Rogue traders beware

Trading standards officers teamed up with the police, customs and excise and benefit fraud officers to look out for rogue traders arriving in the county yesterday, 15th August.

Since the floods officers from Gloucestershire county council trading standards service have been visiting flood victims to warn of the problems that can be caused by rogue traders carrying out repair work on people’s homes.

This approach appears to have paid off as trading standards officers report that no new complaints have been received since the visits began, and consumers have been sending doorstep sellers on their way.

Cheltenham will get £600,000 government funding

Communities secretary Hazel Blears has announced that 36 local authorities affected by the July floods will receive a share of £6.2m of government funding to help the people in their communities in the greatest need.

This is great news for Cheltenham and our neighbours, Gloucester and Tewkesbury.

You can read the full article on the communities.gov.uk website.

What do you think?

The Government wants victims of the floods to have their say in its investigation. The environment, food and rural affairs committee has decided to hold an inquiry into last month’s flooding and it wants to hear from people directly affected.

Its work will contribute to a wider ‘lessons learned’ inquiry into the June floods which seeks to find out what, if anything, should have been done to prevent the damage.

To have your say email the committee on efracom@parliament.uk stating a contact name, telephone number and postal address. Submissions should be no more than 3,000 words.

Gloucestershire flood relief fund website launched

The Gloucestershire flood relief fund, which was formed a little over a week ago to help victims of the July 2007 floods in Gloucestershire, has launched a fund raising website at www.glosfloodrelief.org

Charity wants to give out grants quickly

The Gloucestershire flood relief fund is urging households affected by the floods to send in their applications for hardship grants by Friday 24th August. So far, 300 applications have already been received from the 5,000 households affected throughout the county. The charity, which was only set up eight days ago, is keen to help flood victims as quickly as it can.