Residents of Bradley Stoke will have the chance to have their say on local bus services and fare levels at a consultation event to be held at the Willow Brook Centre on Thursday 25th April.

First Bus is staging the event as part of a major public consultation on bus fares in the Greater Bristol travel to work area.

The consultation process was announced in February, in response to a campaign by Bristol bus user Daniel Farr, who started an e-petition complaining about the cost of First Bus tickets.

A protest rally outside Bristol Bus Station organised by Mr Farr on 1st February was attended by Bradley Stoke North Councillor Ben Walker, who has in the past been critical of the poor reliability of local bus services.

Another local councillor, Robert Jones (Bradley Stoke South) has called on First Bus to “listen and act” on the consultation responses they get back, particularly on the affordability of fares, which he says is a key concern for Bradley Stoke residents.

Announcing the start of the three-month consultation, a statement on the First website reads:

“We understand people’s concern over the cost of travel in Bristol – costs for the industry have risen in recent years, and so have some of the bus fares charged. We have done what we can to keep the price of bus travel as low as possible – for instance creating new tickets, freezing some others and cutting the cost of some monthly season tickets – but we recognise that there is more we can do.”

The event at the Willow Brook Centre on Thursday 25th April runs from 11am until 7pm.

An online version of the consultation questionnaire can be completed at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/fareconsultation

The printed version of the questionnaire will be available at the consultation event on 25th April. Copies will  also be available at the First Travel Shop in Bristol city centre (from the end of the month).

More info: ‘A fare hearing for Bristol’ online questionnaire is launched

A Bradley Stoke Councillor is to speak at a “peaceful protest rally” called to express dissatisfaction with the high price of bus fares in Bristol.

Cllr Ben Walker (UKIP, Bradley Stoke North) will address the demo, which is due to take place outside the First Bus depot in Bristol city centre on Saturday (2nd February), between 12 noon an 2pm.

Other speakers confirmed for the event include Charlotte Leslie MP, Bristol City Councillor Mark Bradshaw and Green Party member Rob Telford.

The demo has been called by Bristol bus user Daniel Farr, who started an e-petition eight weeks ago complaining about the cost of First Bus tickets. His petition has so far attracted nearly 3,000 signatures.

First Group has reacted by announcing its intention to hold a structural review of bus fares in the Bristol area, combined with a public consultation that will be managed by a third party.

Justin Davies, Regional Managing Director for First in the South West and Wales, said:

“We are aware that the issue of fares in Bristol has often been a contentious one with a perception that the cost of travel here is significantly higher than elsewhere. This is frustrating for everyone and is something we have wished to tackle for some time.”

“We want to heighten awareness about the industry and allow people to better understand the economics of running buses and the cost pressures we face.”

“In return we want to hear from the public and their representatives, in particular what they think we could do differently to both attract more people on to buses and deliver the best possible value for money for our customers. This is why we are launching this review and consultation and we hope that as many people as possible will let us have their views.”

News of the review and consultation has been welcomed by Bristol Mayor George Ferguson together with Bristol MPs Charlotte Leslie and Stephen Williams.

More: Continuing complaints from BS bus users »

A man was taken to hospital with serious injuries after being pinned between two vehicles on Bradley Stoke Way at around 6:45pm last night (Tuesday 15th January).

The man, believed to be in his 20s, was taken to Frenchay Hospital with what were described as “life changing injuries” following the incident on the Savages Wood Roundabout, near Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre.

Some reports from the scene suggest he may have been changing a tyre when he was struck by another vehicle. A third vehicle is then believed to have collided with the first two.

Journal readers writing on our Facebook page report seeing a white Peugeot apparently broken down on the edge of the roundabout [map] from as early as 5:30pm.

One BSJ Facebook contributor, Bel Miles, wrote:

“Saw it all from my window, guy got trapped between two cars while getting stuff out his boot then a third car crashed into them sandwiching the guy between the two stationary cars! Looked painful poor guy!”

The car immediately behind the Peugeot was a grey Audi, while a grey Mitsubishi L200 with damage to its front nearside corner stood alongside the other two vehicles, closer to the centre of the roundabout.

At least ten emergency service vehicles attended the incident, including six regular police cars or vans, two unmarked police cars, an ‘air [ambulance] support’ car and an ambulance.

More: Roads closed until 10:25pm; more photos from the scene »

A new bus service is to be introduced from next Monday (14th January), linking the Willow Brook Centre with Bristol city centre, via the Frenchay campus of the University of the West of England (UWE).

Wessex Red’s number 13 service is being extended to serve Bradley Stoke, Little Stoke, Stoke Lodge and Filton, with a 20 minute frequency Monday through Friday and a half-hourly service on Saturdays.

On Sundays the service will begin from UWE (term time only).

After leaving the Willow Brook Centre, buses will head down Brook Way, then along Braydon Avenue before turning north up Stoke Lane and then south down the A38 Gloucester Road to Filton. From there, the route map shows buses travelling along the Avon Ring Road to MoD Abbey Wood before taking the Cheswick Bus Link into UWE

From UWE, the route passes through Stapleton and Fishponds before approaching the city centre along Stapleton Road and Old Market.

The new service is likely to be welcomed by residents of Little Stoke and Stoke Lodge, who have suffered a much reduced service after the U7 and U8 (also operated by Wessex) were withdrawn last September. It will also reinstate a public transport link between Bradley Stoke and major employers’ sites on the A38, such as Rolls-Royce, Royal Mail and Airbus.

The indirect route taken by the service means that it is unlikely to be attractive to commuters between Bradley Stoke and the city centre, with the peak hours journey time exceeding one hour.

Passengers will hope that the new service will be more reliable than the former U7 and U8, which were condemned as “rubbish” by Bradley Stoke Councillor Ben Walker when Wessex announced plans to withdraw them last April. South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) was forced to step in and support the services with taxpayers’ money between May and September.

More: Council paid £17,763 to keep service going for three months »

None of the roads in Bradley Stoke warrant being considered for repair, according to a report presented to last week’s meeting of the Southern Brooks Area Forum.

Councillors on the Forum, which covers Bradley Stoke, Filton, Frenchay, Stoke Park, Patchway, Stoke Gifford and Winterbourne, were given £60,000 to allocate to highway maintenance schemes in the area and they were asked to choose from a list of 43 candidate schemes, prioritised according to a scoring system devised by South Gloucestershire Council’s engineers.

But with not a single Bradley Stoke road appearing on the list, our five District Councillors were left to weigh up the needs of our neighbouring parishes.

On the grounds that a lack of local interest made him “impartial”, Bradley Stoke South Cllr John Ashe had taken it upon himself to draw up a suggested list of seven schemes prior to the meeting and, in contrast to previous meetings of the Area Forum where the different political groups have talked down schemes in parishes governed by their opponents, agreement on Cllr Ashe’s proposal was reached relatively quickly.

The outcome was that three roads (one in each of Filton, Winterbourne and Frenchay) are to be resurfaced and four sections of pavement (one in Filton and three in Stoke Gifford) will be reconstructed or resurfaced during 2013/14.

Patchway, despite having three schemes on the list, missed out – justified on the grounds that a Patchway road had been selected for resurfacing at the Area Forum’s September meeting.

A highways engineer present at the meeting explained that South Gloucestershire Council has a budget of around £2.5 million to maintain 1,500km of roads in the district. Pointing out that a single scheme (resurfacing part of the A38 in Patchway) had consumed £0.5 million of this year’s budget, he admitted: “We really haven’t got enough money”.

Records on the SGC website show that none of the Council’s central highway maintenance budget was allocated to Bradley Stoke for 2011/12 or 2012/13.

More info and related links:

• List of schemes considered by the Area Forum (SGC) [PDF]
• Report a Pothole or Damaged Surface (SGC)