Borough Manifesto 2024
Our Values and Missions
The values of honesty, decency and high standards in public life are the cornerstone of the Labour Party being created under the new leadership.
These values are embodied in the Nolan Principles of public life – selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.
The Labour Party has Five Missions to drive policy under a Labour government:
- Get Britain Building Again
- Switch On Great British Energy
- Get The NHS Back On Its Feet
- Take Back Our Streets
- Break Down Barriers To Opportunity
In reviewing the performance of Cheltenham Borough Council and developing our local manifesto, we take these values and missions into account, and they inform our ambitions for how the Council could perform more effectively for all Cheltenham residents.
Openness and Transparency
Cuts
The Council has voted to make millions of pounds of savings in the coming year, including on housing and environmental services. But despite Labour asking for details, the LibDem-run Council refused to come clean and say where the axe will fall. We call for more openness and honesty about the Council’s finances.
Contracts
Councillors have been discussing multi-million-pound contracts, such as the one for the £10m Minster Exchange (MX) project, behind closed doors. We demand greater openness over contracts between the Council and its suppliers. The details of all commercial contracts and the details of all contractors should be published on the Council’s website. This should especially apply to the £20m+ Cyber Park project.
Housing and Planning
We need more genuinely affordable housing in Cheltenham, to rent as well as to buy, especially for young people who find it almost impossible to get on the housing ladder. The ‘right to buy’ council houses policy has severely depleted the stock of public housing in Cheltenham.
The Council should use its planning powers with more determination than at present, to encourage developers to build more such housing. It should also use its s106 planning powers to require developers of medium and large-scale developments to provide additional allotments for use by the community.
The Council should use the opportunity provided by taking Cheltenham Borough Homes back into Council control to increase the stock of public housing for rent. The Planning Department should be strengthened to ensure such a policy can be carried through.
Capital Investment
The Council should refocus its limited capital investment away from ‘prestige’ projects in the town centre, and towards the more deprived areas of the town, which are more in need of such investment, by providing more facilities such as children’s play areas.
Furthermore, it should listen more to local residents in those parts of the town, through formally established community groups or parish councils (where these exist), and less to unelected and unrepresentative organisations.
Proceeds from the forthcoming sale of the Municipal Offices should be used to benefit of all parts of the Borough.
Re-cycling
Different methods of collecting domestic waste between Cheltenham and neighbouring councils cause confusion. The Council should aim to rationalise refuse collection methods with other local councils.
Facilities for residents and visitors
We demand improvements for visitors to Cheltenham and in particular:
- A fully-functioning Tourist Information Centre, rather than the ‘pod’ in the High St.
- Significantly improved provision for public toilets, both by direct Council-operated toilets and by agreement with local businesses that have toilet facilities that could be used by the public
- Keeping all public recreational facilities in public ownership and selling them off.
Fees and Charges for Council services
Close scrutiny of the different levels of charge for different licenses has identified apparent priorities that are unacceptable to us. We demand a major overhaul of the Council’s Fees and Charges, both to better support families and children’s services and to discourage activities that reportedly make the women of Cheltenham feel less safe on the streets, while at the same time increasing the commercial income to the Council, including:
- Significantly increased licensing fees for Sexual Entertainment Venues (SEVs) and related activities
- Significantly increased charges for antisocial activities such as dumping of vehicles
- Freezing of changes for activities of social and/or health benefits, such as cremation charges, playgroup fees, leisure centre fees
- Co-ordination with the County Council over parking charges and schemes, so that there is consistency between on-street parking (which is the responsibility of the County Council) and off-street Parking (which the responsibility of the Borough).
A Local democracy that provides a voice for all residents
Parish councils.
Electors in all parts of the Borough should be given the opportunity to decide if they wish to have a parish council. The Council should consult residents in all areas of the Borough that do not currently have a parish council on whether they wish to see a parish council established for their area.
Proportional Representation.
The Council, under the LibDems, has voted to support proportional representation in General Elections, but not local elections, where First Past the Post consistently hands them control. On the current Council the LibDems received about half the vote, but have over three quarters of the seats. We call on the Council to be consistent and support PR across the board in all elections, for a fairer distribution of seats.
A Council for all
A genuine commitment to an effectively democratic system. The overwhelming dominance of the Liberal Democrats on the Council, where they now hold 31 of the 40 seats, is not good for democracy. Local democracy is best served where there is effective and active opposition to the ruling party. At the Council budget meeting in February, the Tory opposition was half-hearted, and the Greens didn’t even turn up.