The Bradley Stoke Journal

The planned investment of nearly £3m of taxpayers’ money into broadband infrastructure within South Gloucestershire might still leave Bradley Stoke without superfast broadband in 2015, according to a report accepted by Councillors at a Cabinet meeting on Monday.

South Gloucestershire Council’s Cabinet has agreed to add £2.2m of its own money to the £710k allocated by the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) agency, which is aiming to “make the UK’s broadband the best in Europe by 2015”.

Commercial providers are expected to bring superfast broadband to 82% of premises in the district by 2015, leaving the remaining 18% reliant on public money, but the Council says its target is to bring 24Mbps+ broadband to only 90% of premises, meaning that more than half of the “don’t haves” could be left disappointed.

The only consolation is that those that don’t get superfast speeds will be guaranteed a minimum ‘basic broadband’ speed of 2Mbps (around one quarter of the UK average speed today but likely to be viewed by many as inadequate by 2015).

Detailed broadband coverage maps published by Wiltshire County Council (SGC’s new partner after its original consortium with Bristol and BANES disintegrated) reveal that the Council is NOT expecting BT to upgrade the Almondsbury exchange on a commercial basis within the next three years. The maps also show, for the first time, the parts of Bradley Stoke that are plagued with sub-2Mbps provision, at the granularity of individual postcode areas.

Around 4,000 premises in Bradley Stoke are thought to suffer from sub-standard broadband speeds because they are not served by Virgin Media’s cable network and are too away far from the two BT telephone exchanges that serve the town.

More: New maps published by Wiltshire County Council clearly show the extent of the broadband problems in Bradley Stoke »

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The 1st Bradley Stoke Scout Group has announced the formation of a new Explorer Scout Unit for young people aged 14 to 18.

The unit held its first meeting on Friday 6th January and will now meet regularly on Friday nights from 7:30pm to 9:30pm at the Brook Way Activity Centre.

Together with its two Beaver Colonies, two Cub Packs and two Scout Troops, the local Scout Group can now offer activities for young people across the full 6 to 18 age range.

Since January, all sections of the group have relocated to the Brook Way Activity Centre, which became vacant after Bradley Stoke Town Council and South Gloucestershire Council cut funding for the youth club that had previously been run there by Southern Brooks Community Partnership.

Mark Gollop, Group Scout Leader, said:

“We look forward to the new Bradley Stoke Explorer Scout Unit growing in strength and numbers as our new Cub Pack and Scout Troop did last year.”

The group says it currently has around 150 names on its ‘want to join’ list. In order to accommodate more young people, the group is seeking to recruit new adult volunteers. Anyone interested is asked to get in touch through the 1st Bradley Stoke Scout Group website.

Related link: Youth organisations in Bradley Stoke (The Journal)

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A 30-year-old man from the Oaktree Crescent area of Bradley Stoke has appeared before Northavon Magistrates charged with indecent exposure and burglary in connection with offences in Mautravers Close and Courtlands on Friday 20th January 2012.

He was released on court bail to live at an address outside of South Gloucestershire with conditions including an 18-hour curfew between 6pm and midday.

This court appearance follows the arrest of a man in Saxon Way, Bradley Stoke, on Thursday 26th January.

Police have not said whether the arrested man is suspected of being connected with reports of an early morning prowler in Elm Close (Little Stoke) and Oaktree Crescent on Wednesday 18th January.

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South Gloucestershire Council is asking local people for their views on parking arrangements for new housing developments.

The consultation has been started in response to complaints from residents and Councillors that the number of parking spaces provided for new homes and flat conversions is not always adequate.

The Council also says that some residents have complained that parking spaces allocated to houses/flats are not close enough to their properties.

The net result is that residents sometimes park in places that cause problems for bus and emergency vehicles, lead to neighbour disputes, block pavements and negatively impact the quality of life in an area.

On the other hand, parking spaces take up land, so to provide more might reduce the number of homes that can be built and lead to greater pressure to make more land available for development.

Government guidelines imposing a minimum parking provision of 1.5 spaces per dwelling were scrapped in 2006 and since then South Gloucestershire’s Local Plan has imposed maximum limits of one space per single bedroomed property,  1.5 spaces for a two bedroom property, two spaces for a three bedroom property and three spaces for larger properties.

More: Integral garages are often converted into living space »

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South Gloucestershire Council is running a second consultation on its proposed road safety improvements for Bradley Stoke Way, in the vicinity of the Willow Brook Centre.

The latest consultation, which runs until Wednesday 8th February, invites comments on the new toucan crossing that is proposed to replace two uncontrolled crossing points that were the sites of two serious road traffic accidents during 2011.

The new light-controlled crossing will be situated approximately midway between the two existing crossing points and new guardrails will be installed to deter pedestrians from crossing the carriageway away from the new toucan crossing.

There is still no news on the outcome of the first consultation on the overall scheme, which ran from 20th December 2011 to 8th January 2012. The Journal has learned that “seven or eight” responses were received but the Council has so far not found the time to give personal replies or publish an analysis of the results on its website.

Cllr Brian Allinson, SGC’s executive member for planning and transport, said last year that work on the new measures would start in March 2012 but that schedule now appears to have slipped by at least a month, with the Council now saying:

“Depending on the results of the public consultation and advertisement, the scheme is programmed to be designed in this financial year (2011/12) with a view for implementation in 2012/13.”

More: Speed monitoring exercise began on morning of 2nd accident »

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Police investigating multiple reports of a prowler in Bradley Stoke and Little Stoke say they have arrested a man.

A statement posted today on the Avon and Somerset Police website reads:

“A 30-year-old man from Bradley Stoke was arrested shortly after 8pm last night, Thursday 26th January, by neighbourhood PC Claire Fletcher.”

“He remains in police custody today, Friday 27th January.”

The move comes after police said they had been called to investigate two separate reports of an early morning prowler in Elm Close (Little Stoke) and Oaktree Crescent on Wednesday 18th January.

Local police have said they arrested a man in connection with a similar incident in Bradley Stoke in November 2011 but following further enquiries he was released without charge.

An article in the The Bristol Evening Post earlier this week claimed a prowler was scared off after he was seen “trying to peer into a house” in the vicinity of Brook Way.

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