24th January 2007

Gloucestershire County Council have put their document 'One Place: One Vision' out for consultation with a view to making it the over-arching vision for all who work in partnership in the county. This is the Green party's response pulled together larely by Rosie Reed and comments from Green District councillors.

Stroud District Green party response to “One Place: One Vision”: The Gloucestershire Strategic Sustainable Community Strategy 2007-2017

We believe that “One Place: One Vision” is a poorly-conceived document which appears to have no serious sense of purpose or direction. While we welcome its aims, most are so broad as to have little real meaning. In many areas there is nothing that is measurable; no specifics are given, nor timescales and targets set.

It is extraordinary that the document is almost at an end before any mention of the issues of climate change and waste management are made. It is absolutely vital that year-on-year targets on CO2 emissions are set and implemented as quickly as possible. Climate change is the greatest threat facing us, our environment and our economy. Other sustainability issues like 'Peak oil' appear to have been almost entirely ignored. Sustainability needs much greater emphasis and needs to be integrated into every aspect of Council's work; this document does not come close to acknowledging its true importance.

It is worth noting that 'The Community Strategy for Gloucestershire 2004 - 2014' by the Gloucestershire Strategic Partnership which was apparently the result of many hundreds of organisations failed to even mention climate change. Nevertheless it did have some useful aims that appear to have been dropped from this latest vision.

We appreciate that this vision is designed to be simple, but there is little indication as to how, for example, a “vibrant economy” is to be achieved. Indeed there are likely to be considerable differences of opinion about what constitutes a 'vibrant economy'. Greens would for example welcome more emphasis on 'localisation' of our economy rather than 'globalisation'.  Again we need something which is much more focused, with supporting specifics to provide the document with a substantive base, and which can be measured over a given period of time.

We are also concerned that over-emphasis has been placed on the SSTCs, perhaps to the detriment of other areas, especially considering the largely rural nature of the County. We do support the idea of a ‘vision’ but to make genuine and measurable progress we also need a great deal more of a pragmatic methodology.

We endorse the overall intentions that “One Place: One Vision” sets down, but the entire document is anodyne, anonymous and extremely passive. While it is hard to disagree with anything it says, it is at times so loosely worded that it is not clear exactly what its aims actually are other than being for “the general good”. We would like to see much bolder and more definite aspirations being illustrated. As it fails to set targets and contains no concrete proposals to do anything it is hard to see how the many improvements it lists will be activated.

We believe that this document clearly represents a missed opportunity, and we are frankly astonished that time and money has been invested in such a way.