THE silver lining in this crisis has to be the amazing community support we’ve seen, there would be too many heart-warming stories for me to list here, but I just wanted to give a shout out to Rednock School in my own ward of Dursley who made it into the national press this week for how they’ve been supporting vulnerable children. I’m really proud of how my town has come together to get through this, and as this Thursday was the official last day of our ‘clap for carers’ I’ll be thinking of all those people in my own community who have kept on working and caring for others all through these last few months. I know it’s been the same all across our district. Thank you so much.

We need your rainbows in windows, posters attached to recycling bins and chalk paintings - Stroud District Council’s Museum in the Park staff want to collect as many examples as possible of these artistic messages of support, so as to form a historical record of this unique period of time. You can contribute by emailing a photo of your creation to museum@stroud.gov.uk along with your name and address, post it on the SDC or Museum in the Park Facebook pages, or keep it and bring it in to the museum when it re-opens.

For keen gardeners, you’ll be able now to renew your garden collection licence for the coming year, as the service was temporarily stopped in March to enable our kerbside waste and recycling service to operate as normal – as it has throughout which is a great credit to our waste and recycling team, and waste collection partner Ubico. There is a one-off discounted fee to reflect the suspension of the service. Renewals are at present for existing subscribers, but allowing new subscriptions is under review. For more: stroud.gov.uk/environment/bins-rubbish-and-recycling/garden-waste-collection-service