AN open letter to councillor Vernon Smith, cabinet member for highways and flood at Gloucestershire County Council.

Dear councillor Smith, I am writing an Open Letter to you via the Stroud News & Journal in your role as the cabinet member responsible for Gloucestershire Highways with my continuing concerns about the situation in High Street, Stonehouse.

You are aware that throughout most of last summer the High Street was subject to ongoing disruption to remedy substandard works and materials employed by earlier contractors engaged by Gloucestershire County Council.

The resultant parking problems and loss of trade had a terrible and detrimental effect on most of Stonehouse’s High Street businesses, forcing some into a loss making situation and indeed others even to question whether they will be able to survive at all.

I wrote to you about this in September and October 2016.

To date I have had neither a reply nor even the courtesy of an acknowledgement from yourself.

Before Christmas we learnt that Stonehouse High Street is once again to suffer major disruption as a result of the construction works for the Javelin Park incinerator.

Stonehouse just cannot cope with two disruptions of such major proportions in two consecutive years.

It seems that no real thought or concern has been given to the adverse impact on the town, its residents and traders, and indeed to the financial consequences for many of the latter.

As a Stonehouse resident and candidate for the Stonehouse division in this year’s Gloucestershire County Council elections please may I, in the absence to date of any communication whatsoever from you in respect of the legitimate concerns raised by myself on behalf of my fellow residents and neighbours, request a meeting at your earliest convenience to discuss these same concerns ?

I look forward to hearing from you with interest.

Yours sincerely, Glen Gogerly UKIP Gloucestershire County Council candidate, Stonehouse division