Yate Shopping Centre Christmas closing times

There's a useful summary on the Gazette website

Yate Shopping Centre will close for the Christmas break at 4pm on Sunday, December 24. Remember that Christmas Eve is a Sunday, so even Tesco closes at 4pm. The Centre will re-open at 8am on Boxing Day, December 26.

Tesco will open at 9am Boxing Day and close at 6pm. It then goes back to normal trading hours closing again for New Year’s Eve at 4pm and will be open New Year’s Day from 9am until 6pm.

Cineworld cinema will be open as usual up to Sunday, December 24, and re-open again on Boxing Day. Full details on all screenings are available at www.cineworld.co.uk

Yate Riverside cinema development progressing well

Work on the Yate Riverside cinema and retail development is going on well. From some angles you may be able to see that the first steelwork frame is now up. Yate Shopping Centre says that they expect the "topping out" to happen in July, with the retail and restaurant units opening in December and the cinema by next Easter.

For the statistically minded, the foundations involve about 2500 cubic metres of concrete - enough to fill an Olympic size swimming poole, though we wouldn't want to swim in it afterwards! - and 500 tonnes of steel.

It's Fairtrade Fortnight - Yate event Sat 7th March

Fairtrade Fortnight runs until Sunday 8th March. Lots of information is available at http://fortnight.fairtrade.org.uk/

Our local event is "Get Fit for Fairtrade"  on Saturday 7th March, 10am – 2pm, in Yate Shopping Centre. there will be a "Smoothie Bike" making Fairtrade fruit smoothies (great fun for kids!) and people talking to shoppers about Fairtrade. If you are in the area do come and look them up!

If you would be interested in volunteering for an hour or so please do get in touch with Lydia Nash (South Gloucestershire Fairtrade Coordinator) on 01454 863119 or 07824 081058.

Shop locally this Saturday

This Saturday (6th December) is Small Business Saturday UK. In South Gloucestershire, participating traders and independent shops will be getting involved, including in Yate, and you can win £100 to spend at one of the businesses.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply tweet the South Gloucestershire Council Twitter account @sgloscouncil on Saturday 6 December and tell the council why you like to shop locally and/or suggest your favourite independent shop in South Gloucestershire. All tweets must include the hashtag #southglos and the best tweet will win the voucher.

For more info about Small Business Saturday events and offers in South Gloucestershire visit www.southglos.gov.uk/smallbusinesssaturday

Waitrose to open next month

The new Chipping Sodbury Waitrose store will open at 8am on Thursday, October 10. The footbridge link to the High Street should be finished by the end of September.

Lloyds Bank, Yate - temporary arrangements

Lloyds Bank in the middle of Yate Shopping Centre is closing from 1 pm tomorrow (Saturday 15 September) until 9 am on Tuesday 30 October while it undergoes a major refurbishment.

While they are closed, the Lloyds branch at 1 North Parade will maintain normal services.

Yate loos on the move

As part of the East Walk shops development, the existing public conveniences in Yate Shopping Centre will close on 7th October for demolition. Good quality temporary toilets will be open on West Walk from 8th October while permanent toilets are built near the Westgate Centre.

Work to start on new shops opposite Tesco

Construction will start next month on the new units on East Walk opposite Tesco at Yate.

The largest unit will be M&S Simply Food. Sports Direct's unit will be spread across two floors, and Costa Coffee is taking a smaller unit. There is also another small unit which has not yet been let.

Work is expected to be complete by March 2013.

Tesco Yate bank holiday opening hours

Tesco's main store at Yate will be open as follows during the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend:

• Friday 1 June - 24 hour opening
• Saturday 2 June - open until midnight
• Sunday 3 June - open 10.00 am to 4.00 pm
• Monday 4 June - open 9.00 am to 6.00 pm
• Tuesday 5 June - open from 6.00 am, then 24 hour opening

New Tesco halfway there...

Tesco's development seems to be going on rapidly.

Almost everything is on programme and the new store is scheduled to open on 24th October 2011.

Work on temporary Tesco going well

If you've been  to Yate Shopping Centre recently you will have noticed the rapid progress on the temporary Tesco store next to the toilets on East Walk. It should be finished in time for the main store to close on Sunday February 27, with the temporary store opening on Monday February 28.

The old store, which dates from 1975, will then be demolished and the new Tesco Extra superstore will be built on the same site, opening by Christmas.

The Gazette has more details of the Tesco rebuild here.

Instant supermarket, just add Tesco! But parking problems ahead...

Work on building the new Tesco temporary store at the Yate Shopping Centre will start on Monday, 24th January with the store scheduled to open on Monday, 28th February. First they will lay the foundations for the temporary store next to the existing toilet block in East Walk., then they will start assembling it on Saturday 29th January. Putting it together will take just two days as the store will be delivered pre-fabricated on a fleet of over 20 lorries.

It's bound to cause parking confusion because the north car park adjacent to Link Road and Station Road will be out of use. The new car parking spaces on the site of the former Swan public house will still be available, as will all the other spaces in the Shopping Centre including the overflow car park in Link Road.

The toilets in East Walk will be open for customer use throughout the construction programme.

Meanwhile surfacing work for the new bus station and on the Link Road is going on, and Link Road will re-open fully on Monday 17th January. The new bus station is scheduled to open on 31st January.

Commenting on the works, Yate Shopping Centre Manager, Andrew Lowrey, said: “We are entering the most critical phase of the works as we head towards the demolition of the existing Tesco store. However they will continue to trade throughout the construction period from the temporary store.

“By Christmas 2011, the Shopping Centre will have a new Tesco Extra store and more additional retail units coming on stream shortly after. The works will cause some disruption but it’s for the long-term benefit of the traders and the town’s residents.

“We are encouraging traders and their staff to use public transport to get to work and shoppers to use the overflow car park in Link Road. It is imperative that we all work together to get through what is going to be very challenging times and we hope that everybody will look at alternative means of getting to the centre other than by car.”

Swan gone

After a delay for asbestos to be removed, the Swan Inn has now disappeared from Yate Shopping Centre car park. This is all that's left:

70 extra parking spaces should be available by next weekend - more details in the Gazette.

In the meantime, there's the world's least helpful pedestrian diversion:

Sorry, couldn't resist that...

Clothes stores to take over Woolworths unit at Yate

The Gazette reports that Peacocks and Bon Marche will be taking over the empty Woolworths store.

The two clother retailers are part of the same group but will trade as separate units. They are expected to open in June.

Butcher closes at Yate

K and W Butchers in Yate Shopping Centre has closed due to lack of trade.

The south side of Yate Shopping Centre is starting to look like a desert - other empty premises include Adams, Helibeds, the fruit shop and Motorworld. One shop in the same area is the library, but that's only temporary.

The Gazette has more on the closure of the butchers.

More art please!

You have probably noticed the excellent children's art on the hoardings around the new Yate Health Centre building. We featured some here the other week.

These murals by Broadway Infant School are next to the toilets that are about to be demolished, so we thought we would show them here in case they disappear (hopefully not)

Wouldn't it be good to good to have some public art - by children, local artists etc - prominently on show on a regular basis?

West Walk public toilets to be demolished

The public toilets at West Walk, opposite The Works in Yate Shopping Centre, will close and be demolished shortly as part of the Health Centre redevelopment.

The East Walk toilet, next to Superdrug, will remain open as usual.

Yet more shop closures

It's been a bad few months for retail businesses in our area. In Yate Shopping Centre Helibeds, Motor World and Woolworths have closed. Now Card Warehouse is closing down, and Chipping Sodbury hardware shop Lanes is also shutting its doors. Yate children's clothes shop Adams is in receivership but continuing to trade. Let's hope that 2009 brings better news. Update 5th January - Adams at Yate has now closed, one of 111 branches shut by the administrators. The Cirencester, Gloucester and Swindon branches have also stopped trading.

Woolworths - the final days

In Woolworths at Yate this afternoon the staff were busy dismantling the shop around the last Xmas customers - a very sad sight.

A message to all the friendly faces at Woolworths - we're sorry to see you go.

Sainsbury's at Emersons Green to close for a week

In case you sometimes go across to Emersons Green, you might like to know that Sainsbury's will shortly be closed for a week because of the building work.

It closes at 6 pm this Friday - 14th November - and reopens at 9 am on Friday 21st November.

The petrol station will stay open as usual.