The Bradley Stoke Journal

A meeting of the Southern Brooks Area Forum this evening (Tuesday 2nd March) will allocate funding of £29,220 to a selection of projects proposed by local voluntary organisations under the Small Grant Scheme.

A total of 27 applications have been received, from organisations which include:  Four Towns Play Association (£3,000 for equipment, staff training and publicity), Three Brooks Nature Conservation Group (£391 for bat walk equipment), Holy Trinity Youth Group (£3,000 for equipment) and Willow Brook Townswomen’s Guild (£500 for hall hire).

Area forums, organised by South Gloucestershire Council (SGC), give local people the opportunity to talk about issues and concerns that affect their neighbourhoods. They champion local needs and aspirations and gather the views of residents about specific community issues.

Other items on tonight’s agenda include a presentation on emergency planning and consultation on the South Gloucestershire Compact, a partnership agreement between the statutory sectors and the voluntary and community sector.

The meeting takes place at Patchway Community College, Hempton Lane, Patchway (7pm start).

More info: Agenda (SGC)

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South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) has agreed a 2.5% rise in council tax for 2010/2011.

The increase, agreed at last Wednesday’s Full Council meeting, is well below the government’s favoured CPI (Consumer Prices Index) measure of inflation, which registered 3.5% in January. It is however higher than the expected average Council Tax increase for all English authorities, which has been estimated at 1.8% [source: CIPFA].

The Council’s budget includes an extra £2 million a year to improve the maintenance of roads, pavements and drains in the district. Savings will be made by reducing the Council’s workforce by 317 posts and introducing a new IT system to improve efficiency.

Elsewhere in the region, Bristol City Council and North Somerset Council have both agreed 2.0% rises.

Bradley Stoke Town Council has already decided to raise its precept by 1.8% for 2010/2011, following a year with no increase in 2009/2010.

The Avon & Somerset Police Authority will be raising its precept by an inflation-busting 4.2% in 2010/2011, blaming the increase on a shortfall in funding from central government.

Related link: Reactions to the South Gloucestershire Council budget and council tax announcement (SouthGlos Post)

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South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) has opened a public consultation on plans to change the Traffic Regulation Order governing parking restrictions in Pear Tree Road.

The move is associated with the introduction of Civil Parking Enforcement, which moved the responsibility for enforcing parking regulations from the police to local authorities.

Council officers say that enforcing parking restrictions is difficult if the markings on the road do not match the restrictions described in the relevant order.

In Pear Tree Road, a 47m stretch of road between Aspleys Mead and Cooks Close currently has no double yellow lines on either side of the road, whereas the order describes restrictions for the same stretch.

The Council is proposing to bring the order into line with the road markings, i.e. reduce its scope. There will be no change to the double yellow lines on the road.

Illegal and inconsiderate parking along Pear Tree Road has been a regular issue of discussion at Bradley Stoke’s Safer and Stronger Community Group meetings. Customers visiting the Tesco Express and other stores at Bradley Pavilions are said to be the biggest culprits.

The Council’s consultation runs until Thursday 25th February 2010.

More information:

• Have Your Say – Amendments to Waiting Restrictions Order (SGC)

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Refuse and recycling collections in Bradley Stoke are running a whole week behind schedule as a result of the recent wintry weather.

South Gloucestershire Council says it has “temporarily suspended green bin collections to allow crews to concentrate on the black bin waste”.

The combined effect of the Christmas holiday and recent bad weather means that black bins that would normally have been emptied on Friday 8th January were in fact collected last Friday (15th January).

A notice posted on the Council’s website on Friday (15th January) reads:

“Today, most crews are collecting the black bin waste from Friday 8th January (which would normally have been collected on Monday 11th January  according to the revised holiday schedule but have been delayed by weather conditions).”

“In some areas we are running behind this schedule because the roads are too dangerous to access but in other areas we are beginning to catch up slowly. For this reason it is impossible for us to say with certainty when we will be able to get to any specific property.”

“The best advice we can give at the moment is to put your black bins out for collection according to the Christmas holiday schedule and we will get to you as soon as we possibly can. We are catching up but it is slow and variable progress.”

Dry recycling (green box) collections are also said to be running a whole week late.

The Council says it plans to start picking green bins up again in the week commencing Monday 25th January.

Householders are reminded that they may take waste to the Council’s Sort It! centres, the nearest being Little Stoke.

Related Link: Bradley Stoke Weather

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Local Liberal Democrat Councillor Jon Williams has slammed the Conservatives for, he says, wrongly claiming credit over the approval of a new pedestrian crossing on Brook Way.

The row follows a campaign by parents of children at Wheatfield Primary School, who said they found it dangerous  getting to the school from Saxon Way and other roads on the west side of Brook Way.

The issue was first raised at a meeting of the Bradley Stoke Safer and Stronger Group in February, where concerned parents complained of the difficulty of crossing Brook Way near the mini-roundabout junction with Wheatfield Drive.

Parents also pointed out that the central refuge at existing crossings were too narrow to accommodate pushchairs and that there were no school warning signs on Brook Way.

Cllr Mark Forsyth (Conservative) shocked the meeting when he suggested that the parents might like to “buy some fluorescent jackets and act as lollipop persons”.

A more constructive response came from Cllr Williams, who offered to work with the parents to see if the school’s Travel Plan could be updated with a view to attracting funding for a new crossing.

Cllr Williams says he subsequently spoke to the school, attended the school’s Travel Plan Committee, arranged for a Highways officer to attend, and encouraged the school to resubmit its Travel Plan.

Plans for a new ‘raised table’ crossing were then put forward to the Southern Brooks Area Forum meeting earlier this month, where the parents and Cllr Williams were succesful in obtaining approval for the estimated £20,000 cost.

But a press release put out after the meeting by South Gloucestershire Conservatives – subtitled “Councillors welcome moves to encourage safer route to school” – has angered Cllr Williams, who says the Tories “do nothing and then claim the credit”.

Cllr Williams told The Journal:

“It appears that the Conservatives are rewriting history again. This time they are claiming credit for getting a new, safer, crossing across Brook Way between Courtlands and Wheatfield Drive. The truth is that it was parents at the school and the school’s Travel Plan Committee who should take the credit.”

“Not once did a Conservative councillor make contact with the school or the parents over this matter and the only thing they did to support the scheme was to vote in favour of Cllr Williams’ proposal to proceed with the scheme at last week’s Area Forum meeting.”

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