⏩ The Gloucester Start: Tuesday May 6th
Historic restoration complete | VE Day plans | Things to do
Good morning, welcome to Tuesday’s Start. It’s a milestone bulletin today - the 100th edition. Thank you so much for sticking with me this far, there’s plenty more to come. Here’s today’s Start.
⛅ Today’s weather: Overcast, breezy, and temperatures in the mid-teens.
🎨 Ukrainian culture is being celebrated in a festival running now until May 18th. Gloucester Ukrainian Festival is designed to ‘bring refugees together’ and will feature art and music from Ukrainians all over the UK. It’s taking place at The Folk. - BBC Gloucestershire
🏗️ Restoration work at 26 Westgate Street, the home of Gloucester Antiques Centre, has been completed and will mean it comes off the Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register later this year. It is the largest surviving historic timber-framed townhouse in the country and Maverdine Lane, the passageway to its side, is also opening to the public from today. - Gloucestershire Live
✌️ VE Day will be celebrated across the city on Thursday. A series of events including a 1940s swing dance at Llanthony Priory and Sula Lightship and lighting of the beacon at Robinswood Hill will honour the 80th anniversary. - Gloucester City Council
🏫 Flood-hit Milestone School is asking for planning permission to keep teaching pupils in temporary classrooms. The emergency buildings at the Longford Lane school for children with special educational needs are in place while repairs to the main complex after torrential downpours last year are carried out. - Gloucestershire Live
🚲 The FlyUp 417 bike park, next to the Missing Link roadworks at Witcombe, is reopening. Its owners have faced an ‘incredibly stressful’ year of extended closures as a result of the massive National Highways scheme to reroute much of the A417 around the Air Balloon roundabout. - BBC Gloucestershire
🛒 Costco’s opening date is still unknown after the discount chain said it ‘wasn’t their policy’ to comment on future warehouses. The discount retailer is opening in Eastern Avenue and is set to create new jobs after winning planning permission last year. - Gloucestershire Live
📱 Inappropriate 999 calls made to Gloucestershire police over the bank holiday weekend included someone worried about spilt coffee and a report of rude staff at a car wash. It’s prompted the constabulary to remind people that dialling 999 is for geniune emergencies only. - Gloucestershire Live
⚽ Gloucester City AFC narrowly missed out on promotion after a 1-0 loss to Totton in their play-off final yesterday. The Tigers were hoping for a return to the second tier of non-league football. - Gloucestershire Live
↪️ There was no question over the enthusiasm of their fans before the match though 👇
🗳️ Election watch
🗳️ Gloucestershire went to the polls on Thursday to elect a new county council. The Lib Dems are now the largest party on the authority but fell one seat short of having a ruling majority. - BBC Gloucestershire
↪️ In Gloucester’s 10 wards, four are now held by Lib Dem councillors, three by Reform, two by Conservatives and one Independent. - Gloucestershire County Council
↪️ Turnout - the percentage of eligible voters casting their ballot - averaged 31.49% across the city. - Gloucester City Council on Facebook for ward-by-ward breakdowns
🗳️ Fixing ‘crumbling roads and broken services’ are top of the list of priorities for the new administration, with pledges to invest in local infrastructure, improve financial transparency and listen to residents’ voices. - Gloucestershire Live
📌 Community Noticeboard
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📌 A dozen artists from Gloucester Contemporary Artists will create a walking gallery on Saturday May 10th. The artists will process through the city centre wearing their artworks front and back or held aloft on poles from midday for around an hour. The walking gallery will promote the Adopt an Artist art trail in which 21 city centre shops and businesses have ‘adopted’ 25 local professional artists and are displaying examples of their work in their windows, creating a 24 hour outdoor art gallery throughout May and June that reaches from The Folk of Gloucester to the Museum of Gloucester. More here. - Thanks to reader John for this submission
📌 A Couch to 5k running course starts on June 3rd from 5pm for all levels of fitness. Meet at Brockworth Business Park - Edward Jenner Court. Get in touch for more information via here. - Thanks to reader Kevin for this submission
📅 Things to do today and tomorrow
😂 Guildhall Comedy Club - Lou Conran and Eddy Brimson at Gloucester Guildhall | Today, 7.30pm | £10 | Details
📽️ The Penguin Lessons, Mr Burton, John & Yoko: One to One and Four Mothers at Sherborne Cinema | This week, various times | £6/£7 | Details
🌷 Gardening for wellbeing at Gloucester Cathedral | Wednesday, 11.30am | Free | Details