Bolster Wotton Meeting

15th July 2025

Following a meet up with Cllr. Braun, we went to a meeting for Bolster Wotton last Tuesday evening at the Chipping Hall along with Cllr. Cohen. I took some informal notes.

Marketing the town

A quick welcome from the town clerk, Andrea. Then straight into a presentation from Tony Davey. He's a retired IT product manager and has helped improve many companies. He's also the Mayor of Stroud and interim chair of the Nailsworth business group. He has good contact with SDC and leads on tourism, supported by officers there.

Hastily typed notes: Tony's presentation covered where Wotton fits into the various tourism campaigns going on, run by different organisations. Visit England, tourism month. Then there's Cotswold tourism. Then Visit Gloucestershire. Stroud district, eight market towns a reasonable area to target. Significant money, funding, plus volunteers work. Quick win.

On the pre-event questionnaire 81% of respondents wanted people to spend more money in the town. 75% wanted people to stay longer. 57% wanted more people to come in the daytime etc. Need to bolster evening economy. Wotton directory good way of tapping into target audience. Flyers - local, bus adverts. Nailsworth has done some effective work that could be replicated. Evening shopping maps & leaflets.

The presentation can be downloaded from the Bolster Wotton Facebook Group which is for local businesses only.

Events

Fred from Good Food under the Edge gave an update on the Long Street Summer Social Event planned for the 30th August 2025.

Lots of work going on. The Road closure notice had come through earlier. The roads marked in red will be closed from 6am -10pm for the event. Thanks for all your cooperation to help keep the event safe. There's also a fundraiser running with SDC Stroud Funding.

Nicola from Nicola's Fabrics and Crafts has organised a Bath Sews road trip on the 2nd August - from 10am. Please use social media to follow, share and tag.

Andrea gave a quick talk on the Symn Lane Play Area Improvement which also acts as an attraction for people visiting with children. Again there is a SDC Stroud Funding campaign in train. Please support it if you can. Planning has recently been obtained for work to start on the Town Hall. She also mentions that they are waiting on the developer to submit plans for the new Symn Lane Car Park.

Cllr. Thomas mentioned 1hr parking restrictions in the high street. Some people park all day in the same spot preventing genuine customers from parking on the high street. Each parking space is used up to 9 times a day if the restrictions are observed. It seems the Facebook group Wotton Traffic Warden Watch is used to notify the various people who overstay to move their cars when a traffic warden turns up. One business thought this is acceptable behaviour so their customers can park longer than permitted. I had numerous complaints from residents and businesses alike in the run up to last Xmas with the increased traffic warden activity. I'm fairly certain it was targeted at these over-stayers. Traffic wardens scare away customers and the level of policing that we have had traditionally seems about right to me. Act responsibly people!

As I'd been on the go constantly since 10am I was flagging badly by the break so I gave my apologies and left! But it was a worthwhile event. Thanks to Andrea, the town clerk, for organising it.