Tern Inn appeal withdrawn - but what next?

Focus Team members Tony Davis, Louise Harris
and Paul Hulbert at the Tern Inn

Great news - the developers have withdrawn their appeal, so their plan to demolish the Tern Inn pub and build flats right across the car park is now dead in the water.

But does this mean that we've won? Not necessarily. It just means that the developers reckon that they have no chance of getting their CURRENT plan approved.

They might submit a slightly revised planning application, so that the whole process has to start again. They might "land bank" the site for a few years and see what the economic situation is like then. Or they might even be willing to sell the site to the community or a brewery.

So we need to wait and watch to see what the developers do next. Whatever happens, the Focus Team will continue to support all the hard work being put in by the Birds Resident Group and Dodington Parish Council on behalf of our community.

If you're on Facebook you can follow the Birds Resident Group here.

Tern Inn - date set for Planning Inquiry - UPDATED

Many thanks to everyone who helped with the Heron Way traffic count (and kept us topped up with tea and coffee!)

This information is being analysed at the moment and will be passed on to the Government's Planning Inspector who is considering the plan to replace the pub and the car park with flats, with all the traffic chaos that will bring.

The Planning Enquiry will have a public hearing - it won't just be done on documents.

UPDATE: The hearing has been delayed, and we expect the hearing to be held at a local venue around 20th November. As a result the date for comments has been extended to the 31st July 2018.

You can submit any other (factual) comments of your own between now and Tuesday 31 July 2018 at the Planning Inspectorate website - please note that this will be offline between 9pm and midnight on Wed 13 June.

You can follow the Save The Tern Inn Facebook page here

Tern Inn - please help with traffic count

Dodington Parish Council, in partnership with the Birds Resident Group, is organising a traffic count on Heron Way to help the case opposing flats being built on the Tern Inn and car park site. This would be presented as evidence for the planning enquiry that will be held in the next few months.

The count will take place over the week commencing next Monday, 4th June (Yes, we know that next week includes an Inset Day and the School Sports Day etc - this will give us a week with varying activities so that we have a realistic picture of traffic patterns on the road)

Community volunteers are needed to help with the traffic count. If you follow the Birds Resident Group on Facebook you can contact them there, or you can email Dodington Parish Council on dodingtonpc@southglos.gov.uk

The survey will just count the number and types of vehicle (car, bus etc) - it won't be checking traffic speeds, and traffic won't be held up at all. Please just use the road as you normally would.

Update: Because we already have some data from South Glos, we just need to do a count on one day at peak times. The count will be this Wednesday (6 June) but you may see photos being taken at other times during the week.

Tern Inn redevelopment - appeal submitted

The owner of the Tern Inn and car park in Heron Way has submitted an appeal against being refused planning permission to rebuild the pub and car park as flats.

Some outline documents are on the South Glos Planning Website but the Planning Inspectorate will not consider the appeal until the developer has provided some missing documents. It's not yet visible on the Planning Inspectorate's own "Appeals Portal" but when it does, it will be under Case ID 3190390.

For the back story of this proposal, which has been strongly opposed by local residents and Dodington Parish Council, please check out our previous Tern Inn stories.

Better recycling services for flats, changes to recycling banks

South Glos is now offering people living in flats with communal recycling facilities an improved standardised service.

Following the changes, waste will be collected from four types of bin stored in the communal areas:

• Paper and cardboard
• Plastic, cans, aerosols and foil
• Glass bottles and jars
• Black residual bins will still be available for those materials that cannot be recycled.

These changes do not affect flats that receive the normal household collection service.

The current bins used in communal waste facilities will be changed over to the new bins during the weeks beginning 2 and 9 March. The new bins are actually recycled themselves as they are the surplus unwanted bins that have been collected over the past few months. These new bins will be clearly marked with colour coded labels for the new recycling service.

The new collections will start the week beginning 16 March. Residents will get an information pack delivered when the bins are changed over.

Following the roll out of the flat changes, the public recycling banks serviced by SITA on behalf of the council that are located in supermarket car parks, village hall car parks, social clubs and sports clubs will be removed. They will no longer be needed as everyone will now have kerbside collections and the savings have been used to provide the improved service for flats. This does not effect banks run by charities.

For further information please visit www.southglos.gov.uk/sortit, telephone on 01454 868000 or email waste.management@southglos.gov.uk

Recyling banks being removed

Recycling banks are being removed from a number of places across South Glos including:

• Yate - shopping centre overflow car park, Broad Lane Council offices, and YOSC
• Westerleigh - Ye Olde Inne

Resources are being re-allocated to providing recycling facilities for blocks of flats that don't currently have them. Please let your Focus Team know if you have concerns.