Cllr Gill Cleeve - Shottery

18/06/2026

17/06/2026

🌸 Shottery Front Garden Competition 🌸

Between 21st June and 5th July, Cllr Steve Albon and I will be out and about across Shottery judging the best front gardens in our ward as part of Stratford-upon-Avon in Bloom.

We know there are some fantastic gardens on display, but we don't want to miss any hidden gems. If you know of a front garden that deserves a nomination, including your own, please let us know.

Whether it's a colourful floral display, a beautifully maintained garden, or a creative use of planting, we'd love to hear about it.

Please send me your nominations and help us celebrate the wonderful gardens that make Shottery such a lovely place to live.

🌼 Nominations welcome from now until 5th July.

12/06/2026

11/06/2026

**REMINDER WALK IS TOMORROW EVENING **

Stratford's Walk with us will take place on:
Friday 12th June 2026
⏰6:15pm-7:15pm
📍Meeting outside Royal Shakespeare Theatre,Waterside, CV37 6BB

🥾Come along to speak to us, meet your local team, or just come along for a great walk!
🐾Dogs are welcome !!
This walk is approximately 2 miles, suitable for all and will finish back at the start.
** This event is for all Women and girls, who live and work in Warwickshire** Under 14's must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
We will also be supplying some personal safety products; we look forward to meeting you 😀👮‍♀️

09/06/2026

I grew up in a house full of books. My mum was a librarian, and from her I learned early that a library is not just a building full of shelves. It is one of the few places left where anyone, whatever their age or background or bank balance, can walk in and find a door to a bigger world.

A library is never neutral by absence. Our libraries work to careful professional standards. Collections are curated by trained staff, age-appropriateness is built in, and the professional body for librarians, CILIP, treats freedom of access to information as a core ethical duty, not an optional extra.

That is the part so often missed. A library’s job is to open doors, and to trust families and trained professionals to do the rest.
Every child deserves to find themselves on a shelf, and to discover lives unlike their own. That is what libraries have quietly done for generations, my mum’s included.

06/06/2026

Spare a thought today for the tens of thousands of young men who were storming the D-Day beaches 82 years ago this morning.

Most of them were barely more than boys. They climbed into the landing craft in the dark, knowing full well what was waiting for them on the sand, and they went anyway. They went because fascism had taken hold across Europe, and someone had to stand against it. By the end of that single day, more than 160,000 Allied troops and 6,000 vehicles had crossed the Channel and gained a foothold on the beaches of Normandy. It was the beginning of the end for fascism in Europe, but there was a long way still to go. They had to break out, push the Germans back, and free a continent.

We rightly remember the men who ran up those beaches. But behind every one of them stood others who made that morning possible. The engineers and the medics. The sailors who got them across the Channel and the aircrews overhead. The women working in the factories, on the farms, on the switchboards and in the field hospitals. The codebreakers and the planners who never fired a shot but carried the weight of it all the same. D-Day was not down to the soldiers alone. It was a whole nation, at home and abroad, pulling together against tyranny.

And then there were the families. The mothers and fathers, the young wives, the children who waved someone off and then waited, and waited, for news. The British and Canadians suffered around 83,000 casualties across the Normandy campaign, and the Americans around 125,000. German losses were close to 400,000. Every one of those numbers was a person, and every person left a family behind them.

The British Normandy Memorial records the names of the 22,540 servicemen and women under British command who fell on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944. Every name was someone’s son, someone’s husband, someone they loved.

They were so young. They stood against fascism so that we would never have to live under it, and they gave up everything they might have had so that we could keep what we have. The very least we can do, 82 years on, is remember them.

04/06/2026

From Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service

Are you planning on having a barbecue soon? We are sharing our top tips to help you stay fire safe whilst outdoors this summer.

Learn more: https://orlo.uk/S7NyN

01/06/2026

It’s Pride Month, and I’m proud to stand as an ally. 🏳️‍🌈

Being an ally isn’t a badge you wear once a year. It’s something you live all year round. It’s speaking up when it would be easier to stay quiet. It’s listening, learning, and using whatever voice or platform you have to make sure everyone feels they belong.

To my LGBTQ+ friends, colleagues, and neighbours, and especially to the trans community: I see you, I value you, and I will keep showing up for you. Always.

Love is love. Everyone deserves to feel safe, seen, and celebrated for exactly who they are.

Happy Pride. 🌈❤️

17/05/2026

Today is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia and here is something I feel strongly about.

Being an ally isn’t about shared identity, it’s about shared humanity.

Discrimination against LGBTQ+ people is still far too common in this country, and the trans community in particular is facing a really difficult moment. Following last year’s Supreme Court ruling, trans people are now legally recognised only as their biological s*x, leaving many people genuinely uncertain about their rights in everyday situations . That is not a small thing. That affects real people, people’s safety, dignity, and sense of belonging.

I made a decision earlier this year to leave an organisation I had been part of for a long time, because I could not reconcile staying with my conscience on this issue. That wasn’t easy. But some things matter more than comfort.

I believe in equality. Not just when it’s popular, not just when it’s easy, and not just for people who are like me.

As an MP said in Parliament this February, it should not be necessary to state that there is nothing wrong with being le***an, gay, bi, trans or q***r. And yet in 2026, it still is necessary to say so.

LGBTQ+ rights must not be taken for granted.

The fight for equality must go on, and I will always stand with those who need an ally beside them.

17/05/2026

Lovely Civic Service today at Holy Trinity Church, with Stratford upon Avon Town Council.