craig horrocks
Craig was elected as a Stroud Town councillor for Farmhill and Paganhill in May 2024 and has worked to raise the profile of his ward within the Town Council. He says: “Most rewarding has been the opportunity to get involved in local community projects such as the Paganhill Transformation Group and Cashes Green Community centre, which do such great work. I’ve learned that too much of their time is spent chasing funding, rather than delivering the life-changing work they do. I like being involved in bringing local stakeholders together to develop a community ward plan.”
A larger Green group on the county council in May would lead to more focus on local voices and communities, he predicts. “I believe that decisions affecting local people should be made by local people wherever possible. This means that a local voice needs to be heard at County level, especially in areas such as Cainscross, Cashes Green and Rodborough, which sit outside the main Stroud District market towns.”
Another positive outcome would be that sustainability and biodiversity are more likely to be genuinely prioritised in decision making. “I also see the potential for GCC to be more supportive of local activities,” says Craig. “Greens on the council would press for more resources to encourage the community spirit that is already doing great work in supporting those in need, improving our green spaces and assisting young people to thrive.”
If he is elected in May, he will encourage the council to do more for communities and the voluntary sector. “County councils spend a considerable amount of taxpayer money on commissioned services. By law, most of the bids to run these have to include a Social Value element – focusing on areas such as working conditions and training, sustainability, community development and support for the voluntary and community sector. This is not currently used to anywhere near its full potential. I hope to use my personal expertise to support the council to make this much more beneficial for the community.”
Craig has a good understanding of how all tiers of government work and expects that being a county councillor will be very different from being a town councillor. “GCC has far more statutory responsibility, so it will require some clever footwork to squeeze out additional funding for communities. And the Cabinet system, where decisions are made by the same small group of people, rather than by committees, means that ‘politicking’ is likely to be more of an obstacle to effective working.”
Craig has had a long career in the criminal justice system, with a particular interest in addiction. Early in his career he worked with teenagers who were excluded from the school system as a result of being involved in the youth justice system. He also worked as an addictions specialist and counsellor in the criminal justice system in the 1990s. At that time he designed a programme for one of the first drug recovery wings in a UK prison and developed a programme with the NSPCC for prisoners who were adult survivors of child abuse.
Later, he worked as a substance misuse advisor in five prisons and designed and managed programmes for post-release drug rehabilitation centres in Bristol on behalf of the Probation Service, as well as training centre staff.
Craig has a Social Sciences degree from the University of Birmingham, and a Diploma in Social Work, specialising in Mental Health and Substance Misuse.
He is currently a business development manager with the prison service, responsible for ensuring that contract proposals reflect genuine social value. This follows a role where he created proposals for prison and probation rehabilitation services, including mental health, education, training, addiction services, and peer support. Many of these are now mainstream across the prison service.
Much of his work experience is relevant to the county councillor role, including research skills, collaborative working, experience of writing proposals and managing large budgets, and the ability to understand data. Craig also has experience of outreach work to deprived areas and other hard-to-reach groups.
His life experience – he was homeless as a young man and was widowed at 40 with two young children – makes him personally aware of how poverty and caring responsibilities can affect people’s lives.