The Bradley Stoke Journal

Work is due to begin today (Monday 19th July) on a Council-run park and ride site at Hunts Ground Road, Stoke Gifford, close to Parkway Station.

The facility, which will cater for up to 200 cars, is being built on the site of an old brick works on the north-west side of Hunts Ground Round [map] between the Esporta gym and Parkway Station.

South Gloucestershire Council puts the estimated construction time at 32 weeks, with completion scheduled for March 2011.

The car park will include lighting and a CCTV system and the gates will be locked at night and opened early in the morning to enhance security.

Parking charges at the new facility will be £5 a day during the week and £3 a day at weekends. Payment machines will accept credit/debit cards only. By comparison, the official APCOA car park at Parkway Station (capacity: 1140 cars) currently charges £6.90 on weekdays and £4.80 on Saturday and Sunday.

Cllr Brian Allinson, Executive Member for Planning, Transportation and Strategic Environment said:

“This is an exciting step in the provision of improved public transport facilities in South Gloucestershire and will provide much needed car parking for those commuters wishing to access the many bus and rail services that call at Parkway.”

The capacity of the current park and ride scheme is much reduced from that envisaged in earlier plans. The Council lost an option on land on the opposite side of Hunts Ground Road, which had originally been earmarked for the scheme, by failing to meet the required Section 106 trigger dates.

Then, the discovery of a colony of the locally rare small blue butterfly on the current site meant that the number of parking spaces had to be reduced by one third in order to leave sufficient space for kidney vetch, the species’ larval food plant, to flourish.

Read on for details of proposed new parking restrictions in Hunts Ground Road »

South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) has opened a public consultation on plans for a major new road transport scheme that will link Bradley Stoke with Bristol city centre.

The scheme, known as the North Fringe to Hengrove Package, includes provision of bus rapid transit services, the construction of a new link road between Stoke Gifford and the A4174 Avon Ring Road (close to junction 1 of the M32 at Hambrook) and a new Park & Ride facility beside the M32 (close to the Coldharbour Lane bridge).

“In principle” funding of £168 million was approved by the government in July and the next step will be the submission of a Major Scheme Business Case to the Department for Transport (DfT) by March 2010. If the scheme is approved, implementation could start in 2013/2014 – according to the West of England Partnership (WoEP), which is fronting the bid on behalf of SGC and Bristol City Council.

Rapid transport is described as a fast, frequent and reliable public transport service provided by buses running, where possible, on traffic-free routes – sometimes on and sometimes off existing roads. Journey times will be reduced by requiring tickets  to be purchased prior to boarding and giving buses priority over other road users at traffic lights.

The long-awaited Stoke Gifford Transport Link, which will combine a bus rapid transit route with a regular road, is intended to relieve the current congestion around Bristol Parkway station. The route will start from Great Stoke Way in Stoke Gifford, running initially behind houses in Kings Drive.  A new bridge will be constructed to carry the link over the Bristol to London railway line, east of Bristol Parkway station.

Maps included in the consultation documents show the bus rapid transit route starting on the Aztec West Business Park and then following the full length of Bradley Stoke Way before using the new Stoke Gifford Transport Link to reach the Avon Ring Road. Buses will then head for the University of the West of England (UWE) campus on Coldharbour Lane before joining the M32 at the new Park & Ride.

Proposed stops along Bradley Stoke Way include Woodlands Lane, Patchway Brook Roundabout, the Willow Brook Centre, Webbs Wood Roundabout and Baileys Court Roundabout.

SGC is staging a number of unstaffed public exhibitions to allow residents to learn more about the proposals. Local venues are:

• From Monday 30th November to Friday 4th December at the Aztec West Centre
• From Monday 30th November to Monday 7th December at the Willow Brook Centre

A staffed exhibition is also being staged at Bradley Stoke Library on Saturday 5th December, from 9am to 12 noon.

The consultation period runs until Friday 8th January 2010.

Related links:

• North Fringe to Hengrove Package consultation (SGC)
• North Fridge Rapid Transit (The Journal)
• North Fringe to Hengrove Package (WoEP)