Pre-application advice is an optional service offered by SDC before full planning permission that allows you to understand how the development policies will apply, gain advice from a planning officer, identify any potential problems and rectify them before a full planning permission application is submitted.
Dursley Rocks at Dursley RFC –Music/Beer Festival – 21st & 22nd June 2024
With the success of last year’s event, we have agreed to host the 11th Dursley Rocks festival on the weekend of 21st June 2024. It will commence from 7pm on the Friday evening through to the Sunday morning of 23rd June. This is a fully ticketed event.
It is a family, not-for-profit, community event. There will be camping for families for the weekend and live music from 7pm – 11.30pm Friday and midday til 11.30pm on Saturday.
We will have professional security on site from 6pm on Friday until midday on Sunday to protect the equipment and control event attendance.
There will be a range of drinks & food for sale accompanied with free children’s entertainment.
We will endeavor to minimise any disruption and as a gesture of goodwill, we would like to offer you 2 half price complimentary tickets for the Friday Evening or Saturday Day. To secure your tickets, please get in contact with me before 30th April 2024.
If you would like any more information, then please do not hesitate to contact me or Jake Martin.
Thank you for your continued support of the Club.
Yours faithfully,
Tracey Angell
07714 278274
Email: dursleyrocks.tickets@gmail.com
Full price tickets:
Elections will take place on Thursday, May 2 for Stroud District Council, parish and town councils, the Police and Crime Commissioner, and some neighbourhood planning referendums.
Stroud District Council wants residents to ensure they are registered to vote. In order to vote, please go to www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. You will need your national insurance number, registering only takes a few minutes. Alternatively, residents can register to vote by calling 01453 766321. The deadline is midnight, on Tuesday 16 April 2024.
The UK Government has introduced a requirement for registered electors to show photo ID when voting at a polling station. All electors will be required to present a government approved photo ID document at the polling station in order to be issued with a ballot paper. Residents are urged to make sure they are ready to vote by checking they have an accepted form of ID.
The most common forms of photo ID are permitted e.g., photo driving licence, passport, and some concessionary travel passes, such as an older person’s bus pass. Voters will be able to use expired ID if they are still recognisable from the photo. Only original documents are accepted. Further details and a full list of acceptable forms of ID are included on the Council’s website at www.stroud.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/elections/voter-id.
If you do not have an accepted form of photo ID, you can apply free-of-charge for a Voter Authority Certificate. To apply, visit www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate or book an appointment to have a photo taken and complete an application at the district council offices by calling 01453 766321. The deadline to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate is 5pm on Wednesday 24 April 2024.
You can now apply to vote by post online and will need to provide your National Insurance Number to verify your identity.
Apply for a postal vote at https://www.gov.uk/apply-postal-vote. Postal vote application forms are available to download at www.stroud.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/elections/voting-options/postal-voting or can be obtained by emailing elections@stroud.gov.uk or calling 01453 766321.The deadline for postal vote applications is 5pm on Wednesday 17 April 2024
To apply for a proxy vote either:
Your proxy will need to vote on your behalf at your polling station and present their photo ID. The deadline for proxy vote applications is 5pm, Wednesday 24 April 2024.
For more details, and information on emergency proxy votes: www.stroud.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/elections/local-government-and-police-and-crime-commissioner-elections-thursday-2-may-2024
You may or may not be aware that our 4 historic “Swedish Houses” situated at the top of The Avenue are under threat of demolition. These are the two pairs of timber clad dormer bungalows opposite the cricket pitch. The right-hand pair is owned by Stroud District Council (SDC) and have been left vacant for 5 – 6 years. Of the other pair, the house on the left (No4) is privately owned and the house on the right has a SDC tenant.
There are similar redevelopment plans for Swedish houses in Uley and Wotton Under Edge.
SDC wish to demolish all four houses and replace them with a high density complex of 16 dwellings, a mixture of houses and flats. The plan above is indicative of how they currently envisage the layout. The original plan was to squeeze in 18 dwellings, but this has now been reduced to 16.
The 16 dwellings would comprise 6 x1 bedroom 2 person flats, 3 x 2bedroom 4 person houses and 3 x 3-bedroom 5 person houses = 39 new residents with probably two cars per dwelling.
This plan raises concerns regarding visual impact, (especially with the site being adjacent to the conservation area and within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), road safety, inadequate parking facilities, drainage, and disturbance of wildlife to mention a few. Furthermore, our Swedish houses are an important part of Stinchcombe’s rich history. You can read more about that here.
Redevelopment of the site as a whole will require the purchase of No4. The owners have lived there happily for 27 years and would like to stay.
Stinchcombe Parish Council have already met with SDC Housing officers to discuss the plans and held an open meeting for parishioners, which housing officers declined to attend. The Parish Council subsequently wrote to Housing stating their opposition to re development of the site. The wish of the Parish Council is for the council owned Swedish houses to be sensitively restored to modern standard whilst retaining their important historic status.
Swedish houses at three other locations in Stroud District have been or are to be refurbished.
Not surprisingly SHS wants to preserve these historic buildings, which we have included in our heritage walk and in our Virtual Village house histories. We’ve tried and failed to get the two empty Swedish Houses listed by Historic England. Historic England recommended looking at local designation options, which we will do in parallel with any other measures for their protection.
At the Stroud District Council Housing committee meeting on the 19/3/24, members voted to add the Stinchcombe, Uley and Wotton Under Edge sites to the new Homes and Regeneration programme and progress redevelopment for the provision of new council homes, subject to planning permission. They agreed for £14.7 million to be funded from capital receipts and from Homes England.
An amendment was approved requiring that an update be brought back to committee as soon as practicable regarding highways safety and other key infrastructures considerations before the submission of planning applications. This amendment will at least ensure we get some insight into what highways and other statutory consultees think before the planning stage.
Housing currently estimates that the feasibility and pre planning stage would take another 12 – 24 months and it would take another 3 – 4 months to get planning permission.
The stated programme means there is still time to prepare a strong case for saving the Swedish houses and preserving our village landscape and history.
It is not something the History Society and Parish Council can do on their own – we need the support of a sizable number of villagers.
If you care about this issue and want to help. Please email stinchcombehistory@gmail.com with your comments.
Please include your full name if it isn’t obvious from your email address, and your postcode. We only ask this in case it should prove to be necessary if your comments are needed to show support against the threat of demolition to Stroud District Council.
Remember, on all Elections like Thursday 2 May 2024 – electors must present photo ID at the polling station before a ballot paper can be issued.
Here’s all you need to know about voter ID:
• The full list of acceptable photo ID can be found at www.stroud.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/elections/voter-id
• Only original copies of documents can be presented in the polling station.
• Photo ID can be expired as long as it resembles you.
• Postal voters will not need to present photo ID.
• For electors who have appointed a proxy to vote on their behalf, the proxy will need to bring their own photo ID.
• If you do not have an acceptable form of photo ID, you can apply free-of-charge for a Voter Authority Certificate at www.stroud.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/elections/voter-id It is valid for up to 10 years as long as the photo resembles you. Make sure you have applied by Wednesday 24 April 2024.
For further information and questions? Email elections@stroud.gov.uk or call 01453 766321.
Residents are being warned not to discard batteries at home after a fire was started in a recycling truck.
The incident occurred when a crew from Stroud District Council’s waste and recycling partner, Ubico, was collecting recycling in Stonehouse earlier this month. After the contents of a bin had been deposited and then compacted, the crew heard an explosion and saw smoke coming from the back of the truck.
Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service attended and extinguished the fire. It is thought that the cause was a discarded battery or an e-cigarette. Hundreds of fires are caused by crushed or damaged batteries and gas cylinders incorrectly discarded in waste and recycling trucks and recycling centres across the UK every year.
Batteries, vapes, and electrical items should never be put in household waste or recycling containers. They can explode and cause fires when crushed, so they need to be disposed of separately. They can be disposed of at various locations across the district, including most supermarkets and household waste and recycling centres.
Use the Stroud District Council’s Waste Wizard to find out how to dispose of batteries, vapes and all electrical items safely.
Community organisations are keen to hear peoples’ experiences of the Cotswold Canals – and views from those people who don’t currently use it, to generate a baseline so people’s awareness and attitude towards the canals can be measured over the coming years.
Everyone who lives in the Stroud district is welcome to fill out the survey including those who regularly use and enjoy the canals and wider canal corridors, people who live nearby, and others who live in the district who have never or rarely visited it.
The survey asks participants about the two linked Cotswold Canals: the Stroudwater Canal (from Saul Junction to Wallbridge in Stroud) and Thames and Severn Canal (from Wallbridge to Brimscombe). The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal (from Gloucester in the north to Sharpness in the south) is not included.
The survey is at: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CotswoldCanals2023