The South Glos Post

Calls by South Gloucestershire’s Conservative councillors to scrap the region’s controversial planning blueprint have won the backing of a senior Conservative MP.

Grant Shapps MP, the Shadow Minister for Housing, promised the district that a future Conservative government would scrap Labour’s Regional Spatial Strategy, as he visited the area this week to meet local Green Belt campaigners.

His pledge comes as a Sustainable Communities Act proposal from South Gloucestershire Council’s Conservative administration is being considered that calls for the Regional Spatial Strategy, along with regional and housing powers, to be abolished.

Efforts to scrap the RSS are being made in an effort to discourage speculative planning applications.

An application to build 450 new houses on Green Belt land in Oldland Common was rejected last month; however developers in Chipping Sodbury have recently revealed proposals for 1,000 new houses east of St John’s Way.

Both of these areas have been identified for huge new urban extensions under plans contained in the Regional Spatial Strategy in order to accommodate nearly 33,000 new houses in South Gloucestershire.

Developers also appear to have been encouraged by Government claims that the RSS has ‘considerable weight’, despite Ministers announcing recently that more work needed to be done on a ‘sustainability appraisal’ after a successful legal challenge in the East of England region.

Speaking whilst he was in South Gloucestershire, Mr Shapps said:

“The embarrassing delay to the South West Regional Spatial Strategy reveals the extent of the failure of the Government’s target-driven regional planning policy.

This discredited document is actually preventing communities from getting on and building the homes the area needs.

I back South Gloucestershire Council’s calls for the Government to scrap the RSS now. If the Government does not then I want to assure South Gloucestershire residents that a future Conservative Government will do so and allow local people to decide where new homes should go.”

He added:

“We will use cash incentives to encourage new homes to be built in a way that protects the environment and provides the infrastructure to support local communities, rather than letting unelected quangos impose unsustainable development on communities.

A future Conservative Government will match pound-for-pound the Council Tax revenue received on all new homes for a period of six years and, in order to help fix Labour’s affordable housing crisis, we will guarantee 125 pence for every pound received in Council Tax from new social homes in addition to the money already collected.”

Local campaigner and Conservative councillor Matthew Riddle, who helped launch the district-wide No Way To 33K housing campaign, has welcomed the high-profile backing, saying:

“It is the continuing existence of the RSS that convinces some developers that they can push through unsustainable and damaging planning applications like the sort that we are seeing in Chipping Sodbury, as well as elsewhere.

No green field is safe under the Government’s plans and I am delighted that Mr Shapps is backing our calls for the RSS to be scrapped and for housing and planning powers to be returned to local communities, which is where they belong.

I hope that the other parties on the council will also support this because it will send an important message to Government Ministers that we are united against their harmful plans.”

Conservative councillors are presenting a motion to the next Full Council meeting on 25 November calling on all parties on the council to agree to abolish the RSS.

Source: Conservative Group on South Gloucestershire Council

A Pilning man has pleaded guilty over sales of counterfeit clothing, films and games as well as possessing a “chipped” games console.

Kane Goodman, 35, of Wainbridge Crescent, Pilning, pleaded guilty at Bristol Crown Court to 17 charges under the Trade Marks Act 1994 for selling and possessing counterfeit goods. He also pleaded guilty to one charge under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Mr Goodman’s activities came to light during the course of an investigation into the sale of counterfeit films.

In May 2008 a warrant was executed at his home address and he was arrested in connection with his business activities. Large amounts of counterfeit clothing were removed from his house along with copied games and film discs and a quantity of computer equipment.

A total of 153 items of counterfeit clothing including branded football shirts and other clothing such as Paul Smith and Lacoste, as well as Chanel handbags and Tiffany jewellery, was all confirmed by the trade mark owners as being counterfeit. In addition, 411 pirated films were removed along with 757 pirated Nintendo Wii and Playstation games.

Cllr Heather Goddard, executive member for communities, said: “Counterfeit sellers pocket all they earn and in this economic climate it is even more important that we take decisive action to protect legitimate traders, who are often responsible for the livelihoods of hundreds of employees.”

Neil Derrick, trading standards officer, added: “We are extremely pleased that Mr Goodman has pleaded guilty to the majority of the offences with which he is charged. This enterprise was generating income off the back of the intellectual property of others and we are glad to have stopped it.”

Mr Goodman pleaded guilty on 30 October 2009 and will be sentenced on 14 January 2010. Proceedings will follow under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, which could lead to the confiscation of funds generated by criminal activity.

Anyone who wishes to report counterfeit sales activities in the strictest confidence can do so by contacting Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06.

Source: South Gloucestershire Council

Work to remove a controversial extension of the ’2+ lane’ on the A4174 ring road has been completed this week after a campaign by local councillors.

In 2004, the A4174 High Occupancy Vehicle Lane (HOV) – otherwise known as the 2+ lane – was extended from the Church Lane overbridge to the Wick Wick roundabout on an experimental basis.

At the time the extension was introduced, the consultation received over 300 responses with nearly 80 per cent opposing it.

In line with these views, the shortening of the 2+ lane was announced in April 2009 after a council review of the efficiency and effectiveness of the HOV lanes.

The review was ordered last year by Cllr Brian Allinson, South Gloucestershire Council’s Conservative transport chief since 2007, after traffic monitoring figures showed that usage of the 2+ lane had flat-lined over recent years, despite efforts to promote car sharing. This suggested that of those drivers that are left, many of them simply cannot car share for various reasons.

Other changes announced by the Council in April included plans to:

• change the HOV lane to a Priority Vehicle Lane, allowing HGVs and driver-only taxis to use it; and
• reduce the HOV lane’s hours of operation from 07.30 to 09.30 (currently it starts at 07.00)

Emersons Green Cllrs. Colin Hunt, James Hunt and Ian Morris, who have campaigned on the issue, have welcomed the extensions’ removal. They said:

“We are pleased that the experimental extension of the 2+ lane has been removed as this is something that many of our residents have been asking for.

There was much consultation at the time of the introduction of the extension where a huge majority of responses clearly opposed the extension.

Yet these legitimate views were dismissed at the time and the extension has remained ever since.

We are grateful to Cllr Allinson for acting on residents concerns about the extension.”

They added:

“Ever since the 2+ lane was first introduced, huge numbers of residents in Downend, Emersons Green and beyond feel they are being unfairly discriminated against because they don’t have the option of using it.

The rest of the Council’s proposed changes should go some way to addressing these feelings and wider plans to provide a park and ride on the proposed Emersons Green East development to tackle congestion are to be welcomed.”

Source: Conservatives on South Gloucestershire Council

Conservative councillors have welcomed the completion of a new £2.5m state-of-the-art sports hall at Hanham High School, South Gloucestershire.

Funding for the scheme was agreed in 2007 after a major campaign was launched by Hanham Conservative councillors, John Goddard, Heather Goddard and June Bamford.

As part of the campaign, a petition was delivered to local households.

The new state-of-the-art facility – which was handed over this week to the school by the building contractors – allows for a wide range of sports to be played, including 5-a-side football, basketball, volleyball, badminton and netball.

As well as a number of different court markings, other equipment has also been provided, including cricket nets.

Cllr John Goddard, who is also Chair of Governors at the school, said:

“We are absolutely delighted that work has finished on building this much needed new facility and we are very grateful to all the parents, pupils and members of the wider community who have supported this campaign.

Hanham High is an excellent school, but it has previously missed out by not being able to offer a modern sports hall, which is an important part of providing the quality of facilities students require.

What is particularly exciting is that this new state-of-the-art sports hall will be able to be used not just by the school, but also the wider local community.

There has been a lot of publicity about young people’s health and this is an increasingly important issue which needs to be addressed by ensuring that schools are provided with quality sports facilities.”

Source: Conservative Group on South Gloucestershire Council