The Bradley Stoke Journal

A record crowd of nearly 8,000 surrounded the Jubilee Centre, Bradley Stoke, last night for the Bradley Stoke Town Council Firework Display.

Now in its ninth year, the annual display has grown to be one of the largest in the Bristol area and the public were delighted with a 20 minute display described by many as “better than ever”.

No entrance fee is charged for the event but public generosity saw £4,894 raised for the Mayor’s charities through bucket collection’s carried out by volunteers from Little Stoke Social Club, local Air Cadets as well as the two benefiting organisations – the Three Brooks Nature Conservation Group and the Bradley Stoke Scouts.

Also in attendance, representing HM The Queen, was Vice Lord-Lieutenant for Gloucestershire Robert Bernays who congratulated the Town Council for putting on the event before leading the assembled masses in a countdown to the launch [audio clip].

Speaking after the event Town Mayor, Cllr Ben Walker thanked the Vice Lord-Lieutenant for attending and paid tribute to the work of council staff and volunteers for putting on the event, saying:

“I’m very grateful to Robert Bernays for finding time to attend our display, a lot of hard work goes in to planning and marshalling the event and it means a lot to those involved behind the scenes that it is recognised externally as one of the county’s big events.”

Adding:

“I should like to thank all the staff and volunteers that helped make the event a success as well as, of course, the good people of Bradley Stoke who gave so generously to my chosen charities.”

More photos on PicasaWeb: album; slideshow (The Journal)

Bradley Stoke’s 2011 firework display, organised by the Town Council, is to be attended by a representative of the Queen.

The countdown for the display, which will take place at the Jubilee Centre on Sunday 6th November 2011, will be carried out by the Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, Robert Bernays.

The news, proudly announced by Mayor Ben Walker on the cover of the recent Town Council newsletter, follows a decision to keep the display at the Jubilee Centre despite the Senior Health and Safety Officer for last year’s event recommending that it be moved to another site because of crowd safety concerns.

Cllr Mark Forsyth said last year that the event had “become too successful for its own good”, adding: “we could have ended up with a ‘situation’”.

The Town Council, however, has since decided that it OK for the show to go on at the same venue. This year, the fireworks will be launched from the upper football pitch, leaving the lower football pitch available for spectators.

Read on to find out more about Robert Bernays OBE »

An article in Bradley Stoke Town Council’s latest newsletter reports a worrying increase in incidents of vandalism directed at Council-owned facilities in the town.

The Council says it spent over £7,000 to repair vandalised property during the last financial year (2010/2011) and a similar sum (£6,750) has already been spent in the first half of this year.

The figures do not include the time taken by Council staff to deal with the damage nor the many smaller scale incidents which can be fixed ‘in-house’.

Over the summer holidays, four of the seven Council-managed play areas in Bradley Stoke had items out of use whilst waiting for replacement parts.

The Council says it makes regular checks at its plays areas, activity centres and bus stops, adding that all criminal damage is reported to the police and South Gloucestershire Council’s Anti-Social Behaviour Team.

More: Vandalism incidents listed in a report to the Planning Commitee »

Bus shelters in Bradley Stoke deemed too shabby for a prestige bus route enhanced by millions of pounds of government money are to be replaced as part of a £140,000 package of additional spending.

Local Councillors expressed concern in 2009 when South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) began ripping out many of the Town Council-owned green bus shelters and replacing them with hi-tech silver flat-roofed ones at a cost of £20,000 per stop.

Town Councillors demanded that SGC put the old shelters into storage for possible use at sites where there is currently no shelter but this turned out to be impractical due to damage caused during removal.

The West of England Partnership, responsible for overseeing the £70 million Greater Bristol Bus Network project, originally planned to leave a small number of old-style shelters along the 73 route in Bradley Stoke but has now decided to spend extra cash to replace the small number that remain in order to improve the image of ‘Corridor 4′ that runs from Bristol city Centre to Cribbs Causeway.

More: Extra money will make shelter provision “more aesthetic” »

All but one of the staff on the payroll of Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) have been rewarded with £50 Mall vouchers “in recognition of good work to date and assistance in raising the profile of BSTC”, according to the draft minutes of last week’s Full Council meeting.

The news is revealed in the minuted account of a discussion item titled ‘Chairs recommendation on Annual Staff Appraisals’, from which the press and public were excluded. In the minutes, we learn that Mayor Ben Walker recommended:

“On completion of the new staff appraisals for 2010/11, the Chairs of the council committees would like to pay special thanks to the BSTC members of staff for their conduct, support and flexibility throughout 2010/11 and the implementation of the staffing restructure. Those staff members are: Rachel Pullen, John Rendell, Pat Louca, Vicky Davies, Sue Clark, Vanessa Walters, William Walton, Stephen Barton, Elaine Bezer, Patricia Harris, Royston Broderick and Dave Dace.”

The “staffing restructure” at the Town Council would appear to have been going on for some now, having first came to light in April 2010 when the Council held an ‘Extraordinary and Confidential’ meeting. Later, in June 2010, the profile of the then Deputy Town Clerk Lesley Osborne mysteriously disappeared from the staff list shown on the Council’s website. A press statement later explained that the officer had retired and that “no decision on the post would be taken until the results of the on-going staffing review are presented to Council.”

More: The Mayor announces Council’s decision before a vote is taken! »

Local Councils have once again decided to ignore every single complaint received from residents in connection with the part-night street lighting recently introduced in Bradley Stoke.

Last night’s meeting of the Town Council heard that 35 comments and complaints, relating to 25 individual streets, have been received by the Council since the scheme was introduced in April this year. Topping the list is Pursey Drive (4 complaints), followed closely by The Worthys (3).

According to the Council, the comments and complaints received fall into the following categories:

• Lack of consultation
• Increased crime and anti-social behaviour
• Health and safety
• Confusion over switching times

A  meeting attended by officers from the Town Council and South Gloucestershire Council on 17th August is said to have considered all 35 complaints and agreed that “appropriate responses had [already] been made”, concluding that “there [is] no statistical evidence to support the complaints at this time.”

A formal review of crime and traffic accident statistics is promised for January next year.

Prior to its introduction, a public consultation on the proposed scheme was carried out by the Town Council from October to December 2010. A total of 153 responses were received, with 83 agreeing to the scheme as proposed (without alteration); 26 respondents were against the scheme, while a further 36 indicated support in general subject to specific amendments being made.

Read on: Rebel Councillor not seen since “human rights” outburst »