Wotton-under-Edge, North Nibley & Stinchcombe

Along with residents' casework and in addition to council and training meetings at Ebley Mill, Cllrs Kitchen, Braun & Cohen attended the regular council meetings at North Nibley, Stinchcombe & Wotton-under-Edge. Cllr Cohen has also helped two families secure suitable Council housing.

Council meetings 

Links to meeting agenda, documents and other info on the titles.

Licensing Sub-Committee - 2nd & 4th July

• Holy Water, 11 Lansdown, Stroud - Granted subject to conditions.
  • Variation to extend hours for sale of alcohol, recorded music and opening on Fridays and Saturdays, and extend licensed area to include garden.
    
  • Video recording
• Upton Coffee House, 35C Churchfield Road, Upton St Leonards - Granted subject to conditions.
  • New application for a premises licence for sale of alcohol.
  • Video recording

Audit and Standards Committee - 8th July

• Planning Enforcement Update: Business improvement plan in place, challenges in recent years with recruitment, post-Covid backlog, and limits of legal powers. Now seeing significant improvement. 14 enforcement notices ytd, previously only one in 2023 and 2024.
• New Data Intelligence Strategy to improve use of data across the organisation.
• Considered the the unaudited Statement of Accounts 2024/25
• The Annual Report of the Chair summarising activities during 2024-25 and sets out future plans.
• Annual report on Internal Audit activity and an update on External Audit progress.
• Video recording

Development Control Committee - 15th July

• 42 High Street, Stonehouse S.25/0457/FUL - Permitted.
  • Alterations to shop frontage and erection of single storey rear extension.Impassioned speeches from business owner and public; for and against. Use Class E(b) sale of food and drink.
• Land West of A4135, Draycott, Cam S.21/1875/OUT - Resolved that SDC as the Local Planning Authority should support the granting of permission when the application is determined by the Planning Inspectorate on appeal - subject to conditions proposed.
  • This proposal forms part of the draft strategic allocation for Cam (in the draft Local Plan). The developer has appealed on the grounds of non-determination by the Local Planning Authority. It can now be determined as National Highways and the Local Transport Authorities have recently agreed an interim solution to manage impacts of the extra traffic on J14 of the M5. This is a hybrid application requesting full planning application for the first phase (226 homes) and outline application for the following two phases which total 795 dwellings. The site for a primary school will be protected.
    
• Land North of Bath Road, Leonard Stanley S.24/1165/FUL - Permitted
  • 34 low carbon dwellings including 35% affordable units and public open space including a community orchard. Public right of way crosses this green field site. The so-called 'tilted balance' comes into play due to the lack of required 5 year housing land supply for the district, which means this development outside settlement boundary and local plan allocation should be approved unless there are strong reasons not to.
• Video recording

Full Council - 17th July

• Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation - Council unanimously agreed to express a preference for the new Gloucestershire Authorities to join the West of England Combined Authority (Bristol, South Glos, Bath & North East Somerset, and potentially North Somerset Councils) rather than opting to join up with Herefordshire & Worcestershire, or Oxfordshire & Swindon. Decisions from other councils in Gloucestershire are likely to follow suite. Expected that most if not all will opt for WECA since this would be the only strategic authority alignment that would keep Gloucestershire in the South West Region.
• Motion approved to which opposes the Planning & Infrastructure Bill, in particular Part 3 of the Bill which would put the current safeguards for nature at risk in future developments. SDC will write to the Secretary of State and Local MPs to express the Council's concern about this Bill.
• Council housing - £10m added to the capital program to potentially acquire up to 30 new affordable homes.
• Agreed to allocate an additional £1.5m to complete the canal restoration and join the Stroudwater Canal to the national network at Saul Junction. This funding is conditional on additional funding of £6.5m being granted by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (decision due early October 2025).
• Updates to the Constitution regarding whistleblowing and social medial protocol.
• Annual reports from Audit & Standards Committee.
• Video recording

Gloucestershire Police & Crime Panel - 11th July

• Cllr Kitchen represents Stroud District Council on this panel.
• Balancing the demands in the Constabulary
  • National challenges; Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), Terrorism, Serious and Organised Crime (SOC), National Cyber Incidents, Child Sexual Abuse (CSA), Public Disorder, Civil Emergencies
  • Priorities; Investigating Crime, Safer communities, efficient organisation and ethical leadership
• Meeting notes here

Ward News

Bolster Wotton

We've been attending regular meetings of Bolster Wotton. This group offers a level of co-ordination between SDC, Stroud & District Chamber of Trade & Commerce and the Town Council. At the the last meeting there was discussion about the planning and promoting of Long Street Summer Social event and general discussions about marketing Wotton and driving footfall to the town to help support local businesses.

Keeping Wotton Clean and Tidy

Cllr Linda Cohen has helped set up street clean and litter and weed pick (Wotton Womble) on August 16 with the Town Council. For those not on Facebook click the heading for more info.

Following a lively Wotton Town Council meeting on the 19th May, it became clear that there was a problem relating to dog poo bags and their inappropriate disposal close to Westridge Road. Just last week Wotton's newest Litter and Dog Waste Bin has been installed there. 🎉 🎇 🎆 🎊 Thanks to SDC (and their contractor) and GCC who literally offered support (giving permission to attach the new bin on one of their signposts!) ;)

Affordable Housing

The work on the new housing development at Bradley Street / Gloucester Street continues apace. This will result in 8 properties for affordable rent including: 5 x 2 Bed Houses and 3 x 3 Bed Houses.

Other news 

• Consultation on our ambitious new Climate and Nature Strategy. Cleaner, greener and fairer
• Council cracks down on ASB with new reporting tool and evening patrols
• Have your say on the future of local councils in Gloucestershire. County-wide LGR survey
• Local schoolchildren to launch a new campaign to help protect the district’s commons
• Residents are being asked to confirm their electoral register information
• Keep the children busy this summer – fun for all ages across the Stroud district
• Progress with the new council homes programme in Cam, Dursley and Wotton
• Proposals for re-development of the Gloucestershire Science & Technology Park near Berkeley were shared with the public.
  • These plans are proposing to create a world-renowned business, research, and training hub focused on nuclear related businesses.
  • https://www.berkeleystp.co.uk/

Prepared by Cllr Gareth Kitchen (Green) based on councillor activity in July with updates from Cllr Linda Cohen (Lib Dem) & Cllr Catherine Braun (Green).