The Bradley Stoke Journal

Bradley Stoke Cricket Club (BSCC) is looking for new players of all ages and abilities for the coming season.

The club, based at the Baileys Court Activity Centre, says it will have seven adult teams playing on Saturdays and Sundays.

Games are also staged on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, when teams from six local companies compete in a round robin 15-over tournament.

Local youngsters are well catered for, with youth teams at the U9, U13 any U15 levels. Youth training and coaching is held regularly on Sunday mornings throughout the season.

On Good Friday (2nd April), youngsters from the club will be staging a ‘kwik cricket’ and fielding demonstration in the Town Square at the Willow Brook Centre. The event will start at 11am and continue until 1pm.

For more information on joining the club, contact Mike Mundy on 0117 9697293.

More information and related links:

• Profile of Bradley Stoke Cricket Club (BSCC)
• Cricket in Bradley Stoke (The Journal)

Bradley Stoke Councillors have given a further thumbs down to plans for cycle crossings in the town despite compromises being made by South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) following the Town Council’s earlier objection.

SGC now says it is prepared to abandon plans for a ‘raised table’ crossing on Fiddlers Wood Lane, close to the Bradley Stoke Way roundabout, replacing it with a ‘kerb build out’ scheme.

But the District Council is adamant that a similar proposed crossing on Baileys Court Road, between its junctions with Sherbourne Avenue and Meadow Way [Street View], should go ahead.

The length of the raised crossing proposed by SGC has been increased to 6m, so that bus passengers will not experience a bumpy ride.

Cllr Robert Jones described the proposed crossing on Baileys Court Road as “an obstruction of the highway”, adding that he would object to “anything that slows the traffic below the legal speed limit”, while Cllr John Ashe said installation of the same crossing would effectively mean “introducing a [lower] speed limit by the back door”.

Councillors voted to inform SGC of their continued objection to the Baileys Court Road scheme and requested that a light controlled crossing be installed in its place.

It is likely that the matter will now have to be decided by SGC’s Executive Member for Transport.

In the meantime, construction work connected with Cycling City Route 3 (of which the crossings form part) is well underway. A new footpath/cycleway has been completed south of Savages Wood Roundabout and work has now commenced on widening the footpath along Bradley Stoke Way, north of the Willow Brook Centre.

The Friends of Jubilee Green (FOJG) are staging an Easter Fun Day this Sunday (28th March).

The group is hoping for fine weather between 2pm and 3pm , when an Easter egg hunt and Easter bonnet parade will take place around the park.

Refreshments will be available in The Woodlands Suite of the adjacent Jubilee Centre, where craft activities will also be provided.

The event is free but the group will be asking for donations for the refreshments, to raise funds for upcoming projects such as the youth structure (shelter) in the park and the “flying carpet” (a new piece of play  equipment).

Cllr Ben Walker of Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) was recently co-opted to serve as an advisor to the FOJG committee. He will, however, have no voting rights as the group must remain an independent community group in order to be eligible for grant funding from a number of sources.

Michelle Dent of FOJG explained to The Journal:

“We requested this to ensure a smooth working partnership between us and BSTC.”

“We are looking to install new equipment, improving and enriching the park area and want to ensure that BSTC are aware of our intentions and activities at the planning stage as our projects have maintenance cost implications for BSTC.”

“We want to be in a position of working with the council and having their full understanding of our intentions.”

Town Councillors in Bradley Stoke have been discussing options for upgrading direction signs on roads leading to the town centre.

The discussion was prompted by a request made to South Gloucestershire Council by the Willow Brook Centre, which wants to see the signs rationalised.

At present, visitors looking for the centre face a confusing variety of descriptions on the town’s road signs with “Town Centre”, “District Centre”, “Superstore” and “New Shopping Centre” all appearing on signs within a quarter of a mile of the centre.

The Journal even found a sign (on Bradley Stoke Way) directing delivery lorries to “Service Area A”, which no longer exists, having been demolished during the early stages of the town centre redevelopment over two years ago.

Councillors were unanimous in agreeing that the dated “District Centre” label should be dropped but were keen that “Town Centre” should be used in addition to any “Willow Brook” phrase.

Some Councillors said they would prefer “Bradley Stoke Town Centre” rather than the less specific “Town Centre”.

The centre management’s suggestion of “Willow Brook Shopping Centre” was questioned by Cllr Robert Jones, who pointed out that the town centre is “not just a shopping centre” – highlighting services such as the new NHS dentist and the Town Square, where community events are sometimes staged.

Work on an extension to Bradley Stoke Library began last week, just days before the end of the financial year in which the Council promised to make the investment.

Money for the extension was allocated in South Gloucestershire Council’s (SGC’s) 2009/2010 budget announced in February 2009 and a planning application was submitted in September.

With the end of the financial year looming, it looked liked the Council was going to renege on its promise, but a press release issued by SGC on 17th March announced that the work had “started this week”.

The size of the extension, which will add just 63sqm to the library’s existing 504sqm, is thought to have initially disappointed local Councillors and library staff but they are now said to be “grateful for what they will get”.

The work will see the library building extended by 3.6m at its south-eastern end, over the grassed area that is partly used as an outdoor play area. It is understood that the new space will be used for pre-school age book stock, leaving the existing children’s section to be used for school age children’s stock.

Library to close for five weeks in June/July

Information on display in the library says that the facility will close for a five week period starting on Monday 7th June, to enable the construction work to be completed. The majority of library services will not be affected in the period leading up to the closure.

A wooden screen, visible from inside the library, has already been erected to protect the existing space while work on the extension progresses.

Liberal Democrat Councillors welcome the expansion

Liberal Democrat Councillors on SGC welcomed the start of the work but also expressed disappointment at the limited size of the extension.

(more…)

Councillors on Bradley Stoke Town Council say they will consider supporting a scheme to reduce CO2 emissions and cut electricity bills by turning off some of the town’s streetlights overnight, but only if the financial savings are passed on to local residents.

South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) has been trialing overnight  switch-offs in the village of Charfield since June 2009 and is now looking to extend the scheme to other towns and parishes.

A similar scheme has recently been introduced on stretches of the Avon Ring Road, where switching off 35% of the streetlights is expected to yield savings of £12,000 per year.

SGC says the scheme will only be extended to areas where full consultation has been carried out in advance with the local town or parish council, police, the fire brigade and other partners:

“Only when there is agreement between organisations would that area be considered to take part in the trial.”

Town Clerk Sharon Petela’s suggestion that Councillors might like to consider introducing the switch-offs in Bradley Stoke received a frosty reception from Cllr Robert Jones (Conservative), who expressed concern about the costs of a consultation exercise and how the money saved might be apportioned:

“I don’t think we should be expending [Town Council] officer time if we get no benefit. If SGC saves money, it should be Bradley Stoke that benefits – not the whole of South Gloucestershire.”

The discussion gave Cllr Julian Barge (Conservative) another opportunity to engage in one of his regular rants against the “one way” flow of money from Bradley Stoke into the coffers of SGC, citing police staffing, youth provision and litter collection as areas where the Town Council had felt it necessary to supplement inadequate funding from SGC.

A greener note was sounded by Cllr Jon Williams (Liberal Democrat), who suggested that Councillors needed to be thinking of the “bigger picture”, namely the environment.