Column by the deputy leader of Stroud District Council, Catherine Braun.

Last week an international report warned of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding due to climate change.

At Stroud District Council, like many other public sector organisations, private sector businesses and individual citizens, we’re making changes in the way we travel, heat our buildings, and run day to day operations.

But wider system change is also needed, with national governments committing to meet climate and ecological limits – following the plan set out in the UK Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill. Like many authorities we’ve committed to support the CEE Bill and we’ve asked our two local MPs – Siobhan Baillie and Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown – to join the group of more than 100 MPs who are already backing the Bill. As an individual you can play your part by signing up here: ceebill.uk

Volunteers were in the spotlight last week, with recognition for the fantastic work of The Cotswold Canals Trust, who have received The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service – the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK. The Trust’s volunteers have been essential to the work of the Cotswold Canals Connected project to join up the section of restored canal with the national inland waterways network. The huge volunteer commitment to the project continues, as the Trust estimates that approximately 700,000 hours of volunteer time will be committed to the project over the next four years! If you’d like to get involved, opportunities include engineering, fundraising, habitat creation and office work. cotswoldcanalsconnected.org/volunteering.

Some Summer holiday activities are now fully booked but new activities have been added. See the ‘District Wide Offer’ page here: stroud.gov.uk/community-health-and-wellbeing/holiday-activity-food-programme-2021