Who We Are and What We Do

Stroud Town Council came into being in 1990 after pressure from local residents for a greater say in how their town is run.

It is made up of 18 elected councillors representing the six wards of Central, Farmhill and Paganhill, Slade, Trinity, Uplands and Valley.

The Council staff work in two teams headed by the Town Clerk. The office team includes a Deputy Clerk, Project Officer, Senior Finance Administrator, Community Development Officer, Communications and Engagement Officer, Assistant Clerk, Administration Officer, Projects and Administration Assistant, Finance Assistant, Community Development Support Officer and a cleaner. The Green Spaces team includes three full-time Rangers and a part-time Assistant led by the Green Spaces Manager.

The Green Spaces team are responsible for the day-to-day management of the green and open spaces around the town. These include two town centre gardens, two cemeteries (one active and one closed), five play areas, two closed churchyards and a number of amenity spaces.

The Council owns five allotment sites providing just under 200 plots. Each site is managed on our behalf by a plot-holder association.

Stroud Town Council is a larger town council that is committed to improving the quality of life of all members of its community. The council provides core support to a range of partner organisations involved in regeneration and meeting key social needs of its residents, as well as supporting arts development in the town.

We have shown long term commitment to improving the environment, for example, by taking on the management of parks and green spaces in the town, increasing the number of open spaces with public access and improving the quality of children's play areas. We have an established reputation for taking a leading role in community development. We sustain four community grants programmes and a number of service level agreements with voluntary and community sector organisations.

We are a Quality council and have adopted the General Power of Competence. We have an annual expenditure budget of about £675,000 of which the precept makes up around 80%. The balance largely comes from cemetery income, grants and rent.

A town or parish council is the first tier of government in the UK.

The responsibilities of each level of government are broadly as follows:

National: www.direct.gov.uk
Defence / Taxation / Health / Law and Order

County: www.gloucestershire.gov.uk
Education / Social Services / Highways

District: www.stroud.gov.uk
Planning / Environmental Health (street cleaning, rubbish collection, etc) / Housing / Regeneration

Town: Towns and parishes have limited direct powers but are able, in partnership, to influence other authorities and contribute to their activities to achieve better standards for their parishes. In Stroud, we have direct responsibility for a number of valued sites such as Bank and Park Gardens, the Cemetery, Daisy Bank and Uplands and The Leazes playing fields.