change, not just something of infrastructure but it will have a meaningful impact and help our residents do the right thing which I know from the personal conversation that many of them want to do. Brilliant. Thank you, Mike. If you just turn your microphone off. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Just good news on the hold. So yeah Tony. So great news this Mike. Thank you so much for working so hard to make this happen and it's brilliant that it's happening so quickly. I perhaps should flag up as I know you would want me to that although it's titled on street residential charge point scheme, actually it's for those without off street parking primarily which is a little bit confusing but what it does mean is that these charge points will have to therefore appear within our assets within our car parks in effect. I'm totally behind that as you know I look after the car parking portfolio. Sometimes it's not always the most thankful to ask but it is great to see that each of our car parks particularly those most convenient for those residents with no off street parking to actually get to use the parking and to charge their cars in those car parks. So I really really hope that our residents will take this up, take up the opportunity to reduce their carbon emissions, adopt electric vehicle charging in our off street car parks in our effectively our residential car parks within the towns where we have proximity to residents and that we can make this scheme really work for us and for them. So thank you so much for your work on it. Thanks Tony. Actually on that I agree it's not clear if you remember the public reading this you'd think we're talking about on the street parking so just a request to them services in particular. Can we just make sure when we title these report names that just give absolute clarity because it's not clear. I get the government grants scheme is called on street but we could avoid confusion if in our own papers and our own report owned by this council we just give clarity on that. Yeah Claire. Yeah I'm just going to actually repeat exactly what Tony said I think it's fantastic. I'm just really pleased to see I know a lot of residents have been wanting something like this in the cotswolds and it's great to hopefully be getting there. Start of it well done. Lovely Mike. Thank you Joe yeah I mean I wanted to add my support and obviously it's something that we've been aspiring to do since you know we took over at running this council five years ago and I know it was something that council of cotscued might your predecessor a nice pick up and it's great to hear that the Rittington road ones will finally be turned on and have power in them looking at Claire at the back because it's been something that you know certainly I've been championing for at least two years if not three and it's just been the frustration I know that we've had another council sort of had in terms of getting EV charges up and running and obviously there's been a recognition nationally that this needed to happen and that there were barriers in the way of local government making things happen which doesn't necessarily have the same clout as a large supermarket in terms of the ability to buy and to negotiate. So it's great that this is now coming forward that we're talking about charging 66 charges at 33 points and that half of it is going to be funded by the government so obviously we are going to have to find the other half and that's why we're going to take this to council next week because it's not in our capital program but yeah great great to see. Brilliant the decision required on that so thank you Mike, you want to make a quick one very quick point just following from Mike's a big thank to Claire and team who I know had a you know worked very hard getting this through and working on the previous bit so Puget that car park team and our new climate officer Olivia who's been now working closely with the team on the roll out so we wouldn't do that without our fantastic officers so thank you so we're noting that and we just need to vote to recommend it to council. It's unanimous thanks very much I'm back including to the agenda whether you're going to parish council or the pub have a lovely evening thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Transcript
mentioned this office we have the area centre in Morton we have the leisure centres and the museum and we have public conveniences and other buildings are mentioned in there and there's also a section on the investment property so I mentioned those that are held outside the district and how we're looking to manage those and what we might do with those in the future is in outline there and then we have some investment properties within the district and are managed by our team here that work for us through through publicer and then it goes on to talk about opportunities potentially with our car parking car parts of some of our major assets and obviously we are looking about particularly with siren sister with the largest number of them are located how we may use those in terms of the redevelopment of siren sister obviously there's a master plan process that's going on for the town centre at the moment there's also a little bit more about the commercial opportunities within the document and there's a reference to the local plan and the context that we're operating with our local plan and we know obviously we're in a process of updating our local plan at the minute very importantly there's a section about sustainability climate change and decarbonisation and our priorities and principles around net zero and then just finishing up really the last two or three pages governance there are the financial rules about how we make decisions as a council and you can see those shown on page little page 25 where if we want to currently in our current financial rules make decisions in carrying property with over half a million pounds that needs to go to the full council and the portfolio holder for assets authority is limited up to a quarter of a million and with cabinet being the amount in between I think what quite importantly here you can see what we are looking to do is set up a strategic estates board which will be a subset of the transform working group to look at some of these opportunities for assets bring it through the capital the cabinet transform working group through to the cabinet and onto council should that be necessary and then the last couple of pages of the strategy really deal with the recommendations around how we're going to deal with our assets going forward and then an implementation plan is on the last page and particularly this was picked up as well and Councillor Jenkinson is here this evening he raises and in the ONS meeting about how we're going to make assessments of properties we are looking to do a qualitative scoring criteria but I know Angus I remember you talking about a Boston matrix which we're happy to talk I'm sure about as we go forward and if we can develop our assessments of assets but essentially we're looking at assets that you know whether we need to keep them for operational reasons for investment reasons and also other things around what value they provide both in service to delivery social value to our communities potential to co-locate those things are listed out on the last page of the strategy and I will commend it to you and I'll stop there later thanks very much should we have any questions Tony yeah thank you Mike I mean a great baseline document to start from I don't think we've ever had this certainly not in my lifetime in Coswell District Council it's an immense piece of work and I I suppose I did want to flag up but it isn't now an opportunity for every single person all 96,000 residents across Coswells to say that little bit there I wonder if we could do that with it so immense piece of work thank you for working with so many officers to get the baseline established which is absolutely vital one thing I did want to flag up is that as part of how we manage our strategic assets going forwards most cabinet members when they were in the throes of a combined sort of parking strategy for the Coswells looking across all of our assets there are still three key settlements in the Coswells that have no district wide provision for car parking so I do want us to keep our minds open not only to where we get some of the better returns from our assets but also where we might need to invest in the future to create the same provisions whether it's for residents or for businesses or visitors in those parts of the Coswells that we don't currently serve as well as some others so let's keep our minds open to this being the baseline for potential future growth of our strategic asset base as well as perhaps revising it and getting rid of some assets that we don't really get a return on thank you is Tony anybody else? Paul? Yeah no thanks Mike for giving us very comprehensive document I just wanted to point something out page 41 when it talks about when the report talks about leisure services and although it's correct to say to quote the report there's no need for significant change to the buildings or the leisure centers we currently have there's three of them in so-and-sister port and shipping Camden just to flag up here publicly that very shortly there's substantial work being done at so-and-sister leisure center which will completely revamp some of the changing room facilities it says there's a major investment going on so I just wanted to flag that because I think it's important that although some of the outside fabric of these buildings may not need changing inside things do need to be done and and that is a substantial investment from this council which is coming and which customers will see a real payback from once we get to the end of the summer okay fantastic report thanks for all the great work Mike and the rest of the officers and Tony for everybody from on the assets just as a climate person just say it's obviously important to make sure our assets are as decarbonized as quickly as possible so getting rid of our you know gas heating out of our buildings for example getting rid of the diesel out of our waste truck assets and so on is important I think we all agree with that and we're very much green to the call so just wanted to highlight it is it's a critical one the climate change is predominantly caused by fossil fuels about 90% so that's kind of a critical thing that should be always in our mind to do with any assets is never by anything that's has fossil fuels involved in it going forward and seeking to remove that those things as quickly as possible as well as in energy efficiency which of course helps our running costs greatly so I'm sure the asset teams know very well so thank you again thank you Mike right we're in danger of finally agreeing with each other so I'm gonna second that and we're gonna is it a new point because we're we are going around the houses a bit complimenting yep comment yes well I do think it's an excellent strategy and I will say that again what I particularly like is the fact that it's very clear and whilst there is obviously you know some detail in this it's it's very clear and I'm particularly like the principles and the strategy are really important and my only point was that as we move forward with this is to ensure that there is adequate meant and as and when we bring reports forward to look at specific things and time to do that because I think you know we all know these much of it when we look at annex A and the little patches of land in particular might not seem a lot and especially to those that are perhaps sitting here in Trinity Road but that little strip of land in you know Chippincanton or in summerford canes or in the town of North Nietzsche the members all know very very well and I think I just want to reiterate the point that it would be great for members to have some involvement in that process thank you very much yeah I'll pick that up I think it's something that has been fed back to all of our senior officers actually in their appraisals that we need to get better at short of consulting letting go letting ward members know what's happening in their own board so if we're doing something with I don't know the old station Councillor Brassington needs to be updated if it's somewhere else you know the ward member needs to be updated and I think we have fallen out of habit of doing that a little bit as an organisation so again all three of our all three of our senior officers have had their appraisals that's been fed back and I think the loss was tomorrow so that will be that will be fed back again no day it's also something that the constitution working group are going to look at so we can formalise a process for doing that across the board lovely okay then along in a second that and yeah so we've got two recommendations to adopt the asset management strategy attached it on its B to our papers and instruct consultants cost generous to review existing assets in line with that strategy might any final comments thank you sorry to interrupt I didn't mean to I just wanted to come back on a couple of the points that have been made by colleagues obviously agreeing with those I think Tony your point about we might and was made at the ONS meeting with a friend who you were there as well about actually we may want may want to acquire assets in localities where we can currently have them we may feel we need to for operational strategic reasons so that's obviously would be underneath the framework that we're talking about this evening and Paul thanks for reminding us about the capital program allocation for the leisure centre development which is there so yeah I'm happy very much to propose and Joe has seconded the resolution so he's just read out brilliant okay then we'll go to the back lovely that's unanimous if we can get council blue back in the room okay then we'll go to our next item which is disposal of a property important on the water councilor over me back to you thank you and I just remembered that what I was going to say in my summary was to thank very much Claire lock and her team for the work they've done on the asset management strategy so sorry Claire I forgot I was going to say and then I forgot so I'm saying it now as we go to the second piece of work that's been done and I'll see Jasmine here as well from the assets team so this is the first thing you'll be asked to take under the the framework that we've essentially just agreed you'll see from the report that we have a property in Borden on the water that has been vacant since February I believe that was previously the visitor information centre for Borden but essentially that organization who was renting it chose to shut down and surrender their lease so clearly we have a property in Borden we need to work out what to do with it and obviously we've taken some advice on that and Jasmine's obviously here to go answer any more detail questions about it about whether it's in our best interest to keep it let it or sell it and what we haven't identified is any strategic use for it for us as a council we don't offer any adjacent land or buildings so the recommendation for you this evening is that we should look to sell the property clearly there's some figures in here based on what evaluation but so you can only sell at whatever value somebody's willing to pay for it so these are obviously indicative but we have a indicative figure of 240,000 being the value of the asset and with it costing us approximately 5,000 pounds to sell it so there would be a capital receipt of estimated of 235,000 pounds if we were to go ahead this evening and agree this obviously there are some alternatives so we could look to let it out for retail or other appropriate use and obviously that would obviously require us to continue to manage that and we could generate a revenue from it but it obviously it is currently in good condition but obviously then it would need to be maintained but I mean it's clearly the recommendation before us this evening is to put it onto the market and put it up for sale and I therefore move the two recommendations that are on page 55 that we approve the recommendation dispose of the form of this two information centre building in Victoria's street port and on the water and that we delegate authority to the deputy chief executive and chief finance officer in consultation with myself to approve the final terms of the sale including the sale price great any questions or comments? no okay I'm happy to second that then anything to add? no we'll go to the vote then okay that's unanimous thanks very much we're going to move on now to cancel a dale he's going to introduce the legal services partnership green them don't go over to you thank you thank you thank you so the legal services provision to the three public councils, Cotswold District Council, Forest of Dean Council and West Oxfordshire District Council have been shared for some years now since about 2016 on a very collaborative and cooperative basis that situation has been reviewed by cadence in of a specifically to look at the nature of it and whether it is both economic efficient and effective and in particularly to look at some of the elements surrounding it regarding the strategy the governance the people processes and technology cadence in have done a good job and a very straightforward job in assessing what is missing at the moment what needs to happen not least the fact that it has continued for some many years now as a relatively informal agreement albeit under those arrangements such as allowed by the local government act but what I'm seeking from cabinet and what legal services are seeking from cabinet this evening is permission to move to a more formal agreement under section 113 of the local government act 1972 which would enable them to if you like underpin strategy and there's in annex a clear list of the services that legal services now provide to all three councils under governance that would remain largely as it has done under the existing cooperation and collaboration so that is the group of the three chief monitoring officers who each work together with currently the head of legal services and the legal transformation project manager and that they continue to do so under the formal agreement which they're seeking to sign and receive approval for this evening that they would continue largely with the structure that has been created during that time I was amazed as you might be to discover that we've been surviving each of us as councils with fewer than three FTES to run each of the three councils which is remarkable we're closely up to about four FTE per council now which should provide a much more full service and remember anything that our legal services team can't do tends to end up going out to agency and costing us more money in the long run so hopefully we're moving towards a much more stable and the more process driven legal services team the processes which were reviewed by cadence in a will participate will happen if you like that's the right word on icon which is the soft legal software system that's been implemented all the proper procurement processes followed in order to do that icon is now up and running it means that all of our legal case management is now properly tracked through that software each of our legal officers uses it to interact both with the case and with any external partners to monitor its progress it also integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 regarding documents and email management so I hope that will reassure you all cabinet our next steps really and we're in the very closing stages of this are to see if we can sign off the partnership agreement and we're asking for your permission the chief executive of myself to sign that in conjunction with the forested dean council and west Oxfordshire district council so that we can move towards the first of what I hope will be very successful shared managed service across the three councils which is wholly run by the councils for the council's benefit in the future I this will form a successful and transformative working model for councils moving forward thank you colleagues brilliant thanks Tony it's very useful informative any questions or comments yeah right yeah just really pleased to see this report feels like some while ago when we sat through presentations from our legal team and from an alternative provider and decided that actually this was the route that we wanted to go down and then so we brought cadence in of our in and it's great to see that work coming to fruition particularly I think the and you mentioned quite a bit about it the case management system I can giving the ability for a much clearer view about what our officers are being asked to do and to make sure that they're being asked to do work that is properly theirs to do and not other officers seeking to use the legal services as support service for themselves so I think it's really really important that you know we are investing in that service and it's providing a good quality service to colleagues across the three councils and you know with with the case management system in place they'll be much clearer and more able to see the volume of work they're doing and what nature of it is and for which councils they're providing the work so I'm really really pleased to see this and very happy to second the recommendations great thanks Mike any more for any more no okay then I'm happy to second that did you get there first sorry I just I just sewn down there brilliant okay then we'll go to the vote in that case thank you okay lovely that's unanimous the next item then is over to Councillor McEwen just acknowledging its successful grant application for EV challenging points over to you thank you so we sit here on our lovely warm spring day in the early 20s enjoying the beautiful green and pleasant cotswolds but we have to be reminded that that last year was the second hottest year on record in the UK the year before was the first time the UK ever went over 40 degrees if that continues we won't be sitting in a green and pleasant cotswolds it will be brown and parched rather like southern parts of Europe so and as Councillor Jenkins and usefully shared a report just a couple of days ago scientists are saying that the climate change impact is actually going faster than projections were suggesting so the problem our climate emergency is very well founded this is important why we're this is important is because transport is the cotswolds biggest carbon footprint as it is in the UK and our cars are more than half of that therefore driving EV adoptions has one of the biggest most meaningful impacts on carbon reduction that we can get in a short short period of time you know that's there's some negative stuff but there's also some great positive that I'm sure Tony would appreciate that there's great opportunities for the business community as we move to green technology so also accelerating that has some big positive upsides now for EV adoption 30 to 40 percent of homes do not have our street parking so they're if they're going to adopt they have to be within a short distance so our strategy is to make sure that people are within wherever possible within about a 10 minute walk of their home to plug in and charge if they purchase an EV to encourage them and visitors to the cotswolds to adopt so it's very important we get we work with a county council who are deploying charges on the streets and utilize our car park assets to do similar I'm delighted to say I'd plugged in only this week to our newly installed charges here at Trinity Road that are available to residents in this part of the of sire ancestor and it's shortly going into rizzington road up in porting on the water I think in the next couple of weeks so we were delighted to receive 190 000 plus pounds of grant funding from central government which which this proposal is to agree to match to deploy around 66 charges across 11 of our car parks over the period of up to march next year because of the scale of the investment it will go to full council for sign off and give opportunity for the officers to coordinate the exact plans aware make sure we're working closely with gloss together council to maximize our deployment so my real call to action is you know stand with us all take a very important action on on climate change not just something of infrastructure but it will have a meaningful impact and help our residents do the right thing which I know from the personal conversations many of them want to do each of our support brilliant thank you mike um just turn your microphone off thank you uh only questions or comments just good news on the hold so um yeah Tony um so great news this mike thank you so much for working so hard to make this happen and it's brilliant that it's happening so quickly um I perhaps should flag up as I know you would want me to that although it's titled on street residential charge point scheme actually it's for those without off street parking primarily which is a little bit confusing but what it does mean is that these charge points will have to therefore appear within our assets within our car parts in effect I'm totally behind that as you know I look after the car parking portfolio sometimes it's not always the most thankful to ask but it is great to see that each of our car parks particularly those most convenient for those residents with no off street parking to actually get to to use the parking and charge their cars in those car parks so I really really hope that our residents will take this up take up the opportunity to reduce their carbon emissions adopt electric vehicle charging in our off street car parks in our effectively our residential car car parks within within the towns where we have proximity to residents and that we can make the scheme really work for us and for them so thank you so much for your work on it thanks Tony and actually on that I agree it's not it's not clear if you remember the public reading this you'd think we're talking about on-street parking so just a request to dent in services in particular can we just make sure when we title these these report names that just give absolute clarity because it's it's not clear I get the I get the government grants scheme is called on street but we could avoid confusion if in our own papers in our own report owned by this council we just give clarity on that yeah Claire yeah I'm just going to actually repeat exactly what Tony said I think it's fantastic I'm just really pleased to see I know a lot of residents have been wanting something like this in the cotswolds and it's great to hopefully be getting there start of it well done lovely Mike thank you Joe yeah I mean I want to add my support and obviously it's something that we've been aspiring to do since you know we took over at running this council five years ago and I know it's something that a council of cotscued might your predecessor a nice pick up and it's great to hear that the rittington road ones will finally be turned on and have power in them looking at Claire at the back because it's been something that you know certainly I've been championing for at least two years if not three and yeah it's just been the frustration I know that we've had another council sort of had in terms of getting getting EV charges up and running and obviously there's been a recognition nationally that this needed to happen and that there were barriers in the way of local government making things happen which doesn't have necessarily have the same clout as a large supermarket in terms of the ability to buy and to negotiate so it's great that this is now coming forward that we're talking about charging 66 charges 33 points and that half of it's going to be funded by the government so obviously we are going to have to find the other half and that's why we're going to take this to council next week because it's not in our capital program but yeah great great to see. Brilliant the decision required on that so thank you Mike yep it's quick one very quick point just following from Mike it's a big thank to Claire and team who I know who's had a you know worked very hard getting this through and working on the previous bit so huge thanks to that car park team and our new climate officer Olivia who's being so now working closely with the team on the rollout so we wouldn't do that without our fantastic officers so thank you so we're noting that and we just need to vote to recommend it to council go to the vote it's unanimous thanks very much i'm back including the agenda whether you're going to parish council or the pub have a lovely evening thank you
Summary
The council meeting focused on various administrative and strategic issues, including asset management, legal services, and environmental initiatives. Key decisions were made regarding the disposal of property, formalizing a legal services partnership, and endorsing a grant application for electric vehicle (EV) charging points.
Asset Management Strategy Adoption:
- Decision: The council agreed to adopt a new asset management strategy.
- Arguments: The strategy provides a clear framework for managing council assets, emphasizing sustainability and efficiency. It was well-received, with council members highlighting its potential to improve asset visibility and utilization.
- Implications: This strategy sets a structured approach for future asset handling, which could lead to better financial and operational outcomes for the council.
Disposal of Property in Bourton-on-the-Water:
- Decision: Approved the sale of a former visitor information center.
- Arguments: The property has been vacant, and no strategic use for it was identified by the council. Selling was deemed more beneficial than leasing.
- Implications: The sale could generate significant capital for the council and reduce maintenance costs, although it removes a potential asset for future council use.
Legal Services Partnership Agreement:
- Decision: The council decided to formalize the legal services partnership with two other councils under a Section 113 agreement.
- Arguments: The formal agreement aims to enhance service efficiency and stability. The partnership has been functioning informally but needed a solid legal basis to continue effectively.
- Implications: This could lead to more streamlined and cost-effective legal services across the involved councils, potentially setting a precedent for other shared services.
Grant for EV Charging Points:
- Decision: Endorsed a grant application to fund new EV charging points in council car parks.
- Arguments: The initiative supports the council's environmental goals by promoting the use of electric vehicles, especially important as transport is a major contributor to the area's carbon emissions.
- Implications: If successful, this could significantly enhance local EV infrastructure, encouraging wider adoption of electric vehicles and supporting the council's climate targets.
Interesting Note: The meeting displayed a strong consensus on environmental and asset management issues, reflecting a unified approach towards sustainability and efficient resource use among the council members. The council meeting focused on asset management, legal services, and environmental initiatives, particularly the installation of electric vehicle (EV) charging points. The council discussed various strategies and collaborations to enhance operational efficiency and environmental sustainability.
Asset Management Strategy Adoption: The council approved a new asset management strategy, emphasizing sustainability, climate change, and governance. The strategy aims to optimize asset use and includes setting up a strategic estates board. The decision reflects a proactive approach to managing council assets efficiently, aligning with financial and environmental goals.
Disposal of Property in Bourton-on-the-Water: The council decided to sell a property previously used as a visitor information center. The decision was based on the lack of strategic use for the council and the potential financial return from the sale. This move is intended to streamline council assets and generate funds, possibly for reinvestment in other community projects.
Legal Services Partnership Agreement: Approval was given to formalize a shared legal services arrangement under Section 113 of the Local Government Act 1972 with neighboring councils. This partnership aims to enhance service efficiency and reduce costs. The formal agreement is expected to provide a stable framework for delivering legal services across the involved councils.
Grant for EV Charging Points: The council discussed a successful grant application for installing EV charging points in council car parks. This initiative supports the council's environmental goals by promoting the use of electric vehicles. The decision to match the government grant with council funds underscores the commitment to reducing the carbon footprint and facilitating sustainable transportation options.
The meeting was marked by a collaborative and forward-thinking approach, with discussions centered around sustainability and strategic asset management. There was a notable emphasis on environmental initiatives, reflecting the council's commitment to addressing climate change.
Attendees
- Angus Jenkinson
- Claire Bloomer
- Joe Harris
- Juliet Layton
- Lisa Spivey
- Mike Evemy
- Mike McKeown
- Paul Hodgkinson
- Tony Dale
- Ana Prelici
- Andrew Brown
- Angela Claridge
- Caleb Harris
- Claire Locke
- David Stanley
- Frank Wilson
- Jasmine McWilliams
- Jon Dearing
- Kira Thompson
- Robert Weaver
Documents
- Decisions 09th-May-2024 18.00 Cabinet
- Agenda frontsheet 09th-May-2024 18.00 Cabinet agenda
- Public reports pack 09th-May-2024 18.00 Cabinet reports pack
- Minutes 04042024 Cabinet
- Annex B Legal Services Staff Model
- Asset Management Strategy Cabinet Report
- Annex A - List of Assets
- CDC ORCS Funding Cabinet Report May 2024 v3 19042024
- Annex B - Asset Management Strategy
- Cabinet Report Bourton VIC
- Annex A
- Annex B
- Cabinet Legal Services Partnership Agreement Report
- Annex A - Legal Services Service Catalogue
- Printed minutes 09th-May-2024 18.00 Cabinet minutes