The Property List programme on national TV channel Five will this week feature Bradley Stoke as one of the top ten locations offering the “best value for money” in the UK. The programme goes out at 8pm on Thursday (19th June 2008). [Source: Bradley Stoke Matters]
The steel framework for the first block of shop/restaurant/office units that will surround the town square in Bradley Stoke’s new town centre has been erected just weeks after The Journal reported that the first concrete had been poured for the foundations.
The block (pictured above and shown with a red outline in the plan below) has a distinctive tower at its western end, which will form one side of the main pedestrian gateway into the town square. A zebra crossing on the access road close to the new filling station will provide a link from the footpath/cycleway that joins the Three Brooks Roundabout with Manor Farm Crescent and The Hedgerows.
Planning conditions imposed by South Gloucestershire Council require that the two blocks on the south side of the town square be complete before the main Tesco Extra store is allowed to open.
Progress on the town centre development is rumoured to be well ahead of schedule, with unofficial sources suggesting a possible opening date as early as the first week of October [2008].
Commuters from Bradley Stoke are being encouraged to swap their car for two wheels for a day and cycle to work. People who take part will be treated to a free breakfast for their efforts, ranging from a full English to continental pastries and healthy juice drinks.
Free breakfasts will be available tomorrow (Weds 18th June 2008) from a marquee erected by the Avon Ring Road near the MoD roundabout between 7:30am and 9:30am. This location is convenient for commuters working at Sainsbury’s, the MOD, Hewlett Packard, UWE and other organisations located in the Abbey Wood area.
Simply turn up on the day and your breakfast will be waiting. The menu includes bacon rolls, pastries, croissants, cereal bars and fruit.
Related links:
Bradley Stoke is to gain its first dental practice, located on the upper floor of the town’s new shopping mall currently under construction in the new town centre development at Savages Wood Road.
Details of the proposed practice first came to light in the agenda for the Board Meeting of the South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust (PCT) on 30th April 2008. Under an item titled “Tender Process for the new Bradley Stoke Dental Practice”, the Board was recommended to:
The proposed timeline included :
The PCT duly confirmed that it had entered into a lease agreement with Tesco Stores in a statement made to The Journal on 9th May 2008:
The PCT is very pleased to confirm that the PCT Board have approved a lease agreement with Tesco for the siting of a dental surgery in the new shopping centre as part of the ongoing programme of development of quality services in the area.
However, when The Journal enquired as to the progress of the tender process on 12th June 2008, we were given the following statement by the PCT:
The PCT is commissioning a new dental service in Bradley Stoke with an anticipated opening date of April 2009. The site has been secured and will be a two surgery practice within the new Mall currently being developed as part of the Tesco development.
An advert [has been] placed in the British Dental Journal. The deadline [for expressions of interest] is 25th June.
The PCT did not indicate why the projected opening date has slipped from December 2008 to April 2009.
The town’s new two-storey shopping mall (pictured below - under construction) is attached to the new Tesco Extra store and is due to open in “late autumn [2008]” according to the latest available information released by Tesco.
More information about Bradley Stoke’s new town centre development can be found elsewhere in The Journal:
Photos of the new town centre construction work can be seen in our PicasaWeb Gallery.
The Sites Inspection West Sub Committee of South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) visits Bradley Stoke Surgery in Brook Way today (Friday 13th), to assess a planning application for an extension that would see its floorspace increase by 131%.
An earlier planning application by the surgery, which would have seen the floorspace increase by a whopping 150%, was rejected by SGC planning officers in December 2007. That application has gone to appeal with the government’s Planning Inspectorate, but information obtained by The Journal suggests that a final decision could still be months away.
The revised planning application, submitted in April 2008, has also failed to impress the planning officers, who have recommended that the SGC Planning Committee refuse permission on the following grounds:
The proposed extension, by reason of its size, design and external appearance, would be out of keeping with the existing building and, if allowed, would result in a cramped form of development that would have a detrimental effect on the streetscene …
Today’s site inspection was requested by SGC Councillor Sarah Pomfret, who also sits on Bradley Stoke Town Council. Doctor Elizabeth Todd, the practice’s senior partner and Julian Barge, the practice’s manager, are also members of the Town Council.
Expansion of the Brook Way surgery forms part of South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust’s (PCT) plan to enhance healthcare provision in Bradley Stoke. The PCT made the following statement to The Journal after the original planning application had been rejected:
The PCT Board supported the individual GP practice plans for development in Bradley Stoke. We are aware that one proposal has been turned down when initially submitted for planning. The PCT is therefore working with all the practices to ensure that the necessary service developments proceed as proposed for the area.
The PCT had previously planned to construct a new health centre on land at Savages Wood Road, which had been offered to it at a “knockdown” price by SGC [see earlier report in The Journal], but changed course in 2006 when it announced it would instead invest in expansion of three existing health centres already serving the town.
With the Brook Way expansion plans in jeopardy, The Journal has pressed the PCT to reveal details of its plans for expansion at other surgeries serving the town, but it has refused to release any further information.
Meanwhile, the land previously reserved for a new health centre at Savages Wood Road lies vacant. Possible disposal of the land was listed on an agenda for a meeting of the SGC cabinet on 12th May, but a source at SGC’s Property Services department told The Journal that the matter could not be discussed because the PCT had not yet informed the Council of its intentions regarding the land.
Users of the overstretched GP services in Bradley Stoke are unlikely to be impressed by this sorry saga.
South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) has quietly opened a second round of public consultation on the proposed bus priority scheme for the Aztec West roundabout.
Richard Lewis of consulting group Mouchel (working in partnership with SGC) told The Journal that the new consultation concerns the same scheme as before, “but revised following the public consultation”.
Respondents to the original consultation have told The Journal that they feel the exercise was “a waste of time”, as most of their comments were rubbished in the SGC responses, with many issues raised being rejected on the grounds that they were considered “outside the scope” of the proposed scheme.
Local Liberal Democrats have criticised the lack of publicity given to the original consultation, although they seem to be unaware that a mail drop was made to properties near the roundabout and an exhibition of the plans was held in the shopping centre of the Aztec West Business Park.
No mention of the original or current consultation can be seen on the Bradley Stoke Town Council website, which preferred to inform residents about “Rabbit Roundabout” during the period of the initial consultation.
Links to the consultation pages on the SGC website:
Details of the proposals may also be viewed at Bradley Stoke Library.
Closing date for comments is Monday 30th June 2008.
[Postscript]: SGC has provided the following statement listing the changes that have been made since the first consultation:
The public consultation received a number of comments asking for improved facilities for cyclists and pedestrians. The scheme has been revised to include a new pedestrian/cycle refuge to assist crossing the Bradley Stoke Way exit of Aztec West Roundabout. We have also highlighted that cyclists are able to use bus lanes and that the pedestrian facilities are being upgraded at the Bradley Stoke Way/Woodlands Lane junction. The new information is explained on the Statement of Reasons on the public website.
The third running of Bradley Stoke’s Festival Run, organised by Sole Sisters Running Club, took place today (Sunday 8th June) in warm and sunny conditions over a 10km course around the town’s roads and conservation area trails.
Bradley Stoke Mayor Robert Jones got the race under way at 10am from a point on Bradley Stoke Way south of the Leisure Centre. The race route first took the runners in a loop towards the south of the town before returning to the start point, from where a second loop saw the runners heading north, crossing Primrose Bridge before heading back down Bradley Stoke Way to cross the start line for a third time. The final 2km of the race then followed the Three Brooks Nature Trail, crossing Brook Way before arriving at the Jubilee Centre, where a lap of the football pitch had to be completed before crossing the finish line.
Winner of the men’s race was Brian Penny of Team Bath AC, who completed the course in 35:20, a time more than two minutes faster than the winning time of last year’s race (when the course was slightly different).
The women’s race was won by Trinity Booth of Chipping Sodbury club Hogweed Trotters in a time of 44:09. Full results are scheduled to appear on the Sole Sisters website tomorrow (Monday).
The Journal’s photographer was on hand to record the race and we have over 200 photos in our PicasaWeb Gallery [album; slideshow].
Please contact us if you would like a free full-size copy of any of our photos. In due course, we will add captions to our photos (e.g. race number), which should make it easier to find the photos you are interested in.
If you have photos of the race and have uploaded them to the web, please let us know and we will publish your link. Alternatively, we would be happy to publish your photos in The Journal’s PicasaWeb Gallery.
