Letters, loos and Nottingham Declaration

A morning of catching up with post - examples include:

- written to support Lower Shaw Farm, a project near Swindon that is threatened by the local Council who want houses there.
- a letter supporting two Tory MPs that have come out against Bristol airport's expansion - although not yet on grounds of climate change.
- contact with media over the climate change march
- support for a new Stroud project - Stroud Valleys Energy Descent Action Plan - a Community Response to Peak Oil and Climate Change.
- Severn Trent re a sewage incident in Slad Road.
- Countryfile re their visit to Stroud - arranging various things for them to see locally - more in another blog soon.
- Organised a meeting to discuss a residents planning problem.

Loos win awards!

There are now 3 Public Conveniences (Berkeley, Stonehouse & Painswick) that have undergone refurbishments in the last two years in Stroud District. All 3 facilities were entered into the Loo of the Year awards this year hoping to retain the 5 star status for Berkeley and hopefully achieve the same status for the two newer facilities.

I am pleased to advise that Stroud District Council have achieved 5 Star Status for each of the three facilities! There is apparently an award ceremony in December where there is a chance to compete for the 'Gold Loo Seat' for the overall winner!


Nottingham Declaration

The Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change calls for Councils to work with central government for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. It was launched over 6 years ago (October 2000). Stroud Town Council signed it soon after it was launched (April 2001) but the District Council has been very slow to respond - and indeed have still not yet joined the 135 or so principal authorities who have so far signed

I was going to ask a question at Full Council re this but Stroud has now committed itself to tackling climate change in the Environment Green paper. Instead I've phoned the Cabinet member responsible and am assured signing is planned - I've therefore followed that up with an email asking for a rough date. Despite the targets not being sufficient I think it is still important to make such a public statement to tackle climate change in addition to the statements in the Environment Green paper. Stroud District Council are moving in the right direction.