Stroud District Councillors’ Report


January 2020



Full Council Meeting (16 January)


Elections timetable – 7 May 2020

Elections will be held for the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gloucestershire, all District Councillors and all Parish and Town Councillors on 7 May. To stand as a district council candidate, nomination papers must be between 24 March and 8 April.

Due to the change in the bank holiday date (now on Friday 8 May). The District ward count will take place overnight on 7 May. The count for Parish and Town Councillors and the Police and Crime Commissioner will be held on Monday 11 May. All counts will take place at Stratford Park Leisure Centre in Stroud.


Review of Polling District, Polling Places and Polling Stations – as required by legislation and Electoral Commission Guidance the Council undertook this review. Councillors gave approved to the final recommendations following public consultation and incorporating the Community Governance Review agreed changes approved by Council (see report).

The recommendations seek to ensure that electors in the Stroud District have such reasonable facilities for voting as are practicable in the circumstances and that the arrangements meet the legislative requirements.

If the Community Governance Review recommendations are approved by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (now expected mid/late February), these Polling District recommendations will take effect ahead of the upcoming elections in May 2020.

For information: Polling District is the geographic area, created by the subdivision of the constituency (generally aligning with parish boundaries); Polling Station is where the vote takes place; and the Polling Place is the building which the polling station is allocated to.

In line with the Community Governance Review a change for Kingswood and Wotton-under-Edge polling district was agreed:

“An amendment to the boundary as part of the Community Governance Review has meant Wotton-under-Edge (South Ward) is being transferred into Kingswood parish with the exception of the hamlet of Wortley, Wotton Sports Foundation and adjacent land which will be absorbed into Wotton-under-Edge (Div 2). From this amendment the polling district boundary now needs to be amended to reflect the change in the parish boundary for Kingswood and Wotton-under-Edge and the existing polling district of Wotton-under-Edge (South Ward) (K5) is abolished.”



Review of Councillor allowances

In line with Local Authority regulations the council agreed to appoint an Independent Remuneration Panel to make recommendations to the District Council on a Scheme of Members’ Allowances for Adoption. These allowances have not been reviewed since 2016. The review applies to District Council allowances only and recommendations will be made in April 2020 (see report).

Two motions were also approved:

Council agreed to adopt the TUC Dying to Work Charter which sets out an agreed way in which SDC employees will be supported, protected and guided throughout their employment, following a terminal diagnosis.

Council supported the principle of a parental leave policy to give all Councillors an entitlement to parental leave after a birth or adoption and to ensure that councillors with children and other caring commitments are supported as appropriate. The Constitution Working Group will be tasked with developing a parental leave policy for approval at a future Council meeting.



SDC Strategic Directors

All the four Strategic Directors have now been appointed:



Local Transport Plan consultation event

A public consultation event on the Gloucestershire County Council Local Transport Plan will be held on Thursday 13 February at Stroud District Council offices at Ebley Mill, as a drop in event, from 11 am – 3 pm.


SDC Housing Committee (Cllr Braun) -No meeting in January


SDC Environment Committee (Cllr James) -No meeting in January


Strategy & Resources Committee (Cllr Tucker) - 28 January

Officers presented the salary levels of the lowest and highest employees. The ratio was 10:1, which is half the Government limit of 20:1.

Officers presented SDC’s strategy, which was demonstrated to meet Government guidelines.

Officers presented SDC’s plans for 2020-21 and an update to the 4-year Medium Term Financial Programme.

2020/21 Budgets for each of the 6 committees were approved for presentation to Full Council in February 2020.

Last year members requested that all SDC’s various and numerous internal and external charges should be collated in one document. This was presented to S&R and was considered a practical document. It would be added to SC’s website.

Following the external Peer Review in March/April 2020 and its recommendations, the Chief Executive, Kathy O’Leary, presented an update of the delivery plan, which aims to get us to achieve becoming an ‘exemplar’ council. Now the 4 new Strategic Directors were in place and meeting regularly, members were pleased to hear that the plan was on track and that we should see significant changes/improvements during 2020.



SDC Community Services & Licensing Committee (Cllr Tucker) 23 January

Youth Service provision is one aspect of CS&L’s funding. We employ a Youth officer and 2 youth workers, who work around the District, including regular visits to Wotton. The input and needs of youth members are very important to us and prior to the Committee meeting, there was a presentation from members from the Stroud District Youth Council (SDYC), about the work they are doing to support themselves and their peers. Some told us that they had identified some needs in their own lives and had joined SDYC to help with this. It must be said that they are a very impressive and persuasive group of young people!

The Director of Public Health Gloucestershire gave the committee a review of the service’s direction in 2019, which members found interesting. Poignant questions were asked by SDC members, particularly on the County’s preparation for dealing with an outbreak of Coronavirus. Members were pleased to note and reassured that preparation were well in hand and that daily meetings were being held between responsible bodies.


Following further consultation of proposals, the latest submission was passed by the Committee. It is a detailed review of charges made for street trading and appears fair. It also lists events were fees will not be applicable. Members voted unanimously to support the proposal.




It was agreed to adopt the National Register of Taxi and Private Hire Revocations and Refusals from 1 April 2020. This provides a nationwide data base where taxi licence applicants can be checked against nationally held criminal records etc. Members again voted unanimously to support this excellent scheme. There were no negative comments from registered licence holders.



SDC’s current leisure centre support contract ends in April 2021. This proposal was to approve a permittable 3-year extension to Sport and Leisure Management (SLM) contract and to approve the use of reserve funding to commission studies from leisure industry experts as to the future of leisure provision in Stroud District. Both recommendations were approved by all political parties.

A Member/Officer report on Performance Monitoring was presented. All was satisfactory.

The Chief Exec and Council Leader gave a brief update of topics relating to Leadership Gloucestershire (LG). However, there had been little progress since the last meeting last November.

LG aims to bring together public sector organisations which allocate and spend significant resources in Gloucestershire. Its role is to provide vision, leadership and strategic direction in those areas where it is vital for organisations to work together to meet the needs of the people and communities of Gloucestershire in the most cost-effective way. LG will work together to reduce current costs, minimise future costs and deliver better outcomes for the benefit of the people of Gloucestershire.

Future Workplan.

Updates on The Corporate Delivery Plan, Peer Review progress, Compulsory Purchasing Powers -re Canal, Changing Future of Play Areas, IT Update and Stroud Cemetery Chapel -proposed Community Asset Transfer were requested for the next meeting.



Audit & Standards Committee (no representation) 28 January

The committee discussed the external audit plan and progress with the internal audit plan. Also discussed were the counter fraud activities of the Council, the Annual Governance Statement for 2018/2019 and the progress report on areas for improvement that had been identified as part of the annual review of governance arrangements within the Council.

On the Treasury Management Strategy and Annual Investment Strategy the Council’s strategy and prudential indicators for 2020/21 – 2022/23 were outlined and there was an update on the treasury management activity for the previous quarter.

For more information see the Committee papers.



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Meetings attended by Cllr Tucker

6 Jan SDC Strategy & Resources pre-review (1)

6 Jan North Nibley Parish Council meeting,

8 Jan SDC Mobilisation Board Meeting (new in-house repair team)

8 Jan SDC FGR new stadium presentation.

10 Jan Woking with Refuse collection team at Dryleaze.

14 Jan Meet with SDC Election Manager to discuss electoral register.

14 Jan SDC Strategy & Resources pre-review (2).

14 Jan SDC Planning Review Panel.

15 Jan Alliance Group Leader’s meeting.

16 Jan SDC Full Council meeting

20 Jan Community Services & Licencing Committee pre-meet.

20 Jan Wotton Town Council meeting.

21 Jan Alliance members meeting.

21 Jan Housing Review Panel.

23 Jan Stroud District Youth Council presentation

23 Jan Community Services & Licencing Committee meeting.

30 Jan Dryleaze residents meeting with SDC.

30 Jan Introductory meeting with new Strategic Director of Place, Brendon Cleere.

30 Jan SDC Strategy & Resources Committee meeting.



Meetings attended by Cllr James

6 Jan North Nibley Parish Council meeting,

8 Jan SDC FGR new stadium presentation.

16 Jan SDC Full Council meeting

20 Jan Wotton Town Council meeting.

23 Jan Stroud District Youth Council presentation



Meetings attended by Cllr Braun

6 Jan North Nibley Parish Council meeting

13 Jan Stinchcombe Parish Council meeting

16 Jan SDC Full Council meeting

17 Jan Meeting with SDC Neighbourhood Planning Officer (Greenway future funding)

20 Jan Wotton Town Council meeting

21 Jan Housing Review Panel

22 Jan Consultation event – Knapp Field woodland proposal

23 Jan Wotton Area Climate Action Network – Solar Streets initiative speaker

27 Jan Wotton Fairtrade Town – Fairtrade Fortnight planning meeting

27 Jan Wotton Town Council Climate Working Group meeting

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