The Bradley Stoke Journal

Members of the local community are invited to a cheese and wine party being held on Friday evening (11th June) to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the twinning of Bradley Stoke and Champs-sur-Marne (France).

A party of 23 guests from the French town is visiting Bradley Stoke over the Community Festival weekend and they will be welcomed at the function by Mayor Ben Walker and other members of the Town Council.

Christopher Lee of Bradley Stoke Twinning Association says:

“… why not take this opportunity to meet some of our European and local neighbours to enjoy great conversation and food and wine together?”

The party takes place between 7pm and 9pm at Bradley Stoke Community School, Fiddlers Wood Lane. For more details, contact Christopher on 07818 005 970.

The French group, accompanied by members of the Twinning Association, will go on to visit a number of Community Festival events over the weekend.

A highlight of the visit will be the 10th Anniversary Twinning Civic Dinner at the Aztec Hotel & Spa on Saturday evening, where invited guests include Bradley Stoke MP Jack Lopresti and Chair of South Gloucestershire Council Janet Biggin.

The diners will be treated to a Champagne and canapé reception, courtesy of the hotel.

Bradley Stoke Town Council has made an ex-gratia payment of £250 towards the cost of hosting the visitors over the weekend.

Information about the Bradley Stoke Twinning Association will be available at the Southern Brooks Community Partnership stall at the Community Festival on Saturday.

More information and related link:

• Invitation to the celebratory cheese and wine party [PDF, 453KB]
• Bradley Stoke Twinning Association (The Journal)

Cable company Virgin Media is laying new fibre optic broadband cable in Bradley Stoke but it seems that homeowners are unlikely to benefit from the work.

Contractors have been digging trenches to take a spur off the Virgin Media network from a point on Bradley Stoke Way close to the pedestrian crossing south of the Savages Wood Roundabout.

The new cable branch, which The Journal understands will bring high speed internet access to Bradley Stoke Community School, has been taken across Bradley Stoke Way and along a footpath into Champs Sur Marne.

Spray markings on the pavements in Champs Sur Marne suggest that the cable will soon follow a route around to the school entrance in Fiddlers Wood Lane.

Signs on barriers around the workings state that “Virgin Media is really sorry if we cause any inconvenience while we bring our exciting new services to this area”.

The route of the cable passes a number of homes in Champs Sur Marne but an unofficial Virgin Media source suggested that these properties are in fact unlikely to be offered the high speed broadband and television services that it will provide.

Residents in Bradley Stoke’s broadband ‘notspots’ and ’slowspots’ have been urging Virgin Media to install  fibre optic cable in their streets, which are too far from BT exchanges to receive a decent speed over copper cable.

A campaign led by the Bradley Stoke Examiner urging Virgin Media to complete its network in the town has so far attracted 226 email votes but the company says it wants 1,500 people to email before it will even “consider” doing the work.

If Virgin Media does not extend its network, residents will have to hope that BT installs Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology in the town, which should provide at least the 2Mb/sec Universal Service Commitment promised by the Digital Britain report.

Further Information:

• Broadband in Bradley Stoke (The Journal)
• Bradley Stoke Cable My Street Campaign (The Examiner)

Members of Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) have criticised the town’s Twinning Association after the group retrospectively applied for a grant towards the cost of a meal at which visitors from the twin town of Champs-sur-Marne were entertained earlier this year.

Residents of the French town visited Bradley Stoke over the weekend of 2nd/3rd May and took part in a meeting that involved the then-Mayor Robert Jones and staff of Bradley Stoke Community School.

Before flying back to Paris, the French visitors were treated to a meal at a pub in the vicinity of Bristol Airport.

The Twinning Association then submitted a retrospective application for Grant Aid of £250, which was considered at the BSTC Planning Committee on 27th May.

The Committee rejected the request on the grounds that it “didn’t conform to the requirements of Grant Aid applications”, but recommended that an ex-gratia payment of £125 be made under the Council’s policy of ‘match funding’.

The meeting was also told that a grant of £400 to the Association had been approved in 2006 but remained unpaid on the later orders of Council (in 2007) “pending further financial information”.

The matter led to a heated debate at last week’s meeting of Full Council, where some Councillors were critical of the fact that the guests had been entertained in North Somerset rather than at a local hostelry.

Cllr Julian Barge was particularly critical of the Association, claiming that it had “virtually disintegrated” and “needed to get  its act together”. He said the group should be asked to provide a list of its officials and members and provide the Council with sight of its accounts.

In the end Councillors voted to approve the £125 payment, with five votes for and three abstentions.

Cllrs Roger Avenin and Brian Hopkinson, who had been selected as the Council’s representatives on the Twinning Association’s Committee at the Council’s AGM, were instructed to meet with the Association to discuss the Council’s concerns.

Anne Clark, Chair of the Twinning Association, told The Journal that she was was unaware of the Council’s discussions and expressed disappointment on being told of the critical comments made by Councillors.

She added that the Association would be holding its AGM in the next few weeks and looked forward to receiving support from the Council’s representatives.

The Journal Comments

The Twinning Association may have lost its way in the last few years but the Council has done little or nothing to help. The last mention of the Association in the Council’s Annual Report was back in 2005/2006.

Almost ten years after the signing of the twinning agreement in 2000, there is no information about the Twinning Association to be found on the Council’s website.

Let’s hope that Cllrs Avenin and Hopkinson can sort out this mess in time for the 10th anniversary celebrations next year.

Related Link: Bradley Stoke Twinning Association (The Journal)