The Green councillors on Gloucestershire County Council have this week won an extra £420,000 for community climate action, community composting, tool loan libraries and our community library network, natural flood management, community car clubs and an extension of the free bus service for veterans.
The funding comes as the result of amendments proposed by the council’s Green group when the council met to set the annual budget for the financial year starting in April.
Following the full council meeting today (February 19) , the County Council will now offer a further £50,000 of funding to Gloucestershire communities through its Climate Action Fund, £50,000 will be used for an exploration of community car clubs across the county, and £60,000 will be used over two years to employ a coordinator for the volunteers in the Master Composter scheme.
A further £50,000 will open more Libraries of Things in the Council’s owned libraries (following the successful example in Charlton Kings), while the eight community libraries will each receive £7,500 towards repairs and maintenance of their buildings, on top of their increased revenue grant in the main budget.
Finally, the Council will now spend £50,000 to extend the veteran bus pass scheme, and £100,000 will be used to support Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust with its highly successful Waterscapes natural flood management programme in urban areas.
Cllr Chloe Turner (Green, Minchinhampton) said: “Our budget amendments have always prioritised better services for communities, nature recovery and climate action. Our group may not be the largest, but with Greens in the room you can be sure that these key priorities will not be forgotten.
“We were especially pleased to be able to provide some more support to our community libraries: highly valued, volunteer-run services that for too long have been underfunded for the vital service they provide in communities where there is no county library.”
Proposed budget amendments from the other political groups were not accepted, though after a discussion between all the parties, the Conservative administration agreed to put forward an amendment to their own budget, increasing its funding for flooding (£500,000) and support for disadvantaged young people (£430,000).
The extra funding won by the Greens this week brings to £1.4 million the amount of money they have been able to put towards vital help for communities since the 2021 election.
Our amendments this year are our most ambitious yet, and I look forward to seeing all delivered in due course,” said Green group leader Cllr Cate Cody (Tewkesbury). “I am particularly glad we have been able to extend the funding for the veteran bus scheme, which has been very popular and has allowed those who have served our country to access jobs and other services more easily.”
“It was a great pleasure recently to join council officers in visiting some of the natural flood management schemes programmed using our funding last year – these impressive projects use natural processes to reduce flood risks for households, while introducing new habitats for nature and attractive new amenity areas for communities. I’m so glad that we have been able to expand this success this year by supporting Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust in their related work in urban areas,” said Cllr Cody.
The Green group of councillors, [from left to right]: Chris McFarling (Forest of Dean: Sedbury), Chloe Turner (Minchinhampton), Cate Cody (Tewkesbury) and Beki Hoyland (Forest of Dean: Blakeney and Bream).
