WEEKLY COLUMN by Stroud mayor Tony Davey 

This week started with a meeting of the different organisations and groups who are working together to bring you Stroud Goodwill 2024.

There’ll be old favourites and new things this year, with the Lantern Parade theme of One World, window displays (with a competition to vote for the best) that is Christmas themed, the funfair is planned for Friday and Saturday, and a host of attractions being scheduled across the streets in the town.

Many independent businesses will be open across the town, ready to welcome you and treat you.

There’ll be markets, a light switch-on ceremony and a few lovely surprises in store.

Put Friday 6th and Saturday 7th December in your calendars and help support your town, local arts, the businesses of the town and have a great time.

The Goodwill event relies heavily on volunteers to make it happen and to help during the event. A couple of groups have agreed to step forward to provide some marshals, but a few more are still needed to enable all the aspects to run (so each need only commit an hour).

If you can offer just an hour of your time during the event, please email goodwill@stroudchamber.org.uk with your contact details.

You may have seen some new signage appearing across the town, in a collaboration between the Town Council, District Council and the Stroud & District Chamber of Trade & Commerce.

The Chamber of Trade designed and distributed the posters, the printing of which was funded by us at the Town Council.

This is part of our drive to improve the cleanliness of our town together.

That cleanliness is not simply limited to litter, of course. as another scourge of fly-tipping is pretending to donate to charity by dumping rubbish on their doorsteps.

I have been speaking to a few charity shops recently and it is an increasing problem.

Most have clear messages discouraging this, and the cost to the charity (and sometimes the public purse) of cleaning up is not insignificant. Charities very much need your support and donations, but they are not a cost-free alternative to a trip to the household waste recycling centre. 

 Please do the right thing and don’t cost-burden charities by donating with respect, or recycling/disposing responsibly.

This week I also had a meeting with someone who recently visited our town and who will soon be writing an article on how they enjoyed their visit. T

hey specifically wanted to raise a concern with me about the number of vacant shops - a topic I was very happy to respond to.

I turn to the Commercial Property Audit for the town centre to better understand the landscape, which may appear somewhat different to popular perception because we have defined pockets of vacant units within the Cornhill Triangle (John Street, Union Street and Threadneedle Street) and in the lower High Street.

These pockets can give a view that isn't representative of the wider town. In fact, at the time of writing, our town centre Commercial Property Vacancy Rate stands at just 12.06%.

That is lower than the national average, though still not as low as would be ideal.

The cause?

A major one is the tombstones of the nationals, where banks have abandoned the community and large retailers scaled back or collapsed. Another is the state of the property, with at least two in such poor condition through landlord underinvestment that they are really uninhabitable.

This said, the scaffolding and work within the town shows this number is likely to continue to fall, with new premises being created on King Street, a new restaurant soon to open in London Road, refurbishments in Kendrick Street, new opportunities on the horizon in George Street and a new shop billed to be coming to Russell Street by the end of the month.

The picture is not as dire as it may look, nor as some of the town naysayers would revel in.