Every three months we bring together leaders in the private, voluntary, community and public sectors to meet under the umbrella of the Local Strategic Partnership.

The LSP promotes the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of the people of the district through encouragement of effective partnership and the sharing of information and it’s been bringing together representatives with a diverse wealth of knowledge and expertise since 2002.

The focus of the latest meeting was youth, and it was one of the best LSP meetings yet, with presentations from our youth council and RUSH Skatepark very well received, and important links made between organisations.

Continuing the theme of youth and partnership working, we are about to see the roll-out of a hard-hitting travelling theatre production designed to safeguard children against County Lines drug dealing operations. My colleagues Mattie Ross and Steve Robinson have seen the first performance at SGS College.

Ten schools have taken up the offer of staging the production and I hope all in the district take up the offer.

Another great law and order initiative for youngsters is the Mock Trials Competition, organised by volunteer magistrates from Stroud, and although sadly the only magistrates court in Gloucestershire is in Cheltenham now, the Novalis Trust has been providing a great venue for it in Ebley for several years.

Junior school age children from across the Stroud district play all the parts of those who would be involved in cases and I enjoyed seeing them in action.

Finally, all alliance group leaders and Cllr Ross had a great meeting last week with three representatives from our youth council, who wanted to talk to us about various issues.