SDC Leader's blog - w/c 30 June 2025

“At Thursday’s Strategy & Resources meeting, the cross-party committee voted unanimously to support a funding boost of £1.5million to the Cotswold Canals Connected project, subject to council approval and to the award of a further National Lottery grant of £6.5million. This new funding would enable the project team to progress a new section of canal under the M5 and two new locks. This would enable investment into a mooring basin, café and car park, for which planning permission has been awarded.

Stroud District Council co-leads the Cotswold Canals Connected project with The Cotswold Canals Trust and, together with other partners, has restored five miles of canal from Thrupp to Eastington. Major new wetland bird and water vole habitats have been created, along with new walking and cycling opportunities. The restoration in Stroud and Stonehouse has brought inward investment and housing worth more than £100m, and the Inland Waterways Association and Canal & River Trust value the social benefit for our communities at £2.7m per mile of restored canal. This project relies heavily on fantastic community support, with more than 500 committed volunteers devoting their time and skills – thank you. 

You may have seen we’ve made a small change to our recycling process, to bring us in line with new national rules. Up till now, you could put food and drink cartons – including Tetra Pak – into any of your recycling containers, but now we’re asking for these to go into your green wheelie bin or recycling bag, along with plastic bottles, glass, and so on. The recycling box is just for paper and card. Thank you for helping with this change.

Finally, we’re pleased to offer another round of Climate and Nature Small Grants. Applications for up to £2,000 are open until midday on 10 July. More details here."

Cllr Chloe Turner, Leader of Stroud District Council.