Chance to have your say on local issues

The next Frampton Cotterell, Westerleigh, Coalpit Heath and Iron Acton Safer Stronger Community Group meeting will take place at 7.30pm on Wednesday 7th April in Westerleigh Village Hall.

Chance to see inside new Council offices

Tomorrow night (Wednesday 31st March) at 7pm there will be a chance for local people to see inside the Council offices. To arrange a place on the tour, please ring Lisa Hooper on 01454 863858.

More local roads being resurfaced

Down Road, Winterbourne Down will be closed from 29th March to 1st April so that it can be resurfaced. This will involve planing off the old surface and laying a new one between Kendleshire Farm and the western side of the bridge over the river.

There is also a great deal of work going on around the new Council offices, with both resurfacing and pedestrian/cycle path works on Badminton and Stover Roads.

On Westerleigh Road in Westerleigh there will be temporary traffic lights on Tuesday 30th and Wednesday 31st March so that the road can be repaired.

Wapley Road, Codrington closed tonight

Wapley Road in Codrington will be closed from 8pm tonight (Friday 26th March) until 6am tomorrow morning for further resurfacing work.

Thanks to litter pickers

Thanks to everyone who turned up on a wet, miserable Saturday afternoon to pick several sackfuls of litter from the Manor School Playing Field. If you'd like to help out with future litter picks, please email Claire Young. And don't forget there's a chance to clean up the Glebe Land, Rectory Road, Frampton Cotterell this coming Saturday (27th March). Be there at 10.30am if you can help.

Blueprint for South Gloucestershire - the next stage

The Core Strategy is a document that will set out a planning blueprint for South Gloucestershire until 2026. On 8 March the Council’s Cabinet approved for public consultation the South Gloucestershire Core Strategy Pre-Submission Publication Draft and supporting Sustainability Appraisal. You can now access these documents along with reports on the consultation undertaken to date on the South Glos website.

Although public consultation on the Pre-Submission Publication Draft Core Strategy has now started with comments on the document and the Sustainability Appraisal welcome up until the end of July, the formal consultation period will not start until after the general election.

Did you see accident in Coalpit Heath?

Police are appealing for witnesses and information after a cyclist and a silver Mercedes Vito panel van collided in Coalpit Heath on Monday (15th March).

The collision happened on the Badminton Road about 25-50m away from Southview Crescent, opposite Woodend Road at around 7pm. The cyclist is in a serious condition in Frenchay Hospital. Anyone who was in the area at the time is asked to contact the road policing unit at Almondsbury on 0845 456 7000.

Bogus callers musical

At 10am on 30 March The Solomon Touring Theatre will be performing "Trickster", the bogus caller musical, at Yate Leisure Centre. Free tickets are available from Chipping Sodbury Police Station or by contacting lesley.cogan@avonandsomerset.police.uk .

New bus services

On 4th April, some new and changed bus services start to support the Green Travel Plan for the new Badminton Road Council offices:

• Service 85 Emersons Green – Yate (proposed service 688) will operate every half hour Mondays to Fridays via Blackhorse and Coalpit Heath. A few evening peak journeys will also extend to/from Chipping Sodbury.
• Service 86 Kingswood – Yate – Wotton-u-Edge: Service renumbered from 686 with only minor timetable changes.
• Service 87 Longwell Green – Chipping Sodbury (proposed enhancement to service 686) will operate during peak times only. It will also serve Kingswood, Emersons Green, Coalpit & Yate.
• Service 88 Chipping Sodbury – Iron Acton (proposed service 630) will operate hourly Mondays to Fridays via Yate Shopping Centre, North Yate and Station Road.

The new services for Coalpit Heath and Iron Acton are very welcome, especially as the 88 will pick up in Iron Acton High Street where the X27 no longer goes. Your Focus team continues to campaign for a bus to link Westerleigh with Yate station.

Wapley Road to be resurfaced

Parts of Wapley Road, Codrington are to be resurfaced on 18th and 19th March. The traffic will be controlled with a Stop and Go operation throughout the works and people will still be able to access their properties. The work will take place between 8am and 4.00pm and motorists are advised to consider alternative routes. As always, bad weather or other factors might delay the work.

Charfield Hill cycle improvements

The Council is proposing to extend the on-pavement westbound cycle path on the B4058 Charfield Hill and install an advisory cycle lane on the road to the top of the hill. You can read more and have your say on the Council's website.

Parking restrictions starting 6 April

The parking restrictions around the new Badminton Road Council Offices will come into force on 6 April, in time for people moving into the offices. The scheme will be monitored for three months and changes made if necessary. You can read the report on the decision on the South Glos website.

Positive Moves - event for young people with learning difficulties

On 2 April, there will be an event for 16-25 year olds with learning difficulties (and their parents/ carers) at St Andrews Methodist Youth Centre, Elm Park, Filton, BS34 7PS (between Filton Police Station + Elm Park fields). It's aimed at giving young people and their families the contacts, information and confidence they need to be able to ‘soar’ more easily into adulthood. For more details contact: 0117 9691938 or standrewsmyc@hotmail.co.uk .

Update on IVC

All seems to have gone quiet on the future of the In Vessel Composter planned for Tormarton. A Scoping Opinion, which is is required before a full application is submitted, has been submitted. Alternative technologies could be the way forward, but to date no further news is available on the future of this site.

Looking for grants?

Local community grants in search of funding might like to look at the Quartet Community Foundation website. If you get your skates on, you might be able to benefit from some of this financial year's Grassroots Grants, the deadline for which is the end of March.

Campaigners celebrate extra rush-hour train from Yate

Claire Young, Wully Perks (Vice-Chair) and Sue Walker (Chair) of Friends of Yate Station and Steve Webb MP at Yate Station


Following pressure from local MP Steve Webb and the Friends of Yate Station, First Great Western have agreed to put on an extra morning commuter train from Yate in the new timetable to be introduced in May.

Late last year, the MP held a meeting at his Yate office with First Great WesternChief Executive Mark Hopwood to register his complaint about overcrowding on rush-hour trains between Yate and Bristol. The company considered these concerns and has now announced that from May there will be an additional train leaving Yate at 0712, calling at Filton Abbey Wood, Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple Meads before going on to Westbury. This is a train thatwas previously running empty through the station, starting in Cheltenham Spa and only beginning to pick up passengers at Bristol Parkway.

Commenting on his web site, Steve Webb said:"An extra morning train from Yate to Abbey Wood and Bristol is a big step forward. For passengers who have had enough of overcrowding on the later trains, this will provide an additional option of a less crowded earlier train. For workers with some flexibility on working hours it may mean that they can then travel back home slightly earlier, and thereby avoid the peak rush-hour trains out of Bristol in the evening. Coming on top of the additional carriage that we have secured for the 0815 service, this is another sign that where we campaign effectively we can get things improved".

In addition to the new 0712 service, there is an improvement in service for those travelling to Swindon, with the 0740 service now going on from Bristolto Swindon without the need for changing trains.

Roadwork round-up

• There will be traffic lights on Westerleigh Road near the Cooks Lane junction from 9-11 March so the road can be repaired.
• The B4058 Wotton Road will be closed from B4059 Iron Acton Way to Manor Road between 15-28 March to enable the road to be resurfaced.
• The B4058 Wotton Road, from Charfield Road B4059 eastwards for 500 metres (near the Post Office) will have temporary traffic lights and width restrictions 22 March - 6 April for resurfacing work to take place.

Westerleigh Road to remain open during crossing works

Due to the high costs of closing Westerleigh Road, including providing a shuttle bus, the crossing scheme has been altered slightly so that the work can be done without closing the road. By not making the road quite as narrow as first planned, it will be possible to keep one lane of traffic running at all times with two-way traffic lights. There will be signs warning of delays, so drivers can opt for alternative routes. The work is due to start on 6 April.

Big Spring Clean events

Two local litter hotspots will be tackled as part of the Big Spring Clean 2010.

The Manor School are holding a 2 hour clear up on the school playing field starting at 2pm on Saturday 20 March. Claire Young has arranged for the Council to supply gloves in both children's and adult's sizes and bin bags.

Dave Hockey has organised a large skip to go on the Glebe Land, Rectory Road on Saturday 27 March. Be there at 10.30am if you can help, all ages welcome.

New station for Charfield?

Would you like to see a railway station at Charfield? Or does the prospect cause your concern? Whatever your views, please share them with your local Focus Team at this website.

Good news on speed limits

The initial recommendations of an area-wide review into speed limits on A and B roads (and other significant roads) have been announced. The good news is that not only are speed limit reductions recommended for a number of roads in the area but two routes have been identified for urgent action. Consultation has already started on the proposals for the Old Gloucester Road. The Council also proposes to implement reductions on the B4465 and Westerleigh Road (plus Nibley Lane) in 2010/11. One of the factors considered was “community concerns”, so well done to everyone who has made their concerns clear to the Council, including all those who signed the petition which Claire Young (pictured above) presented to Council in May 2008.

We don't yet have full details of the B4465 proposals but as with the Old Gloucester Road scheme there will be a public consultation before they are carried out. We are also still awaiting the report from the separate safety review for the B4465 and surrounding roads. Officers have reassured your Focus Team that the work on the two reviews has been progressing "in parallel" but with the work "interlocking". However, the 2010/11 scheme will only implement the recommendations from the speed limit review, not the safety review.

Local groups win grants

At Thursday's Frome Vale Area Forum, a host of local groups were awarded grants:

Frampton Cotterell Over 50s Computer Group - £1200 to upgrade their computers to Windows 7
Charfield Memorial Hall and Playing - £1275 for new curtains for the hall
Friends of Ram Hill Colliery - £881 to have a professional scheme of work drawn up so they can continue to develop the site
3rd Westerleigh Rainbows - £350 for equipment
Tytherington Pre-school - £980 for new equipment
Wickwar Playing Fields Association - £960 for to maintain the fields for general recreational use this year while fee-paying clubs cannot use them