Concerned residents meet at the Crown and Sceptre

This evening I went to this meeting at our local pub, the Crown and Sceptre, just a hundred yards from our house. It had been called by local residents in response to the ongoing plan to sell off the Chapel of Rest in our cemetery which is right by the pub.

When I was a town councillor I was very involved with the chapel and cemetery as they were managed by the Town Council, but owned by the District Council. Now the District, who are 'strapped for cash', want to maximise their assets and have had plans for two years to sell off the building, and now intend to auction it. This has brought understandable local protests.

I first became a councillor after I took on a fight with the District Council about their plans to demolish some houses close to us. Mobilising the residents had the desired effect and more sensible plans evolved meaning the homes were renovated rather than demolished!

As a trustee of Stroud Preservation Trust we are concerned about the Chapel which is a Grade 2 Listed building, so my fellow trustee Hugh, who knows much more than me about such issues, came to meet with the newly established group. It was a good sharing of ideas and concerns by all these people round the table, who live within a few hundred yards of the chapel as well as the pub, which is another great centre of our community. The landlord Rodda was sitting round the table as well.

The story was front page news in our local newspaper yesterday.