CHLOE TURNER
Chloe Turner is standing for re-election for a second term in Minchinhampton, where she has been a district councillor since 2021.
Chloe also represents Minchinhampton on Gloucestershire County Council, and will be standing for parliament at the general election, in the North Cotswolds parliamentary constituency where Minchinhampton is located.
She is a qualified chartered accountant, but local politics is now her full-time role.
She is the second member of her family to serve on a local council in this area: her grandfather was a councillor on the old Stroud Urban District Council. Though she grew up in London, Chloe decided in 2009 to move to Stroud District, where her father grew up. She lives in Minchinhampton with her husband and three children.
Chloe is chair of Stroud District Council’s Environment Committee. As part of this role she has helped the council to expand its walking and cycling work, maintain its internationally renowned natural flood management work, hire a senior biodiversity officer and begin a programme of nature recovery across the council’s own estate and that of partners.
Under her leadership the Environment Committee has also begun installing EV chargers in council car parks and established the 2030 Community Engagement Board. In her committee Chair role, Chloe chairs – or represents the council on – 14 other committees or bodies.
At Gloucestershire County Council, Chloe is the Environment Scrutiny Chair at GCC and has chaired Climate Leadership Gloucestershire, which brings together local councils and other organisations. In this role she has represented the district council at events and workshops at the Houses of Parliament.
Her dream for a better world would be a more evolved active travel infrastructure and a viable public transport system.
If re-elected to SDC she plans to help the council continue its work to become a trusted partner for the farming and landowner community as they transition towards regenerative farming.
Within her ward, Chloe works with the residents and council officers connected with the Independent Living Hub, George Pearce House. “I really enjoy helping to run events with a group of local women, such as soup and bacon roll socials, quizzes and Christmas sing-songs with the school,” says Chloe. “I’d like to see its role as a community hub grow and become more integral to this area of the town.”
She has been involved in lots of local campaigns, including calling for road improvements and for a local post box to be reinstated.
Chloe is involved with the local Climate Action Network (MinchCAN), the events group Minch Life, and chairs the Minchinhampton Multi-agency Youth Service panel, which supports Minch Youth Club and other work with young people across the parish.
She also works with Friends of Frith Wood, the Thrupp Road Safety Group and the Brimscombe and Thrupp community composting scheme (BatCom), which she has been funding through her GCC Build Back Better fund.
Her favourite thing about Stroud District is the rich variety of natural habitat. Her favourite place to visit is Stroud Brewery, because of its many community-focused events.
In her spare time Chloe keeps bees, plays trombone in the Stroud Red Band and writes fiction: she had a short story collection published a few years ago and her first novel (set in Chalford, Bisley and Minchinhampton) will be published in summer 2024.
Gill Thomas
Gill and her family live on a 12-acre smallholding near Minchinhampton, where she works with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and other organisations on habitat restoration and conservation projects.
Her farm, which features wildflower meadows and orchards, is part of a local sustainability trail. With her children she hand-rears chickens, ducks, pigs and rabbits and keeps miniature donkeys.
Gill, a freelance photographer and web designer, aims to become a councillor because she enjoys getting involved with the local community. She says: “I love organising events, helping to promote not-for-profit organisations and collaborating with others on environmental projects that have a strong community and educational focus.
I want to make changes that will have a positive impact on people’s lives, representing views from the wider community to ensure everyone’s voice is heard. I’m especially keen to connect local schools, nurseries and playgroups with the older members of the community.
“I believe that being a councillor will help me to better achieve these goals, and add more weight to the work I already do.”
Gill strongly believes in the values and principles of the Green Party and her family has been living plastic free since 2021. Her ambitions are for Stroud to become the UK’s first plastic-free town and for local schools to be the first in the country to incorporate environmental education into their curriculums.
Gill’s ambition for the ward she would represent if elected is to make Minchinhampton the greenest and most wildlife friendly part of Stroud, by working with private homeowners, landowners and farmers.
Gill has lived in Stroud District since 2017, after moving here from Cheltenham. She was attracted to the area by its sense of community, as she explains: “There is a considerate, sincere community at the heart of Stroud, where everybody is doing their bit to try and make the town a little bit better for everyone else. It is a town that leads by example and isn’t afraid to try new things.”
Locally, Gill would like to see more funding delivered to the most vulnerable residents, helping to reduce the gap between the privileged and the poor, the young and the elderly. “This would create a fairer, more balanced district where everyone has access to the same opportunities.”
Gill is a director of Transition Stroud, is on the Minchinhampton Community Hub Committee, works with the local Climate Action Network (MinchCAN) and is a volunteer at the George Pearce House in Minchinhampton, helping to organise events and delivering hot soup and bread rolls to residents.
An enthusiastic athlete, Gill can often be seen out and about running and cycling with her young son.
She adds: “I am an extremely self-motivated and capable individual who loves variety and enjoys undertaking a wide range of activities. The differing roles and jobs I take on reflect the strong and adaptable skill sets I possess. From photography to web design to my eco educational work, to sustainable tourism and being a Mum, I work incredibly hard on everything I put my mind to. I have infectious enthusiasm, am extremely driven and love to keep busy.”