Stroud District Council are starting a consultation on the broad management of where roughly 2000 homes should be built after 2016. The aim is to create sustainable communities, with homes and jobs not too far away from each other. This is the beginning of the new Core Strategy process, which will eventually culminate in a Local Development Framework replacing the current Stroud Local Plan.

There are eight options, ranging from all 2000 dwellings at Cam or in the Eastington area, to between ten and fifty homes built in each of forty parishes.

There will be drop-in exhibitions for the ‘Stroud Valleys’ area at the Mortimer Rooms in Nailsworth Library  on Tuesday 2 March and the Sub Rooms in Stroud on  Saturday 13 March between 10 am and 1 pm,  and for the Stonehouse Cluster at the Stonehouse Town Council offices on Thursday 4 March.

Personally, I favour a mixture of the proposals. I think half the homes should be located to tap into the second phase of the canal development, balancing the building already envisaged in Brimscombe. The rest should come from a couple of dozen sites around the District, with about thirty homes in each, and perhaps a couple with a hundred or so. Larger developments bring benefits like children’s play areas, or a school or a shop with them. Rodborough, Woodchester and the Stanleys will have to expect their share and could expect to gain affordable housing, so that both old and young can hope to continue to live locally rather than have to move to other parts of  Stroud because there is nowhere available here.

For more information, check out the SDC website.

I return from holiday (having easily resisted the temptation to post to mycouncillor from various European internet cafes) to a 70-page report from Tribal and one of 16 pages from KPMG, both addressing the problems of Stroud District’s council housing.

Some weeks ago, it was  discovered that the housing revenue account had been overspent by up to £ 1.2m. At this point Stroud District Council (SDC) commissioned these reports, arranged policy seminars for councillors and set up special cabinet, scrutiny and council meetings for September. Subsequent investigation has brought the figure down to £873,000 - quite bad enough!

Starting to read the Tribal report last night, I was surprised to find it is all about the Future of Stroud’s Council Housing, rather than the whys and wherefores of the overspend. Seems to me that the baby is ready to be chucked out with the bathwater.  According to SDC’s website, there are three reports - I look forward to finding out what the third is about.

Some years ago, SDC tenants voted to remain so and not be handed over to a housing association, or any of the other options presented by the government at the time.

A crucial instalment from Gloucestershire LibDems’ manifesto for the June county council election. We will:

* halt the building of the massive waste incinerator for the county

A Liberal Democrat run council will halt the building of a massive waste incinerator in Gloucestershire.    We will plan for alternative environmentally friendly waste disposal options.

* countywide organisation to co-ordinate recycling improvements and waste collection

A countywide waste partnership is necessary to co-ordinate the waste collection and recycling facilities in Gloucestershire.

* increase recycling target to 70%

We will raise the target for recycling waste to 70% from the Tories’ 43%. Increased recycling will reduce landfill and remove the need for a massive waste incinerator.

More from Gloucestershire LibDems’ manifesto for the June county council election:

* 20 mph safety zones around all schools

We will commit to a countywide plan to deliver 20 mph safety zones and safer routes to school around all schools in the county over the next four years.

* transport for young people

A Liberal Democrat run council will develop a transport system that young people can use during the daytime and evening.

* teachers to support children who stay in hospital and recover from illness at home

Tory council budget cuts to fund teachers who provide education support to sick children will be reversed. Children who stay in hospital or are recovering at home deserve education support.

Yesterday I had an interesting meeting with the council officer responsible for waste collection, and have also been enquiring what neighbouring districts are doing. The answer to the second is ‘disposing of food waste mixed with garden waste, and charging for the garden waste’.

ODD FACT – The In Vessel Composter (IVC) at Sharpness (in the Stroud District)  requires a mixture of food and garden waste. Stroud Conservatives prefer to have food waste sent to Leominster, 50 miles away, for processing because of their blinkered attitude towards the collection of garden waste.

Some garden waste cannot be processed at home. It surely makes more sense to send it to a local IVC than to landfill, as at present.

Cllr Christine Headley joins Stanleys’ residents’ frustration at the abrupt end of the Stanleys Waste Trial, which has been operating since 24 October 2007 and involves weekly collection of dry recyclables and food waste, fortnightly collection of residual waste to landfill, and a subsidised composter offered to every household.
The main problem is the loss of the food waste recycling,  which required the provision of two food waste containers for every household. Cooked waste is not suitable for garden composting, but it can be done by the council in the quantities generated by a locality like the Stanleys.
Worse, landfill tax rises to £ 40 for the new financial year, and there is to be an extra £ 150 payable for every tonne of bio-degradable waste above a certain level that goes to landfill. Cllr Christine Headley says that SDC should keep composting Stanleys’ food waste while a more extensive system is worked out.

It is a strange coincidence that, having taken up the issue of a non-functioning streetlight, two in the same area turn out to be in overdrive.
A few weeks ago, I was alerted to the streetlight by the Woodchester War Memorial, which hasn’t worked for two years. I contacted the county council and was told  that, as the original pole had rusted through at the base and was in danger of falling over, it was disconnected and a new column installed. Unfortunately, residents are still waiting for the electricity to be connected. The nearest supply is about 10m away on the other side of the lane. The  road will have to be closed and, because this is a bus route,  a minimum two months notice is legally required so that the bus company can set up an alternative route. (The law makers don’t seem to have made any sort of exception for a rural, twice-weekly bus - a resident asked me why they couldn’t just schedule the work for a day the bus wasn’t running.) Anyway, it is hoped that the work will be done around the end of May.
Oddly enough, the next streetlight along the lane connecting North and South Woodchester doesn’t turn off,  and nor does one on Selsley Road. I have pointed these out to the county council, too!