North Nibley Parish Council

4th June 2025

I attended the meeting at the Village Hall last night along with SDC Cllr. Braun, GCC/SDC Cllr. Cohen sent her apologies. These are my hastily written, informal notes.

The photo this month commemorates the buddleia shrub which partly died and fell over long ago. The team from Ubico had been diligently mowing around it (a prescriptive contract, no doubt). Recuperating from my recent health problems, I thought it would be good exercise to wander over to Ebley Mill (from Rodborough, not North Nibley!) and speak with the Community Services team who manage the contract. They had words with Ubico and the tree was removed yesterday, just in time for the Council meeting! :) Face to face meetings seem far more effective than e-mails which often endlessly bounce around the ether.

The meeting kicked off with normal formalities. Great to see a few members of the public present. One, Denise, will be coming onboard to the council at the next meeting. She has lived in Wotton and Coombe for the last 25 years, she has a health and social care background. One member of the public talked about the dangerous corner on the road out of North Nibley heading towards Stinchcombe. He was involved in a couple events recently, a pilgrimage. He wanted a convex mirror angled to assist in crossing the road. GCC highways would need to be involved, Cllr Cohen would be asked. I think this is the location and it's actually part of the Cotswold Way.

A rapid update on previous actions followed and the minutes from the previous meeting were approved.

Jane Luker had applied to be co-opted onto the council and had submitted paperwork. Jane is a governor at North Nibley primary school and has a healthcare background. Her co-option approved. So, along Denise, this means the there is now a full council in North Nibley. The group did a quick check in, detailing their backgrounds. There's a lot of experience here. Also a fantastic achievement filling all the seats, it really is a slick well managed council and always a pleasure to attend.

The Chair went over the Council's objectives; The play area, road safety and road crossing plan, a biodiversity plan for The Knoll, placing five defibrillators in the village and improve community engagement.

I had a few late additions to the District Councillors report:-

• Businesses and community organisations in rural parts of the district can now apply for a share of £120,000 for capital projects. SDC also has £40,000 of UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) grants available for capital projects located anywhere in Stroud district.

• StroudFunding (SDC’s crowdfunding platform, where eligible projects are topped up with SDC funding) - the next round will be launched in late June 2025. Workshops will be planned for mid-July, with a deadline to have your project ready by the end of September.

• SDC’s Apprenticeship programme has reopened, with five apprenticeships now open for applications, to start in September 2025. Apprenticeship Open Evenings are being held in the SDC Restaurant at Ebley Mill on 4th and 18th June, 4-7pm.

• Work on local government reorganisation has now restarted in earnest following the county elections and towards the November 28th deadline by which final proposals will be submitted. Officers from all levels are working together on a variety of work streams to begin to set out the detail for both the proposed single and two-unitary models. Government have still not indicated whether they will provide any detailed guidance as to the role of parish & town councils in unitarisation, but it is clear that you will be key partners for any unitary council(s) in the county.

There was a discussion about LGR and it was pointed out the Town & Parish Council will take on a greater role with all these changes. The lack of proper community consultation and engagement was raised. Then, this morning, I discover that there has been a change of tack from central government. This latest guidance from Govt seems to diminish the role of parish and town councils somewhat, in favour of Area Committees (which may or may not involve parish and town councils). The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government now seems to suggest it will be up to local areas to determine their role. Things are obviously in a state of flux. I've previously written, in gloomy terms about LGR, I still don't feel any more enthusiastic about it.

Cllr Cohen had sent in a short GCC e-mail update, largely because she is waiting for Cabinet members to bed in and find out the direction of travel on road safety and funding and wanting a proper briefing on the Local Government Review.

The Clerk's Report was focused on audit and the recent parish meeting. A Planning application was discussed re Bassett Court and a change of use of agricultural barn to dwelling. The council decided to neither support or object but wanted to comment on the energy saving and biodiversity commitment.

There were updates re on-going projects to agree any further actions:

• Play Area. Lots of work on the legal side. Covenants and land interests, liability, draft leases detailing operations all in progress and will eventually go to play area committee.
• Biodiversity. No meeting since last time. Recent talk in village hall and Facebook page setup. Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust met up to discuss a bio-blitz and a wildlife survey maybe. Also, funding pot (missed which one) that could be used for interpretation boards at The Knoll, signposting people to donate to monument.
• Road Safety update was given at the parish meeting. Since then, electoral changes at GCC. 20mph zones now a possibility. Cllr Cohen wants to engage with that process.
• Village Defibrillators and Community Wellbeing. Just bought fifth defibrillator, there seems to be a bit of juggling with placement, but I think this one will end up close to Southend farm. But this isn't the end, there are more envelopes to get them into. There had been some training undertaken recently too.

An application to the Rural England Prosperity Fund was discussed, maybe for interpretation boards for The Knoll. The application info to be shared out to other groups. Any monies would need to be spent by March 2026.

A short discussion about using GAPTC Climate Change Community Fund to plant out green spaces such as the big triangles of land by Pitt Court as it has become overgrown using it for biodiversity. Not owning the land would be problematic and on-going maintenance costs too, little enthusiasm.

Myself and Cllr Braun left the meeting.

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