Focus on the Ladden-Frome area

Safer Stronger Community Group - latest priorities

2008-07-01T23:44:00.002+01:00

At tonight's meeting, the following priorities were agreed:

1. Upgrading youth facilities in both Frampton Cotterell and Westerleigh parishes.
2. Continuing to work on the motorbike problems at Dodmore Farm.
3. Tackling speeding in the Quiet Lanes Scheme, Perrinpit Lane and Westerleigh.

Composting application presentation at Dyrham and Hinton PC

2008-06-29T18:35:00.005+01:00

SITA's presentation to Dyrham and Hinton Parish Council on Thursday and the one made by the Parish Council in response provoked a lively and interesting debate. Points made by SITA and Agrivert representatives in response to questions included:

Both VOSA and the Highways Agency are expected to continue to use their parts of the site, there is no intention to take over areas outside the training agency land.

They are still working on the detailed traffic assessment. As the vehicles are arriving outside peak times, they don’t expect the impact on the motorway junction to be a problem. They provided revised vehicle movement figures to take account of weekly collections, but Claire Young has written to SITA since the meeting requesting further clarification.

The facility would revert to SGC-ownership in 2025.

The capacity required was modelled and provided by South Gloucestershire Council. SITA currently collect 20 000 tonnes of green waste from the kerb-side, 3000tonnes from civic amenity sites that could continue to go to open windrow as it wouldn’t include food waste and expect to collect 5000 tonnes of kitchen waste.

They denied that they had been unable to use a site in Avonmouth because Tesco didn’t want it next to their warehouse because of fears of contamination.

Agrivert will have to repay SITA if there are problems with the site in the first two years.

They conceded it wasn’t ideally located, being on the edge of South Gloucestershire and not near the centres of population, but it has the advantage of being near agricultural land. However they anticipate the end product going on arable land, not grazing land.

Both SITA and Agrivert insisted this wasn’t a cheapskate option.

They would not exceed the licensed capacity, aside from that not being allowed it would cause odour problems and result in a poor end product. They mention 30 000 tonnes in the title of the application as that cannot be varied in the way that conditions can, so any increase would have to be through a new planning application.

The site would be sealed with fences to stop vermin getting in and nets between buildings to keep out birds. It is interesting to note that you cannot graze animals on fields on which the compost has been spread for 8 weeks.

To pass Animal Byproducts regulations, 27 random tests are carried out and if a single one fails the product has to be landfilled. Agrivert has never had a plant shut in 26 sites across Europe in 14 years.

Claire Young pointed out, as she did at the Westerleigh presentation for the previous application, that it was wrong to say that all of South Gloucestershire outside towns and villages is green belt. She also asked SITA to clarify why they had ruled out the Hallan site that New Earth Solutions are considering. Gareth Phillips of SITA said he had visited the site personally and thinks that both it and a nearby site are unsuitable because there is a problem with access for the "bulkers" that take the compost away.

Latteridge Road closure

2008-06-29T18:25:00.002+01:00

Latteridge Road, Iron Acton will be closed to traffic from 10pm today (Sunday 29th June 2008) until 5.00am tomorrow morning, due to essential works on the Railway Crossing after a vehicle collided with it.

The alternative route for vehicles is via Bristol Road B4058, Perinpit Road and Old Gloucester Road B4427 to A38 and vice versa
OR
Bristol Road B4058, Wotton Road B4058, Stidcote Lane, Duck Street, Stowell Hill Road, Tytherington Road to A38 and vice versa.

Next Safer Stronger Community Group meeting on Tuesday

2008-06-29T18:01:00.002+01:00

The next Safer Stronger Community Group meeting for Frampton Cotterell/Westerleigh is at 7.30pm on Tuesday 1st July 2008 at Frampton Cotterell C of E School. This is your chance to raise issues with the police and local Councillors.

Composting facility presentation tonight

2008-06-26T11:46:00.001+01:00

SITA will make a presentation at Dyrham and Hinton Parish Council tonight (Thursday 26th June). The meeting is at 7.30pm in the Parish Hall.

Ram Hill foul drain smells fixed?

2008-06-26T00:30:00.003+01:00

Claire Young recently wrote to Wessex Water about foul smells coming from the drains on Ram Hill. They investigated and identified a fault at Henfield Sewage Pumping Station. This fault has led to the contents being kept for long periods at the site and in the rising main that discharges near Ram Hill Business Park, which has caused septicity and ultimately the foul odour.

Wessex Water have now rectified the fault, which they say should resolve the smell problem. If this is not the case, please contact Claire Young on 01454 864086 or claire.young@southglos.gov.uk

Ram Hill Colliery work party

2008-06-20T23:37:00.003+01:00

The Friends of Ram Hill Colliery have organised a work party for 10am-3pm this Sunday (22 June). They say it will help if you can bring along your favourite spade or shears.

An extra 30 800 homes - comments by the bagful

2008-06-16T22:52:00.004+01:00

Local people have been sending in hundreds of paper and electronic responses to the South Gloucestershire Core Strategy consultation - and they're not at all happy at the options the Conservative-led council is putting forward.

The photo shows the Lib Dem's planning spokesperson Pat Hockey with the latest bagful of letters she has received from worried residents.

The official deadline for commenting on the Core Strategy was last Friday but there will be another consultation later in the summer when the minister publishes her response to the recommendation that an extra 30 800 homes should be built in South Gloucestershire. Watch this space for more information.

Composting facility will take weekly green bin collections

2008-06-13T11:02:00.002+01:00

It's been confirmed that there will be weekly green bin collections including food from next April, not fortnightly as SITA have been telling residents.

At the Parish Council meeting at Tormarton on Monday, SITA said their plans were based on fortnightly green bin collections, with food being collected in green bins one week, black bins the next.

Lib Dem councillors queried this with Council officers, as the Council has committed to weekly green bin collections from April 2009. It's now been confirmed that SITA's plans should accommodate weekly collections.

Claire Young has asked for SITA to provide revised vehicle movement figures as a matter of urgency.

Latest bus service proposals from First Bus

2008-06-10T23:18:00.002+01:00

Coalpit Heath - The X42 which goes via the M32 will be retained, giving one express service an hour, but off-peak buses will be reduced from 4 buses per hour to 3 as both the X30 and X40 will be withdrawn. The X30 will be replaced by the new 327, which will go into Bristol via Frenchay hospital.

Frampton Cotterell - There will now be no express service as the X30, which goes via the M32, will be replaced by the new 327 which will operate via Hicks Common and Frenchay.

Iron Acton - The new X27 service via the M32 will replace the 328 and within the village buses will avoid the High Street due to parking problems there.

Composting application presentation at Tormarton PC

2008-06-10T22:59:00.002+01:00

Last night SITA gave a presentation about their In-Vessel Composting application and answered questions about it at the Tormarton Parish Council meeting. Claire Young attended along with fellow Lib Dem Councillors Sue Hope and Sarah Turley.

The questions were wide ranging and topics included:

Choice of site - SITA acknowledged this wasn't ideal, being in the Green Belt and the AONB, and that an industrial site would be better, but this was the result of a long search. They did secure planning permission at a site in Avonmouth but that area is changing rapidly and moving from heavy industry to warehousing. They also agreed a more central location would be preferable, but again argued there was a lack of alternatives.

Back up plans - They are still looking at alternatives and would withdraw this application if a better site became available.

Timing of application - SITA are now looking to put in the planning application towards the end of July.

Enclosing the tunnels in a building - They are reviewing with DEFRA whether they should enclose the tunnels but operationally this wouldn't be as good.

Vermin - Nothing stays still in the open for more than 8 hours, during which time there’d be too much movement of vehicles for animals to want to go on site. There will be baiting stations around the site, it will be fenced and the whole area kept clean.

Odours - The Agrivert spokesman claimed residents wouldn’t even know this site was there.

Bioaerosols - These will be monitored before and after the site is commissioned.

Claire Young asked about:

The inclusion of cardboard, which isn't treated at Agrivert's Edmonton IVC. Agrivert assured the meeting that they had learnt their lessons at their open windrow site in Oxfordshire, which takes cardboard, although he didn't elaborate on how these lessons would be applied at this site.

The market for the end product - Agrivert insisted farmers were falling over themselves for the compost.

Whether the predicted vehicle movements allowed for taking waste from other authorities, which they said it did.

Local roadworks

2008-06-06T22:24:00.003+01:00

In the coming weeks there wil be several sets of roadworks that might slow your journey locally:

From 9th to 11th June there will be a trench surface repair on the Badminton Road/Station Road A432 from near the railway bridge to Stover Road. This will require off-peak traffic signals and lane width restrictions.
The railway bridge on Westerleigh Road, Westerleigh will have two way traffic lights on 12 June while the bridge is inspected.

The A4174 Ring Road between the Bromley Heath roundabout and the Wick Wick roundabout will have lane closures for approximately 12 weeks from the end of June for essential bridge strengthening

Have Your Say surgery tomorrow

2008-06-06T21:38:00.002+01:00

Don't forget that tomorrow local Councillors Pat and Dave Hockey and Claire Young will be holding a surgery at the Brockeridge Centre from 10.30-12.30 for anyone who wants to discuss their responses to the "Core Strategy" consultation.

Phone boxes under threat

2008-06-06T14:24:00.007+01:00

Many of our local phone boxes are threatened by a BT plan to remove all "uneconomic" phone boxes from our streets, whether they are needed for emergency purposes or not.

The following phone boxes are under threat in the Ladden-Frome area:

Henfield Road, Coalpit Heath
North Road, Yate
Sundays Hill Lane, Falfield
Charfield Hill, Charfield
Little Bristol Lane, Charfield
Court Road, Leyhill
Longcross, Cromhall
Heathend, Cromhall
outside the old Post Office, Westerleigh
At the layby, Stover Road, Yate
Codrington

Since 2002 BT has removed 31,000 kiosks around the UK.

The Evening Posts reports the phone box story here.

Composting drop-in sessions - today and tomorrow!

2008-06-03T00:00:00.002+01:00

Drop-in sessions will be held on Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th June at Tormarton Parish hall between 6pm-8pm. SITA will be in attendance at the Wednesday session.

All change in Yate

2008-06-01T16:15:00.003+01:00

Yate town centre is currently undergoing a great deal of change. Work started on the new Health Centre earlier in the year(as you can read on our sister blog). The leisure centre is about to undergo a revamp, during which it is hoped it will stay open.

Not to be left out, the library will be extended and developed using £1.5 million from the Big Lottery Fund. The plan is to close Yate Library in September and operate from a temporary base for about 12 months. They will also be extending the opening hours of Chipping Sodbury Library during that time. In preparation for this Chipping Sodbury Library will be closed from 14th June – 5th August for internal redecoration and refurbishment.

Station Road Post Office to close

2008-05-30T21:20:00.003+01:00

The Post Office have announced the results of their "consultation" about closing 29 Post Offices in the Greater Bristol area and, surprise, surprise, all 29 are to close. This includes the Post Office in the Tesco Express Store in Station Road, Yate. Local people will have to join the already long queues at Yate Post Office.

Steve Webb told the Gazette, "The depressing thing about the whole consultation process was that we always knew that if we got the post office to change their mind about one of the offices on their list they would simply substitute another one.

"As soon as the government decided that 2,500 offices had to go, the die was cast."

See the Evening Post for a full list of closures.

Hope for bus services?

2008-05-30T21:11:00.002+01:00

Steve Webb met the Managing Director of First Bus this week, and it sounds like First may possibly be going to listen to all the comments they've had about their proposals to restructure the bus service and withdraw the "X" express buses from the Yate/Sodbury routes. You can read Steve's account of the bus meeting here.

More information needed on composting facility

2008-05-29T00:29:00.008+01:00

As we reported recently, SITA now hope to site the in-vessel composting facility next to the Highways depot off the A46 near Tormarton. Lib Dem Councillors from the area (including Sue Hope, pictured above with Chair of Tormarton Parish Council, John Wells) are calling on the Council's waste contractors SITA to provide more information so residents can understand the full impact and for consultation events to be held for the public.

Claire Young has asked SITA for details of the current routes used by collection vehicles and where they would travel if this proposal went ahead so that residents can compare the two and see whether there would be a significant impact on local roads.

ETA: You can read more in the Gazette.

Don't forget! Have your say on the buses

2008-05-24T21:34:00.002+01:00

It's important that everyone tells First what they think - you still have time to make comments via their website www.firstgroup.com/haveyoursay/bristol. The deadline is tomorrow, Sunday 25th.

Nibley Lane to close on Tuesday

2008-05-24T00:18:00.001+01:00

Nibley Lane, Westerleigh will be closed on Tuesday 27 May 2008 between 9.30am - 2.30pm to enable street cleansing work to be undertaken.

Residents call for action on B4465/Westerleigh Road

2008-05-24T00:05:00.004+01:00

Residents are calling for action to improve safety on the B4465 and the unclassified Westerleigh Road, which link the A46 close to the M4 with the ring road.

Local Councillor Claire Young said, "Residents all along the B4465 and the unclassified Westerleigh Road are worried about the speed of the traffic. There are currently three national speed limit sections along this route. The first section between the A46 and Codrington is very twisty and narrow in places and there have been a number of accidents there this year, including a fatal one. Between Codrington and Westerleigh there is the junction with Codrington Lane and between Westerleigh and the ring road lies Henfield Crossroads, concealed in a dip.”

“This week I presented a petition on behalf of residents calling on the Council to lower the speed limit on those derestricted sections. I also explained to the Council that many local people are concerned about the HGVs that use the route. They believe that the heavy traffic is damaging the road and increasing the risk of accidents.”

X factor bus bombshell petition

2008-05-22T22:07:00.004+01:00

Lib Dem Councillor Sheila Mead and fellow councillors handed in a petition from residents affected by the proposed cuts to the bus services in Chipping Sodbury and Yate to the Executive member of S Glos Council. Sheila believes it’s vital to make sure the Conservative Council listens to their concerns.

Sheila Mead said, “Those people who’ve signed the petition really want their concerns taken seriously. We want the Council to make sure First Bus understands that these cuts are unacceptable without offering better alternatives. If streamlining one part of a service to make it better then leaves other people without any buses it will not improve or increase the public use of bus transport. I also hope that everyone who signed the petition will respond to the consultation by First which ends on 25th May.”

The petition reads: Due to proposed changes in the bus routes provided by First, there will be no bus servicing Cotswold Road from the end of July 2008. We feel that the removal of this service will seriously affect people’s ability to access local amenities, including Doctors Surgeries and shops. The extra distance people would have to travel to reach a bus stop would be beyond many local members of the local community and could effectively isolate people in their own homes. In a day and age when we are being encouraged to use public transport, it is extremely important that this service is maintained.

Cllr Ian Blair said, “It is disappointing that the Council failed to give prompt information to Councillors over the proposed bus timetable changes and consultation. There’s only 5 days to go before the deadline but the Council only saw fit to give members a briefing yesterday.”

He added, “As well as the petition presented from residents at today’s Council I asked the Executive member what is he going to do for Yate and Sodbury residents now that the Council has withdrawn funding for the Nibley park and ride? The answer I have received states the funding was reprioritised to fund a Park and Ride at Parkway Station. That’s all very well for the Executive members residents near that station but it still doesn’t reassure the public living in the Yate and Sodbury area about what this Conservative Council will be doing for them! And at the moment it looks as if they are doing nothing."

"To make matters worse the Council bus briefing given to us yesterday stated, 'There appear to be some positive proposals in the consultation package', this does nothing to reassure me that this Council is taking the bus timetable changes seriously.”

Can you spot YOUR local councillors in the photo?
- Front centre: Kay Crowe.
- Middle, right to left: Linda Boon, Howard Gawler, Sheila Mead, Dave Hockey.
- Back, right to left: Claire Young, Jon Williams, Sue Hope, Ruth Davis, Mike Drew, Mike Robbins, Alan Lawrance, Ian Blair.

Electricity supply in Coalpit Heath

2008-05-20T20:59:00.003+01:00

At the Parish Plan Open Day on Saturday, a resident raised the issue of frequent power cuts in Coalpit Heath. In particular, they felt that they were often off when the Winterbourne area (which they can see from their home) was not.

Claire Young checked with the electricity supply company, Central Networks, who investigated. They found that in the last 2 years there has only been one high voltage outage (which would affect a wide area) but several low voltage outages that would be more local. They could not compare with the Winterbourne area as they don't supply it.

The engineer advised that the reoccurring fuse operations on the low voltage side have been cleared off the network with the overlaying of cable. There have been a series of faults with totally unconnected causes some of which were entirely beyond the company's control so there are no actions they can take which would have avoided these unfortunate events.

They have promised to continue to monitor the performance of the circuit and produce an action plan if a trend of poor performance is noted. In the meantime, if anyone has any further concerns they can call Central Networks on 0121 530 8224 and one of the Customer Liaison Team will be more than happy to help.

Next round of community grants

2008-05-20T20:54:00.002+01:00

The application period for the next round of Capital Grants will run from Tuesday 20th May to 23rd June. These will be allocated at the local Area Forum in the autumm. You can find out more on the South Glos website.