Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Spa town’s better than yours... row over best centre
AROW has broken out between Cheltenham and Gloucester over which has the most vibrant centre after an MP hopeful said “it’s a fact” that the spa town is better.
The town’s Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Max Wilkinson told a recent Cheltenham Borough Council meeting that fewer people probably go to Gloucester to consume local services due to the nature of their city centre.
But Conservative Gloucester City Council leader Richard Cook hit back at the claims and said the county town has two huge visitor attractions – the world-class cathedral and the Docks.
The topic came up this week while civic chiefs were discussing a joint arrangement between the councils in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury to pool community infrastructure levy (CIL) funding.
The CIL is a type of financial charge designed to allow local authorities to fund infrastructure in areas where developments are taking place.
Each of the councils has had CIL in place for some time and the total in the pot is almost £12m.
Of this, more than £8m is from developments in the Tewkesbury Borough, while £2.5m is from Cheltenham and around £1.2m is from housing in Gloucester.
Cheltenham Borough Council voted in favour of the creation of a joint committee. The three authorities believe it will help provide a more coherent and less complex approach to making decisions on bids for CIL money.
During the debate, councillors remarked on how the move to pool the funding would be in Cheltenham’s interest given the contributions from each of the areas.
Customer and regulatory services cabinet member Martin Horwood said: “We could, I suppose, say we want our bit of CIL and Tewkesbury and Gloucester have their bits of CIL.
“Current contributions are, I think, Gloucester £1.5m or so, us £2.5m or so and Tewkesbury £8m,” he said. “So, I think on balance we are OK with pooling it at the moment.”
Economic development, culture, tourism and wellbeing cabinet member Max Wilkinson, who is also the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Cheltenham, said it made sense to share the funding as most would head to the spa town to use local services.
“Let’s face it guys,” he said. “Where do people from Bishop’s Cleeve, Churchdown, Brockworth, Shurdington, Tewkesbury and all the little villages in that big rural district come to consume local services? I can tell you it isn’t all Tewkesbury town centre. A huge number of them will come to Cheltenham.
“Probably slightly fewer go to Gloucester because of the nature of their city centre. Ours is more vibrant. But those are the two centres.”
The comments about Gloucester were met with laughs and smirks across the Municipal Offices’ council chamber. “That’s not a dig, it’s a fact,” Cllr Wilkinson clarified.
After the meeting, Gloucester City Council leader Richard Cook said he didn’t know where Cllr Wilkinson got his facts from. Gloucester has two huge visitor attractions including the worldclass cathedral and the Docks, he said.
“The council is also investing in major private and public developments at The Forum and the new city centre campus at the old Debenhams building. I think Cllr Wilkinson’s view must be historical rather than forward looking.
“We have thousands of students coming to the city centre and 1,500 jobs are expected to be created thanks to the Forum. I’m not in the business of comparing our city to others but in improving Gloucester.”
Gloucester MP Richard Graham said Cllr Wilkinson’s comments reminded him of how the previous parliamentarians for both the spa town and the city were rude about each other’s constituencies. “They had such a bad relationship they were incapable of being in the same room together to see the hospitals’ trust,” he said.
“The losers were Cheltenham and Gloucester, both great places in different ways - as [Cheltenham MP] Alex Chalk and I have always realised in working for the benefit of both Gloucester and Cheltenham.”