Please note, the planning application this relates to does not include plans for an ice rink as reported. That is a separate planning application.

Statement begins

“We have been notified by the Department for Communities and Local Government that the Secretary of State has called-in the expansion plans for The Mall.

“The decision will now be made by the Secretary of State at a planning inquiry.

“While we are extremely disappointed, we remain optimistic that the £300m investment which would create 3,000 jobs and generate economic prosperity across the region could still go ahead.”

The roadshow aims to address modern changes to vehicles, and also how our own driving skills and habits may have changed, with advice on how we can go about updating those skills. The event will be relaxed and friendly with useful information to help improve people’s knowledge and confidence, as well as offering valuable health advice.

There will be a number of information stands on offer, a driving simulator to test reaction times, and free eye tests, along with a presentation covering subjects such as driving licences, changes in the highway code, safer driving at night, and effects of medication. Representatives from public health, the fire service and the local neighbourhood policing team will be present, and anyone who attends will also receive a free copy of the latest edition of The Highway Code.

The free event will be held on Thursday 9 March at Longwell Green Community Centre, in Longwell Green, South Gloucestershire, from 1.30pm to 4pm.

South Gloucestershire Council’s Planning, Transport & Strategic Environment lead member Cllr Colin Hunt said: “Some people become concerned when they are approaching the age of 70 and need to renew their driving licence. We want to help people keep hold of their licences longer by addressing any concerns and improving their driving knowledge and confidence.

“The event includes an interactive presentation, a chance to test your skills on the driving simulator, have your eyesight checked, and talk to our partner agencies.”

The road safety team will be working alongside NADIA (North Avon Driving Instruction Association) at the event to offer one hour driving refresher sessions with an approved local driving instructor. This will take place in the driver’s own vehicle, at a convenient time and place, and costs just £10 (usually £25 but South Gloucestershire Council contribute the other £15).

This event is free to attend and is funded by South Gloucestershire Council’s road safety education team. The presentation will be delivered by road safety staff from South Gloucestershire Council and Somerset County Council.

Route 60+ previously ran across Somerset and if this taster event proves successful there will be further events in South Gloucestershire later this year.

Find out more about the work of the road safety section at: www.southglos.gov.uk/roadsafety

A revenue budget of £193.25 million was set, with an increase in the council-controlled element of council tax. An increase of 4.99% is made up of a 1.99% general increase plus a further 3% specifically ring fenced to adult social care to help meet the demographic and other service pressures. The increase is designed to help protect council services as funding from central government is reduced. It means that the average charge for a Band D property for the South Gloucestershire Council element of the total Council Tax will be £1,359.62*.

The Budget was debated and passed by Council following extensive public consultation. The survey results showed that 70 per cent of respondents were in favour of some level of council tax rise for 2017/18. Almost half (47 per cent) agreed that the council should increase the adult social care precept from 2 per cent as it was applied last year, to 3 per cent for 2017-18 and 2018-19. A third said they disagreed.

Leader of South Gloucestershire Council, Councillor Matthew Riddle, said: “As a council we are focussed on delivering services to meet the needs and priorities of all our residents and local businesses. I am pleased to say that we will continue to do that with this year’s Budget.

“While finances remain tight and we continue to look for ways to do everything we can as efficiently as we can, I am pleased that we are also able to invest and build for the future, particularly in school and transport infrastructure projects.

“Given ever-increasing demands on our social care services, we have also taken the decision to increase our Council Tax rate by 1.99 per cent, as well as to take advantage of the Government’s policy to allow local authorities to raise an additional precept to help meet increasing costs for care of our most vulnerable older residents. This additional 3 per cent is allocated directly to helping to fund older people’s care, where wage costs and the complexity of individual’s needs are increasing.

“The council delivers a huge range of services to our whole community and while we are always under pressure to be ever more efficient, where savings have to be made, the priority remains to protect front line services wherever possible. Thanks to the continued and dedicated efforts of our staff, I believe that we are well placed to meet future challenges.

The 2017/18 Budget also includes updated details of the Council Savings Programme (CSP). During the last six years, to the end of 2016/17, the council will have reduced annual spending by more than £63m through a range of efficiency measures. We anticipate, however, that we need to continue to reduce our spending and have already provisionally identified £14m in additional savings that will need to be made by 2019/20. More work will also be needed to identify where a further savings of nearly £15 million can be made over the same period to meet the remaining shortfall between expected income and current spending to balance the books in the longer term.

* Total Council Tax payable for some residents will rise slightly above the average 4.99% and others will be slightly below the average. This is because of special expenses. In addition there are increased precepts from the police and crime commissioner, the fire authority and most of the 47 town and parish councils.

Poole Court is a delightful historic Victorian mansion located near the town centre in Yate, South Gloucestershire and is ideal for:

• Civil weddings (non-religious)
• Civil partnerships
• Renewal of vows
• Naming ceremonies.

Throughout the open day, registrars will be on hand to show you around the facilities, tell you more about the ceremonies on offer and check the availability of bookings with you.

Poole Court ceremonies are available on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the year, and can be booked up to 12 months in advance.

The Ranger Room on the ground floor is used for ceremonies and can hold up to 45 guests. After your ceremony you will be able to have photographs taken outside and on the lawn using the house as the backdrop.

There is plenty of free parking on site, and Yate’s train and bus stations are only a short walk away.

Wedding ceremonies cost from only £190, for full details please come along to our free open day on 11 February between 10am and 3pm, or visit our website www.southglos.gov.uk/weddings or www.southglos.gov.uk/births

Ceremonies are booked through South Gloucestershire Council’s Register Office, based in Kingswood Civic Centre. To speak with one of our registrars please telephone 01454 863140.

The NHS Health Check programme, commissioned by South Gloucestershire Council, is part of a world leading initiative provided by local GP practices. The programme’s objective is to facilitate early diagnosis and optimal treatment for high risk conditions including, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, kidney disease and certain types of dementia, as well as reducing the risk of having a stroke.

Anyone can be at risk of developing these vascular diseases, but the good news is that these conditions can often be prevented – even if you have a history of them in your family.

Nearly 40,000 people have had a NHS Health Check in South Gloucestershire since 2013. Everyone between the ages of 40 and 74, who has not already been diagnosed with one of these conditions or is otherwise ineligible, is invited to have a free NHS Health Check once every five years.

South Gloucestershire Council’s Adults, Housing and Public Health lead member Cllr Ben Stokes said: “When you receive your invite, please make sure you go along and have your free NHS Health Check.

“If enough people take advantage of these NHS Health Checks it will help reduce chronic illnesses and avoidable premature mortality, as well as reducing the health and social care costs related to long-term ill health and disability.

“Everyone between the ages of 40 and 74, who has not already been diagnosed with one of these conditions or have certain risk factors, will be invited to have a check to assess their risk of cardiovascular disease. Support and advice will be also provided to help them reduce or manage that risk if required.”

The check only takes around 20 minutes and will involve answering some simple questions about your family history and lifestyle choices along with a blood pressure test and an instant blood test to check your cholesterol level.

The results will be discussed with you and further advice and support will be provided if needed. Additional tests and referral to your GP may also follow if required.

For more information visit www.southglos.gov.uk/nhshealthcheck or ask at your GP surgery.

Case study:

One patient’s experience with the NHS Health Check

Paul, an ex-footballer, aged 57 years, attended Wellington Road Surgery in Yate for his NHS Health Check.

“I didn’t feel ill but I was offered the NHS Health Check so decided to go along.”

Paul’s blood pressure was sky high at 160/100 and he had a total cholesterol of 13.7.

“I always thought I was quite fit. I do circuits and play five a side. But I found out I was a heart attack and stroke waiting to happen. It was quite frightening.”

“From that point onwards I stopped drinking from Sundays through to Thursdays and only drink moderately after that. I cut out crisps, cake, chocolate, bacon and cheese. All of that went as did the Friday lunchtime takeaway meal. I upped my exercise and now run four or five times a week.”

Paul managed to bring his total cholesterol down to 6.2 within a few months by healthy eating. He has reduced his blood pressure to a much healthier reading of 129/80. He has also dropped from 14.4 stones to 12.5 and has maintained this.

“What really helped was being given the news in a way that didn’t make me feel under pressure or anxious. I was given a target of making a change within a month and I was followed up by phone and asked to come back in. That made a big difference.”

For more information visit www.southglos.gov.uk/nhshealthcheck or ask at your GP surgery.

Last year we launched a Member Awarded Funding (MAF) scheme where all 70 South Gloucestershire councillors are allocated £3,000 to fund particular projects for the benefit of residents.

As well as the Thornbury Sea Cadet Corps successful application, organisers of Mangotsfield Village Festival have also been given a helping hand towards the security costs of putting on this summer’s event.

And the Young at Heart group in Bradley Stoke will also benefit from funding to put on summer coach trips for older people in the area. Over at Kingswood Park, the local friends group have successfully applied for a set of goalposts to encourage footballers to use the park.

Organisers of Chipping Sodbury’s community event the Big Lunch received £500 at the end of last year. They spent £150 on a Christmas lunch for the elderly and the other £350 will be spent on a summer event for the whole community. The main Big Lunch takes place on Sunday 4 June in Broad Street, Chipping Sodbury and will take on a vintage summertime theme.

Groups still have plenty of time to apply to their local councillor by Friday 31 March. Further information on how to apply is available on our website www.southglos.gov.uk/maf

Councillors have the option to award all their annual funding to a single organisation or initiative, or divide it among a number of groups. They will also be able to combine their individual fund with other councillors in order to provide greater support to a particular scheme.
Funding can be used to make a contribution to a community project or as a grant to voluntary, community or social enterprise groups or town and parish councils.

Robust criteria is in place to ensure funding is allocated appropriately and details of money awarded by each councillor (as well as unsuccessful applications) will be published on our website www.southglos.gov.uk/maf

In February 2016, full Council took a decision to introduce MAF which started in October. MAF replaces our previous Community Grants.

Johnty Welsh, 24, of Blakeney Road in Patchway, appeared before Bristol Magistrates’ Court on Friday 20 January. He pleaded guilty to fly tipping and was fined £200 and ordered to pay costs of £500.

The court heard that between 5 and 6 September 2016, household waste including cardboard and carpet was discovered in a lane near his Blakeney Road address. Evidence gathered from the fly tipped waste linked it to the home address of Mr Welsh. When officers from the council’s environmental crime team interviewed Welsh he admitted the offence, stating that he was cleaning his property as he was expecting visitors and wanted to make his home appear decent, so disposed of the waste.

South Gloucestershire Council’s Environment and Community Services Committee Chair Cllr Heather Goddard said: “Fly tipping is an issue that affects our communities and harms the local environment. This type of behaviour will not be tolerated in South Gloucestershire and offenders can expect to be caught and prosecuted. The duty of care to ensure the proper disposal of waste rests with everyone, and there is no excuse to fly-tip; our Sort It centres are open from 8.30am to 4.30pm, seven days a week.”

Unwanted goods and household or garden waste can all be disposed of at no cost via the council’s Sort It centres.

Residents who see illegal fly tipping are encouraged to report it by using our web form at www.southglos.gov.uk/flytipping or emailing streetcare@southglos.gov.uk

South Gloucestershire Council’s Environment & Community Services Committee today (18 January) decided on a way forward which includes essential bridge strengthening and road resurfacing of the Bromley Heath Viaduct on the A4174. The improvement works will be carried out west bound, between the Bromley Heath roundabout and the Hambrook / Bristol Road junction.

The viaduct is in need of maintenance work on: pier (support) strengthening, bearing and hinge replacement, drainage improvements, water proofing, parapet replacement, and concrete repairs.

After considering a range of options, councillors decided to begin the work in June/July this year for a maximum duration of one year, but with an aim to try to secure additional funding to accelerate the work programme and reduce the timescale. Both the essential maintenance of the viaduct structure and the improvements to widen the shared footpath for cyclists and pedestrians will be combined, which means that the total maximum time required on site would be one year rather than two.

Planning and transport lead member Cllr Colin Hunt said: “The coming years will see significant development across the area, so it’s vital that our major road network is able to cope with this increase in growth.
“We now have the opportunity to bring the viaduct up to standard and improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists at the same time, thanks to the financial support of the Challenge Fund and Cycling Ambition Fund. The schemes are funded from the Department for Transport and are time limited, so it is important that we have agreed a way forward today. The benefits of carrying out the work in this way are that it is achievable within the available funding, and it will reduce the impact on communities and commuters in the long run by completing the work as quickly as possible.”

Head of Streetcare and transport Mark King added: “The extent of the work requires the southern viaduct to be completely closed to all traffic for the duration of the project. This is because the removal of the worn out parts of the structure will mean it is too weak to safely carry any traffic until the maintenance is complete. During the closure, all traffic will be diverted on to the northern viaduct as other options would require a significant one to two mile diversion on to narrow roads.
“We appreciate that this is one of the busiest sections of the A4174 and understand that this will cause significant delays and inconvenience and we apologise in advance. We will be doing everything we can to keep the public regularly informed about the viaduct work and how to plan their journeys accordingly. We are also looking at the scheduling of current and future transport schemes, utility work and other roadworks to ensure disruption to road users and communities is kept to a minimum, wherever possible.”

For more information about the work schedule visit www.southglos.gov.uk/bhviaduct

By combining the work of the two projects into one scheme the cost of completing all of the work is around £5.9M. The work will be funded under two Department for Transport awards; the Challenge Fund and the Cycle Ambition Fund.

Although it is recognised that the impact of the work will be significant, combining these projects will create less disruption to the travelling public. It will also reduce social impacts of; noise from the works, congestion in communities from diverting traffic and pollution from diverting traffic reducing air quality. It should also result in less impact on the local economy by reducing the duration of traffic disruption and congestion caused.

View a video of the current state of the viaduct here https://vimeo.com/184502794

If you have any questions please contact us at bhviaduct@southglos.gov.uk

To ensure site safety and that the improvements are completed on time, we will need to close the public Sort It recycling centre next to the yard for the duration of the refurbishment, between 1 February – 31 May 2017. The site will still be used by council collection vehicles to unload household waste after collections.

The council is giving residents advance warning so that they can dispose of any appropriate waste they already have prior to the temporary closure.

The three other Sort It recycling centres in South Gloucestershire will be open as usual, 8:30am – 4:30pm seven days a week.

• Thornbury – Short Way, BS35 3UT
• Yate – Collett Way, BS37 5NL
• Little Stoke – Station Road, BS34 6HP

Check what can be accepted at each site before you visit and make sure your vehicle is registered at www.southglos.gov.uk/sortitreg.

Councillor Heather Goddard, Chair of the Council’s Environment and Community Services Committee, said: “We are improving our waste services to help residents recycle more and reduce waste overall. These infrastructure improvements will mean that we can manage more handle more recycling when we start weekly collections and it will also help fix the traffic problems that can happen at busy times at the Sort It centre in Mangotsfield.

“I hope that local people will bear with us during the works and use our other Sort It centres if they need to, because the time and investment will see real benefits for people living in Mangotsfield and the rest of South Gloucestershire.”

The changes to the waste and recycling collection service, which include weekly recycling from June and smaller black bins later in the year, will help South Gloucestershire reach its target to reduce overall waste volumes and recycle 50 per cent of its waste by 2020. The changes are part of the wider waste strategy for the area to provide a consistent service for residents and support the growing population. You can find out more online at www.southglos.gov.uk/wastestrategy

A registration system was introduced at all of the Sort It recycling centres in South Gloucestershire last year to prevent non-residents and businesses from using them. The sites also operate an open bag policy where bags of mixed waste are checked for recyclable items which have to be removed before the rest of the rubbish can be disposed of. The policy is the result of a waste analysis that showed 75 per cent of bagged waste brought to the sites could be recycled.

So far there has been significant improvements in traffic flow at all of the Sort It recycling centres and tonnage figures are already showing a decrease of 24 per cent in non-recyclable waste brought to the sites compared to 2014/15.

The new South Gloucestershire Local Plan (SGLP) will cover the whole of the area for the period 2018 to 2036. The Plan will guide development and include the policies which will be used when making decisions on planning applications.

The consultation lasts for six weeks until Thursday 23 February and we are asking people for their feedback and to let us know what they feel should be included in the Plan. All the information is available online at www.southglos.gov.uk/newlocalplanprospectus

Planning, Transport & Strategic Environment lead member Cllr Colin Hunt said: “We would like to encourage everyone who lives and works in the area to comment on our new Local Plan prospectus. It is important that we have up to date Local Plan policies to determine planning applications against, so please get involved, have your say and let us know what you think should be included.”

Last year, in partnership with our three neighbouring authorities, we published the latest stage of the Joint Spatial Plan ‘Towards an Emerging Joint Spatial Strategy’ as well as the ‘Joint Transport Vision Summary’ document. These set out the overall amount of residential and employment development required, and where it should be located across the West of England, along with the West of England’s vision to address current transport issues and how best to deal with the impact of future growth for the next 20 years.

By working on these strategies together, the aim is to ensure that development is sustainable and takes account of the fact that people live, work and travel across council boundaries.

The Joint Spatial Plan will ultimately provide the strategic context covering the period up to 2036, which the new SGLP will need to comply with. This means that the amount and locations of new housing and employment set out in the JSP which relate to South Gloucestershire will need to be included in and delivered through the SGLP. Both plans, upon their adoption, will be used by the council to determine planning applications.