Solar Farm connected in time

Last week the Says Court Solar Farm (pictured here from the Bristol to Yate train) was connected just in time to secure the higher rate of Community Benefit for Westerleigh Parish. Under the agreement, some of the money has to be used in conjunction with Avon Wildlife Trust for on site ecological improvements. The rest will be used for environmental projects in the Parish.

Roadworks latest

As these pictures show, work is well underway to divert the utilities ready for the replacement of the Church Road bridge later in the year.

When the bridge was closed as planned on Monday, South Glos Street Care Officers were on hand to make sure that there was no chaos. Despite the signs put up weeks ago to alert drivers to the closure, there were still plenty turning round in the road. Some of course may not normally use Church Road and so were unaware of the closure.

The closure was planned for the start of the Easter school holidays so traffic levels were lighter than usual. Hopefully the diversion of all of the utilities will be complete by 21st April as planned before the end of the Easter school holidays.

Unfortunately the council is also having to undertake repair work on Badminton Road to the south of Coalpit Heath. The temporary traffic lights are causing delays, especially as many people are using this route as part of an alternative route to Church Road. Local councillor Claire Young raised residents' concerns about this with the Head of Street Care and the council is extending the working day for the gangs to make sure the work is finished as quickly as possible. The lights are being controlled manually to help the flow of traffic and work that was going to require Westerleigh Road to be closed has been postponed to avoid adding to the problem. You can read more from the council on this on the South Glos website.

Event for LGBT young people

The Diversity Trust and CVS South Gloucestershire are organising an event for LGBT young people in the Yate area on Sat 3 May. You can find out more on the Trust's website.

Temporary road closure for Westerleigh traffic calming

A temporary road closure notice has been published for Shorthill Road starting from 16th May. Fingers crossed this means the work won't wait quite as long as we thought.

Temporary bus diversions during Church Road closure

While Church Road is closed for the first stage of work on the weak bridge, bus services will be diverted.

From Monday 7th to Thursday 17th April, services 327, 581, 482/3, 81 and 82 will operate their normal route from Yate centre to the station, then divert via Stover Road, Yate Road B4059 and Bristol road B4058 before resuming the normal route. The Bristol to Yate services will follow the reverse of this route.

For passengers who require bus services from the Church Road area, arrangements have been made with Severnside Transport for the 222 bus service to divert hourly Monday to Friday. The route to be taken is Church Road (part unaffected) Clyde Road, Park Lane and Beesmoor Road and then towards Yate Shopping Centre where connections to the other bus services are available. This service will also operate on Saturday 12th April 2014 as a direct shuttle service between Coalpit Heath and Yate Shopping Centre only for connections.

You can find all the timetables for the temporary services here. First bus have a page about the diversions to their services on their website.

New recycling collections and removal of bring banks

New recycling collections were introduced alongside the garden waste subscription this week. You can now put out cartons (Tetrapaks) such as those used for juice, milk and chopped tomatoes and small electricals such as toasters and hairdryers in your green box.

Your plastic bottle bag can now be used for a wider range of mixed plastics. As well as bottles you can include things like:

• yoghurt pots 
• margarine tubs
• plastic punnets
• meat trays 

You can't put out:

• black plastic - e.g. ready meal trays, as it confuses the optical sorting machine at the processing plant 
• rigid plastics - e.g. children’s toys 
• plastic films - e.g. cling film and carrier bags, although many supermarkets collect the latter
• polystyrene 

Not only will this help the environment, but with the cost of sending waste to landfill spiraling it's vital that we recycle more. Even at current costs, these new services are expected to pay for themselves.

South Glos Council is consulting on removing the recycling bring banks in the car parks of supermarkets, village halls and social clubs. All of the materials are now collected with the fortnightly recycling collections and the money saved will be reinvested to provide recycling services for all flats, which they haven't had to date. It would be welcomed by people who have asked for the banks to be removed to free up extra car parking spaces and would cut back on the litter and commercial use that have been problems at some of the sites. Bring banks at Sort It centres and those operated by charities or other organisations would not be affected.

If you have any comments, you can find a list of the affected sites and make your views known online by 25th April.

Sainsbury's application to be decided in May not April

At last week's site visit, the committee chair said the Sainsbury's application would be decided at their April meeting. The case officer has now said it will not be ready until the following committee meeting, starting at 3pm on Thursday 8th May in Kingswood Civic Centre.