Letter from our District Councillors

Cllr Stephen Davies  and  Cllr John Jones

As I write this Spring is clearly coming and it has been a busy time with budgets to be approved.

Stroud District Council voted to increase the Council Tax to the maximum amount possible without causing a referendum, reflecting the difficult financial pressures.

The full amount for a Band D House is now  £1,706.81.  This is made up of

£1,179.26 for Gloucester County Council

£195.65 for Stroud District Council

£214.49 for the Police

£117.41 for the Parish Council.        

More concerning I believe is that the Budget set by Stroud District Council will spend all of the Reserves of the Council in 3 years. Some of this is on good schemes but it does include some items that we believe are unnecessary and we will not support.

On West of Stonehouse we have had some success as the developers have withdrawn the detailed planning application that they made - after concerns that the road layout and  design of the properties  were felt to be  ‘standard Hitchen development’ and not reflecting the local area. We await them submitting a new application and will continue to be vigilant in our efforts to make sure we get the best development possible.

On the Ecotricity proposed development,  they have submitted further details finally including the Traffic Survey which is now being reviewed by County Council who we meet with regularly. It is not expected that this will come before the Development and Control Committee until the Autumn. It is worth remembering that despite the tone of Ecotricity's comments this is an application that is going through due process and is not in any way a foregone conclusion.

The BBC have been running a new series of "Housing enforcers" at 9:15 most mornings which includes a view on the challenges that Stroud District Council's Housing officers face. It makes an interesting view on where the money is spent.

Finally I would like to remind you that it is the Gloucestershire County Council elections on May 4th and whatever your political view I would encourage you to vote.

As always, both of your District Councillors can be contacted

either by email or telephone

 cllr.stephen.davies@stroud.gov.uk  tel. 07802595307

cllr.john.jones@stroud.gov.uk  tel 07808922918.