The Bradley Stoke Journal

Four Bradley Stoke organisations will be hoping to win a share of a £28,161 grant fund at this Tuesday’s meeting of the Southern Brooks Area Forum in Winterbourne.

A total of 26 applications totalling £43,888 have been received from organisations in the Bradley Stoke, Filton, Patchway, Stoke Gifford, Winterbourne, Frenchay and Stoke Park areas covered by the Forum.

The South West Winterguard Academy (SWWA), which meets at Meadowbrook Primary School and promotes ‘Colourguard’ (a dance based activity using flags and other equipment), is asking for £2,168 to cover the cost of hall rental, equipment, travel and insurance.

Bradley Stoke Bowls Club (BSBC), based at Baileys Court,  is looking for £2,500 (half the annual cost of green and room rental that it pays to Bradley Stoke Town Council) so that it can reduce its membership fees and hopefully attract new members.

Bradley Stoke Community Radio Association (BSCRA), which has recently occupied a studio at the Willow Brook Centre, wants £3,000 to pay for the official licences that it needs to broadcast over a 28-day period covering the Community Festival in June.

Finally, the Three Brooks Nature Conservation Group (TBNCG) is seeking £400 to pay for bee friendly flowers that will be planted in the community orchard behind Bradley Stoke Community School.

Read on to find out how Council officers have assessed the bids »

A number of clubs and organisations that operate in Bradley Stoke will tonight (Tuesday 31st) learn the fate of grant applications made to South Gloucestershire Council’s Southern Brooks Area Forum.

The Forum, which has £23k to allocate from its Capital Grant Funding scheme, has received 17 applications totalling £37k.

Organisations with Bradley Stoke links that have applied for funding include South West Winterguard Academy, Bradley Stoke Community Radio Association, 1st Bradley Stoke Scout Group and Bradley Stoke Bowls Club.

The Winterguard Academy, which meets at Meadowbrook Primary School, is a group that promotes a dance-based activity called ‘colourguard’ – using flags and other equipment to perform a routine to music. They are looking for £2,000 to purchase equipment.

Bradley Stoke Community Radio Association is asking for £3,000 to purchase recording equipment so that it can create programmes and interviews for a radio broadcast planned for October. They say they will work with Bradley Stoke Community School and the local youth service to run workshops to train young people to use the radio equipment to produce jingles. The association previously received a grant of £1,500 from the forum and was recently awarded £400 by Bradley Stoke Town Council.

Read on for details of two more organisations that could win grants tonight »

A meeting of the Southern Brooks Area Forum this evening (Tuesday 2nd March) will allocate funding of £29,220 to a selection of projects proposed by local voluntary organisations under the Small Grant Scheme.

A total of 27 applications have been received, from organisations which include:  Four Towns Play Association (£3,000 for equipment, staff training and publicity), Three Brooks Nature Conservation Group (£391 for bat walk equipment), Holy Trinity Youth Group (£3,000 for equipment) and Willow Brook Townswomen’s Guild (£500 for hall hire).

Area forums, organised by South Gloucestershire Council (SGC), give local people the opportunity to talk about issues and concerns that affect their neighbourhoods. They champion local needs and aspirations and gather the views of residents about specific community issues.

Other items on tonight’s agenda include a presentation on emergency planning and consultation on the South Gloucestershire Compact, a partnership agreement between the statutory sectors and the voluntary and community sector.

The meeting takes place at Patchway Community College, Hempton Lane, Patchway (7pm start).

More info: Agenda (SGC)

Local Liberal Democrat Councillor Jon Williams has slammed the Conservatives for, he says, wrongly claiming credit over the approval of a new pedestrian crossing on Brook Way.

The row follows a campaign by parents of children at Wheatfield Primary School, who said they found it dangerous  getting to the school from Saxon Way and other roads on the west side of Brook Way.

The issue was first raised at a meeting of the Bradley Stoke Safer and Stronger Group in February, where concerned parents complained of the difficulty of crossing Brook Way near the mini-roundabout junction with Wheatfield Drive.

Parents also pointed out that the central refuge at existing crossings were too narrow to accommodate pushchairs and that there were no school warning signs on Brook Way.

Cllr Mark Forsyth (Conservative) shocked the meeting when he suggested that the parents might like to “buy some fluorescent jackets and act as lollipop persons”.

A more constructive response came from Cllr Williams, who offered to work with the parents to see if the school’s Travel Plan could be updated with a view to attracting funding for a new crossing.

Cllr Williams says he subsequently spoke to the school, attended the school’s Travel Plan Committee, arranged for a Highways officer to attend, and encouraged the school to resubmit its Travel Plan.

Plans for a new ‘raised table’ crossing were then put forward to the Southern Brooks Area Forum meeting earlier this month, where the parents and Cllr Williams were succesful in obtaining approval for the estimated £20,000 cost.

But a press release put out after the meeting by South Gloucestershire Conservatives – subtitled “Councillors welcome moves to encourage safer route to school” – has angered Cllr Williams, who says the Tories “do nothing and then claim the credit”.

Cllr Williams told The Journal:

“It appears that the Conservatives are rewriting history again. This time they are claiming credit for getting a new, safer, crossing across Brook Way between Courtlands and Wheatfield Drive. The truth is that it was parents at the school and the school’s Travel Plan Committee who should take the credit.”

“Not once did a Conservative councillor make contact with the school or the parents over this matter and the only thing they did to support the scheme was to vote in favour of Cllr Williams’ proposal to proceed with the scheme at last week’s Area Forum meeting.”

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A meeting of the Southern Brooks Area Forum this evening (Tuesday 1st December) is set to discuss a number of road safety schemes that have been proposed for the Bradley Stoke area.

Area forums, organised by South Gloucestershire Council (SGC), give local people the opportunity to talk about issues and concerns that affect their neighbourhoods. They champion local needs and aspirations and gather the views of residents about specific community issues.

In the Southern Brooks Area, which covers Bradley Stoke, Filton, Frenchay, Stoke Park, Patchway, Stoke Gifford and Winterbourne, 20 small scale transport projects have been identified as candidates for the £50k funding made available to the forum.

One of the three schemes proposed for Bradley Stoke involves the construction of a new pedestrian crossing on Brook Way, between Courtlands and Wheatfield Drive. This scheme is believed to have been proposed by a local councillor in response to concerns raised at the February meeting of the Bradley Stoke Safer and Stronger Group, where parents of children attending Wheatfield Primary School complained about the difficulty of crossing Brook Way at peak hours.

Council officers have identified that a “raised table” crossing would be an appropriate solution, at an estimated cost of £20k.

Other proposals for Bradley Stoke schemes involve additional speed bumps on Baileys Court Road and kerb works at a roundabout on Woodlands Lane.

Tonight’s meeting takes place at the Jubilee Centre, Savages Wood Road, Bradley Stoke (7pm start).

More info: Agenda (SGC)