⏩ The Gloucester Start: Wednesday January 22nd
Centre for Cities rankings | New school needs extra £3m | Delivery driver robbed
Good morning, welcome to Wednesday’s Gloucester Start. There’s a weather warning on the way later this week thanks to a new named storm, sad news about a pedestrian killed in a collision and a chance to nominate your favourite cafe or bar for a well-deserved award. Here’s today’s briefing.
🏙️ The annual Centre for Cities outlook was published on Monday. It’s a look at some core indicators which show how the 63 biggest towns and cities in the UK are performing. I’ll leave it to other publications to go into depth, but some key findings for Gloucester:
↪️ We have the best employment rate in the country, at 90.7%
↪️ Our gross added value per hour - a measure of labour productivity that estimates the value of goods and services produced per hour worked - is among the lowest nationally at £27.6, which puts us 60th
↪️ Average weekly wages here are £636, putting us in 43rd place out of 63
↪️ The average house - at £255,433 - costs 8.1 times the average salary, that’s 26th in the UK for affordability
🔗 See Gloucester’s full factsheet for all the indicators here
☁️ Today’s weather: A higher chance of rain this morning, with overcast skies and temperatures reaching a max of 6C the rest of the day.
↪️ There’s another named storm on the way later in the week. Heavy rain and strong winds brought by Storm Éowyn will begin on Thursday. - BBC West
📈 Rises in car parking charges could be coming into force from April alongside a higher council tax bill. Gloucester City Council’s proposed budget was discussed earlier this week. - Gloucestershire Live, via the Local Democracy Reporting Service
🏫 Plans for a new, purpose-built, special school will be discussed next week, with an extra £3million being sought to realise the scheme on top of its existing £16.5million budget. The school, in Abbeydale, will cater for up to 200 pupils. - Wilts & Glos Standard
🚫 Gloucester’s Homebase is one of 13 branches nationally the retailer is closing this month. The business racked up heavy losses last year. - Gloucestershire Live
↪️ The former Dobbies garden centre near the M5 at Haresfield will reopen under new ownership in February. It’s been bought by British Garden Centres and will include a carvery. - Gloucestershire Live
🏉 One of the world’s top rugby referees will take the whistle for Gloucester’s crunch Premiership game with Leicester this Saturday in preparation for the Six Nations. New Zealander Ben O’Keeffe, normally seen in southern hemisphere Super Rugby, will be in charge. - City AM
🎦 Average speed cameras are being installed on the Crickley Hill section of the A417, leading to and from the Air Balloon roundabout. The stretch is also closed overnight this week as the Missing Link roadworks continue. - Gloucestershire Live
↪️ Newly released video of the Missing Link progress so far shows the full scale of the £450million scheme. - Gloucestershire Live
📉 Staff cuts have to be made at Gloucestershire police after a funding gap of more than £12million was identified. The figure has grown from the £7million initially estimated, but frontline officer numbers won’t be affected. - BBC Gloucestershire
🚒 Concerns about controversial changes to firefighters’ shift patterns have not been properly considered, it was claimed. Dozens of staff are concerned the impact of changing their hours will force them out of the service. - Gloucester News Centre, via the Local Democracy Reporting Service
💔 A pedestrian hit by a car in Barton Street has died. Kieran Jones, 35, suffered serious injuries in the incident on January 14th and died three days later in hospital, police said. - Gloucestershire Live
⁉️ Got something of community interest you want to shout about? Submit news, events, announcements and more via this easy form. I’d love to have a regular community noticeboard feature for these items.
🤕 Facial stitches were needed for the teenage victim of an attack in Finlay Road. He was assaulted by two other boys on Monday afternoon. - Gloucestershire Live
🧑⚖️ Two men were due in court yesterday charged with the robbery of a woman in London Road on Sunday. - Gloucestershire Live
🚨 Men wearing balaclavas robbed a delivery driver in Brockworth, stealing 23 parcels and fleeing in an Audi A3. It happened on January 16th. - Gloucester News Centre
🖊️ A petition has been launched against plans to split Gloucestershire into two local authorities post-devolution. The idea has been put forward by five of the county’s seven MPs, including Gloucester’s Alex McIntyre, but is ‘totally illogical’ according to critics. It’s one of several potential options. - Change.org
😋 Nominations for the Gloucestershire Foodie Awards 2025 are open, to find the county’s best bars, cafes, restaurants, artisan producers and much more. - Gloucestershire Foodie Awards
The most popular items from Tuesday’s Start:
📈 Gloucester 19th best place in the UK to live, says The Times - Gloucestershire Live
🗣️ Ex-MP calls east/west devolution plan ‘disaster’ - Richard Graham
🤖 Gloucester and Cheltenham ripe to be AI ‘centres of excellence’ - BBC Gloucestershire