The Bradley Stoke Journal

A remarkable U-turn by Tesco public affairs consultant Dan Bramwell has seen the supermarket group agree to hold a public consultation over the naming of Bradley Stoke’s new town centre currently under construction at Savages Wood Road. The move comes less than two weeks after Mr Bramwell stated on Radio Bristol that “having a competition now would delay the building of the town centre”. In the radio interview he also stated that a decision to call the development “The Brooks Centre” had been made back in March, when Bradley Stoke Town Council had been informed that no competition to choose the name would now take place, despite an earlier promise in a Tesco press release.

In a fumbled attempt at embarrassing Tesco, the Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) planning committee had unanimously objected to a planning application by Tesco for advertising signage that sported the “Brooks Centre” name. In doing so they overlooked the fact that South Gloucestershire Council’s (SGC) consultation period for the application had already expired. The planning committee’s grounds for objection served only to demonstrate their ignorance of planning law, the grounds being dismissed later by SGC planning officials as “irrelevant”.

In an address to Thursday evening’s Special Council Meeting, Mr Bramwell confirmed that the town centre development is “on schedule” for opening “later this year”. Marketing of the retail and office units is well underway, he added. However he also made several references to the imapct of the “economic slowdown”, which could be taken to mean that the developers are struggling to find tenants for some of the units. No mention was made by Mr Bramwell of any progress made in agreeing a joint BSTC/SGC drop-in centre in the new town centre.

Tesco’s local marketing team is due to take over the reins from Mr Bramwell in six weeks time.

The public competition to choose the name of the development will be launched early next week. The judging panel will be formed of two representatives from Tesco and two fom BSTC, with the winner receiving a £50 voucher and the right to nominate a local school to receive a personal computer donated by Tesco.

The Special Meeting had earlier held a fractious discussion about the Council’s ongoing dispute with Northavon Bowls Club over their rental agreement at Baileys Court. Unusually, members of the public had not been given the chance to speak at the start of the meeting and chair Julian Barge was adamant that the discussion should exclude the views of the assembled group of over 30 onlookers, including many members of the Bowls Club. Councillor Mark Forsyth began the meeting by summarising the discussions that had taken place between the Council’s working group and the bowlers. Expressions of disapproval from the audience eventually resulted in the meeting being adjourned for the Bowls Club to appoint a representative to speak on their behalf.

Once the meeting resumed (but still officially in an “adjourned” state), Brian Newland of the Bowls Club refuted many of the allegations made by Councillors earlier in the discussion and repeated calls for an independent arbitrator to be brought in.

With the meeting then officially reconvened, the Council resolved by a majority verdict to inform the Bowls Club that no change would be made to the “originally proposed agreement” (incorporating an 8% annual increase) and that the Club be given a further ten days to accept it or “that would be it”.

The Bradley Stoke Journal has learned that tonight’s Special Meeting of Bradley Stoke Town Council [agenda] has already attracted the attention of the local media. A source within Northavon Bowls Club has told The Journal that a reporter and cameraman from the Bristol Evening Post will be at the meeting. The source also revealed that the Club has been asked to take part in a discussion on Radio Bristol tomorrow (Friday) morning at 8:15am.

The Special Meeting, which takes place at 7:30pm in the Jubilee Centre, Savages Wood Road, has been called to discuss the ongoing bowls dispute and issues surrounding the new town centre development.

Tesco representative Dan Bramwell is expected to attend for the town centre discussion.

South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) has approved a “controversial” planning application for advertising signage in Bradley Stoke’s new town centre development. As reported in The Journal’s article on 30^th April, Bradley Stoke Town Council’s (BSTC) planning committee unanimously agreed to oppose the application at a meeting on 23^rd April, but the committee apparently overlooked the fact that SGC’s consultation period for the application had already expired on 15^th April.

An online objection was lodged by The Town Council on 28^th April, followed by a written objection (also received by SGC on 28^th April). However, a decision to recommend approval of the application had already been made by the SGC case officer with the issuing of a Circulated Schedule Report on 25^th April. The final decision to approve was made on 2^nd May after no requests were made by SGC councillors (or BSTC) to “call in” the application for a site visit or for determination by the SGC planning committee.

Quite why none of the SGC councillors representing Bradley Stoke chose to “call in” the application remains a mystery, particularly when four of these councillors are also members of the Town Council, including two (John Ashe and Sarah Pomfret) who sit on the BSTC planning committee that opposed the application.

The new town centre development is one of two topics to be discussed at a Special Meeting of Bradley Stoke Town Council on Thursday (8^th May). The ongoing dispute between the Town Council and Northavon Bowls Club over the Baileys Court rental agreement is also on the agenda. The press and public are invited to attend the meeting, although it is noted that recent deliberations on both of these matters have taken place “in camera” (i.e. the press and public have been asked to leave the room during the discussions).

Sunday’s dramatic events at Baileys Court bowling green, reported first here on the Bradley Stoke Journal have sparked a hurge surge of interest from the local, regional and national media. The Journal’s exclusive photos [album, slideshow] of the stand-off between bowlers and police officers have been a key factor in the momentum behind the story.

Once things have quietened down, we will be compiling a comprehensive review of the media coverage. In the meantime, here is a summary of the reports we know about:

Tuesday:

• Radio Bristol – on-site reports in the breakfast programme
• Bristol Evening Post – front page, inside page plus editorial comment (*) & online
• Western Daily Press – front page, two inside pages plus editorial comment (*) & online
• ITV West News – TV feature (*) & online (*)
• BBC Points West – TV feature (*) & online (*)

Wednesday:

• BBC Radio 2
• BBC Radio 4
• BBC Radio 5 Live
• Daily Express – print (*) & online
• Daily Mirror – print (*) & online
• Daily Mail (*) – print (*) & online (*)
• Daily Telegraph – online
• London Evening Standard – online (*)

Items marked (*) make use of exclusive photos supplied by The Bradley Stoke Journal.

Please let us know if you have seen coverage of the story elsewhere.

Read all the “Battle of the Bowls” stories here on The Bradley Stoke Journal.

The dispute between Bradley Stoke Town Council and Northavon Bowls Club, brought to a head by an invasion of the Baileys Court bowling green on Sunday, is featuring extensively this morning on the “Breakfast with Richard Wyatt” programme on BBC Radio Bristol. Local bowls hero Tony Allcock, Chief Executive of Bowls England was heard just after the 7am news voicing support for the Bowls Club and calling on the Council to be more more proactive in encouraging community sport. An interview with Bradley Stoke Town Council is expected to be broadcast later in the programme.

In dramatic scenes at Baileys Court bowling green on Sunday afternoon, police were called after a group of approximately fifty bowlers and supporters from Northavon Bowls Club entered the ground in defiance of an order imposed by Bradley Stoke Town Council. The bowlers began to set out equipment for an “open session”, but were soon interrupted by the sound of police sirens and the arrival of officers from Avon and Somerset Constabulary.

Gates to the green had been padlocked two weeks ago by the Council, but the chain on one of the gates was mysteriously severed sometime earlier on Sunday. This allowed the group to enter the premises at around 2pm.

The Club is in dispute with the Council over proposals for a new rental agreement at the ground and following the breakdown of negotiations between the two parties, the Club has been banned from the green and pavilion and instructed to remove all its effects by 1st May. [see earlier report in The Journal]

A total of seven police officers and PCSOs attended the disturbance and they are understood to have requested that the group leave the premises as they were committing an unlawful act of trespass following an incident of criminal damage. Heated discussions ensued, with some members of the club commenting that the strength of the police response was “over the top”. The group eventually left the ground after being there for about forty-five minutes.

More photos from this story may be found on The Journal’s PicasaWeb pages [album, slideshow]. Related posts: bowls