Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) has stepped in to ensure that, in future years, there will be a plentiful supply of food for a rare category of occasional visitor to the town.

In recent winters, the town has become well known amongst the bird watching community as a favoured feeding ground for waxwings, unusually coloured birds which are native to Scandinavia and Russia, but who sometimes migrate to the UK when local food supplies run low.

They are attracted to Bradley Stoke by the area’s above average density of rowan trees, whose berries constitute the birds’ favourite food source.

“Irruptions” (influxes) of waxwings have been noted locally in three of the last seven winters and the one last year drew scores of bird watching enthusiasts to the Willow Brook shopping centre, where the birds spent several weeks stripping the rowan trees of berries.

But the birdwatchers’ delight turned to anger when contractors at the centre started uprooting some of the rowan trees, leading to protests and heated exchanges on social media.

The centre management responded by saying that the trees were in a poor condition and were being substituted with other species in a rolling maintenance programme that had begun two years earlier. Altogether, 28 rowans were removed over two years, although the centre says it has since planted five new ones and a few others remain on the site.

Following last year’s controversy, Cllr John Ashe asked if the town council might consider planting replacements, and it has now agreed to purchase 60 rowan trees which will be planted in two separate locations within the town’s Three Brooks Local Nature Reserve. Some will be planted on the bank of the Tump and the others alongside the community orchard.

More: Trees will be planted by Green Gym and Conservation Group »

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This year’s Bradley Stoke Town Council fireworks display was again a great success.

Numbers attending the free event were up on last year and this was reflected in a healthy increase in voluntary charity donations.

This year, a total of £4,119 was raised for the mayor’s charities through donations, with £3,629 of the total coming from bucket collections and the remaining £490 coming from on-site traders (donut and burger vans).

The charities being supported by this year’s mayor, Andy Ward, are Cardiomyopathy UK and Freewheelers Emergency Voluntary Service.

Speaking at a recent council meeting, Cllr Ward gave thanks for the “outstanding support” from the volunteer marshals and bucket collectors, who came from a range of local groups, as well as council members and staff.

This article originally appeared in the December 2017 issue of the Bradley Stoke Journal news magazine (on page 14). 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.

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Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) has suffered a setback in its ambitions to redevelop the dilapidated hard court area in the grounds of Brook Way Activity Centre after officers at South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) indicated they were minded to refuse planning consent for a proposed scheme that would see the area converted to additional car parking spaces and green open space.

The news comes exactly four years after the then mayor Cllr Brian Hopkinson proposed the construction of two new buildings on the site, one for a charity and the other for youth provision.

A subsequent public consultation on the future of the area showed that 59 percent of respondents wanted to see additional parking facilities provided at the combined community centre and doctors’ surgery site, with just 20 percent supporting the need for a “new building” of some form.

After a working group set up to consider the results of the consultation failed to produce any formal reports or recommendations over a period of more than two years, the matter came back to Full Council in July 2016, where it was unanimously decided to use earmarked reserves of up to £50,000 to convert the hard court area to green open space and extend the car park.

A planning application was subsequently submitted to SGC (in April 2017), for a scheme that would create 20 additional parking spaces at the site, with 12 of these being created by expanding the existing car park into the area currently occupied by the hard courts and the other eight being created on the doctors’ surgery side of the access road. The remainder of the hard court area would be converted to green open space, with a new footpath being created to link this to the access road.

Plans showed that ten existing trees on the site would need to be “relocated” as part of the work.

Signs that all might not be well with the application emerged in June, when councillors were told that SGC’s tree officer had expressed “concerns about the loss of some trees”.

More: Town council decides to withdraw planning application »

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Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) says it is working with the local police team to combat a spate of tagging-style graffiti on walls, bus shelters and other structures across the town.

In recent months, graffiti images measuring up to 2 metres across have appeared at a number of very prominent sites, including on Bradley Stoke Way (underneath Primrose Bridge and close to the bridge over Stoke Brook), Baileys Court Road, Champs Sur Marne and the new skate park at Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre.

Other sites that are regularly plagued by graffiti include various locations within the Three Brooks Local Nature Reserve and the subway under the Winterbourne Road near Huckley Way.

In the latest incident, a large tag around 2.5m across was sprayed on the wall of the changing room block at the Jubilee Centre. The town council, which owns the block, has since contracted a specialist team at South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) to remove it at a cost to local taxpayers of £180.

Figures obtained by the Journal show that 15 incidents of graffiti were reported to BSTC since the start of the year, with eight of these occurring within the first three weeks of September. However, many incidents are thought to go unreported or are dealt with by other authorities, such as SGC.

Members of the public can report instances of graffiti to SGC via its website at www.southglos.gov.uk/report or by phoning Street Care on 01454 868000. Its policy is to clean graffiti from council-owned property within three working days. Priority is given to offensive and hate-related graffiti.

Difficulties arise, however, when the graffiti is on non-council property, such as utility company boxes or on private property. Fortunately, BSTC voluntarily acts a ‘clearing house’ for all cases of graffiti in Bradley Stoke and undertakes to inform the correct agencies e.g. South Gloucestershire Council, Western Power, Royal Mail, BT, depending on the property that has been defaced.

To inform BSTC about graffiti within Bradley Stoke, visit the dedicated webpage at www.bradleystoke.gov.uk/graffiti.php, email administrator@bradleystoke.gov.uk or phone 01454 205020.

More: Graffiti may also be reported via the FixMyStreet app »

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