Last chance to have your say on Yate Leisure Centre plans

You only have until tomorrow (Saturday 31 March) to have your say on plans by Circadian Trust, who run the South Glos leisure centres, to make changes at Yate and Thornbury Leisure Centres. Under the plans, Yate Bowls Club and other bowlers who currently use Yate would be expected to use Thornbury instead and the bowls hall at Yate would be converted into a home for King Edmund Acrogymnastics Club.

Information on the plans and feedback forms are available at both leisure centres and King Edmund Acrogymnastics Club. Alternatively you can respond online. There is a dedicated helpline and email address for anyone with any queries: 0800 073 1047 or circadian@jbp.co.uk .

Inspector sets date for public inquiry on Core Strategy

Thank you to all who took the time to respond to the consultation on South Gloucestershire’s Core Strategy. Across the whole of South Gloucester shire most comments were seeking to protecting Woodlands Farm from development .

We understand that Barratt Homes will be seeking to have Woodlands identified for development in the Core Strategy rather than making a planning application at this stage.

The Inspector who will be holding the Public Inquiry into the proposals in the Core Strategy has announced that it will start on Tuesday 19^th June in Kingswood Civic Centre. He will have a pre- meeting about it on Tuesday 17^th April also in Kingswood Civic Centre.

These will be open to the public so if you are interested you can turn up. Anyone wishing to speak at the Examination in Public will have to put in a request by Tuesday 12th April.

Frampton Cotterell Parish Council will be discussing whether they will seek to be represented at their meeting on 4^th April, 7.30pm in the Brockeridge Centre. Westerleigh Parish Council next meet on 2nd April, 7.15pm in the Manor Hall, Coalpit Heath.

The Save Woodlands Farm action group are keen to get as many posters up as possible as the inspector may make a site visit. If you would like a poster at cost price, please contact Richard on 01454 776693 or rjmerrick@blueyonder.co.uk .

Have your say on children and youth services TONIGHT

Make sure you have your say on South Gloucestershire Council’s plans for its services for children and young people. The consultation website says:

We believe we need to shift our emphasis from providing services to everyone towards supporting those who are most in need – and from reacting to problems towards preventing problems from happening.

The Council would be looking to partners such as the town and parish councils to take on the running of the youth centres and children’s centres. Last week Lib Dem Councillors submitted a number of questions to the Exec Member for Children and Young People raising concerns.

There will be a drop-in session 7pm-9pm tonight, Thursday 29th March, at the Ridings International Winterbourne Academy and another 7pm-9pm on Monday 2nd April in Shireway Community Centre, Yate. You can find out more about the consultation and make your comments on the Council’s website.

Nibley Lane closed on Friday

Nibley Lane is expected to close on Friday 23rd March between 9.30am and 2.30pm for deep cleaning.

Could you be a Community First Responder?

Great Western Ambulance Service are looking for volunteers to train as Community First Responders. They are also creating a database of locations of defibrillator machines that are held in the community. If you are aware of one, please contact firstresponder@gwas.nhs.uk. Further information on volunteering can be found on the Great Western Ambulance website.

Local forum tackles accident blackspots

Frome Vale Area Forum hoped to avoid further accidents like this one when they allocated money to reducing the speed limit on the B4058

Last month, the Lib Dems successfully amended South Gloucestershire’s budget to devolve more of the highways budget to the local area forums. As a result, the Frome Vale Area Forum had an additional £50,000 to allocate at its March meeting. The Forum used this money to tackle three accident blackspots in our area.

Reducing the speed limit on the B4058

The Forum’s top priority was reducing the speed limit on the B4058 between Iron Acton and Frampton Cotterell. Iron Acton resident Mark Curtis told the Forum of his experience of being shunted from behind into the path of an oncoming car while waiting to turn into his drive. He said he felt fortunate to have escaped the accident with whiplash, concussion and cuts to his head, nose, hand and legs and that it was lucky that his wife who is 5 months pregnant and his two year old son were not in the car at the time.

Speaking about the decision to award £21,000 to the scheme to reduce the limit to 40mph,  Mr Curtis said, “It is long overdue and will hopefully be altered sooner rather than later!  I would have liked 30mph where the houses are but 40mph is a definite step in the right direction.”

Dave Hockey said, “I suggested that we went for the schemes with the worst accident records, to make the best use of the money available to us. It has long seemed ridiculous that the speed has been restricted on the straight portion of the B4058 but not where the houses are, where people need to turn in and out of their drives. I am delighted we have now been able to put this right.”

Pat Hockey said, “This is localism in action and a good example of why we asked for more of the highways budget to be allocated by local councillors at Area Forums. We were able to listen to what a local resident has to say and take action.”

Improving safety on the A432 at Old Sodbury and the A46

The Area Forum also allocated money to road safety schemes on the A432 between Smarts Green and

Commonmead Lane

and the A46 between Cross Hands and Petty France. Cllr Sue Hope said, “I am delighted that the Area Forum now has more say on tackling serious road safety issues. These roads have dreadful accident records, including a number of fatalities, and I hope these schemes will change that.”

Supporting local groups

Earlier in the evening the Forum had allocated money to a range of local groups. Ones from the Ladden-Frome area included Crossbow Pre-school, Wickwar Pre-school, Dodington Parish Band and the 1st Frampton Cotterell Scout Group.

School transport update

Claire Young attended last week's Children and Young People's select committee to speak on the proposed removal of free school transport from Westerleigh to Pucklechurch. Officers confirmed that although the removal of free transport to denominational schools is intended to save money, they are not expecting significant savings from the changes to rural areas transport, instead it is about "equity". Claire queried the high admin figures being quoted for the discretionary fare scheme and asked for a breakdown of figures, as it would be terrible for families to be disrupted only for the council to end up spending more.

Claire made it clear that the starting point was not wanting the free transport to stop, but if it does the transitional arrangements need to be significantly beefed up, with free transport continuing for children already at the school. Parents may not have understood the intricacies of the legislation on school transport when choosing the school. She also queried whether the service could be guaranteed to run if some parents opted to make alternative arrangements. Officers said the Executive Member would consider all the responses to the consultation when making the decision, so if you are unhappy with the proposals, make sure you respond.

You have until 27th April to comment on the plans. You can do that online, email comments to SAPAdmin@southglos.gov.uk or write to Strategy, Access & Planning AdminDepartment for Children & Young People, PO Box 2082, Castle Street, Thornbury BS35 9BQ. Please let Claire know your views too.