Back into being an active councillor

I met up with fellow councillors this morning at 10am for a site visit beside the new A46 bridge over the canal in the middle of town. We were discussing the arrangements for looking after the open spaces that are now accessible, with a man from Gloucestershire County Council Highways department who own the land. It is important that everyone who passes this area should appreciate the mix of open space, canal, bridge, footpaths and whatever developments may evolve as a result of the canal being re-opend for boat usage in the near future.

I returned tonight to the Town Council offices for our Full Council meeting. We had a presentation about the soon-to-announced Core Strategy for Stroud District, the impact of which we will be involved with for the next fifteen years. This was followed by another presentation by the local police about their strategy for dealing with the problems associated with street drinking. As was pointed out this is an issue that has been discussed at this council for more than ten years.

Near the end of the meeting, I had to introduce an agenda item concerning the setting of the Precept for the next financial year, which is the amount of money local residents pay for the services we provide. Before Christmas, we had previously agreed a rate to set, but after some guidance followed by much discussion with the chairs of the committees, the mayor and the Town Clerk, we decided to ask Council to increase the Precept. Tonight, after my explanation of the reasons, and a bit more discussion, there was a unanimous vote in support of the budget I was proposing. So I was very happy about the result, which shows we are all agreed on the way we want to move our activities forward.

I am now waiting for a press release to be prepared and for which I will need to add a quote. Two newspaper journalists were present tonight, and they have midday deadlines so we want to ensure they understand the quite complex issues about the budget process.

When the meeting ended there was quite a lot of chatting and bits of paperwork to be completed. These various councillors all agreed to let me blip them. Kevin in his hat looked very fetching I thought.