Bradley Stoke Town Council members and staff celebrated the 25th anniversary of the organisation’s establishment with a cake-cutting ceremony held at the annual town meeting on 10th May.
Although the first residents of the ‘new town’ of Bradley Stoke moved into their new homes in late 1987, the area continued to be served by no fewer than four parish councils – Almondsbury, Stoke Gifford, Patchway and Winterbourne.
Residents formed the Bradley Stoke Community Development Association to campaign for better facilities and to secure a single parish for the new town (fending off proposals to have separate parishes for the north and south).
Bradley Stoke Parish Council was finally formed in April 1992, following the election of 13 councillors the previous March. Soon after, councillors made use of the power to declare their parish a town “to underline its status … as the largest private housing development in Europe”.
In its early days, the town council had to fight for what it believed to be its fair share of the £3.2m that Almondsbury Parish Council had received in 1986 for selling land in the north of Bradley Stoke to developers. Its case was based on the fact that three-fifths of the population of the old Almondsbury parish now lived within the town of Bradley Stoke. Following arbitration, a settlement of £1.2m was agreed.
Photo: Councillors marked the occasion with a specially created cake and matching cupcakes (see also below).
Bradley Stoke Town Council: Notable milestones
April 1992: Formation of Bradley Stoke Town Council – following council elections
February 1993: Council office moves from town clerk’s home to a permanent address at The Courtyard, Woodlands
December 1994: Successful campaign to prevent a park and ride terminus being built in the town
May 1995: Arbitration between Almondsbury Parish and Bradley Stoke Town Councils. Bradley Stoke agrees to accept £1,200,000 settlement over allocation of funds following boundary changes
March 1996: Successful opposition to Filton Commercial Airport as the Public Inquiry refuses to allow the development
November 2002: Official opening of the Bradley Stoke Jubilee Centre (replacing the ‘Blue Hut’)
April 2008: Official opening of Baileys Court Activity Centre extension
June 2012: Town Council moves to purpose-built new office at The Jubilee Centre
April 2016: Official opening of the new Bradley Stoke Skate Park in the grounds of Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre
(Selected entries from the council’s Record of Achievement/Major Works.)
Above: Town council newsletter from 2002 announcing the start of building work on the “new community building on Savages Wood Road”, later officially named the Jubilee Centre. The building replaced the temporary structure on the site known as the ‘Blue Hut’. The newsletter also contained an article about a setback in achieving funding for a secondary school to serve the town. In the event, parents would have to wait until 2005 before they could send their older children to a school within the town’s borders.
This article originally appeared in the June 2017 issue of the Bradley Stoke Journal news magazine (on pages 22 & 23). The magazine is delivered FREE, EVERY MONTH, to 9,500 homes in Bradley Stoke, Little Stoke and Stoke Lodge. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.
