Thursday night’s International Women’s Day celebratory event  organised by Southern Brooks Community Partnership (SBCP), once again attracted a large and enthusiastic crowd to Bradley Stoke Community School (BSCS).

The evening kicked off with performances from the BSCS salsa band and a musical performance from local girl group ‘Raise Your Voice”.

This was followed by an international fashion show, choreographed by Furo Sefia of African Elegance, and featuring some stunningly colourful African and Asian costumes.

The awards ceremony for the Poetry and Photography competition (a new feature this year) began with a moving recital of four of the poems entered, before Cllr Heather Goddard, Executive Member for Communities at South Gloucestershire Council, announced the winners and presented the prizes.

Poetry competition

The winners:

• Young Person category: Danny Williams – ‘Always There’
• Adult category: Mrs Charlie Walker – ‘A Mum’

Photography competition

The winners:

• Young Person category: Dorothy Cox – ‘Victorian Daydream’
• Adult category: Ivan Uzcategui – ‘Energy’

The first half of the event was rounded off by an impressive performance from a group of ten BSCS drama and dance students, depicting the achievements and changing roles of women over the last 100 years.

The interval allowed guests a chance to peruse the information stalls set up in the school’s dining room and view displays of all the entries submitted for the poetry and photographic competitions.

The second half of the event began with presentations of the Outstanding Women’s Awards by Cllr Goddard.

Personal Achievement Award

Julie Edmondson – for years of work at Patchway Youth Centre.

Young Woman Award

Tiffany Clarke – for mentoring younger girls in singing group, helping with the group and raising money for the recording studio at Little Stoke Youth Centre.

Business Woman Award

Jaci Crocombe and Alison Davies – founders of the Bradley Stoke Matters community magazine.

Carer Award

Jo Garland – Main carer for her disabled daughter , helped elderly neighbour, modest and looks after her family of three sons and a supportive husband.

Brief presentations from Business Link West and Kidney Research UK were then followed by the concluding ‘Step into Spring’ fashion show, featuring clothes from Marks & Spencer and compered by Tracy Francksen of Red Door Coaching and Training.

Joint organiser of the event Winsome Barrett-Muir (SBCP) told The Journal:

“Last night’s IWD celebration was the outcome of six month’s planning between Southern Brooks Community Partnership and its partners in the community, including Bradley Stoke Community School, South Gloucestershire council, Bradley Stoke Town Council and the South Gloucestershire Library Service.”

“It was a wonderful night, enjoyed both by the audience and those who took part. It was lovely to see so many people coming together to celebrate and be part of community.”

Prizes were donated by John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Red Door Coaching and Training Ltd, Ramada Grange Hotel – Winterbourne, Aztec West Hotel and Spa, Bradley Stoke Matters and Bradley Stoke Small Business Forum.

Bradley Stoke Town Council, South Gloucestershire Council, Patchway Town Council and Business Link South West sponsored the event and money was raised on the night for Kidney Research UK.

Lots more photos from the event: album; slideshow (PicasaWeb)

Panoramic photographs of virtually every street in Bradley Stoke have today been made available on the Google Street View website.

The search engine and mapping giant has extended its controversial street scene recording service to cover 95% of the homes in the UK.

Launched in the UK in March 2009, the service previously covered the central Bristol conurbation, but didn’t extend beyond Filton to the north.

Images of the area around the new Tesco Extra store in Bradley Stoke show the new town centre still under construction, meaning that the pictures were taken sometime before October 2008.

Google has come under fire from critics who claim that the detailed pictures represent an invasion of privacy but the company counters this by pointing out that Street View only shows imagery visible from public roads. The service also uses technology that automatically blurs both faces and licence plates.

To use Street View, go to Google Maps, type in an address or post code and drag the yellow ‘peg man’ symbol onto a street shown in the main map display.

Spotted something interesting or bizarre in the Street View images of Bradley Stoke? Leave a comment on this post to share your discovery.

Representatives of  the City & County of Bristol Bowling Association and the Gloucestershire  Bowling Association are also expected to attend the event.

The sport is returning to the Baileys Court green two years after the former Northavon Bowls Club was controversially evicted from the ground by Bradley Stoke Town Council in a dispute over rent.

A spokesperson for the newly-formed club says they have already signed up 62 members and are expecting numbers to grow even more by the time the new season gets underway.

Annual membership of the club has been set at £35 and new bowlers are being offered training from two qualified coaches.

Bradley Stoke Town Council’s Finance Committee recently agreed to set the new bowls club’s first year rent at £1,500, inclusive of maintenance of the bowling green – an estimated £8,000 p.a. cost previously borne by members of the Northavon club.

The deal received cross-party support from members of the Finance Committee, with the notable exceptions of Cllr Julian Barge and spouse Cllr Elizabeth Todd, who both abstained.

The agreement must now be ratified at a meeting of Full Council later this month.

The club is holding its ‘Spring Meeting’ on Tuesday 13th April (7pm start) at the Baileys Court Activity Centre and welcomes enquiries from new and experienced bowlers.

More information: Bradley Stoke Bowls Club (The Journal)

Conservative Councillors have welcomed the signing of an agreement between Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC), South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) and Southern Brooks Community Partnership (SBCP) that secures annual funding of £93,000 for youth work in Bradley Stoke.

Councillors claim that the new agreement will produce “better value for the money that both Councils put into youth services in the town”.

Under the ‘Commissioned Service Agreement’, £93,000 of  annual funding – made up of £60,000 from BSTC and £33,000 from SGC – will be paid to Southern Brooks Community Partnership to provide:

• A full-time qualified youth worker managing and co-ordinating the development and delivery of youth provision in Bradley Stoke, working closely with Bradley Stoke Youth Committee and South Gloucestershire Youth Service
• Four nights of centre-based youth sessions per week for the 13 – 19 age group
• Two centre-based activity sessions per week for the 10 – 13 aged group
• Two ‘detached’ youth sessions per week – where youth workers engage with young people ‘on the streets’

The agreement requires centre-based sessions to be provided for a minimum of 44 weeks per year.

Young people are said to have sat on the panel that chose the provider and quarterly reports will be provided to ensure that requirements are being met.

Brian Hopkinson (pictured above, right), South Gloucestershire councillor for Bradley Stoke Central and Stoke Lodge, who helped draft the agreement as Chairman of BSTC’s Youth committee, said:

“It has been a hard slog for a number of us, but we think we have got an agreement which meets our high expectations and squeezes more value out of the money that both councils invest in ensuring that the town’s young people have access to positive activities.”

“We now have a centre complete with sports hard court facility that caters for a wide age range of local children and young people.”

“We hope to cultivate a safe Youth Café atmosphere where local youngsters can have fun, meet up with their friends, enjoy refreshments and have access to well structured positive activities that help them to achieve their goals in life.”

“This agreement sees regular performance monitoring so councillors and residents can be satisfied that ambitious goals are being achieved.”

Cllr John Calway (pictured above, left), leader of South Gloucestershire Council’s Conservative administration, added:

“More joined-up youth provision in the town ties in well with the council’s plan to roll-out the Conservatives’ flagship youth concessionary travel scheme later this year, which will offer more opportunities for young people to access leisure and recreational activities in the area, as well as employment.”

Not surprisingly, the press release put out by the SGC Conservative Group makes no mention of the “disappointment” expressed by Bradley Stoke Conservative Councillors over the proportion of the overall package being contributed by SGC.

The proposed SGC contribution of £33,000 p.a. was described as “very disappointing,” and “totally unacceptable” by Conservative Councillors at the December 2009 meeting of BSTC’s Finance Committee.

BSTC Councillors also complained that other parishes in South Gloucestershire receive “considerably more per head for youth than Bradley Stoke”. Yate, for example, is said to receive £167,000 compared to the £33,000 for Bradley Stoke.

The failure of Patchway Town Council (PTC) to contribute a promised £10,000 p.a. to the scheme, in recognition of the fact that a number of young people from Patchway attend the Brook Way youth club, has also riled Bradley Stoke Town Councillors.

More information: Youth Clubs in Bradley Stoke (The Journal)

Organisers of the second Bradley Stoke Aquathlon, a swim and run event based at the Leisure Centre, have announced that the race is now full.

Sandra Webber of Thornbury Running Club says that a maximum field of 140 athletes will line up for the event on Sunday 14th March, which represents a 50% increase over the number that contested last year’s inaugural race.

The field includes large contingents from Bristol & District Triatheletes and the Kingswood Triathlon Club. Other competitors are travelling from Yeovil, London and Wales to take part in the event.

The first competitors will begin their swim at 8.30am and the event is expected to finish by 11:30am. A  prize giving ceremony will take place at around 12:30pm.

Sponsors are ZeroG, who co-own the Giant bike shop at the Willow Brook Centre, Easy Runner, Sweatshop, Kudos and Rapid Building Services.

Members of the public are advised that the main and small pools at Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre will be closed until noon on the day of the event.

Councillors on Bradley Stoke Town Council’s Planning Committee have taken exception to proposals from South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) to install a number of ‘raised table’ cycle crossings in the town.

As reported last month, SGC has opened a consultation on plans to install the crossings on Baileys Court Road, Fiddlers Wood Lane and across the access road to Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre.

The crossings will bring the carriageway up to the level of the footway, allowing cyclists and wheelchair users to cross the road without a change in level.

In a unanimous decision, Councillors voted to object to the scheme on the grounds of “unnecessary expense; raised tables offering no protection to cyclists; causing damage to vehicles; and slowing the passage of emergency vehicles”.

The motion was proposed by Cllr John Ashe, who also drew the meeting’s attention to a statement in the SGC proposals that claims the crossings can “help to maintain the low speed of traffic within any 20mph zone”, adding that he feared this could be the first step towards introducing unwanted 20mph speed limits in the town.

The crossings are part of the Cycling City Route 3 scheme, which will link Parkway Station to Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre.

Construction work has recently started on parts of the scheme, including the installation of a short stretch of new cyclepath along Bradley Stoke Way, close to its junction with Fiddlers Wood Lane.

It is seems unlikely that the Councillors’ objection will prevent the crossings being implemented as the current consultation is on the Highways Act notice that represents the final stage of the approval process.

A widely-publicised month-long public consultation on the whole Cycling City Route 3 scheme was held in September 2009 but Councillors failed to discuss it at any of their meetings held around that time.

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)

A charity looking to build an MS Therapy Centre on land off Bradley Stoke Way has made a U-turn over the proposed arrangements for vehicular access into the site.

In plans approved last year, the Moonstone Appeal said it would construct a new ‘left in, left out’ access road into the site from Bradley Stoke Way. This arrangement was consistent with conditions imposed on an earlier planning application following opposition from local Councillors and residents over proposals for the site to be accessed from Wheatfield Drive.

In a new planning application for a ‘respite care  centre for MS sufferers and their carers’ that would sit alongside the MS Therapy Centre, the charity says it has had to revise access arrangements for the site:

Unfortunately due to the presence of an underground [oil] pipeline along the northern boundary of the site, between the site and the carriageway of Bradley Stoke Way, it is not viable to develop an access into the site in the location proposed in the previously consented applications.

The move is likely to spark renewed opposition from residents, Councillors and the Governors of the nearby Wheatfield Primary School, all of whom have previously raised objections to any proposals that involve accessing the site from Wheatfield Drive.

There may also be some disappointment over the proposed use of the second building on the site as Wheatfield Primary School and local residents had expressed the wish that a pre-school nursery might be provided.

Complications caused by the presence of the underground oil pipeline were anticipated in a resident’s consultation response to the previous planning application, in which it was claimed that to divert it would cost between £150k and £200k. Planning officers at South Gloucestershire Council acknowledged the comment but said that it was a matter between the applicant and the owner of the pipeline (Esso) and could not influence the granting of permission.

The charity has previously said that it needs to begin work on construction of the MS Therapy Centre by Spring 2010 in order to satisfy conditions imposed on it by already-agreed funding sources.

Consultation on the latest planning application runs until Monday 29th March.

Students at Bradley Stoke Community School (BSCS) have been paying tribute to year 9 pupil Ryan Abrahams, who passed away last Tuesday.

Ryan, who was born with a rare muscular disorder and relied on a motorized wheelchair to get around, was active in a number of sports (including wheelchair football and table top cricket) and was awarded the South Gloucestershire Young Disability Sportsperson of the Year title in 2009.

Writing in the school newsletter, headteacher Dave Baker says:

“Ryan …  showed resilience and a fighting spirit despite the challenges of being in a wheelchair with all the frustrations and limitations that gave him. He will be remembered as a happy and friendly member of our school and wider community where he was involved in so many different things, especially sport and football in particular.”

Floral tributes from staff and pupils have been placed in Ryan’s reserved parking place in front of the main school entrance and a non-uniform day is being held on Monday (1st March), when students will be encouraged to wear football tops “in a fitting tribute to a boy who loved football”.

Related link: Photos of the floral tributes at BSCS

Bradley Stoke’s Deputy Mayor Ben Walker has expressed concern over obstruction of the pavement around the recently-erected works compound at Bradley Stoke Surgery on Brook Way.

He raised the matter at last Wednesday’s Planning Committee meeting, asking if ISG Pearce – the contractor working on the surgery extension project, had permission to obstruct the highway in this way.

He also pointed out that access gates installed within the compound’s boundary fencing are likely to completely obstruct the remaining pavement when opened.

Cllr Walker said it was not clear which of the two planning applications made by the surgery was actually being implemented at the Brook Way site, but he did not recall either application mentioning that the Brook Way pavement would be obstructed during the construction phase.

Town Clerk Sharon Petela was instructed to contact the Highways Department of South Gloucestershire Council to verify if the appropriate authorisation had been obtained.

The fact that the matter was raised at all seems curious, since two members of the senior management team at the Brook Way surgery (Dr Elizabeth Todd and Julian Barge) are members of the Town Council, although neither of them sits on the Planning Committee.

Entries have now opened for the 2010 renewal of the Bradley Stoke 10k Run, to be held on Sunday 13th June as part of the town’s Community Festival.

The increasingly popular event, organised by local ladies-only running club Sole Sisters, will take place over the same route as last year – starting and finishing at the Jubilee Centre in Savages Wood Road.

The race route [map] takes in much of the Three Brooks Local Nature Reserve as well as including stretches along Brook Way and Bradley Stoke Way.

Popular with local joggers and fun runners, the race also attracts serious athletes from around the region. Last year’s winner was Gary Hope of Gloucester Club Severn AC, who completed the course in a time of 33:36, while Joanne Heuze of Cardiff club Village Vipers was the first woman home in 41:17.

Karen Walsh of Sole Sisters tells The Journal that the entry limit for the 2010 race has been raised to 500 (from 350 in 2009) thanks to the cooperation of the local police, who will be manning road crossings around the course.

The Nicola Corrie Support Foundation has been nominated as the official fundraising charity for this year’s race.

More information and related links:

• Bradley Stoke 10k Run 2010 Entry Form [PDF]
• Bradley Stoke 10k Run (The Journal)
• Bradley Stoke Community Festival (The Journal)

The increase, agreed at last Wednesday’s Full Council meeting, is well below the government’s favoured CPI (Consumer Prices Index) measure of inflation, which registered 3.5% in January. It is however higher than the expected average Council Tax increase for all English authorities, which has been estimated at 1.8% [source: CIPFA].

The Council’s budget includes an extra £2 million a year to improve the maintenance of roads, pavements and drains in the district. Savings will be made by reducing the Council’s workforce by 317 posts and introducing a new IT system to improve efficiency.

Elsewhere in the region, Bristol City Council and North Somerset Council have both agreed 2.0% rises.

Bradley Stoke Town Council has already decided to raise its precept by 1.8% for 2010/2011, following a year with no increase in 2009/2010.

The Avon & Somerset Police Authority will be raising its precept by an inflation-busting 4.2% in 2010/2011, blaming the increase on a shortfall in funding from central government.

Related link: Reactions to the South Gloucestershire Council budget and council tax announcement (SouthGlos Post)

Public left in the dark as work begins at Brook Way site

Work has finally begun on the long-awaited expansion of Bradley Stoke Surgery but patients and local residents continue to be kept in the dark about developments at the Brook Way site.

Construction firm ISG Pearce has installed a number of portacabins in the surgery’s car park and a large part of the site plus some public land on Brook Way has been boarded off. This has resulted in the number of spaces on the surgery side of the Brook Way car park being reduced from 20 to 9.

The notoriously secretive Bradley Stoke Surgery gave no warning that the work was due to start and one week later there are still no details about the redevelopment on the practice’s website. The Journal has also been unable to find any related information on the websites of Bradley Stoke Town Council, South Gloucestershire Council or NHS South Gloucestershire.

The Journal understands that the surgery was asked almost a year ago to give a presentation on its redevopment plans to the Bradley Stoke Safer and Stronger Community Group. As yet, no such presentation has taken place, with the surgery reportedly saying they “didn’t feel able to come yet” in July 2009.

The scheme hit the local headlines in December 2009 when NHS South Gloucestershire (NHSSG) was forced to admit that redevelopment of the surgery had been delayed due to the credit crunch. That revelation came after local resident Sachin Singhal had questioned why over 200 pregnant women from Bradley Stoke were having to travel to Filton or Patchway for treatment and advice.

Midwife services at the surgery were withdrawn in February 2009 when portacabins were removed from the rear of the premises but the anticipated redevelopment of the site then failed to materialise. NHSSG later admitted that: “with hindsight, the service was moved earlier than needed”.

The Journal has heard from an unofficial source that the redevelopment of the Brook Way surgery is likely to take nine months.

Elsewhere, there is no visible progress on the expansion of two other GP practices which NHSSG promised would be enhanced to serve the needs of Bradley Stoke residents.

Expansion of Stoke Gifford Medical Centre is on hold because its funding is tied to the proposed new housing development at Harry Stoke, which has been delayed “for the foreseeable future”.

Planning permission for an expansion of The Stokes Medical Centre on Braydon Avenue was approved in May 2009 but work at that site is also yet to start.

A September 2007 press release by NHSSG stated that: “All [three] of the practice developments should be completed by the end of 2008/9″. To which Chief Executive Penny Harris added:

“We have given formal public commitments to these developments and have set aside the funding for the schemes to commence.”

Despite the NHS plans for expansion of existing practices, a number of residents and Councillors have continued to call for a second medical centre to be constructed in Bradley Stoke. A parcel of land at Savages Wood Road (opposite the Tesco filling station) was originally earmarked for such a use but the site remains vacant and could now be sold off for housing or used as the location of a new “youth hub”.

The matter of a new medical centre was raised again at the January meeting of the Bradley Stoke Safer and Stronger Community Group and Sarah Booker of South Gloucestershire Local Involvement Network (LINk), an independent patient-led health watchdog, has been actioned to report back to the group at a later date.

Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) has been stung by a massive hike in the business rates it has to pay for the Jubilee Centre following the discovery of a clerical error made by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in 2005.

This week’s meeting of the Council’s Finance Committee was told that a “manual error” within the records held by HMRC’s Valuation Office Agency (VOA) resulted in  the rateable value of the main building being recorded as £1,071.60 instead of £10,713.60.

The under valuation has been in place since 2005 and BSTC has therefore benefited from a substantially reduced rate level for almost five years.

Councillors were told that the VOA has waived its right to retrospectively claim the underpayment but were disappointed to hear that the new rate is to be applied from January rather than from the start of the new tax year in April.

Had the increase been applied from April, it would have coincided with a five-yearly rate review and under ‘transitional relief’ rules the new rate would have been phased in over a four to five year period. As the April increase is now unlikely to trigger ‘transitional relief’, the new rate will have to be paid in full with immediate effect.

The additional rates arising from the corrected rateable value are believed to be between £4,000 and £5,000 per annum.

South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) has opened a public consultation on plans for a number of ‘raised table’ cycle crossings within Bradley Stoke.

The proposed crossings are part of Cycling City Route 3, which will link Parkway Station to Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre.

The Statement of Reasons document published by the Council explains:

These crossing points consist of a raised table section bringing the carriageway up to the footway level. This allows pedestrians, cyclists and wheelchair users to cross the carriageway with no change in gradient or level. It also raises the visibility and priority of vulnerable users to the same physical level as the traffic. The crossing can also help maintain the low speed of traffic within any 20mph zone.

The new crossings are to be installed at the following locations:

• Across Baileys Court Road, between its junctions with Sherbourne Avenue and Meadow Way
• Across Fiddlers Wood Lane, close to its junction with Bradley Stoke Way
• Across the access road into Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre

Each crossing will consist of a gentle ramped approach up to the existing level of the footway and then a flat table.

In contrast to the speed bumps used on Brook Way and other roads in the town, the raised crossings will present a ‘full carriageway width’ obstacle to road vehicles. Bus companies and ambulance services are known to have previously objected to such features on the grounds of passenger discomfort.

Residents have until Wednesday 10th March to register comments on the proposals.

More information:

• Consultation Documents (SGC)
• Respond to the Consultation (SGC)

Management at Bradley Stoke’s Willow Brook Centre say they were “shocked” when The Nationwide Building Society branch ceased trading without notice yesterday (Monday 15th).

The agency branch, operated by 1st Equity (part of financial services company 1st Group UK of Thornbury), first opened on Monday 20th October 2008 – one week after the official opening of the Willow Brook Centre.

The business had appeared to be doing well, particularly after the recent closure of the rival Halifax agency at Bradley Pavilions – the town’s only other banking outlet.

The proprietors had also recently been advertising a job vacancy at the agency, for which the application deadline had been given as 11th February.

Nationwide branding on the agency shop front and elsewhere within the Willow Brook complex had been removed by late afternoon on Monday and the shop window covered with paper sheets.

Notices on the windows of the store state:

“Regrettably it has been necessary to temporarily close this branch agency. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”

Willow Brook Centre Manager Scott Lahive told The Journal:

“This is obviously sad news for the many customers who held accounts at the Bradley Stoke branch. Our thoughts are with the staff who along with the centre were unaware of the planned closure.”

The Bradley Stoke branch was operated by a separate company who act as an agency for Nationwide. Customers can be safe in the knowledge that any transactions completed prior to the closure are registered with Nationwide and are unaffected. In effect their accounts remain whilst the ability to bank in Bradley Stoke does not.”

“At this moment in time we are not aware if this closure if a temporary or permanent move.”

Customers are advised to contact Nationwide on 08457 302010 if they have any queries.

The news comes just three months after the Curves ladies-only fitness centre, another tenant of the Willow Brook Centre, suddenly ceased trading on Friday 6th November.

1st Equity were unable to provide a statement before publication of this article but a director of the company has promised to speak to The Journal later today.

UPDATE at 4pm:

John Bridge of 1st Equity supplied the following statement:

“The decision to close the agency was not ours and we regret the inconvenience to customers.”

“I am not allowed to comment further.”