Nibley Lane to close for cleaning Wed 29 March

Nibley Lane, between its junction with Badminton Road and its junction with Westerleigh Road, is expected to close for cleaning from 9.30am until 2.30pm on Wednesday 29th March.

Future of the Over 50s Forum

The South Glos Over 50s Forum is for all residents who are over 50 years old. They are now holding meetings around the area in a bid to reach out to more people. The upcoming meetings locally are:

• Tuesday 28th March, 10am to 12 noon - Thornbury Methodist Church, High Street, Thornbury
• Thursday 30th March, 2pm to 4pm - The Ridgeway Community Centre, Station Road, Yate

For more information, email southglosover50s@gmail.com

Abbotswood Clean-Up Day 8 April, wildflower preparation 25 March

There are just 3 weeks to go until the Abbotswood Clean-Up Day on Saturday, 8th April at 11 am.  As well as the usual litter picking, Abbotswood Action Group and friends are hoping to trim shrubs, paint benches, plant plants and generally make the area more attractive.  The more people that come along, the more can be achieved so please spread the word.

Next Saturday - 25 March from 11 am - they will be preparing for wild flower planting near the underpass by lifting the turf. Your help would be very much appreciated!

82 bus service problems continue - but new evening journey promised

Local resident Ian Muirhead with
Cllrs Claire Young and Paul Hulbert

Your local Focus team has been campaigning for a more reliable Southmead Hospital 82 bus service with a later bus back. Some buses have been manned by drivers who don't know the route and rely on passengers' directions - one tried to drive into the Ministry of Defence by mistake. Many of the buses on this route are old and leak water onto passengers when it rains.

Sadly, we are still regularly receiving complaints about late running and cancelled buses, as covered by the Gazette newspaper this week. However there is some good news - from 30th April there will be a later journey for people returning from Southmead Hospital and the Mall at 8.30 pm.

Help with tree planting and litter picking at Wapley Bushes

There will be a tree planting, litter picking and conservation morning at Wapley Bushes on Saturday 25th March 2017 from 10am until 12 noon.


We will be planting some young trees in the woodland and doing a "spring clean" of the Nature Reserve and Common.

Meet at the Shire Way entrance to the Nature Reserve. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Litter pickers, black sacks, disposable gloves will be provided. Please wear walking boots or wellies.

Yate, Chipping Sodbury and Dodington Community Engagement Forum 27 March

The next Community Engagement Forum for Yate, Chipping Sodbury and Dodington (which includes the rural part of Dodington Parish) is at 7pm on Monday 27th March at St Nicholas Family Centre, Abbotswood, Yate BS37 4LG.

Every Little Helps for local causes

Bags of Help is Tesco’s community grant scheme  where the money raised from the 5p bag charge is being used to fund thousands of local projects.

This month the choices at our local Tesco include two very valuable projects in our area:

• The Armadillo Youth Venue and Cafe are aiming to create a green sporty space featuring fruit and veg growing boxes to promote healthy eating
• St Nicholas Under 15 Girls Football Team hope to buy winter kit and football equipment to keep their players warm and dry while training.

If you find you need to buy a 5p bag, please consider using your token to support one of these very valuable causes.

New shelter at Yate Station

Lib Dem Metro Mayor Candidate Stephen Williams met

Yate councillors Mike Drew, Sue Walker and Ruth Davis and

 Parliamentary Candidate Claire Young to discuss further

improvements at Yate Station

Passengers at Yate railway station will soon be able to buy their tickets in the dry, thanks to a new shelter that is being installed over the ticket machine and kiosk. The roof could be treated with anti-solar glare material to make it easier for passengers to see the screen on the machine.

Your Focus Team has been campaigning with local rail users for improvements at the station for many years, after winning the battle to get it re-opened in the 1980s. Last year Yate Town Council submitted a funding bid for a shelter for the ticket machine and met South Glos transport officials to push for action.

Last week Stephen Williams, the Liberal Democrat Metro Mayor candidate, met rail campaigners at the station to discuss further improvements. As Metro Mayor, Stephen would push for extra trains and carriages to tackle the overcrowding at Yate, as well as re-opening stations like Charfield.

Bristol to Chipping Sodbury Night Bus to stop running

First Bus have decided to stop running the weekend 47A Night Bus service from Bristol through Downend, Frampton Cotterell, Coalpit Heath, Yate and Chipping Sodbury after the end of April. This means that the services at 1.31 am and 3.31 am Saturday and Sunday will stop, and the last bus will be 11.35 pm from Bristol Bus Station.

These late night buses have in the past been supported by town and parish councils along the route, but now First have have doubled the amount of money they want as a council subsidy, and the passenger numbers have fallen - on average only 13 passengers are using each bus.

Other bus companies have been contacted, but they wanted even more money to run the service. It's just not economic any more - councils would have been paying First a subsidy of £6 for every passenger journey. Many young people now use the internet to arrange their own lift-sharing and prefer that to the bus.

This service has been running for more than ten years. We're sorry to see the end of it, but if you add up the subsidy and the £4 bus fares for 4 people, it comes to more than the cost of a taxi. At £6 subsidy per person First have simply priced the bus off the road.

In recent years this service has been supported by Yate Town Council, Dodington Parish Council, Downend and Bromley Heath Parish Council, Frampton Cotterell Parish Council, Mangotsfield Parish Council, Sodbury Town Council and Westerleigh Parish Council.