Wednesday, November 8 – Ambitions success

I mentioned the Stroud Ambitions event last week, which is part of the council’s commitment to improving employment and business opportunities in the district.

Employers, training providers, schools, colleges and universities filled Stratford Park Leisure Centre to provide information to students and jobseekers; we really are fortunate to have so many forward thinking organisations here in the district.

Friday, November 10 – Heritage Lottery Fund team cruise the canal

A major piece of canal history was made last Friday when a Heritage Lottery Fund team made the first boat trip from Stonehouse to Bowbridge in over 80 years. This marked the virtual completion of the SDC-led restoration of this length of canal.

Equally importantly, it means we can submit the next HLF bid by the end of this month. This would fund restoration from Stonehouse to Saul Junction, connecting Stroud to the national waterway network. 

Saturday, November 18 – Sub Rooms event, 9.30am – 1pm

The future of the Sub Rooms is high on the political agenda, so hopefully today’s event will answer some of the many queries I’ve received on the subject over the last couple of week.

To give some background, the Sub Rooms is the only council-run arts and entertainment venue in the district, and costs hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to run.

Last year all the political parties agreed to review the Sub Rooms, an all-party task and finish group was set up to investigate possible options, and their report, along with details of the three bids we’ve received to run the venue, are now available to view on our website stroud.gov.uk/subroomsreview

A decision will be made on December 5.