South Gloucestershire Council’s (SGC’s) element of the council tax levied on local households is to increase by 3.99 percent from April.

The latest rise follows uplifts of 2.99 percent in 2019/20 and 5.99 percent in 2018/19, the latter including a ring-fenced levy of 3 percent to support
adult social care.

The 2020/21 increase once again includes a social care levy, this time 2 percent, which is the maximum allowed by the government for the upcoming financial year.

The increase means that the South Gloucestershire Council element of council tax for a Band D property for 2020/21 will rise to £1,543.

Meeting on 12th February, councillors agreed to set a revenue budget of almost £232 million. The spending plans also include a further £219.2 million that will be distributed to schools.

The council’s forward planning shows that its budget is projected to remain in balance for the next two years, based on what is known so far about the future of local authority funding. However, this assumes successful delivery of ongoing savings and transformation plans and requires the use of reserves.

Challenges ahead

The medium term – years two and three in the projections in these budget papers – continues to contain challenges in order to balance the books. These are caused by continued falls in government grants and increased costs and demand for services, most notably across social care services.

Work is ongoing to manage demand for costly social care support by investing to make earlier interventions where residents find themselves in need of help, as well as to build extra capacity to deliver services within the district.

More: Police precept increased by 4.59 percent »

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Councillors in Bradley Stoke have welcomed South Gloucestershire Council’s (SGC’s) allocation of £250,000 to an environmental project that will see the lake in the Three Brooks Local Nature Reserve desilted for the first time in 15 years.

The lake, which regularly floods due to its current condition, is in acute need of desilting and has been the subject of public concern about the impact on wildlife and potential loss of amenity.

Following campaigning by the local councillors for the Bradley Stoke South ward, Cllrs John Ashe and Roger Avenin, to see residents’ concerns addressed, SGC’s Cabinet has approved a reallocation of funds from its Highways Maintenance budget.

The money originates from an unspent portion of A4174 Challenge Fund – originally made available to speed up work on the recent Bromley Heath Viaduct repair project.

The scheme, which requires the removal of up to 4,000 cubic metres of silt and restoring the lake environment to the original landscape plans, including a 300m ‘stone to dust’ footpath, will enhance the wetland area for the community, improve resistance to flooding and enhance local biodiversity.

Cllr John Ashe commented:

“Areas like the Three Brooks Local Nature Reserve should be enjoyed all year round, and you are hard pressed to go there in the daytime and not see the likes of dog walkers and joggers or young families going to feed the ducks, along with groups of school children getting to know and appreciate nature. So when it ends up flooding after some rain, it might not pose a threat to nearby homes, but it can definitely have a profound effect on the community of people that make use of it, as well as washing away the nesting areas of the local wildlife.”

“In recent months, so many residents have been in touch with myself and my council colleague Cllr Roger Avenin about the state of the lake and how, while they enjoy it during the summer months, they are put off using it in between late autumn and early spring due to the increased chance of flooding. Many also raising their concerns that, if gone unchecked, the damage to the area could get even worse.”

“Having taken those views to the council, and argued the case for local residents, I am really pleased that funding will be put into this environmental project.”

More: Work likely to be carried out next winter »

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The start of the construction phase of South Gloucestershire Council’s (SGC’s) £2.9m scheme of improvements at Great Stoke (Rabbit) Roundabout on Thursday 2nd January has brought peak-time gridlock to Bradley Stoke on a scale rarely seen since the notorious MetroBus roadworks of 2015-17.

Perhaps due to a staggered return to work after the Christmas and New Year break, the full impact on traffic only began to show itself from the second week in January, with BBC Bristol reporting delays of around 30min on Bradley Stoke Way southbound.

By Monday 13th January the delays were up to 40min, with traffic queued back to the Willow Brook Centre and beyond.

Commuters desperate to avoid the delays began to explore alternative routes, leading to the clogging up of Brook Way and Baileys Court Road during the morning peak. The former then impacted flows on another route out of town, Braydon Avenue.

And it’s not just private road users who have been affected – the flagship M1 MetroBus service has suffered immensely – partly due to the removal of the bus lane on the approach to Great Stoke Roundabout, but more so because the buses have found themselves locked in traffic queues on other sections of Bradley Stoke Way where bus lanes were considered unjustifiable on cost grounds.

The delays at Great Stoke Roundabout have also hindered students from the Stokes who attend Winterbourne Academy, including those who travel on the 963 school bus, which has additionally experienced operational troubles of its own making since the start of the new term [read more here].

All this comes before SGC confronts road users with a second set of major roadworks in the area, the full closure of Gipsy Patch Lane at the railway bridge, for eight months, currently expected to commence on 6th March.

More: Traffic situation is "constantly being monitored" »

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Motorists in the Stokes are being warned to expect delays at a major roundabout on the local road network in the new year.

Improvement works at Great Stoke Roundabout (a.k.a. Rabbit Roundabout), on the border between Bradley Stoke and Stoke Gifford, are due to start on Thursday 2nd January and are expected to take 12 months to complete.

The £2.9 million scheme, funded by the West of England Combined Authority (Weca), includes:

• Increasing all approaches to the roundabout from two lanes to three
• Widening and modifications to road markings on the roundabout
• The installation of Toucan crossings on each of the four arms of the roundabout, prioritised for pedestrians and cyclists

The work will necessitate the temporary closure of footways/cycleways in the vicinity of the roundabout. Diversions will be in place for pedestrians and cyclists, including the use of temporary light controlled crossings on the Winterbourne Road, to the west of the roundabout, and on Great Stoke Way to the south.

Preparatory work that took place before Christmas has seen the construction of a temporary ramp to divert the footway on the west side of Bradley Stoke Way along the top of the embankment. The scrub clearance which took place prior to the installation of the ramp was necessary to “open up the area” to avoid creating a “significant personal safety risk” for members of the public, according to a council source.

Further details about the roundabout improvement scheme are available on the SGC website at www.southglos.gov.uk/majorroadworks

More: Project timetable; Frequently asked questions »

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