Useful information this Christmas

With the festive season getting underway, here is some information you might find useful over the Christmas and New Year period.

Christmas Last Posting Dates

Tuesday 20 December - 2nd Class and Royal Mail Signed For®
Wednesday 21 December - 1st Class and Royal Mail Signed For®
Thursday 22 December - Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed®
Friday 23 December - Special Delivery Saturday Guaranteed

Waste and Recycling

There are some changes to waste and recycling collection over the Christmas period.

If your collection should be on:	It will instead take place on:
Monday 26 December	Tuesday 27 December
Tuesday 27 December	Wednesday 28 December
Wednesday 28 December	Thursday 29 December
Thursday 29 December	Friday 30 December
Friday 30 December	Saturday 31 December

You can check your precise date and what will be collected on the South Glos website.

Your tree might not even be up yet, but once the festivities are over you can recycle real trees in a number of ways:

• If you have subscribed to the garden waste service, you can put your tree into or next to your green bin.
• You can buy a single use garden waste sack for £2 from your nearest library and attach it to the tree.
• You can take it to one of the Sort It recycling centres and put it in the garden waste (not wood waste) skip.

Whichever you do, don't forget to remove all the decorations, pots and stands first and if it's over 6ft tall you must cut it up into smaller sections if you're having it collected. 

Out of Hours Pharmacies Times

Over the Christmas and New Year period, many pharmacies are closed. You can find out which ones are open here.

Trains
As we posted earlier this month, from Saturday 24th December until Thursday 29th December London Paddington will be closed to all rail services.

This will mean that GWR rail services will start and finish at Ealing Broadway, from where you can take the underground or a bus. However, the station does not have step-free access. So if you are travelling with heavy luggage or find steps difficult for any reason you will need to change at Reading and use services from there to London Waterloo. Unfortunately that will mean a longer journey.

You can find out more on the GWR website.

Bus services
Over Christmas and the New Year some buses will be running to different timetables from normal. You can find out more on the TravelWest site.

Have your say on One Stop Shops and South Glos customer contact centre

In another of the consultations on cuts, the council is asking for your views on how to save money on the One Stop Shops and customer services it provides.

The ruling Conservatives' preference is to close the Thornbury One Stop Shop and replace it with a  "digital by default" option. This despite previously saying that the council was committed to retaining a presence in the town. The alternatives suggested are keeping Thornbury open part-time and making either Yate or Patchway also part-time or cutting more staff from the customer service team. Anyone who has struggled to get through to the council on the phone recently will be concerned about the last option.

You can find out more and have your say here.

The local dimension - Ensuring fairness and empowering communities

As the General Election gets nearer, people are losing sight of there being local elections as well. This is the first of a series of posts looking at the Liberal Democrat manifesto for South Gloucestershire, and what it means in our area. First of all, what are the issues for local communities?

Despite reduced funding from central government, the local Lib Dems have consistently worked to protect those in greatest need to help create a fairer society. Localism is at the heart of everything we do. We will continue to ensure that important decisions are not simply left to council officers and that residents have a real voice in local decision-making.

We will:

1. Prioritise the protection of services for vulnerable residents and fight for fair access to services for rural residents.
2. Maintain the Council’s commitment to a living wage and continue to lobby the Council’s suppliers and providers to do the same.
3. Empower local communities and residents by ensuring that they have a voice in decision-making through town/parish councils and area forums.
4. Continue to support local voluntary groups through area forum grants.
5. Look at ways of improving the standards of accommodation available for private tenants.

Our record of action...

The local Lib Dems ensured that a proportion of New Homes Bonus money is given to the areas where the new homes have been built, so those that take the pain get the gain.

This is an extract from the Liberal Democrat Vision for South Gloucestershire, our manifesto for the 2015 Local Elections.

Christmas opening times

Local MP Steve Webb has sent out the following useful round-up of local Christmas opening times:

Constituency Office of Steve Webb MP - Opening Hours

The office will be open as usual over the holiday period, with the exception of Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day and 2nd January. You can contact Steve on 01454 322100 or email steve@stevewebb.org.uk.

Christmas Posting Dates

The last posting dates for Christmas are as follows:
(It's already too late for 2nd class post)
Saturday 20 December - 1st Class and Royal Mail Signed For®
Monday 22 December - Parcelforce Worldwide 48 hours delivery
Tuesday 23 December - Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed®

South Glos Council Services

One Stop Shops

One Stop Shops will be closed from Christmas eve afternoon (from 1pm) and on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day and 2 January.

Recycling and waste collections

Recycling centres

All sites are open as usual, apart from 25 December to 28 December and 1 January.

Christmas collections

Bin collections will continue as normal, with the exception of Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day. You will still have the usual amount of collections over Christmas, but the days might change. You can also check the dates using the Council’s collection date checker.

Recycling your real Christmas tree

There are several options to dispose of your real Christmas tree.

a) Using the garden waste service

If you have subscribed to the garden waste service you can put it in your green bin, or alternatively you can purchase a garden waste sack for £2 from your nearest library or Country Stores at 48 High Street Marshfield SN14 8LP. You don’t need to worry about the cutting the tree to fit it in the sack.

b) Taking it to a recycling centre

You can recycle your tree at one of the four Sort It centres

Train times over the holiday period

Network Rail will be conducting essential engineering works over the Christmas period.  Details of changes to the usual schedule are as follows:

Christmas Eve

Timings of trains will start to change from 1700 across the network, and from 1500 in the London and Thames Valley area. The last train will leave Paddington before 2130.

Christmas Day and Boxing Day

No scheduled train services.

Saturday 27 December

Local services into London will start from around 1100 because of work in the Hayes and Harlington area, and long distance services into and out of London will be limited. We are advising customers to use other routes where possible, or to travel after 1100.  Tickets will be valid on other routes.

Saturday 27 December – Sunday 4 January

A reduced timetable will operate and diversions will be in place. Journey times may take longer than normal.

First Great Western have set out the changes in detail for each route on their website: www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Christmas2014

Emergency Pharmacy Opening Times in South Gloucestershire

Pharmacy opening times for the December and January Bank Holidays 2014/15. 

Asda Pharmacy, Craven Way, Longwell Green, BS30 7DY
Tel: 0117 3012810
Thursday 25th December: closed
Friday 26th December: 09:00 - 18:00
Thursday 1st January: 10:00 - 16:00

*Asda Pharmacy, Highwood Lane, Patchway, BS34 5TL
Tel: 0117 3172410
Thursday 25th December: closed
Friday 26th December: 09:00 - 18:00
Thursday 1st January: 10:00 - 16:00

Boots Pharmacy, Unit 1, Willow Brook Centre, Bradley Stoke Way, Bradley Stoke,  BS32 8EF
Tel: 01454 202327
Thursday 25th December: closed
Friday 26th December: 09:00 - 17:00
Thursday 1st January: closed

Boots Pharmacy, 116, The Mall, Cribbs Causeway, Patchway, BS34 5UP
Tel: 0117 9509744
Thursday 25th December: closed
Friday 26th December: 08:30 - 18:00
Thursday 1st January: closed

Boots Pharmacy, Unit 1a, Emersons Green Retail Centre, Emerson’s Green, BS16 7AE
Tel: 0117 9575893
Thursday 25th December: closed
Friday 26th December: 09:00 - 18:00
Thursday 1st January: 10:00 - 17:00

*Boots Pharmacy, Unit D, Gallagher Retail Park, Longwell Green, BS30 7DY
Tel: 0117 9678963
Thursday 25th December: closed
Friday 26th December: 07:30 - 11:30 and 12:00 - 00:00
Thursday 1st January: 07:30 - 11:30 and 12:00 - 00:00

Boots Pharmacy, 15-17, North Walk, Yate, BS37 4AP
Tel: 01454 312589
Thursday 25th December: closed
Friday 26th December: 08:30 - 17:30
Thursday 1st January: closed

Bradley Stoke Pharmacy, Brook Way,  Bradley Stoke,  BS32 9DS
Tel: 01454 612855
Thursday 25th December: 10:00 - 12:00
Friday 26th December: closed
Thursday 1st January: closed

Frome Valley Pharmacy, Frome Valley Medical Centre, 2 Court Road, Frampton Cotterell BS36 2DE
Tel: 01454 773755
Thursday 25th December: 12:00 - 14:00
Friday 26th December: closed
Thursday 1st January: 12:00 - 14:00

Sainsbury's Pharmacy, Emersons Way, Emerson’s Green, BS16 7AE
Tel: 0117 9569849
Thursday 25th December: closed
Friday 26th December: 10:00 - 17:00
Thursday 1st January: 10:00 - 17:00

Sainsbury's Pharmacy, Fox Den Road, Filton, Stoke Gifford, BS34 8SS
Tel: 0117 9793412
Thursday 25th December: closed
Friday 26th December: 10:00 - 17:00
Thursday 1st January: 10:00 - 15:00

Westbourne Road Pharmacy, 26, Westbourne Road, Downend, BS16 6RX
Tel: 0117 9565836
Thursday 25th December: 14:00 - 16:00
Friday 26th December: closed
Thursday 1st January: closed
*These pharmacies have a specialist medicines service.

South Glos goes text friendly

Following a suggestion by Lib Dem councillors, you can now text South Gloucestershire Council with general enquiries about services, thanks to the launch of a text messaging service.

By saving the number 07950 080 111 to your mobile phone, you can text in your enquiries - maybe to tell South Glos about a problem while you're out and about. The new service will also help people with hearing impairments.

Texts will go directly to the council's customer services contact centre where staff will try to answer your enquiry and respond by text during the next working day.

Texts may be subject to the normal charge by your mobile phone network provider.

To find out more about this service please visit the South Glos website.