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Forest of Dean District Council invites residents and businesses to give their views on its spending plans as it prepares its budget for the next financial year, with a consultation beginning 20 December 2024 and running until 17 January 2025. 

Following consultation with residents, Forest of Dean District Council has agreed to increase the band widths for Council Tax Support eligibility, in line with inflation, following the Chancellor's 2024 Autumn Budget Statement and reintroduce a Second Adult Rebate discount for next year's Council Tax Support scheme. 

District Councillors have agreed to proposals which will see an increase in Council Tax payments on empty and second homes, with the aim of increasing the number of homes available for local people in the area. 

Forest of Dean District Council is working alongside local businesses to encourage residents to ‘Shop Local’ this festive season to help the local economy and Forest of Dean communities to thrive. 

On Monday, 28 October 2024, at Cheltenham Magistrates Court, Mr and Mrs Phipps of The Paddocks, Coleford, pleaded guilty to felling a protected oak tree without consent from Forest of Dean District Council.

With millions expected to be thrown away in the UK at Halloween, Forest of Dean District Council is encouraging revellers to makeover, rather than carve, their festive pumpkins and squashes to preserve them in a bid to reduce food waste. 

Forest of Dean District Council has granted South Gloucestershire and Stroud College £39,453 of the council’s Shared Prosperity funding to deliver training on green skills and renewable technologies, with the first of three courses due to start in November 2024. 

With national Recycle Week (14-20 October) underway, residents in the Forest of Dean are being asked to support this year’s campaign by rescuing recyclable items from their rubbish bins to prevent them going to waste. 

Forest of Dean District Council remains committed to delivering the regeneration of the Five Acres site, despite the challenges faced so far and is working hard to get the project back within budget so that construction can begin. 

Residents of the Forest of Dean are being asked to share their views of current polling districts, places and stations in the district as part of a new review.

Community groups and organisations across the Forest of Dean are invited to apply for a £15,000 grant from the Forest of Dean Active Travel Grant Scheme (ATGS) to help fund projects that support and encourage active travel for residents. 

A Forest of Dean Resident has pleaded guilty at a hearing in Gloucester Crown Court on 20 June 2024 for offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. The Chaxhill resident, Mr Edward Rafferty pleaded guilty to offences of failing to meet an animal’s needs, causing unnecessary suffering to dogs, selling dogs without a licence and boarding dogs without a licence. In addition, he pleaded guilty to an offence relating to the Fraud Act 2006.