Leader's blog - w/c 20 January 2025

"The council’s Environment Committee meets this Thursday, and the first main agenda item is a chance for members to review the detailed actions in the Environment, Climate and Nature section of our Council Plan.

Adaptation is a strong new theme in this plan. We’ll be responding to national data and research underway at the county level, to build community resilience to extreme weather events, altered seasons and other impacts of our changing climate. We’ll add to our successful natural flood management programme with sustainable drainage work in our more urban areas, and work with our communities on better flood prevention and response. Elsewhere in the plan we explain how we’ll contribute to energy security through renewable energy production on the council’s estate, and we’ll continue to reduce our fossil fuel reliance with the ongoing electrification of our vehicle fleet. We also want to do more to promote local, sustainably grown food: supporting farmers and growers through the Gloucestershire Food & Farming Partnership, and using the tools available to us to increase the land available for food production. You’ll see in the plan that there’s much more we want to do for nature and climate, and indeed every major decision the council makes will soon be assessed for its impact on both.

The other main agenda item on Thursday is a district-wide Air Quality Strategy, a new local authority duty. We’re lucky that our local air quality is generally very good, well under national pollution limits. But there are hotspots we want to address, and we’re keen to expand our monitoring capability to include particulate matter, so that we can understand where else pollution from traffic, industry or agriculture may be damaging to health. Thanks to officers who have successfully obtained a County Council grant to get this work underway."

Cllr Chloe Turner, Chair of Stroud District Council Environment Committee.