Cllr Piers Camp - Reform UK Gloucestershire

29/08/2026

👇🏻 what’s wrong with some people!?!

20/08/2026

A40 OVER BRIDGE: PROGRESS REPORT 20th August

First, the thing I said I would do. On 23 July I told you I would meet National Highways on 12 August and report back.

That meeting has not happened. National Highways were not able to meet during August and we are now working towards a date in September. Rather than let the questions sit waiting for a diary, I put them in writing on 10 August instead: seven specific requests, with a deadline of Friday 21 August. I will report what comes back, and I will report it if nothing does.

Since then National Highways has sent stakeholders its first monthly progress report on the works. Here is what it says, what it does not say, and what I am still pushing for.

Where the works have got to

All traffic has been running on the westbound side of the bridge since Monday 28 July, one lane each way, 24 hours a day. Getting to that point meant tracing and protecting underground services, taking out the central barrier, lighting and drainage, digging the crossover points, laying new drainage and ducting, and rebuilding and resurfacing the carriageway. Underneath the bridge, specialist teams have hung a scaffold platform so repair crews can reach the parts that cannot be touched from the road, with a safety boat on the water while it went up.

National Highways says the scheme remains on programme for completion in March 2027.

What happens during August

Crews will strip the road surface and the waterproofing off the eastbound deck to expose the concrete underneath, then start repairing it. At the same time, repairs to the deteriorated concrete beneath the bridge will be carried out from that scaffold.

Why the site sometimes looks empty

I set this out in July after putting the question to National Highways. It now appears in their own written words, which matters, because a commitment in writing is one you can hold them to.

Concrete repairs have to be done in stages, and each one needs roughly 24 hours to set before anything else can happen around it. While it is setting, vibration from traffic, machinery and construction has to be kept to a minimum, or the repair will not reach the strength it needs. So there are stretches where very little appears to be going on above your head, by design rather than by accident. The shifts are also split: noisy work on the deck at one time of day, scaffolders working underneath at another.
I accept that argument. Putting more people on site does not make concrete cure faster. It is worth saying plainly, because a nine month job that looks idle breeds a lot of understandable anger. What I will keep checking is that quiet spells are curing time and not the programme slipping, and for that I need their detailed works programme, which I have now asked for three times.

Traffic

National Highways says conditions were difficult in the first weeks and have generally improved since the contraflow went in. That is their assessment, not a measurement, and there is not a single journey time figure in the report.

It is also worth noticing when that assessment was made. Schools broke up on 20 July. The contraflow went live on 28 July. Every day of it so far has been school holiday traffic, in August, when a good share of the county is away. The works have not yet seen a single day of term time. I will come back to that in a separate post before schools go back.

In July National Highways agreed in writing to share their traffic sensor data with me and to review their published delay figures. I have asked for that data from 28 July onwards, broken down by time of day and by direction, because an average tells you nothing useful if you are deciding when to leave for a 7am shift. When I have it, I will publish what it shows, whether or not it matches what you and I expect.

What I am still chasing

The detailed works programme with milestones, so that "on time" is something anyone can check rather than something we are asked to take on trust. Honest published delay figures rather than an average. A proper written response to Lydbrook Parish Council about traffic pushed onto our village roads, which was raised formally on 13 July and has still not been answered. And confirmation of the date in October when the contraflow switches over to the other side.

If you work shifts

Almost everything National Highways publishes is built around rush hour. Plenty of Foresters at the hospital, in the police and in other shift work are on that road at 5am or after 8pm, outside every peak they measure. If that is you and the works are affecting you, please tell me. I am raising it with them directly and first hand accounts carry far more weight than my opinion does.

Reporting problems

National Highways can be reached on 0300 123 5000. You can also contact me and I will put it to their route manager.

Nine months is a long haul. I will keep reporting back honestly, including when the answer is one we would rather not hear.

11/08/2026

10/08/2026

The Forest is about to lose its own council. Someone still has to speak for it.

From April 2028 the whole of Gloucestershire will be run by one council of 110 councillors. Forest of Dean District Council goes. Every decision about your roads, your planning, your local services and your council tax gets taken by that single body, and the election that decides who sits on it is on 6 May 2027.

If the Forest doesn't put its own people forward, Cheltenham, Gloucester and the Cotswolds will fill those seats for us.

We are looking for people from the Forest to stand. Not career politicians. People who live here, know the place, and are prepared to turn up. You don't need experience or a political background. We train you, we campaign alongside you, and you are never left on your own.

If you have ever thought "someone should do something about this", this is the something.

Message this page or email [email protected] for an informal chat. No commitment, just a conversation about what standing actually involves. Applications need to be with us by 31 October.

Not ready to stand? Join the branch and help another way. Link in the comments.




Reform UK Gloucestershire
Forest of Dean Reform UK

08/08/2026

Do you want change?

Do you want common sense brought back to local and national politics?

Watch this video.

Join Reform UK. Become a candidate.

🇬🇧

Become a Reform UK Gloucestershire Unitary Councillor. Please conta...

06/08/2026

🧮 £60,000 sounds like a serious penalty. Then you do the sums.

Zia Yusuf set out Reform UK's plan on illegal working this morning. Here is why it matters, in numbers you can check yourself.

An employer caught using illegal labour today faces a civil penalty of up to £60,000. That is per worker. But for a company turning over £1bn, you would need 1,667 of those penalties to equal a single fine of 10% of revenue. Ten per cent is what Reform is proposing, alongside strict liability so that "I didn't know" stops being a defence, and directors personally liable.

💰 Now the other side of the ledger. The National Crime Agency estimates £1bn of criminal cash is laundered through high street shops every year.
The government's answer, announced in May, is £30m over three years, and that has to cover money laundering, tax evasion and illegal working between them. Roughly 1p for every £1 being washed.

🔍 This is not theoretical. In a single month last October, 2,734
premises were visited and raided and 924 people were arrested.

⚖️ And one thing you probably will not hear elsewhere today: the law already extends right to work checks to gig economy and zero hours workers from 1 October this year. That half is done and dusted. What is missing is a penalty that anyone in a boardroom would actually notice.

I spent my career in finance, so here is how I read it. When the penalty for breaking a rule costs less than obeying it, companies break the rule.
That is not a moral failing. It is arithmetic.

Change the arithmetic and the behaviour follows.

👇 Every figure is sourced on the graphic. So tell me: is 10% of global revenue too harsh, or nowhere near harsh enough?



Reform UK Gloucestershire
Forest of Dean Reform UK
Reform UK

03/08/2026

A40 OVER BRIDGE

DON’T FORGET TO SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES!

Reform UK GloucestershireForest of Dean Reform UKReform UK

27/07/2026

🗳️ Compulsory voting is back in the news, and the Bill in Parliament would hand the vote to 16 year olds. Here is where I stand, and it will surprise a few of you.

I think everyone should vote. Not "can" vote. Should. Turnout of 59.7% at the last general election is not a nation choosing silence, it is a country that has given up on us.

🇦🇺 Australia has done this since 1924, and it is not what the headlines say. You are not forced to vote. You are required to turn up and put a paper in the box. Leave it blank if you like, that is nobody's business but yours. The fine is about a tenner, and it is waived if you had a decent reason. Their turnout: 90.7%. Ours: 59.7%.

And before anyone says it, jury service is compulsory too and nobody calls that tyranny.

So I would back it, on four conditions. Without all four, I would vote against.

1️⃣ Make voting easy first. You cannot fine someone for missing something the state made difficult.

2️⃣ A "none of the above" box, counted and published. If you think we are all useless, say so on the record.

3️⃣ No unreciprocated voters. Of the 55 other Commonwealth countries, only 15 let a British citizen living there vote in their national elections. Forty do not, including India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Canada and South Africa. We let every one of their citizens vote in ours. That is not generosity, it is a country that has stopped valuing its own franchise. So a simple rule: if your country gives our people a vote, your people keep theirs here. If it does not, you are very welcome to become a British citizen and vote as one. Ireland reciprocates, and stays.

4️⃣ The age stays at 18. Parliament decided in 2023 that 16 is too young to marry, and anyone born from 2009 can never legally buy a cigarette. Yet they would be handed a ballot paper while still unable to drive, buy a pint, or stand for the very seat they are voting for. Pick a number. Mine is 18.

And no, this is not me backing the government. Their Bill lowers the voting age, and I would vote against it.

My own view. Tell me I am wrong below 👇



Reform UK Gloucestershire