Simon Hacker

Cotswolds

Columnist at Diesel Car & Eco Car

Journalist at Freelance

Reporter at Punchline-Gloucester

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Articles

EXCLUSIVE: New front for Cotswold shop marks huge business move

1 week ago | punchline-gloucester.com | Simon Hacker

A familiar brand on the high street of a Cotswold town will soon have a whole new look - if planners agree on an update to reflect the firm's new owners. But the change runs far deeper than mere paintwork. As well as being a traditional retail outlet in Stow, Scotts of Stow, which started out in the town in 1991, is also the sole tangible front for a nationally-distributed mail order firm which operates what the firm claims to be the UK's premier homeware catalogue.
BREAKING: Lib Dems crown a surprise chair at Shire Hall

1 week ago | punchline-gloucester.com | Simon Hacker

In the wake of the the May 1 election which saw the Lib Dems very nearly sweep to majority rule, sources close to potential backroom deals at Shire Hall suggest a way forward has finally been resolved. And if you voted Green in the hope of your vote seeing a coalition with the party tipped to be in charge, look away now.
LOCAL PLAN: Ping-pong plays on over 12,500 home blueprint

1 week ago | punchline-gloucester.com | Simon Hacker

A new twist has arrived in the ongoing political ping-pong between Stroud District Council and the Planning Inspectorate in a row which sees a blueprint for 12,500 homes in the south of the county stuck in limbo. As reported in Punchline-Gloucester.com, SDC has requested that the government's planning inspectors rethink their decision to send the authority's map for the future back to the drawing board.
Creed new owners say business is going well in trading update

1 week ago | punchline-gloucester.com | Simon Hacker

The new owners of Staverton-based Creed Food Services say they are delighted with their £70m acquisition as the parent firm celebrates fresh figures which show a "good first half" of trading. South Shields-based delivered wholesale business Kitwave Group PLC issued a pre-close trading update (for the six months ending April 30 2025) which indicated that trading overall had been in line with its expectations.
REFUSED: Gifford's Circus told the show's over for £50,000 building

1 week ago | punchline-gloucester.com | Simon Hacker

An entreaty to keep a controversial £50,000 structure built by Giffords Circus have fallen on deaf ears after planners refused a retrospective request for the building on farmland in the Cotswolds.
EXCLUSIVE: Is it curtains for this popular sewing shop?

1 week ago | punchline-gloucester.com | Simon Hacker

Having traded across SEVEN decades and built up a broad customer base, a haberdashery business in the Cotswolds is set to close imminently with no plan for a new owner to keep the tills going. Owner Jackie Hall, 79, bought Sew and So, on Stroud's Lansdown, in February 1977 after she popped into the shop to buy a tapestry kit. Fifty-six years on, she is now looking to retire and plans to close the shop imminently.
Officer sacked and barred for life

1 week ago | punchline-gloucester.com | Simon Hacker

A county police officer who botched procedures on a report of domestic abuse has been dismissed without notice – and barred for life from the force. In December 2022 PC Stuart Fadden, formerly of Thames Valley Police, oversaw an investigation into reports a man physically assaulted, stalked and stole items from a woman he knew. PC Fadden had been supported by two different sergeants who on separate occasions gave him clear action plans to follow.
Boom time for folding stuff? Card Factory sees

1 week ago | punchline-gloucester.com | Simon Hacker

With a climb in revenue of 6.2% to achieve takings of £542.5m, Card Factory is confounding any hasty obits for the 'analog' greeting card. It's a fairytale business story: Card Factory was founded in 1997 by Dean and Janet Hoyle in Wakefield as a retailer of discounted greeting cards. The couple began work selling cards from the back of a van at car boot sales and opened their first store that year.
Data latest on construction shows stark challenges in 2025

1 week ago | punchline-gloucester.com | Simon Hacker

Workforces from Kier may have been busy on Gloucester's skyline as the £107m Forum development steams ahead while their collegaues continue to plug away at the A417 Missing Link, but new national data on activity in the civil and commercial construction sector suggests the pace of work in the county and nationally has fallen to its slowest for many years.
SPECIAL REPORT: Car and van sales wobble as Tesla takes a direct hit

1 week ago | punchline-gloucester.com | Simon Hacker

With new car and van sales seen as a vital element for keeping the economic ticking over, the industry's governing body is calling for a (sustainable) bump start from Westminster. The latest data from Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) shows activity in new car sales fell by 10.4% in April, while in news that may come as no surprise to van traders in Gloucestershire, commercial vehicles took an even bigger dent, to the tune of just under 15%.