There will be some changes to the collection days for some Gloucester residents over the Christmas period. In some cases, collections will be a day earlier or a day later. Some collection days will stay the same.
All the information is available on the city council website here.
I will be sharing further updates as I have them.
I have been informed by residents that there has been an incident of fly tipping on the path behind Duke of Beaufort Court, leading up to Sycamore Close.
There are approx. 15 black bags of rubbish dumped by the path.
I have informed the council and hopefully we can get it removed. Fly tipping is unacceptable and costs councils money that they can ill-afford especially at the moment.
If you have any information as to the culprits please contact me.
Each year city councillors are asked to allocate a fund for projects and causes in their wards.
I still have some left of mine, and have got until March 2021 to allocate it.
It is not a vast sum of money, so smaller amounts will help to spread the funding further and support the maximum number of projects or events.
In recent weeks I have been happy to support the Halloween fun day at the Podsmead Hub, Poets Pantry and the Santa’s Grotto.
If you have a project or idea that you think I could support, please let me know.
After I called for action, the council have cleaned the open space sign on Scott Avenue.
As you can see from the photo below, it was quite mucky before!
I have written to the team to thank them for their work. If you know of a sign that needs attention, or any other issue in Podsmead, please let me know.
I was delighted to see street signs installed at Earls Park. I have been campaigning for these for a long time.
Over on my Facebook page I have provided a fuller update of news from the area. Follow me there to see more local news every week.
This week I had a briefing with the Gloucester city manager for the Cityfibre internet project.
This is a national project to invest in our communities and to bring super-fast, fibre broadband to homes and businesses.
Gloucester will be receiving £31 million of investment, with the ultimate result an internet connection being capable of speeds up to 1 gig.
The Fibre Exchange building will be located in the Podsmead area, and Cityfibre will begin connecting up homes in Gloucester early next year.
This is good news for Gloucester and for Podsmead too. Read more about this project here.
Are you a tutor or trainer but don’t have a recognised teaching qualification? Or do you have aspirations to go in to teaching or training or to work in an education setting in some way?
In January we are running an accredited NCFE Level 3 Award in Education and Training course. This course is being run fully online and is being offered at a discounted price of £295. It is a recognised qualification that can be used in any UK education and training setting.
You will need to sign up to the Initial Assessment first before enrolling on to this course. If you would like any further information please contact Dr. Baylie Hart Clarida at bhartclarida@wea.org.uk
There an opportunity for families who use Healthy Start vouchers to receive a £1 bag of frozen vegetables for free at Iceland until 31st December 2020. See here for more details.
Healthy Start is a Government funded scheme that provides £3.10 worth of vouchers every week to eligible families which they can use to obtain free milk, fresh, frozen, and tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, dried, and tinned pulses and instant formula milk. Find out more about the scheme at: https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/
A family is eligible if they’re at least 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under four years old and they receive certain benefits.
Women who are under 18 and pregnant also qualify for the scheme even if they don’t receive benefits.
Families can check if they are eligible by taking this short ‘Do I qualify’ questionnaire:
Some other supermarkets offer to enhance the Healthy Start scheme. For example, please see Tesco.
It’s disappointing to see this vandalism of a bus shelter on Stroud Road. I reported it to Highways this morning and they have said a team is attending. There has also been some vandalism to the shelter up the road opposite the Co-Op.
Mindless destruction of this sort costs money to clear up and put right, which comes out of our taxes. If you have any information as to the culprits, please contact the police.
When lockdown ends on Wednesday 2nd December, Gloucestershire will move into Tier 2. The table below outlines what this means, but if you have specific questions do let me know.
For more information about the Tier system, please see the NHS website.