December 2018
Apologies
Please accept my apologies for this evening which is for personal reasons.
Draft Joint Local Transport Plan (4) consultation
I am continuing to pursue this as i understand that the issue of Key Transport Routes is in a paper still being written that will sit under the Joint Local Transport Plan
Local action
Boverton Road
The resurfacing of Boverton, Bude and Meadowsweet is taking place from 14th January next year
MOD Roundabout
I am currently dealing with complaints that once again are being received about the difficulties of leaving the Abbey Wood Centre and hopefully a solution will be found, but may take a time to execute.
Wishing you all a Happy Christmas and New Year
Since the November meeting I have attended the following:
Saturday 2nd December – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Saturday 8th December – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
November 27th 2018
My retirement from South Gloucestershire Council in May 2019
By the time you receive this report Filton Labour Party will have selected the 2 candidates to contest the seats on South Gloucestershire Council available to Filton from May 2019.
I want to make clear that I decided a long time ago, in fact before the decision was taken to reduce the number from 3 to 2 not to seek re-election, but to take the opportunity at 72 years of age to hopefully have some years of retirement.
Draft Joint Local Transport Plan (4) consultation
The Executive member decision has been published this morning (Wednesday 21st November) and will be out for a 6 week period of consultation during January and February.
I have had a short time this morning to scan through it but in doing so have seen no reference to either the A4174 at Filton or Elm Park, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist so at this time I am reporting it’s publication and will read in more detail before the council meeting and update at that time, if necessary.
Local Actions
Fly tipping in back lane
I have been asked about the issue of fly tipping in the lane to the rear of Filton Avenue and Mortimer Road that runs between the Ring Road and Nutfield Grove that was reported in Filton Voice recently. I have been working with residents and a local developer for somme time on this to try and achieve a gating scheme which has been tried in the past and is the only way likely to stop the tipping.
The lane is a private lane i.e. it is not a public right of way or a public highway, so the rights of way belong to the residents, As has been the case elsewhere in Filton a majority of home owners need to agree to the closure of the right of way and to contribute to the erection of the gates. Any that refuse to contribute must have the right to purchase keys as they still have a right of way.
South Gloucestershire Council are unable to remove tipping from private land unless they are asked to do so by the land owners and paid to do so. However, there are times that the cost is waved in extreme circumstances and I have argued that this should be one of them. However, without gates the probability is that removal of the rubbish would lead to further tipping without the problem being resolved. So SGC have agreed to remove the current tipped waste once the gates are in. Residents have been working together over recent weeks and are hopeful of achieving a sufficient number
of contributors, together with a contribution from the developer to succeed with their gating scheme.
Boverton Road
At your last meeting you heard a complaint about the road surface in Boverton Road which I did drive up on my way home. I took the matter up with officers and was advised that Boverton is on the forward maintenance list possibly for the year 2020/21. I have suggested that 2020/21 is far too long to wait and that it should be brought forward. I am awaiting a reply. In the same area and in case someone asks I have raised the issue of the lights being out at the roundabout at the top of Boverton and am told that this is a problem with the Electricity Board who should be fixing it in the near future.
Empty Homes
On behalf of a local resident I have been following up a complaint of a property that has been empty for a number of years, the garden is severely overgrown and property lacking in any maintenance. Council officers have been very pro-active in using laws available to them by serving a Community Protection Notice giving the owners a deadline to carry out a variety of works. Failure to do so could come to court proceedings being taken.
Planning
The new planning system came into action from 1st November. I am a member of the Spatial Planning Committee, which is the over-arching committee from which the other 2 committees come.
I am also a member of the Strategic Sites Delivery Committee, which had a meeting of its Sites Inspection Panel recently. It met to visit 3 sites, the first put on the agenda by officers was the site to the west of the Stoke Gifford Transport link and is part of the East of Harry Stoke Development of 2000 homes, this being a total of 327. The new 2 were at North Yate called in by a member who failed to attend the first made us all wonder why we were there at all and the second had already been approved by the old DC East Committee!! It can only get better.
Since the October meeting I have attended the following:
Thursday 1st November – I attended the the first meeting of the Spatial Planning Committee Kingswood
Saturday 3rd November – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Thursday 8th November – I attended a key topic briefing on the Joint Spatial Plan/Local Plan Yate
Saturday 10th November – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Friday 16th November: I attended the Strategic Sites Delivery Committee Sites Inspection.
Saturday 17th November – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Between today 20th November and the Council Meeting I expect to attend the following:
Saturday 24th November – our regular weekly surgery Filton
October 30th 2018
Joint Local Transport Plan & Bus Strategy:
I have reported twice before on the coming consultation on the Joint Local Transport Plan and a week ago I attended a briefing which was an update on the previous consultation as we move onto the next.
However it proved to be something of a “disappointment” in that it didn’t contain the information that I was looking for, which was detail of the Key Route Network which is still being discussed I was told. It will however be part of the forthcoming consultation so I will continue to press for the information as I will for the Bus Strategy, which will also be key to the A4174 decision I believe. The public consultation on the draft JLTP will be during January and February and it is planned that after revision and local authority approval it will be endorsed by WECA in June 2019.
General Transport Policy
I must be clear that this is very much a personal opinion of mine as a member who did not support the creation of WECA with the promise of £900m extra funding, I am finding that so far it is living up to my views about it’s inability to deliver and the lack of democracy involved in it’s decision making. It was very clear from answers given at the council meeting that councils are going to WECA with begging bowls hoping to get a bit of funding to support local bus services and other transport measures and no-one is listening. In fact we are losing out on bus services such as the number 10 and the 77 which I have had complaints about. Plans for a ring of park and ride sites, which is a plan going back to the days of Avon is back but apparently no money to implement it and no-one apparently with the ambition to achieve it or anything else for that matter.
Local Actions
I have reported before that I have been trying to get improvements both at Filton Roundabout and at the MoD roundabout and plans were agreed for both. In fact at the MoD the problem was that vehicles were turning left into Abbey Wood from the middle lane across those travelling in the inside lane. Work has been done by widening the hatching on the entrance to the Abbey Wood lane to give the visual impression that it is a single lane and not therefore available for a vehicle to turn into. I am unable to judge personally whether it has worked but I haven’t experienced the problem recently. As far as Filton roundabout is concerned there is some extra white line painting needed to the centre lane going from Glos Rd North to Filton Hill which will be done when the road is either resurfaced for any reason or the current lines refreshed.
MAF Funding MAF funding is still available for local groups and like Cllr Monk I am hoping to finish allocating mine by the end off November, my email address is roger.hutchinson@southglos.gov.uk
Since the September meeting I have attended the following:
Thursday 4th October – I attended the the final meeting of Development Control West in the current planning decision making process. Thornbury
Saturday 6th October – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Friday 12th October – I attended a meeting of the South West Councils Resource and Management Committee. Taunton
Saturday 13th October – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Tuesday 16th October: I attended a Key Topic Briefing on the Green Paper consultation on the Social Housing Green Paper.
This was followed by a Key Topic Briefing on the Draft Joint Local Transport Plan. Yate
Wednesday 17th October – I attended a meeting of the South Gloucestershire Full Council Kingswood
Wednesday 24th October – I attended a Key Topic Briefing on the New Planning Decision Process brought in by the Conservative administration Kingswood
Between today 24th October and the Council Meeting I expect to attend the following:
Saturday 27th October – our regular weekly surgery Filton
July 30th 2018
Privately rented Houses In my last report I updated the Council on the issue of HMO licensing which is due to come in shortly and that I had learnt that the licensing would cover HMOs of 5 residents and over from 2 or more families. The licence therefore not be required by HMOs occupied by less than 5 people as they are considered by the Government to be no different to any other family of that size.
.The Arena Well the decision hasn’t yet been made but indications appear to suggest that the Bristol Mayor is leaning towards a decision to choose Filton for the new arena. However it remains a situation of “watch this space”.
Metrobus Extension: Planning permissions was given last week to applications on the new part of Metrobus the main one being the replacement of the railway bridge in Gypsy Patch lane. The current bridge will be demolished and replaced with a wider bridge with bus lanes, vehicle lanes and facilities for pedestrians and cyclists. To accommodate double decker buses and higher vehicles the road under the bridge will be lowered by 1.9m. In order to achieve this Gypsy Patch Lane will be fully closed underneath the bridge for up to 8 months.
Joint Local Transport Plan & Bus Strategy:
South Glos Council at it’s meeting last on 18th July received a report, as we normally do, on the Strategic West of England Matters, this one being of particular interest to us as the Joint Local Transport Plan is the plan that will contain the Bus Strategy and Key Route Network which is where we will expect to learn what the future decisions might be in respect of the 15m strip down the side of the A4174 threatening Elm Park. It is not yet clear whether the document which will come to local authorities for endorsement of a consultation draft in September and out to public consultation in October/November. We will therefore be keeping a close eye on what is happening at both the West of England and the South Gloucestershire Cabinet in the meantime.
Reduction in Winter Highway Maintenance: A report of the results of the consultation on the reduction of salting of some roads was reported to the Scrutiny Commission pending a decision by the Executive Member later in July which made only one change. Braemar Avenue didn’t receive a sufficient amount of public concern to qualify to be taken off the list of roads to be removed from the roads that are regularly salted in bad winter weather.
Surgeries – Just a reminder that we don’t hold surgeries during August but can be contacted individually during the month.
Since the June meeting I have attended the following:
Thursday 28th June and Friday 29th June – I attended the Annual study tour of the Public Transport Consortium to Durham. Whilst there we visited the Beamish Open Air Museum and the Hitachi Factory. Durham
Saturday 30th June – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Saturday 7th July – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Thursday 14th July – I attended a meeting of DC West Planning Committee Thornbury
Monday 16th July – I attended a Key Topic Briefing with Directors of the Merlin/Bromford Partnership. This was followed by another Key Topic Briefing on the local impacts of climate change. Kingswood
Wednesday 18th July – I attended South Gloucestershire Full Council meeting. Kingswood
Between today 25th July and the Council Meeting I expect to attend the following:
Friday 27th July – A meeting of the DC West Sites Inspection Committee followed by a meeting of The DC West Planning Committee. Thornbury
Saturday 28th July – our regular weekly surgery Filton
June 26th 2018
Privately rented Houses In February I reported that a Scrutiny task and finish group has been proposed to invest the possibility of licensing privately rented properties. We have recently taken an opportunity to meet with officers to discuss the value of such a scheme in relation to current laws and the methods available through our department in South Gloucestershire. A number of issues have arisen one of which is that we are employing some new regulations successfully in respect of empty homes and I would welcome any reports of homes that have been standing empty for a long period of time.
A further piece of information was forthcoming in relation to the forthcoming licensing of HMO’s which hadn’t been clear. This is that the reference to all HMOs is actually all HMOs with 5 or more residents from more than one families, which actually reduces the number that will be licensed but also makes it easier and quicker for that licensing to take place.
Pending Issues affecting Filton: there are 2 issues pending that will undoubtedly have an effect on Filton that are going to be decided upon in the next few weeks and almost certainly before the July meeting.
The Arena Clearly it is expected that a decision is going to be made shortly on the proposed site of the arena and it could well be that the Brabazon Hangar, which is just inside the Bristol Boundary next to Filton Airfield could be the site chosen by the Bristol Mayor, Merlin Rees.
So is this good news or bad news for Filton? There are bound to be arguments on both sides and in my view not a clear for or against, although I don’t believe that I should sit on the fence on this so I will say firstly that I would come down in favour of the Brab. on balance.
My major concern in taking that view is that of transport and the use of cars to attend the events, but at the same time, whilst there are pubic transport links to the proposal in the centre of Bristol I don’’t believe that parking is sufficient there unless some serious attention is given to subsidised fares or high charges for parking. As far as the Filton option is concerned there would be ample parking and our challenge would be to encourage people by the provision of good public transport at an affordable price to leave their cars at home or at park and ride sites.
This would have to be a real opportunity to move forward to the completion of the Henbury Loop from the currently planned Henbury Spur and hopefully deal with the funding need to deal with the issue of by-passing the level crossing at the entrance to the Port which is a major obstacle.
Clearly there will be a need to make as much use as possible of the facility which would be helpful if public transport is to be commercial and sustainable and possibly run through areas that are not currently served by buses, but also the large events will take place on evenings and weekends avoiding our rush hours and there not be the issue on our roads that it could be at other times.
I am sure that whilst infrastructure would be a challenge for our local authorities and the developers, it is a challenge that could involve use of new transport options and technologies, and a good new station right beside the Brab. Hangar serving the venue and the new development as well as Filton and surrounding areas , with a stop for Metrobus and local buses and other route options.
The second decision that is imminent is the decision of the Secretary of State on the Mall Extension, which is approved could extend the amount of retail, but also increase the leisure and recreation opportunities available at the Mall with the centre opening later for restaurants, bars etc. and no doubt being complementary to the Arena and the Aviation Museum improving the economic base of the area, including hotels and guest house for people making a weekend or longer visiting South Glos. and Bristol.
Community Engagement Forum
I wasn’t able to attend the recent Community Engagement Forum but I did submit a written report which referred to work that i was doing to assist residents in Filton Avenue and Mortimer Road with a gating scheme and clearance of a mass of tipping in the lane behind their homes.
Further issues surrounding the No Entry sign at the entrance of Kenmore Drive which only operates on certain parts of the day.
Road Re-surfacing – just to report that there has been quite a lot of re-surfacing in Filton recently even though some of it has been parts of roads and not the whole which is the way that the council does things these days!
Since the May meeting I have attended the following:
Wednesday 30th May – I attended a briefing with officers on licensing and then a meeting on the Scrutiny Task and Finish Group on the setting up of a Housing Company Yate
Thursday 31st May – I attended a meeting of opposition spokes with the Executive Members for Environment and Community Services Yate
Friday 1st June – I attended a meeting of DC West Sites Inspection Panel Thornbury
Saturday 2nd June – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Saturday 10th June – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Thursday 14th June – I attended a meeting of DC West Thornbury
Saturday 16th June – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Between today 20th June and the Council Meeting I expect to attend the following:
Friday 22nd June – The Annual Tour of DC Members to visit good and bad sites built in the past 12 months. South Glos
Saturday 23rd June – our regular weekly surgery Filton
Monday 25th June – Meeting of the Housing Company T and F Group Kingswood
February 27th
Privately rented Houses A Scrutiny task and finish group has been proposed to invest the possibility of licensing privately rented properties. We have looked at the system that is operating in Bristol, which is and can be only a partial schemes and covers Stapleton Road and some streets adjacent. I am a sponsor of the investigation and now wait to see if it has been accepted by the Scrutiny Commission.
Since the January meeting I have attended the following:
Wednesday 31at January – I attended a briefing on the local plan Kingswood
Saturday 3rd January – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Friday 9th February – I attended a meeting of DC West Sites Inspection Panel Thornbury
Saturday 10th February – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Wednesday 14th February – I attended a meeting of South Gloucestershire Full Council Kingswood
Between today 24th January and the Council Meeting I expect to attend the following:
Saturday 24th February – our regular weekly surgery Filton
Monday 26th February – SG Public Transport Forum Kingswood
January 30th 2018
South Glos. Council Boundary changes – The Boundary Committee hs now published the approved revision of Council Boundaries reducing the number of councillors from 70 to 61. The boundaries for Filton are unchanged but the number of councillors will reduce from 3 to 2. Elections will take place in May 2019.
Highways I have reported in the past that I was pursuing a change to the lane painting on Filton Roundabout and having met with officers on site there is an agreement that the lines on the middle lane northbound wii be extended across to the other side making it clearer that this is a straight ahead lane and not a right turn. The other issue is the MoD roundabout where traffic turns across traffic to enter the Abbey Wood centre by increasing the hatching on the entry road to make it clearer that the entry is for 1 lane of traffic only.
Just to flag up that there is a major resurfacing of the A38 taking place between the 27 February to 3 March of the section from and including the junction with Filton Avenue North and the Patchway flyover, work will take place between 20:00hrs and 06:00 hrs.
Houses in Multiple Occupation I have reported in previous reports that I have served on a working group on HMOs looking at h0w we could reduce the spread in areas like Filton which is one of the 2 areas with a large number of HMOs.. A method of stopping the automatic right to turn a house into an HMO is to designate an area with a large concentration with an Article 4 direction. This means that once the direction is approved by Government anyone wanting to turn a house into this use in the designated area would not benefit from Permitted Development Rights but would need to apply for planning permission which the Council could refuse if it didn’t comply with planning rules, as is the case for any other application. However the applicant would still have the right to appeal and the council decision could be overturned and permission granted by an Inspector. In order for the council to properly defend a refusal decision at appeal our policies must be robust and changes to current policy will be considered through the local plan process. Additionally we are now advised that the licensing of all HMOs is expected to be introduced this year and should help the council to be able to affect the management of HMOs.
Elm Park At a recent meeting of opposition spokes and Executive members there were reports on the work being done on the transport issues in the Late and Thornbury Areas. This gave me an opportunity to ask whether this would affect the designation by the WECA. of that part of the A4174 as a Key Transport Route and therefore the designation. I also asked what the timetable would be for reviewing green spaces, to which I haven’t yet had a reply, but I am attending or will have attended by the 30th, a briefing on the local plan process.
Empty Merlin Houses in Conygre – I have been following up on concerns about Merlin Houses that are due for redevelopment in the Conygre Ward. I understand the situation that there are issues of access in Rodney Crescent and repairs to voids in Canberra Grove. A decision is expected next month on a way forward to doing the work as soon as they are able to do so.
Since the November meeting I have attended the following:
Friday 1st December – I attended a briefing on the local plan Yate
Saturday 2nd December – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Wednesday 6th December – I attended a topic briefing on “the Built Environment” Kingswood
Thursday 7th December – I attended the consultation meeting on the Community Plan Filton
Saturday 9th December – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Wednesday 13th December – I attended a meeting of South Gloucestershire Full Council Kingswood
Thursday 14th December – I attended a meeting of Development Control West Planning committee Thornbury
Saturday 16th December – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Wednesday 20th December – I attended the first meeting of the Scrutiny Group which is looking at the possibility of the Council setting up a Housing Company Yate
Saturday 30th December – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Friday 5th January I attended a meeting with the Cabinet members for ECS as Labour Spokes. Yate
Tuesday 9th January – I attended a meeting of the Scrutiny Group that is considering the Yate Area Future Transport Yate
Friday 12th January – a meeting of the DC West Sites Inspection Panel Thornbury
Saturday 13th January – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Wednesday 17th January – I attended the Filton and Patchway Community Engagement Forum Patchway
Saturday 20th January – I attended our regular weekly surgery Filton
Monday 22nd January – I attended a second meeting of the House Company scrutiny group. Yate
Tuesday 23 January – I attended a member briefing on the developments of the land East of Harry Stoke Yate
Wednesday 24th January – I attended a briefing on the Homelessness Reduction Act Kingswood
Between today 24th January and the Council Meeting I expect to attend the following:
Friday 26th January – a meeting of the LGA Public Transport Consortium London
Saturday 27th January – our regular weekly surgery Filton
Cllr Roger M Hutchinson 