Residents and businesses in Stone are being encouraged to shape the future of Stafford Borough by contributing to a refreshed four-year business plan.
Stafford Borough Council has updated its Corporate Plan, spotlighting growth, community wellbeing, and tackling climate change while ensuring fiscal responsibility. The council invites feedback on its priorities, objectives, and overall vision for the borough, giving the Stone community a voice in the planning process.
A vision for the future
The plan reflects an evolving local and national landscape, aiming to address current challenges and opportunities. For Stone, a key milestone is the £1.5 million transformation of Westbridge Park, which has revitalised the area for residents and visitors.
Key priorities
The Corporate Plan outlines several priorities, including:
- Sustainable growth: Attracting investment and supporting local businesses to boost the economy.
- Environmental action: Addressing climate change through reduced carbon emissions and environmentally friendly initiatives.
- Community well-being: Promoting health, leisure, and a better quality of life for residents.
- Efficient operations: Maintaining cost-effective council services.
Council leader’s call to action
Council leader Aidan Godfrey emphasised the importance of community involvement, saying
“This Corporate Plan sets out our priorities with the aim of growing the local economy by attracting further investment and supporting businesses. We should be in no doubt that we cannot ignore the effects of climate change for the future of the planet. But we can’t do this alone – we need our local businesses and organisations to support moves to be more environmentally friendly.”
Godfrey encouraged everyone in the borough to share their thoughts, stating,
“Please read the plan and then give us your views. This will let us know whether you think our priorities are the right ones to ensure our borough remains a great place to live, work, visit and invest in.”
How to participate
The consultation is open until Friday, 17th January 2025, and the council is urging Stone residents and businesses to seize this opportunity to influence decision-making. The updated plan can be viewed at www.staffordbc.gov.uk/corporate-plan, where feedback can be submitted.
Why it matters for Stone
For Stone, being part of this consultation ensures that its unique needs and aspirations are reflected in the broader vision for the borough. With successful projects like Westbridge Park setting a precedent, residents and businesses can advocate for more focused investments and initiatives that support the town’s growth and well-being.
Whether you’re a local business owner or a lifelong resident, this is your chance to help shape Stone’s future while contributing to the broader success of Stafford Borough. Don’t miss your opportunity to have a say.
11 comments
G Turner
Support for start up and Small to medium businesses requires attention. Not every business needs a large premises to operate. Building on green belt/agricultural land is totally against ethos of parts of the plan.
If large industrial structures are constructed (with the promise of ‘local Jobs’ (which is a great sentiment) is this the reality? If additional jobs are to be
provided in the area will they all be filled by local community members. If not will more housing be required.
Stone is a Jewel in Staffordshires Crown
A historical market town with much to offer. To keep adding to the local area with increased construction will eventually swallow up Stone and its surrounding communities. I implore those in control to consider extremely carefully about the development plan, the local residents and the natural world for which all flora fawner and living creatures are reliant on.
Let’s have more wildflower areas which in turn will help the bees and in turn the pollination process.
RYAN
It would be helpful if stafford borough actually listened to the people of stone! Stop building on the greenbelt and greenspace keep this area a rural community and if you care about pollution and the environment and flooding keep the farmland for future for young farmers to produce food for the people of stone. The developers / promoters have no interest once the have covered our landscape in concrete they will retire to there place after robbing the people of stone of there open fields rubbing there hands together with no interest with what happens to the empty warehouses they have just filled our farmland .
The borough council must have used there allocation for development on there local plan for the next 10 years with the 2 sites 1 at Aston roundabout and at pets at home and the new units surrounding that development
No farmers no food no farmers market
Save Rural Stone
David and Janice Walmsley
People of Stone
This is your chance to have your say about the future of Stone/Stafford.
At the moment Stone is in grave danger of losing its rural identity and becoming a huge warehouse park!
The building of these warehouses will result in even more traffic chaos whilst the infrastructure and perhaps yet another major new roundabout on the A34 are under construction.
The Stafford Borough Council’s corporate plan over the next few years states that is looking to reduce borough wide carbon emissions so one has to question the impact that road deliveries by lorry will have on our carbon footprint . The borough plan also mentions the need to improve open spaces to increase biodiversity-
Bill Jones
As Stone is the largest parish council, i would like to know where the extra council tax i pay for the stone town council goes, I’ve never seen money spent on anything local by them.
Jennifer
The thought of another roundabout being built on the A34 with YEARS of disruption is surely enough for everyone in the area to object to this.
Lynn Hammersley
Build schools, care homes and health centres. It’s no good having more homes without suitable infrastructure. Stone doesn’t need empty warehousing. We need farmers producing food. Why aren’t we getting empty houses back into use?
Colin beardmore
A key priority for the future of stone should be opportunities for local employment, I wonder if there is any stats produced for how many local jobs are available locally without needing to commute to work outside the locality.
Stone has developed to being a dormitory town with a daily tidewave of locals starting off for work outside Stone
Any further Council approved developments should take on board that without the strong creation of local jobs from any proposed development these developments are against the interest and support stone residents.
except possibly the seller of the farmland to the developer.
The bottom line should be how does Stone benefit .
RYAN
It would be helpful if stafford borough actually listened to the people of stone! Stop building on the greenbelt and greenspace keep this area a rural community and if you care about pollution and the environment and flooding keep the farmland for future for young farmers to produce food for the people of stone. The developers / promoters have no interest once the have covered our landscape in concrete they will retire to there place after robbing the people of stone of there open fields rubbing there hands together with no interest with what happens to the empty warehouses they have just filled our farmland .
The borough council must have used there allocation for development on there local plan for the next 10 years with the 2 sites 1 at Aston roundabout and at pets at home and the new units surrounding that development
No farmers no food no farmers market
Save Rural Stone
Hilary Griffiths
Villagers are proud to live in Aston and, despite anxiety about the encroaching industrialisation along the A34, have come to accept the need for the jobs which the development of the excellently planned Stone Business Park at Aston has brought.
But the threat of being overwhelmed only increases.
Enough is enough. Is the identity of Stone as a rural town, with Aston its satellite, to be subsumed into an arid landscape of concrete and huge warehouses? Destroy an established community, rip up the rural landscape formed over millennia, replace with sprawling lorry parks? Disrupt and annihilate the fragile balance of nature, re-engineer traffic systems to cope with the huge increase in heavy traffic?
Bury Aston?
Any plan for mass destruction of the rural landscape surely flies in the face of 3 of the priorities highlighted in the council’s corporate plan
Community wellbeing – or smashing a community’s sense of security
Sustainable growth – or empty warehouses
Environmental action – or allowing predatory promoters to tarmac our fields
Andy Dyble
The whole area of Aston by Stone will be affected by at minimum, light pollution and an increase in commercial traffic. The car storage depot has already proved this. I also think however, that allowing an industrial estate to come right up to the side of people’s houses and in some cases completely encircling them is criminal. There will be no new jobs created here, its ,simply moving them from other places .
Simon Bell
The surrounds of Stone both South and North are being assaulted by the selling off of our GREEN FIELDS.
In particular the proposed sale by a local farmer of 192 acres of ASTON GREEN FIELDS for potential industrial, warehousing and commercial development.
This would require substantial transport safety improvements with investment on the A34 and would be a traffic safety nightmare with the huge influx of container lorries, the possibility of a new safety construction roundabout and massive drainage and flooding issues into the Trent flood plain.
This land is adjacent to the JLR and huge warehouse development to the south of Stone.
Both developments previously promised substantial jobs and commercial benefits to Stone, this is not the case with many 10’s of thousands of warehousing lying empty and the Meaford brown field site almost bare of new developments.
The people of Stone and Aston by Stone will not be fobbed off and we have established an ACTION GROUP to challenge any removal and development of farm fields and wildlife, like the Great Crested Newts and important barn owl sites.
Lead your vote to those that are against this catastrophic development on our farmland………….. once lost to concrete we will never get it back to feeding our population!
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WE ARE READY, WE ARE STONE