Have your say on children and youth services on Monday

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 and voluntary bodies to take on the running of the youth centres and children’s centres.  

"If organisations do not come forward to take over these centres, it is expected that they will need to be decommissioned"

Last week Lib Dem Councillors submitted a number of questions to the Executive Member for Children and Young People raising concerns.

There will be a drop-in session 7pm-9pm next Monday 2nd April in Shireway Community Centre, Yate. If you care about services for children and young people, please come along.

You can find out more about the consultation and make your comments on the Council’s website.

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 .

Chipping Sodbury - Yate - Cribbs Causeway bus service under threat

Wessex Connect has announced its intention to discontinue the 482/483 services from Chipping Sodbury via Yate, Frampton Cotterell, Winterbourne and Bradley Stoke to Cribbs Causeway with effect from Sunday 20th May. The Evening Post reports that the company says the services are no longer commercially viable, but South Glos Council is holding talks with the company to see if the services can be reinstated.

Meanwhile, some minor changes come into effect from 1st April. South Glos say that the 342/X42 Timetable is being revised to improve reliability and punctuality. Monday to Friday 1805 Service X42 from Bristol, Bus Station to Chipping Sodbury, Wickwar Road is withdrawn. Saturday there is an additional journey at 0730 from Bristol, Bus Station to Chipping Sodbury, Wickwar Road to provide an earlier first journey. The Sunday and Public Holiday daytime frequency is increased from every 120 minutes to every 60 minutes. All daytime journeys will be operated on a commercial basis and will no longer receive financial support from South Gloucestershire Council.

Current bus timetables are available from the South Glos website.

Over 50? Looking for a job or considering self employment? Free workshop Wed 18 April

• Do you live in South Gloucestershire?
• Are you over 50?
• Have you been actively looking for a job or are you considering self-employment?

If you answered yes to all the above, the Red Door @50 Careers Workshop could be for you... Get help with finding a job or starting a business!


Wednesday 18 April 10.00 am to 2.00 pm at the Armadillo Youth Café, Yate Town Centre. 
Free Lunch provided.


Guest speaker from Marks and Spencer: ‘What Employers Want’


To attend, please request an application form by email from info@reddoorcoachingandtraining.co.uk


This event is delivered By Red Door Coaching and Training Ltd in association with South Glos Council.

M4 westbound closed overnight Mon 26 - Tue 27 March

The westbound M4 Motorway between Junction 18 (Tormarton) and Junction 19 (M32)will be closed overnight 26/27 March for surfacing works and barrier repair. Diversion via A46, A420 and Avon Ring Road.

Spring Clean, and a "brand new" pond!

A major project comes to fruition this weekend with the reopening of the Kennedy Way pond (opposite the petrol station). The Wildlife Trust, working with South Glos Council, secured a large grant from Viridor the waste recycling company to totally refurbish this pond as a valuable wildlife resource.

The pond will be opened at 10 am on Saturday, and the event will be followed by a Spring Clean litter collection along the River Frome, organised by Yate Town Council and Chipping Sodbury Baptist Church.

South Glos are providing bags, litter pickers, gloves etc., but feel free to bring your own if you have them.

Plant a Jubilee Hedge for Mothers Day!

This splendid woodland in Wapley Bushes Local Nature Reserve was planted by volunteers in a single morning on Mothers Day in 1994. Eighty people took part, half of them children. The trees are now over twenty feet tall, and now they need a hedge to mark the border between the woodland and the Upper Meadow.

Please come and help this Sunday morning, March 18th. It would be lovely to see some of the parents and particularly the children, now grown up, who took part in the original planting so long ago. Who knows, maybe they could bring along some of the next generation too?

Everyone is welcome - meet at 10.00 am at the Shire Way entrance to the Nature Reserve, near the zebra crossing opposite Cherington, South Yate. Please wear wellies or similar, and bring a spade if you can.

The trees for the hedge planting morning are being provided by the Woodland Trust as part of their Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Year Project to plant 6 million trees nationwide. A second length of the Jubilee Hedge has been funded by South Gloucestershire Council's Biodiversity and Landscape Grant scheme and by Dodington Parish Council's annual grant to Wapley Bushes Conservation Group.

The Wapley Bushes Conservation Group is very grateful to all its partners and supporters. Without the necessary funding and advice they wouldn't be able to improve this lovely area for future generations.

Besom Lane to close for cleaning

Besom Lane is expected to close for cleaning tomorrow, Tuesday 13th March.

Chipping Sodbury Festival - Tickets on sale from 2nd April - Don't miss out!

Chipping Sodbury Festival 2012 will be held over 10 days between 15th June and 24th June. There are events for all ages - indoors, outdoors, daytime and evening.

Acts performing during the festival include BAFTA-nominated singer guitarist Richard Digance.

Chris Harris (Bath Theatre Royal's Pantomime Dame) will be performing one of his world famous one man shows ‘Arris Music ‘All introducing characters such as Dan Leno, Stanley Holloway and Max Miller.

Mix in the Tesitoura's Marriage of Figaro, Music in the Street and the Street Fayre and Carnival and we're going to be in for classic Festival - all rounded off by the ever-popular prizewinning Flowers Band performing Last Night at the Proms.

Visit the Chipping Sodbury Festival Website for details of all the events throughout the 10 days of the festival.

Tickets go on sale from 2nd April, from Farrago in Horse Street or from the Tourist Information Centre at the Clock Tower. The most popular events sell out very quickly, so make sure that you get your tickets before they all go!

Wapley Common footpath over railway bridge - overnight closure 28-29 April

The footpath over the railway from Shire Way to Wapley Common will be closed overnight 28-29 April for a railway bridge inspection.

Nibley Lane to be closed for cleaning 23 March (updated)

Nibley Lane will be closed between Badminton Rd and Westerleigh Rd on 23 March for deep cleaning. The closure is expected to last from 9.30 am until 2.30 pm.

(This is an update - the road closure notice now says the day, previously it just said what week it would happen in)