A Parish Question

Our Parish Clerk recently had an email from the Carbon Neutral 2030 team at Stroud DC asking whether we’ve declared a climate emergency.  We haven’t, unlike a considerable number of town and parish councils in Stroud District. Even some very small parishes have taken this step e.g. Standish PC (population 250) way back in November 2019.

It could be seen as an empty gesture or jumping on the band wagon but has the potential to be so much more than that.  Declaring an emergency can be a catalyst for action but we need to have clear ideas on what to do.   A district council in Devon has put together a useful resources pack for town and parish councils.  What is striking is how many of the suggested actions link to things you’ve already told the parish council you’re concerned about:

Planning – objecting to proposals like that for a large development on Taits Hill Rd that would not be good for the climate or environment and supporting low carbon/Green projects

Footpaths – keeping our footpaths open and in good order to encourage walking

Highways – tackling issues like speeding, drainage, frequent burst water mains and footway/cycleway provision to our make roads safer for everyone

Stinchcombe would have plenty of support to build on its declaration and put climate action at the heart of village life.  Wotton Area Climate Action Network  is a lively, well-established group with lots of advice and events.  Transition Stroud provides a network for people and groups in Stroud District working towards a low carbon lifestyle.

So what do you think as residents? 

Please use the comments facility below to let the Parish Council know or contact the clerk.

Kath Hudson

Wednesday 26th May, 7.30 pm

Another opportunity to hear about developments in the last year, this is when the Councillors will begin their terms of office for the next four years and the various wardens and representatives for the next year are appointed.

Meeting will be held remotely via Zoom but all are welcome to attend. If you would like an invitation to the meeting, please email the clerk on clerk@stinchcombepc.co.uk

Stroud District Council

Election of Parish Councillors for
Stinchcombe
Thursday 6 May 2021
Number of Seats: 5

I, being the Returning Officer at the above election, report that the person whose name appears on the attached pdf is duly elected as Parish Councillor without a contest for Stinchcombe.

As the number of candidates is equal to or less than the number of seats available, they are duly elected without contest.

There will NOT be an election taking place on Thursday, 6 May 2021 for this Parish/Town Council.

Lost but not to be forgotten

We lost Angela Tocknell this week. A forceful character who spoke her mind but who I always liked.

Bob and Angela Tocknell lived in the Quarry in Cam but they were always stalwart supporters of St Cyr’s for over 40 years.

Angela was on the PCC for many years and also served several times as churchwarden and verger.  She could always be relied on to organise and help with functions to do with the church, especially planning a delicious spread of food.

She was a founding member of the Friends of St Cyr’s, when the church was struggling financially. The Friends have enabled the PCC to maintain the fabric of the church and the condition of the church and churchyard has benefited from their support and attention.  She will be greatly missed by the village.

Road Safety – views from PCC Candidates

If you’ve not already voted postally, you may want to read this before you vote for our next Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC). 

Current PCC – Martin Surl

Retired police officer and consultant Martin Surl (Independent) has been Gloucestershire’s PCC since the role was created in 2012 and is standing again.  Road safety has been one of his priority areas under the Safe & Social Roads initiative .  During his time in office,  Martin has allocated 1% of the total policing budget to the  Commissioner’s Fund  which supports local projects in this and other priority areas.  He instigated the recent Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner (OPCC) Safe and Social Roads survey for parish and town councils.  The Speed Watch Team completed it back in January.   We thought the questions showed good insight into the current problems, especially the lack of partnership working.

A Roadside Meeting

Community Speed Watch member Don Cribb persuaded another candidate to attend a roadside meeting in Stinchcombe.  Full marks to Chris Nelson (Conservative) for sparing the time to speak to us.  We told him about Stinchcombe’s experiences trying to get something done about speeding over the last couple of decades.  Trying to back out of a drive onto busy Taits Hill Road was a bit of an eyeopener for him!

Chris, an army veteran and former Parish Council Chair, outlines his ideas in the short video Empowering Communities .  They are based on a much great role for parish councils in:

• recruiting an additional 150 special constables to work in their own communities;
• deploying modern speed monitoring technologies such as AutoSpeedWatch (supported by more police staff and shared funding where appropriate); and
• making greater use of Neighbourhood Watch and Community Alert Schemes

If elected, he would want to meet groups of Parish Council representatives as soon as possible to get things moving. 

Other PCC Candidates

In the interests of balance, I emailed the comments and questions we discussed with Chris Nelson to the other candidates:

• Martin Surl (Independent)
• Adrian Stratton (Independent)
• Chris Coleman (Liberal Democrats)
• Simon O’Rourke (Labour)

At the time of writing only Adrian Stratton has replied.  He served 30 years with Gloucestershire Constabulary and you can read more about him here .  Adrian told me that speeding and road safety is ‘amongst the top topics of concern’ in the many emails he receives.  If elected, he would review the data from the OPCC survey to ‘better understand the problems and concerns’ and ‘hopefully offer ideas and long-term solutions’.  Adrian believes ‘the sight of the Police lights on the Traffic Officer’s car pulling over a motorist was one of the biggest deterrents you could have’ and wants to bring staffing of this role back to former levels.  He suggests that ‘the whole issue clearly needs to be re-vamped and made workable for all parties’ and would want to sit down with people like me to resolve the issues sooner rather than later.

Please vote thoughtfully

Putting together this article has helped me decide who to vote for as the next PCC.  I hope a few others will find it helpful too.

Kath

The Parish Council would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped with this year’s Litter Pick. We had a record turnout and a huge amount of litter and rubbish was removed from our hedges and verges – including a couple of tyres, petrol cans and a “House for sale” sign!

Nola