Cllr Gill Cleeve - Shottery

15/08/2026

Today at Bancroft Gardens.

13/08/2026

To everyone in Shottery and across Stratford collecting their A levels, T levels, and Level 3 results today: this is a proper milestone, and it’s worth taking a moment to acknowledge that.

Whatever the grades say, you’ve made it to a point where genuine choices open up. Some of you will head to university, others to apprenticeships, training, or work. All of it matters. All of it counts.

If today feels brilliant, brilliant. If it feels uncertain, that’s normal too, and there’s always someone to talk things through with.

Be proud of what you’ve achieved, I’m excited to see where you all go next. Our town’s future is in good hands.

Well done.

12/08/2026

🌒 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙖𝙧 𝙚𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙥𝙨𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙏𝙊𝘿𝘼𝙔! ☀️

I’m ridiculously excited about this one! This evening we should get a fantastic view of a partial solar eclipse from Stratford-upon-Avon, with more than 90% of the Sun covered at its peak.

For Stratford, the approximate timings are:

☀️ Eclipse begins: around 6.15 pm
🌒 Maximum eclipse: around 7.11 pm, with approximately 92% of the Sun obscured
☀️ Eclipse ends: around 8.05 pm

But please, watch it safely. Even when most of the Sun is covered, the remaining part is still bright enough to cause permanent eye damage.

𝙎𝙖𝙛𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝:
🕶️ Use proper 𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗽𝘀𝗲 𝗴𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 or a solar viewer marked ISO 12312-2. Ordinary sunglasses are NOT safe, however dark they are.

📦 Make a 𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿: make a tiny hole in a piece of card, stand with your back to the Sun and let the sunlight through the hole onto another piece of white card. You’ll see a little image of the eclipsed Sun projected onto it. Don’t look through the hole at the Sun.

🥣 Grab a 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿: hold it so sunlight shines through the holes onto the ground, a wall or a sheet of white card. Each hole acts like a tiny pinhole projector and you should see lots of little crescent Suns!

🌳 Look 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗮 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗲: the gaps between the leaves act as natural pinhole projectors, so around maximum eclipse you may see dozens of crescent-shaped images of the Sun on the ground.

📱 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙥𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚: eclipse glasses protect your eyes, but they don’t protect your phone camera. Pointing a camera directly at the Sun can damage its sensor. If you want to photograph the eclipse itself, put a proper solar filter over the camera lens first. Don’t rely on sunglasses.

🔭 The same goes for cameras, binoculars and telescopes. Never look at the Sun through them without a proper solar filter fitted to the front of the equipment. Eclipse glasses on your eyes are not sufficient when looking through magnifying optics.

This should be a really special sight over Stratford this evening. Fingers crossed for clear skies!

If you get any good photos, particularly of your pinhole projections, crescent shadows or the changing light over Stratford, please share them in the comments. I’d love to see what everyone spots! 🌒☀️

06/08/2026

As many people are aware, an unauthorised encampment has been established at Cottage Lane Play Park.

We are pleased to inform the community that Stratford Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT), working in partnership with Stratford District Council, has attended the site and served the appropriate notice to those involved.

We will continue to work closely with our partner agencies and monitor the situation.

^6013

05/08/2026

Some good news from last night’s Stratford upon Avon Town Council meeting.

I proposed that we look at bringing back our Stratford-upon-Avon Youth Town Council. It ran successfully for three years, from 2020 to 2023, but sadly we couldn’t sustain the interest to keep it going.

Now, thanks to Josh Turner, who came and spoke so passionately about it at yesterday’s meeting, we may be able to get it back up and running. It’s exactly the kind of energy this needs.

The plan is to set up a working group in the new term, and crucially we want to invite young people along to tell us how they want it to operate and what they want from it. This has to be shaped by them, not for them.

Watch this space, and thank you Josh for the push. This is what youth voice looks like.

24/07/2026

Empty Chairs Comes to Stratford

Brilliant to see Robin Ford and the Crowne Plaza Stratford Upon Avon launching Empty Chairs in Stratford. Their first session last week went really well, which tells you something about what happens when people show up for each others, the next one is at 6pm on July 28th.

This is a space for people to.. No agenda. No pressure. Just the chance to sit with someone.

We talk a lot about community, about neighbourliness, about isolation being a real issue in modern life. What we don’t always do is create the actual spaces where connection happens naturally. This is exactly what we need, especially here in Stratford where so many of us are juggling busy lives and can still feel pretty alone.

Robin saw something that mattered and acted on it. That’s good community leadership, and it matters.

If this resonates with you, if you’ve felt it, if you know people who have, come along. It’s at the Crowne Plaza, and if it lands well, it’ll grow from there.

Find out more at

A community-led campaign inviting people to sit together at pub tables across the UK - no one has to sit alone.

16/07/2026

Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting down with Josh at Stratford Youth Collective alongside Aaron from Stratford Upon Avon BID!

Josh is full of exciting ideas for young people in Stratford, and we had a brilliant conversation about how we might be able to support him in making some of them happen.

What an incredible young lad. Watch this space! 👀

04/07/2026

Stratford upon Avon Town Council IS HIRING

Deputy Town Clerk (Deputy Chief Officer)
Full Time — Closing Date: Noon, 12 July 2026

As Deputy Town Clerk, you will provide strategic and operational leadership across services, support the Town Clerk in managing the organisation, and help ensure the Council remains resilient, well governed and future ready. You will play a key role in shaping organisational culture, improving systems and processes, and representing the Council across Stratford’s civic and partnership landscape. It’s a role for someone who can bring clarity, confidence and steady leadership to a small but ambitious organisation.

Democratic Services Officer
Full-time or part-time — Closing Date: 5pm, 6 July 2026

This post is available on either a full-time or part-time basis. For part-time applicants, working hours are expected to be approximately 15–22 hours per week. Applicants are invited to indicate their preferred number of hours and days of work, which will be considered alongside the operational requirements of the Council.

This is a key role supporting the Council’s democratic, civic and governance functions. You will help ensure that meetings, decisions and civic activities are delivered professionally, transparently and in line with statutory requirements. The role combines committee administration, governance support and civic protocol, with responsibility for Mayoral support transferring fully to this post from 2027.

More information can be found here: stratford-tc.gov.uk/jobs-and-vacancies/

Closing date for Deputy Town Clerk (Deputy Chief Officer) role:
Noon | 12 July 2026

Closing date for Democratic Services Officer role:
5pm | 6 July 2026

29/06/2026

I had the privilege of spending this evening watching Stratford upon Avon School Performing Arts present Shakespeare’s Macbeth. It is a big, demanding play to take on, and these young performers more than rose to the occasion.

The whole company should be proud. From the leads carrying Shakespeare’s darkest verse with real confidence, to the ensemble, dancers, and tech crew working seamlessly behind the scenes, it was an atmospheric and assured production from start to finish. A huge well done too to the staff too who clearly poured so much into bringing it all together.

It is a joy to see this kind of talent and ambition coming through in our schools. The future of the arts in Stratford is in very good hands.

27/06/2026

Stratford upon Avon Town Council is proudly flying the flag for Armed Forces Day 2026!

Today, on the last Saturday of June, communities across the country come together to mark Armed Forces Day, and Stratford-upon-Avon is proud to play its part.

But why do we celebrate it? Armed Forces Day is our chance to say thank you. Not just to those currently serving, but to the whole Armed Forces community: the veterans who carry decades of service with quiet pride, the reservists and cadets, and the families who give so much behind the scenes and whose contribution is so often unseen.

It is a day to recognise the commitment, courage and sacrifice of the men and women who have stepped forward on our behalf, and to remember that the freedoms we enjoy in our town and our country were never given freely. They were earned, and they continue to be protected.

Raising the flag is a small gesture, but it carries a big message: that here in Stratford-upon-Avon, we see you, we value you, and we are grateful.

To everyone who has served and continues to serve, thank you.

🇬🇧

Proudly flying the flag for Armed Forces Day 2026!

Armed Forces Day
Mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon Town Hall
Stratford-on-Avon District Council
Royal British Legion
Royal British Legion Stratford Upon Avon Club