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Agenda item

Member Questions

 

A Member of the Council may ask the Chair, the Leader, a Cabinet Member or the Chair of any Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties or which affects the Cotswold District. A maximum period of fifteen minutes shall be allowed at any such meeting for Member questions.

 

A Member may only ask a question if:

a)    the question has been delivered in writing or by electronic mail to the Chief Executive no later than 5.00 p.m. on the working day before the day of the meeting; or

b)    the question relates to an urgent matter, they have the consent of the Chair to whom the question is to be put and the content of the question is given to the Chief Executive by 9.30 a.m. on the day of the meeting.

 

An answer may take the form of:

a)    a direct oral answer;

b)    where the desired information is in a publication of the Council or other published work, a reference to that publication; or

c)    where the reply cannot conveniently be given orally, a written answer circulated later to the questioner.

 

The following questions were submitted before the publication of the agenda;

 

Question 1 from Councillor Len Wilkins to Councillor Mike McKeown, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Sustainability

 

How many of the planned EV charging points have Cotswold District Council now installed across the district? What impact have inflationary pressures, energy costs and other economic factors had on the business case, first put to Cabinet in March 2022, for the installation of these EV chargers?

 

Question 2 from Councillor Tom Stowe to Councillor Joe Harris, Leader of the Council

Please could you confirm the current expected lead time for the repair or replacement of street signs?

 

Question 3 from Councillor Gina Blomefield to Councillor Mike Evemy, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance

 

There is a great deal of concern across the Cotswold District about the ever-increasing number of second homes and properties which are let out as holiday homes both of which decrease the supply of housing available for would be residents. The ONS states that 8% of properties in the Cotswolds are vacant.

An additional issue is holiday homes which are registered as businesses which do not have to pay council tax and fall below the threshold for paying business rates and yet their domestic bins are collected along with everyone else’s.

The popularity of the Cotswolds as a place to have a weekend retreat or its attraction as a tourist destination is mirrored in places such as the Lake District and whilst it brings prosperity, which is valuable to the local economy, it would be good to have greater control of these type of tenures and also capture more financial benefit for the District Council.

As a start, what avenues has this Council explored to advise property owners who rent out properties as holiday homes registered as a business that they should pay a commercial waste charge as happens in Salcombe; doubling council tax on second homes as is proposed in Whitby and Swanage and also a doubling of council tax on properties which have been vacant over a year?

Minutes:

The Member Questions and responses provided including any written responses can be found in the attached Annex A.

 

Supporting documents:

 

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