The Bradley Stoke Journal

South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) has revealed details of the interim youth provision measures it has put in place following its decision, jointly with Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC), to close the Brook Way Youth Club at the end of last month.

Youth workers will be going out onto the streets on three nights a week to engage with young people congregating at places such as the skate park and the Willow Brook Centre.

The street work will be supplemented by six hours of activity sessions each week – including DJ’ing, football and young women’s projects – taking place at Baileys Court Activity Centre and Bradley Stoke Community School.

Catherine Challinor, a full time youth worker for SGC, said the programme would remain in place until Christmas, after which it might be reviewed following feedback from service users.

Having taken the decision, back in July, to close the Brook Way Youth Club, the Councils have now finally opened a public consultation to ask young people which activities they would like to see provided in the local area. The survey, dubbed “the largest, most in depth consultation regarding youth provision in Bradley Stoke” by Mayor Ben Walker in a recent Town Council newsletter, was supposed to start in September but finally got underway on 1st November.

The Bradley Stoke Youth Needs Survey 2011 runs until 17th December. SGC says it will publish the results of the consultation by the end of January 2012 on its Youth Unlimited website.

More: 13 youth leaders made redundant following Councils’ decision »

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” »