FIshponds Road (A432) - Bus Lane update

The consultation on the bus lane proposals earlier this year produced a huge response from local residents. The results have now been summarised in a report which can be viewed here.
Further consultations will take place, and localised consultations on specific proposals like those for Grove Road and Station Road. You can read this in full by following the links from the Council web site:

The information point is shortly to re-open, as a further consultation period starts.
Further afield the Bath Road 'showcase' route is now nearing complation.

Ball games in Fountaine Court

Residents in Fountaine Court contacted Muriel Cole and I about problems with youths playing ball games in the area causing danage to cars. Muriel took this up with the Council who agreed to put up a 'no ball game' sign. This may help, but we are continuing to push the Council to provide a small area on the East Park estate where ball games can be played in a safe environment.

Common sense wins on Wickham Glen

Over the last few weeks there has been much discussion about the proposed path through Wickham Glen. This will be funded by the Bristol Cycling City project, and will give access from a ramp connecting directly to Blackberry Hill. The plan was for a path that would be 3 metres wide. Many residents and local conservation groups were concerned that this would create a 'cycle motorway' and lead to conflict with people walking along the path, and users with disabilities. It would also lead to several mature trees being removed.

There was a meeting on site with Council Officers, and Jon Rogers, the Cabinet member for the project, and it looked like a compromise solution of a narrower path would be supported. Unfortunately the Cycling City team insisted on their original plan going to the planning committee.
The good news is that the committee voted to reject the plans last week, and instructed the officers to come back with a plan for a narrower path that would be more in keeping with the area.

Grove Wood - nature reserve plan goes to Cabinet

On Thursday 10th June, the Cabinet of Bristol City Council will consider a proposal to turn Grove Wood into a formal nature reserve.
If the paper being put forward is approved, the council seeks to enter into an agreement with the landowner of Grove Wood and declare and manage the site as a Local Nature Reserve in consultation with Natural England.
If that does not prove possible, then the Council will apply for a Compulsory Purchase Order to acquire the site for the purpose of a Local Nature Reserve.

The nature reserve model has already worked well in this area at Royate Hill, and I'm sure this one will be just as successful.

First Liberal Ministers (and first Coalition) since 1945

As I predicted this is was the closest election since February 1974 and like then it produced what the media like to call a 'hung parliament.' (Personally I prefer the less emotive local government term 'No Overall Control').
The arithmetic (Con 306, Lab 258, Lib Dem 57, others 28) meant there were only two truly viable options, a Conservative minority government (as with Labour in 1974 and with the SNP in Scotland today), or a Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition with an agreed programme, and the potential to run a full term.

Any arrangement with historic political enemies can be difficult to swallow, but coalition between parties is a fact of life in nearly all other countries in Europe. Political parties themselves are also coalitions, and we have been governed by a coalition between 'Blair-Labour' and the 'Brown-Labour' for the last 13 years!

In any coalition its not what is said but what is done that will matter in time. The agreement between the parties has been widely publicised, but don't believe what the newspapers tell you, read the full version for yourself here: http://www.general-election-2010.co.uk/conservative-and-liberal-democrat-coalition-goverment-agreement.html

General Election goes to the wire....

A quarter of the votes in this area have probably been cast by post already, including mine, and tomorrow everyone else will have the chance to make their choice. I never make predictions about election results, but it is clear that this is going to be the closest contest since I first cast a vote back in 1974.
Bristol East Liberal Democrat Candidate Mike Popham has had a great response on the doorsteps, and we seem to have got more information through people'd doors than either of the other parties.
If your still undecided, please remember that only the Liberal Democrats will bring about the permanent change that our country really needs.

Lynn Road & Stokecliffe House - revised schemes approved

Two planning applications that will have a major effect on Stapleton were passed at the end of April. A refurbishment of Stokecliiffe house on Park Road has been welcomed, but not the new houses planned to encroach on the valley. In Lynn Road a previous application was rejected, but an amended scheme has now been approved, this will also impact on the valley which slopes steeply form Park Road down to the River Frome (see picture).

Both applications were opposed by local residents, the local Conservation Society, and local Liberal Democrat Councillors. what this appears to show is the need for an early review of the whole of the Stapleton and Frome Valley area if its unique quality is to be maintained.