The Bradley Stoke Journal

Bradley Stoke Town Councillors are to decide at a meeting on Wednesday whether a private company should be permitted to stage a beer festival at one of the Council’s three activity centres.

Brizzle Beer Festivals, a company based in Bradley Stoke that organises “community” beer festivals in the Bristol area, has asked to use one of the centres and is promising to donate a proportion of takings/profits to charity.

Council officers have referred the request to Councillors because “it does not fall within the normal type of hire”.

The Brook Way Activity Centre, recently refurbished after the Council withdrew funding for the resident youth club, is identified as the most appropriate venue for the event, due to its capacity and ability to accommodate the hog roast that seems to be a regular feature of the applicant’s festivals.

The venue would be available from 8am to 11pm, “due to the proximity of nearby households”.

The festival organisers have offered to stage the event in partnership with the Council, with no charge being made for the venue and 30% of profits going to a charity of the Council’s choosing. Alternatively, the firm says it will pay for the venue and donate 30% of proceeds, less the hire charge, to a charity of its own choosing.

More: Should firm be charged commercial or private hire rate? »

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Police in Bradley Stoke are appealing for information after a suspicious incident in which a 6m-high floodlight column at the town’s Brook Way Activity Centre was sawn through, causing it to fall onto the sports courts at the complex.

The felling of the floodlight column late on Tuesday 17th May follows an earlier incident late last year in which a cable supplying power to the six floodlights surrounding the courts was “maliciously” severed.

The two incidents follow continued friction between the youth club based at the centre and residents of neighbouring properties, who claim they have been blighted with increased levels of noise, light pollution (from the floodlights around the sports courts) and anti-social behaviour since Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) moved the youth club to the centre in 2009.

The toppling of the floodlight was followed by a further incident two nights later when a window of one nearby resident’s car was smashed with a brick.

A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police told The Journal:

“Police investigating damage to a lighting stand at the Brook Way Activity Centre on 17th May ask anyone with any information to contact them.”

“Officers have carried out house-to-house enquiries and examined CCTV footage from both the centre and private property nearby in connection with this incident and the smashing of a car window the following night.”

Asked about the outcome of investigations into the previous cable cutting incident, the spokesperson added:

“Police have followed all available lines of enquiry in connection with an earlier incident when cabling for the lights was cut without obtaining sufficient evidence for an arrest.”

Anyone with information about any of these incidents is asked to contact the neighbourhood team at Filton police station on 0845 456 7000. Alternatively contact the independent Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111 (they never ask your name or trace your call).

Read on for details of operational changes the youth club has agreed to make in order to appease local residents »

Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) has been landed with a near £1,000 bill after electricity cables powering floodlights around the hard court at the Brook Way Activity Centre were “maliciously” severed.

The cables, which run around the perimeter of the court in plastic ducting encased in a concrete shroud, were seen to have been cut in at least four places when a Journal reporter visited the site in early December.

The damage is understood to have followed a period of friction between the youth club based at the centre and residents of neighbouring properties.

One resident of a property in The Common told The Journal that he and his neighbours have been annoyed by the much-increased use of the floodlights at the centre since the youth club moved in earlier in the year but he denied any involvement in the damage incident.

The resident also complained of a big increase in anti-social behaviour around the centre, saying that young people often stayed around to consume alcohol on the site after the club had closed. He also claimed that youngsters from the club had engaged in sexual activity and drug misuse in the bushes at the back of the hard court, which are overlooked by his property.

Read on for statements from the Town Council and police »

Conservative Councillors have welcomed the signing of an agreement between Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC), South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) and Southern Brooks Community Partnership (SBCP) that secures annual funding of £93,000 for youth work in Bradley Stoke.

Councillors claim that the new agreement will produce “better value for the money that both Councils put into youth services in the town”.

Under the ‘Commissioned Service Agreement’, £93,000 of  annual funding – made up of £60,000 from BSTC and £33,000 from SGC – will be paid to Southern Brooks Community Partnership to provide:

• A full-time qualified youth worker managing and co-ordinating the development and delivery of youth provision in Bradley Stoke, working closely with Bradley Stoke Youth Committee and South Gloucestershire Youth Service
• Four nights of centre-based youth sessions per week for the 13 – 19 age group
• Two centre-based activity sessions per week for the 10 – 13 aged group
• Two ‘detached’ youth sessions per week – where youth workers engage with young people ‘on the streets’

The agreement requires centre-based sessions to be provided for a minimum of 44 weeks per year.

Young people are said to have sat on the panel that chose the provider and quarterly reports will be provided to ensure that requirements are being met.

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The recent relocation of all Bradley Stoke youth clubs to the Brook Way Activity Centre has led to a “confrontation” between youth workers and members of a local netball club (believed to be The Black and Blues), according to Bradley Stoke Town Council.

The news is revealed in the recently published ‘draft’ minutes of a meeting of the Council’s Finance and Leisure Committee, held on Wednesday 21st October.

The committee chose to discuss an agenda item entitled ‘Community Centre Usage’ in closed session, meaning that the press and public were excluded from proceedings.

The minutes reveal that the confrontation occurred on 7th October, the first Wednesday after the youth club relocation on Monday 5th October.

The incident appears to have centred around  netballers entering the centre to shelter from bad weather and organise sign ups for the new season.

Youth workers “mindful of [child protection] legislation” are said to have expressed concern over the large number of netballers in the building alongside “the youth” (as the Town Clerk affectionately refers to the young people of our town).

Council members heard that the youth club may have been understaffed on the night in question due to the earlier resignation of a youth leader and absence of other youth workers due to holidays.

Concern was expressed over the general lack of youth supervision and a report that “boys and girls had been seen emerging from the same toilets”.

The incident is said to have led to acrimonious correspondence between youth workers and the netball club over the use of the centre’s toilets.

Councillors agreed that youth workers (or any other hirers) have no right to demand terms and conditions of other hirers of the centre and that in future the netballers should use the disabled toilets, leaving the other toilets for the sole use of “the youth”.

Related links:

• Bradley Stoke Youth Clubs (The Journal)
• Netball in Bradley Stoke (The Journal)