18th December 2010

Stroud District Council faces a whopping 28.6% cut over two years. This is a deeper cut than forecast and is bad news. This will impact on many people - particularly those living in rural areas where living costs are up to 20% higher than those living in urban areas.

9th December 2010

I welcome the letter to the SNJ urging a rethink of cuts to the library service (8.12.10). Cuts are inevitable with the Con Dem slashing of Council funding, but a 43% cut to libraries is disproportionate and hugely damaging to communities. Libraries represent only 1.45% of County Council budget, but are used by 250,000 people each month. They will be needed more than ever as other budgets are cut. 

4th December 2010

In answer to the letter in the SNJ (1^st Dec) criticising the student protests against the rise in tuition fees, I for one would encourage students and others to continue to protest non-violently against the government's attack on the next generation and on the future of education in Britain.

19th November 2010

Your editorial on 17th November was like a medley of old chestnuts which, like 'old wives tales', contain some truths but also some consequences.  All of the 'making do' you advocate has consequences for both public and private businesses, the people they employ and government tax revenue.  Dramatic cut backs can produce an accelerating downward spiral.  Amongst the private businesses are of course those who meet the requirements of the 'must have' society in which our young people grow up.

15th November 2010

Mark Harper writes in The Citizen on 5th November saying the cuts to housing benefits are fair. The Con-Dem coalition has a knack of addressing problems in isolation to make them look reasonable. But once you know that over a million households will be affected, with many forced to move out, you begin to ask questions. Are the tenants responsible for the high rents charged? Do the government want an exodus of poorer people  from their neighbourhoods, schools, relations and friends? Will it mean people being moved further away from their work? Will they even find anywhere else at a lower rent? The properties they leave may well go on the market for purchase by better off people. Even Boris Johnson has called this a "Kosovo-style social cleansing."

14th November 2010

I would like to ask Laurence Robertson why he thinks Britain should follow Ireland’s economic example in cutting corporation tax (Citizen, 10th Nov). 

12th November 2010

All plannning applications are important to someone - even small ones can have a big affect on a local area or an individual.

We as Green Party District Councillors are disgusted by the decision of the Conservative dominated Stroud District Council to remove the right of Parish and Town Councils and District Councillors to ensure that contentious applications are decided by elected Councillors in public at the Development Control Committee. Instead more decisions will be taken behind closed doors by un-elected officers. This is not democratic, it is bad for the people of our area and is an insult to the hard and dedicated work done on planning by many of our Town and Parish Councils.

Cllr Fi Macmillan, Cllr Martin Whiteside, Cllr John Marjoram, Cllr Gwen
Belcher, Cllr Sarah Lunnon, Cllr Philip Booth
C/O 8 Castle St, Stroud

7th November 2010

It is disgraceful that whilst the government says it is committed to
investing in flood defences, it is actually cutting the budget. Over the
next 5 years, there will be £137m less each year to spend on combating
flooding than was committed by Labour. This will put communities at
risk, particularly here in Gloucestershire. A quarter of homes in the UK
are at risk of flooding and this could mean that people’s insurance
premiums go up.