Volunteers start major tree planting programme at Wapley Bushes

Wapley Bushes Conservation Group is carrying out a major programme of tree planting this autumn and winter, to deal with the threat of Ash Dieback Disease. This disease is carried by a fungus. Mature trees are the most affected - they lose their leaves and the crown dies back. It's within a dozen miles of Wapley Bushes Local Nature Reserve. If something isn't done now, within twenty years we will have lost all the high canopy in Wapley Woods.

The Conservation Group has come up with a scheme to plant other large native species throughout the woodland. This season they will be planting 90 to 100 trees - Oak, Lime, Black Poplar, Whitebeam and Wild Service trees. They are all native to the West of England area.

Hopefully members of the local community will come along and help preserve this wonderful woodland. Families with children are particularly welcome - it's really planting for the future. The Conservation Group supply the trees, the tools and gloves, people just need to wear wellies or stout footwear.

The first planting morning will be at 10.00 am on Saturday 18 November at the Shire Way entrance to the Nature Reserve, opposite the road entrance to Cherington, BS37 8US. There will also be planting sessions on Sunday 18 February and Saturday 18 March. The trees and preparation work are being financed by the landowners, Dodington Parish Council.

More of B4465 Westerleigh Rd to close for resurfacing

There are going to be road works on another length of the B4465 Westerleigh Road from just west of Codrington to just east of Springs Farm.

The usual alarming notice says that the closure "will be operative from the 3 July 2017 for a maximum period of eighteen months. The closure however may not be implemented for the whole of the period but only when signs are in position and only for so long as is necessitated by the works which are anticipated to be of 1 WEEK duration."

So one week in the next eighteen months - once again, if the warning signs are up, the road is closed; if they're not, it's still open.

The official diversion is incredibly long - via Emersons green, Coalpit Heath, Yate, Chipping Sodbury and the A46 - but that's really for heavy vehicles. Local people will doubtless know the short way round!

Warning to dog owners

During the bank holiday weekend local vets dealt with a number of dogs with symptoms of poisoning. Three of those dogs had been at Wapley Common. In one case the vet suggested that the dog had eaten something natural like very mouldy food, mouldy poop etc. We have established that at least two of the dogs had eaten poop in the same location, the picnic field. So we now suspect that this was from an infected animal. The area has been checked and nothing else has been found, and no weedkiller etc is used in the area.

There have been some other cases in the wider area recently. In one place - not Wapley - some chicken carcasses had been thrown out on public land. Elsewhere at least one dog tried to eat something that looked like dog food, and was immediately violently sick. Add to this the number of common plants that are poisonous to dogs, all we can suggest is that owners keep a very close eye on what their dogs might try to eat while they are out and about.

Length of B4465 Westerleigh Rd to close for resurfacing

The B4465 Westerleigh Road is going to be resurfaced (surface dressing) from the top of Shorthill Road to Wapley Road just west of the Wishing Well pub.

The notice rather alarmingly says that the closure "will be operative from the 15 May 2017 for a maximum period of eighteen months. The closure however may not be implemented for the whole of the period but only when signs are in position and only for so long as is necessitated by the works which are anticipated to be of 8 weeks duration"

However the actual works will only take a couple of days, but they need the weather to be pretty dry. Hence the pessimistic timescales on the notice.

In summary - if the warning signs are up, the road is closed; if they're not, it's still open.

Broadband update

South Glos are expecting the next phase of the Broadband deployment, which will include Codrington village, to be complete by the end of the year. Hopefully Codrington will get their update between July and September.

Wapley and Beanwood Park are not included in this deployment but are in the intervention area for the next phase. Watch this space!

Broadband campaign success - villages to get future-proof solution

Flashback to February: Claire Young and Terry Barnaby with
the petition for better broadband in Codrington

We are delighted to be able to report success in the campaign for better broadband in Codrington.

Back in February, local resident Terry Barnaby presented a petition to South Gloucesterhire Council calling for better broadband in and around the village. Residents and small businesses were suffering speeds a fraction of those available in well-served urban areas. Worse still was the poor reliability, with some losing internet access for weeks because of rainwater affecting the copper wires. BT had upgraded the green cabinet to which their homes and businesses were connected, but thanks to the long copper wires between them and the cabinet they hadn't seen much improvement if any.

In July, local councillor Claire Young welcomed an announcement from South Glos Council of an extra £1.49m investment in better broadband, which was likely to benefit villages like Codrington. However she challenged the Tories running the council to get the technology right, calling for a "Fibre to the Premises" (FTTP) solution for rural areas, instead of Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC),

Now South Glos has announced that for the first time it will be investing in FTTP and one of the villages that will benefit is Codrington. Well done to everyone who helped collect signatures on the petition and especially to Terry for organising the campaign.

Success in broadband campaign

Claire Young and Terry Barnaby with the petition
for better broadband in Codrington

Back in February we reported on the campaign for better broadband in Codrington and surrounding areas. We are pleased to report that South Glos Council has now announced an extra £1.49m investment in broadband, which is likely to benefit a number of villages including Codrington. However, it's important the money is spent wisely. BT Open Reach's standard approach of simply upgrading to fibre the lines going into the green cabinets doesn't work for many in our rural areas.

If you are connected to the cabinet by traditional copper wires, the further you are from the cabinet, the worse your service will be. Speed and reliability drop off dramatically with distance. In densely populated urban areas it's likely that the copper wire between you and the cabinet isn't that long, so running fibre into the cabinet can make a big improvement to the service, but it's a different story in the rural areas, where you might be several miles from a cabinet. Business owners there tell us that not only are the speeds too low, particularly for uploading, but also the reliability is poor. Some have suffered without internet for weeks after a heavy rainstorm has damaged the copper wires.

At a recent council meeting Lib Dem Focus Team councillors Claire Young and Sue Hope challenged the Tories running South Glos council to get the technology right and suggested they talk to councils that have already delivered future-proof pure-fibre solutions in conjunction with BT Open Reach. If the Superfast Cornwall project can deploy a pure-fibre solution to over 85,000 premises, why can’t that happen in our rural areas?

Claire also demanded greater transparency about how the money is being used. Local campaigners  want to know that tax payers’ money is being spent on technology that will deliver speed, reliability and value-for-money in the long term, not just stop gap measures. It's vital that decisions on spending the money are made in an open and transparent way.

Next Yate, Chipping Sodbury and Dodington SSCG/CEF

The next Safer Stronger Community Group/Community Engagement Forum (SSCG/CEF) for Yate, Chipping Sodbury and Dodington is at 7pm on the 4th July at St Nicholas Family Centre, Abbotswood, Yate. The area covered includes the rural part of Dodington Parish, which is in Westerleigh ward.

Yate, Dodington and Chipping Sodbury SSCG next Tuesday

Following the changes to the Safer Stronger Community Group boundaries, the rural part of Dodington Parish that is in Westerleigh ward is now covered by the Yate, Dodington and Chipping Sodbury SSCG. The first meeting of this new group is on the 29th March at 7pm in Yate Library and will include information on the current consultation on Library Services.

Don't forget the clocks go back this weekend

Don't forget to put your clocks back one hour Saturday night/Sunday morning - especially if you are heading to an event on Sunday like the Agincourt 600 celebration at Wapley Church!

Well done to South West in Bloom winners

The South West In Bloom awards included some fantastic results for locations in Westerleigh ward.

The Dodington Allotments Association (pictured left, who put in the hard work on the new allotment site this year) gained Level 5 Outstanding in the Neighbourhoods on the Pennant Route category.

Wapley Common & the Orchard for the Future (pictured below) also got a Level 5 Outstanding. Wapley Bushes Local Nature Reserve got a Level 3 Developing in the Neighbourhoods Awards.

Last night the certificates for these and all the other winners in the Yate and Dodington area were presented at a volunteers' evening at Poole Court. Congratulations to all concerned!

Dairy farm building approved

This afternoon plans to build a dairy farm building next to the wind turbine south of the B4465 at Wapley were unanimously aproved by the DC (East) planning committee.

Dairy farm building application to be decided next Thursday

Plans to build a dairy farm building next to the wind turbine south of the B4465 at Wapley will go before the DC (East) planning committee next Thursday (28th August). The meeting starts at 3pm in Kingswood and the agenda and the officer's report on the dairy farm are available online. The officer’s recommendation is just that – a recommendation. It is the members of the committee who will make the decision on the day. As always, both supporters and objectors have a 5 minute slot in which to address the committee, so if there are lots of people it's worth nominating a spokesperson to speak on everyone's behalf. The local ward member, Claire Young, has a separate opportunity to speak.

Footpath diversion at Wapley

South Glos Council is seeking views on diverting a length of public footpath LDO 3/20 at The Old Rectory, Wapley. You can find out more on the council's website. The deadline for commenting is 30th August.

Dairy farm application referred to committee

Claire Young has referred the application for a dairy farm building south of the B4465 at Wapley to the planning committee. Dodington Parish Council and residents continued to have concerns despite revised plans being submitted.

New Wapley allotments officially open

On Saturday the new Dodington Parish Council allotments at Wapley were officially opened by the council's Vice-Chair John Davis.

He was joined by Wendy Mayo, Clerk to the Parish Council, who did a huge amount of work to get the project up and running. There was also a representative from Merlin, who provided grants towards parts of the project, and of course there were allotment holders of all ages.

Claire Young was there as the local ward councillor. The land used to be part of the South Glos Council-owned Wychwell Farm. When the council decided to sell it off, as it was too small to be viable, Claire had a meeting with an officer and suggested the Parish Council might be interested in purchasing some of it for allotments. That was the easy part! It was then over to Dodington Parish Council to do all the hard work involved in a project of this kind.

The allotment holders are doing a fantastic job, looking at the thriving plots it was hard to believe they only started at Easter. As one of them commented, it really is bringing together people of all ages, from tiny tots to pensioners.

Dairy application latest

Last week Claire Young attended the Dodington Parish Council Planning Sub-Committee meeting, along with the applicant for the dairy farm at Wapley and concerned residents. At the meeting, the Parish Council asked for it to be referred to committee and for a site visit to look at concerns about the scale and location of the proposed dairy building. There were also worries about the impact on the water course. Claire has written to the case officer indicating that this is what she will do if the recommendation is for approval.

Application for dairy farm following wind turbine approval

Following the approval on appeal for a wind turbine south of the B4465 at Wapley, the applicant has now made an application to South Glos for a dairy on the land. You can find the details online (if for any reason that link doesn't work, please go to the planning application search page and enter the reference number PK14/1112/F).

Yate Safer Stronger Community Group on Monday

The Yate Safer Stronger Community Group, which includes Dodington Parish, meets on Monday 17th March at 7pm in Shireway Community Centre. The agenda is available online.

Wind turbine approved on appeal

Plans to build a 100kW wind turbine at Wapley, south of the B4465 between Westerleigh and Codrington, have been approved on appeal.

Back in March the DC (East) planning committee refused the application on a majority vote. That decision has now been overturned by a planning inspector, who felt that the benefits of the renewable energy generated outweighed the harmful effects on the openness of the Green Belt.