It’s been a busy couple of months for the parish council. Our permanent clerk has returned from extended leave and our temporary planning clerk is staying with us until February to help deal with all the reserved matters applications we’re receiving for Great Oldbury (land West of Stonehouse). We’re expecting the Ecotricity application to be considered by Stroud District Council in February 2019.
We’ve been making sure we are meeting our obligations under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and new privacy policies have been adopted and available on the website and our IT company will be making sure the website itself is compliant. As part of our commitment to be as open and transparent as possible we publish everything we can on our website; this includes full meeting papers on the website one week before meetings so that everyone can see what’s coming up for discussion at the council meetings.
The Parish Council meets on the 2nd Thursday of each month at the Village Hall (usually 7pm), please do come along to the meetings and let us know any issues that need our attention. The next two meetings are on December 13th and January 10th.
We’re working on a project to create a memorial garden at the burial ground – the ground has been cleared of brambles and the school children have designed the layout. The layout includes benches and a sensory garden area. We will be seeking quotes soon to create the area and hope that once created people will enjoy the area for quiet reflection. People may wonder why we don’t use that area for burials; this is due to the watercourse on that side of the burial ground so we have to follow rules to ensure groundwater is not polluted.
Defibrillator news…. we were let down by our electrician and so the 2 additional defibrillators were not installed earlier this year as planned. However, a new electrician has been selected and we really hope that by the time you receive this newsletter the defibrillators at the Old Badger and at the Church have been installed.
As you may have read in the last newsletter, Stroud District Council is carrying out a Community Governance Review across the district. This includes (but is not limited to) increasing or decreasing the number of parish councillors, creating / deleting parish ward areas and the possibility of amending parish boundaries. Stonehouse Town Council made an approach to Eastington Parish Council to amend the boundary between the two parishes so that Great Oldbury became part of Stonehouse parish, leaving the hamlets of Westend, Nastend and Nupend in Eastington. Eastington PC had an extraordinary meeting to discuss the matter and councillors felt that they did not have a clear enough view of what residents thought about such a change. The District Council consultation ran for 6 weeks so we had very little time to organise our own survey that would include everyone (not just those on Facebook). So, Eastington PC put forward 4 options to Stroud DC with justification for each and if any are selected for the next stage of the Review we expect a full consultation with residents to take place. To see the response Eastington PC put forward please visit our website https://eastington-pc.gov.uk/stroud-district-community-governance-review/
Finally, we wish you all a peaceful Christmas. The Parish Office will be closed on 24th December until 7th January. The January meeting will take place on 10th January 7pm.
Julie Shirley Clerk to Eastington Parish Council
Tel: 01453 799616
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