Reflecting on this council’s achievements

THIS week is time for reflection on the past year with a few highlights of what we have achieved as the Liberal Democrat-run council during a period of great uncertainty both financially and regarding health and wellbeing.

We have ensured that our most vulnerable have been looked after through the help hub supplying food and wellbeing calls.

We were the first in getting out much needed Covid funding for our struggling businesses.

We again were one of the first to relax planning applications to allow for temporary structures to be erected which allowed some businesses to open, that together with the relaxation of licensing laws saw this town recognised nationally as good practice.

Together with our partners in CBH our commitment to spend 180 million on affordable and PRS housing has not faltered, we are well on our way to delivering the 500 new homes.

The West Cheltenham Golden Valley project took a step forward with a development partner appointed.

Many of our parks and gardens have pop up café facilities in them to recognise the increased usage and the desire from our towns residents for this to happen.

Our commitment to the climate emergency motion has taken steps forward, the Cabinet decided to switch its environmental fleet away from traditional oil-based diesel to biodiesel certified palm oil free hydro-treated vegetable oil.

Our pioneering Podback initiative on the recycling of coffee pods recently passed two milestones, we reached a total of more than half a million coffee pods collected since the initiative was launched in the Spring.

Cheltenham was not only the first local authority to launch its scheme, but was also the first to reach 500,000, this resulted in receiving from Podback funding for the planting of a local “pocket forest” of 300 trees.

We have committed to minimising the use of weed killer on our streets. The chemicals in weed killers can often be harmful for insects, which has a knock-on impact on other larger animals and, ultimately, humans too.

These are just a few examples of our continuing ambitious plans for Cheltenham.

Councillor Rowena Hay Leader, Cheltenham Borough Council