'So many fingers' in the Chapel Street pie (From Gazette Series)

'So many fingers' in the Chapel Street pie

FEARS have been expressed by Cam Parish Council over the involvement of too many outside bodies in the Chapel Street project.

The council plans to have its own building within the development, although it emerged last month that community group GL11 could move in too.

In recent weeks, though, several other bodies including the Citizens' Advice Bureau, Stroud Valleys Project and the Gloucestershire Health Authority have shown an interest in setting up in the building.

This has left some councillors feeling that they could be taking on too much.

Cllr David Winsor said: "I am getting very concerned because there are so many fingers going into the pie I don't know if there will be enough left for us. I am worried that we will be pushed out of our own building."

The number of interested parties also means that the council is being distracted from its main aim of finalising the plans for the development.

Chairman Cllr Dennis Andrewartha said: "Rather than getting clearer, the waters are getting muddier. We need to re-focus on what we all want from this project. It needs to be a parish facility for the people of the parish."

Recent meetings with Gloucestershire County Council over the scheme have left the parish councillors feeling that they were going round in circles.

The county council has offered to pay for a feasibility study for the project, but there is some doubt as to whether it would be of any use.

Cllr Margaret Nolder, chairman of the parish council's development committee, said: "We don't need a consultant or a feasibility study. We have enough information already and are in danger of going backwards.

"As things stand I feel we risk being thrown into something that may not be in the best interests of the parish council."

Council now wish to concentrate on getting concrete agreements from the various interested parties so that the project can be moved forward.

They are already working towards a deadline of February 11 with the GL11 group to see if they can formulate a workable plan for the sharing of the proposed council building.

Added Cllr Nolder: "We need to get the interested parties together and get them to commit properly to working on this instead of merely talking about it."

However, council has been boosted by the news that planners at Stroud District Council have possibly improved the access for the project.

Previously it had been insisted that it was not workable to have an access road to the development direct from Chapel Street, but now it seems this can be done.