STROUD District Council leader Geoff Wheeler keeps you up to date with what is happening at the council

Tuesday, August 12 – Creative England, Cheltenham

A VISIT by a representative from Creative England to meet with district councils, the county council and the police to promote Gloucestershire as film friendly. Many of you will be aware that much filming for JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy has been taking place in the district.

We have been working with the producers, via Creative England, to help. Gloucester and Cheltenham already attract quite a bit of filming and we’re looking at putting our district on the map too. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at how we can encourage more film crews to work in our area. Film crews and cast members range from a handful of people to hundreds at a time, and they all need places to stay, eat and shop, which means that they spend money with local businesses. A high-end television drama can spend significant sums each day in the local economy. After the productions are broadcast or shown in cinemas they also stimulate tourism.

Film-related tourism was worth £1.9 billion to the UK economy in 2012.

Tuesday, August 12 – Neighbourhood Wardens

INTERESTING to see what some of the council’s neighbourhood wardens have been up to recently. They regularly deal with fly tipping, often in unusual places. Last month they found a washing machine in the middle of a road and even a speed boat and trailer dumped in a lay by near Painswick. One of the wardens also gave a hedge in Wotton-under-Edge a quick trim after discovering it was blocking a footpath and another has been working closely with other agencies and traveller groups to prevent anti-social behaviour. To speak to your neighbourhood warden, call 01453 754512 or email neighbourhood.warden@stroud.gov.uk They’re even on twitter @sdc_wardens

Thursday, August 21 – waste and recycling update

A MEETING for councillors, to update them on the future of waste and recycling collections, and services such as street and building cleaning. I’ve mentioned before how a sub-group from the council’s environment committee has been looking at how these could look in the future. The options are to have them run on our behalf by a contractor (as at present), run them ourselves, or to have them run by UBICO which currently operates the services on behalf of Cheltenham and Cotswold councils, with the councils maintaining control as the shareholders and directors of the company. This meeting will update councillors on the progress of the working group and allow them to provide their feedback before a decision can be made by the committee at the start of September.

Monday, August 25 – August Bank Holiday

ON THE subject of waste and recycling collections, these remain unchanged for the week ahead with the August Bank Holiday.