Brinsham Fields update : fishing and conservation pond

The Lake, Conservation Pond, Fishing and Brinsham Fields

Under the latest rules, fishing is allowed - PROVIDING you stick to social distancing rules. Unfortunately there are reports that people at Brinsham are not sticking to the rules. In any event stands for fishing along part of the lake are so close to the path that people walking past mean the anglers cannot stick to the social distancing rules. So the Town Council has been asked by users to close those stands that are too close to the footpath for social distancing. Anglers will still be able to use the other stands. BUT if users continue to break the social distancing rules all the stands may have t be closed. So please, stick to the rules so you can continue to fish.

As an update for other users - investigations into the lake - the Environment Agency say they dpn't think there is a problem. The conservation pond is very low on water. It is fed from a stream up towards Autumn Brook. But we think the new drainage for the new development is pinching all the water. We have raised this before with the developers. The Town Council is going to have another go. Yes we want them to put in drainage to stop flooding, but we all want to keep the conservation pond.

Fishing and Tennis

Fishing at Brinsham Lake

(Not a typo that is the correct spelling for the lake and park).

As angling is now permitted, a notice will be going up at Brinsham Lake containing guidance from: https://joinanglingtrust.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Phase-One-Individual-9.pdf

But remember, social distancing rules apply. Please remove all your rubbish - remember there are fewer people around to clean up after users of parks.

The Town Council announced last night:

Sunnyside Tennis Courts

A poster will be displayed at the tennis courts and online (social media/website) to advise that the tennis courts:

• are now available to be booked for public use subject to the hirer complying with the safe distancing rules (eg, playing with members of the same household or one other person staying two metres apart), full details of which can be found here;

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/staying-alert-and-safe-social-distancing?

• will be let at one court per booking so there will be no one playing on the other court at the same time (unless families from the same household wish to book both courts);
• bookings can be made on weekdays by emailinginfo@yatetowncouncil.gov.uk 24 hours prior to games being played and payment must be made via bank transfer.

We will be spacing bookings so there is a gap between them to reduce chances of social contact when one booking finishes/another starts (eg, booking 1 from 10am – 11am and booking 2 from 12pm-1pm etc).  

Ladden Gardens Play Area Fiasco

If you were planning a new play area on the new development in north Yate, would you put it within 30m of the existing well loved play area in the current park, Brinsham Fields?  Well that is what the planners are insisting the developers do. Instead of using the money to put more equipment in the current play area, they are insisting they build a new one just yards away - which means money gets wasted on unnecessary fencing, bins etc, when they could use that money in the existing fenced play area to put in more equipment.  It will mean a teenage kickabout area being with 30 m of houses.

But don't blame the developers. They were willing to talk to the Friends of the Park and the Town Council who run the park about a better solution. But S Glos officials were insisting it had to be separate.

Yesterday, the Friends of the Park, and Cllrs Chris Willmore and Mike Drew took the issue to the highest level, at South Gloucestershire Strategic Sites Committee. They showed officials and councillors the problems, they asked for them simply to agree to come to the negotiating table to find a better solution.

South Gloucestershire refused. They insisted on ploughing ahead and giving the green light to this crazy situation. Lib Dem and Labour Councillors voted for Mike Drew's proposal to get everyone round a table to sort it out. But the Tories, none of whom live anywhere near Yate pushed through the officer recommendation. 

The Friends of the Park raise money from all sorts of sources to improve our park, to see money being wasted just yards away is disappointing. We still hope we can work with the developers to get around this crazy mess.

(Picture: The red mark is the play area S Glos is insisting the developers put in, the blue one is the current play area in the park, which has lots of space for more equipment)