The Bradley Stoke Journal

Police are appealing for witnesses to an assault that occured on Sunday night (28th June) near the Jubilee Centre in Bradley Stoke.

A couple walking home came upon a group of men near the entrance of the Jubilee Centre. One threatened the man with a knife, and he was then beaten and kicked by five others. When the alarm was raised they ran off towards Little Stoke Lane.

Police say there had been reports of nuisance behaviour in Wrington Close just before midnight, and it’s believed these were the men involved in the assault.

The suspects are all white. The man with the knife is described as 5ft 5ins tall, of small build with blond or gingery spiky hair shaved at the sides. He was wearing a white or grey tracksuit.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Staple Hill police on 0845 456 7000 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

The area around the Jubilee Centre has been the focus of a number of crimes in recent months.

A suspected arson attack in March saw three cars set ablaze within the space of an hour, including one vehicle on a drive in The Beeches, just yards from the Jubilee Centre.

May saw a number of newly planted trees along the edge of Savages Wood Road destroyed by vandals.

More recently, a van leased by Bradley Stoke Town Council for use by its newly-appointed Mobile Cleansing Operative (MCO) had its windscreen kicked in when parked overnight in the car park of the Jubilee Centre.

Residents of homes surrounding the centre fear that vandalism and anti-social behaviour will increase once the new Beacon Play Park opens on Jubilee Green next month.

The new Brantano shoe store at Bradley Stoke’s Willow Brook Centre is to open next month.

Fitting out of the shop began earlier this week and posters put up on the doors today give the opening date as Tuesday 21st July.

Brantano was revealed by The Journal as a potential tenant in October last year.

The store occupies unit 2 in the new retail terrace at the development, despite the plan on the official Willow Brook Centre website showing it in unit 5.

The company has been advertising for staff for the new store since February and recently held a recruitment event at the Willow Brook Centre.

Pets at Home are thought to be likely to be the tenants of the only other “under offer” unit in the retail terrace.

Related Link: New Town Centre Jobs (The Journal)

The size of the police team covering Bradley Stoke is set to increase next month when a new Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) starts work.

South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) announced back in April that it was investing an additional £150,000 to “more than double the Council-funded uniformed police profile locally in response to concerns about community safety, anti-social behaviour and other forms of crime across the district”.

The money was to fund one additional PCSO for each of the the police teams in Filton, Kingswood, Bradley Stoke, Yate and Hanham.

The Journal understands that Bradley Stoke’s new PCSO has been undertaking training since mid-May and will be ready to join the beat team next month.

Further reinforcement of the local police team could take place after Avon and Somerset Police asked Bradley Stoke Town Council if they would like to part-fund a “dedicated” part-time police officer for the town.

The police have suggested that the Town Council might like to pay £12,500 p.a. towards the cost of employing former beat manager Claire Fletcher for 24 hours per week.

It is understood that WPC Fletcher has been on maternity leave and now wishes to return to work in a part-time role. The beat manager role in Bradley Stoke has since been taken on by PC Steven Palmer.

The Journal has also heard that there are plans to have the new “dedicated” police officer based at the town’s new Willow Brook shopping centre. The beat team previously had an office within Bradley Stoke Community School but that arrangement has since been ended, leaving the team to return to their original base at Filton Police Station.

Councillors responded favourably to the proposal at last week’s meeting of the Finance Committee, with Cllrs Robert Jones and Brian Hopkinson describing the offer as “a no brainer at this cost”. The extra money could easily be found from the Council’s reserves according to Cllr Jones.

Cllr Julian Barge however saw things differently, saying that he thought police funding should be the responsibility of central government. He also observed that as police cover is expected 24 hours a day, the quota of 24 hours per week represents only one full day in seven.

In the end Councillors agreed to the proposal “in principle” and further negotiations with the police will now take place.

Cllr Jones later commented:

“As recently as 2006 the local police team consisted of just a single constable before Jason [Green] joined the team later that year. If the plans discussed at finance on Wednesday come to fruition then we will have seen the number of police officers doubled and the number of PCSOs tripled since 2007 thanks to a positive partnership and increased funding from both councils [SGC and BSTC] and Avon and Somerset police.”

A public exhibition is being held this week to display the latest information about plans to allow vehicles to use the hard shoulder on motorways in the Bradley Stoke area.

Work on the M4/M5 Managed Motorway scheme, announced by Geoff Hoon, Secretary of State for Transport, earlier this year, is due to begin in Spring 2010 and be fully operational in 2012.

The project aims to ease congestion on the busiest parts of Bristol’s motorway network and will see drivers being able to use the hard shoulder as an extra lane during peak hours.

The ‘hard shoulder running’ scheme will be implemented on the M4 between the top of the M32 and the Almondsbury Interchange and on the M5 between Cribbs Causeway and the Almondsbury Interchange.

A similar scheme is already in operation on an eleven mile stretch of the M42 south of Birmingham. The speed limit for all lanes is reduced to 50mph when the hard shoulder is in use, while a red cross on signs over the hard shoulder tells drivers when the lane is closed.

The exhibition will be held on Friday 26th June (10:00 – 16:00) and Saturday 27th June (08:30 – 15.30) at:

Cribbs Business Centre
Hollywood Tower Mansion
Hollywood Lane
Cribbs Causeway
BS10 7TW

Representatives of the Highways Agency and their consultants will be at the exhibition to answer any questions.

Members of Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) have criticised the town’s Twinning Association after the group retrospectively applied for a grant towards the cost of a meal at which visitors from the twin town of Champs-sur-Marne were entertained earlier this year.

Residents of the French town visited Bradley Stoke over the weekend of 2nd/3rd May and took part in a meeting that involved the then-Mayor Robert Jones and staff of Bradley Stoke Community School.

Before flying back to Paris, the French visitors were treated to a meal at a pub in the vicinity of Bristol Airport.

The Twinning Association then submitted a retrospective application for Grant Aid of £250, which was considered at the BSTC Planning Committee on 27th May.

The Committee rejected the request on the grounds that it “didn’t conform to the requirements of Grant Aid applications”, but recommended that an ex-gratia payment of £125 be made under the Council’s policy of ‘match funding’.

The meeting was also told that a grant of £400 to the Association had been approved in 2006 but remained unpaid on the later orders of Council (in 2007) “pending further financial information”.

The matter led to a heated debate at last week’s meeting of Full Council, where some Councillors were critical of the fact that the guests had been entertained in North Somerset rather than at a local hostelry.

Cllr Julian Barge was particularly critical of the Association, claiming that it had “virtually disintegrated” and “needed to get  its act together”. He said the group should be asked to provide a list of its officials and members and provide the Council with sight of its accounts.

In the end Councillors voted to approve the £125 payment, with five votes for and three abstentions.

Cllrs Roger Avenin and Brian Hopkinson, who had been selected as the Council’s representatives on the Twinning Association’s Committee at the Council’s AGM, were instructed to meet with the Association to discuss the Council’s concerns.

Anne Clark, Chair of the Twinning Association, told The Journal that she was was unaware of the Council’s discussions and expressed disappointment on being told of the critical comments made by Councillors.

She added that the Association would be holding its AGM in the next few weeks and looked forward to receiving support from the Council’s representatives.

The Journal Comments

The Twinning Association may have lost its way in the last few years but the Council has done little or nothing to help. The last mention of the Association in the Council’s Annual Report was back in 2005/2006.

Almost ten years after the signing of the twinning agreement in 2000, there is no information about the Twinning Association to be found on the Council’s website.

Let’s hope that Cllrs Avenin and Hopkinson can sort out this mess in time for the 10th anniversary celebrations next year.

Related Link: Bradley Stoke Twinning Association (The Journal)