The South Glos Post

South Gloucestershire Council’s Conservative administration has given the green light to transport schemes designed to improve road safety and beat traffic congestion across the district.

As part of this financial year’s Local Transport Capital Programme, building work will start on the district’s first park and ride facility – a £1.2m scheme at Parkway station.

Already-announced changes to the controversial 2+ lane on the ring road will be completed in an effort to respond to Downend and Emersons Green councillors’ calls for radical action to ease congestion.

And further reducing the number of casualties, which are already at a record low, will be a central aim of this year’s transport programme with a number of road safety schemes planned.

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Source: Conservative Group on South Gloucestershire Council

Voting in the three parliamentary constituencies in South Gloucestershire has seen two Conservative and one Liberal Democrat candidates selected to represent the area in the House of Commons.

The biggest surprise came in Kingswood where the sitting MP Roger Berry (Labour) was ousted by Chris Skidmore (Conservative) thanks to a 9.4% swing from Labour to Conservative.

Incumbent Steve Webb (Liberal Democrats) retained his seat in Thornbury and Yate by a comfortable margin despite a 4.3% swing from Lib Dem to Conservative.

The new constituency of Filton and Bradley Stoke was won by Jack Lopresti (Conservative), who had almost 7,000 votes to spare over his Labour rival, Ian Boulton.

South Gloucestershire General Election 2010 results:

• Kingswood
• Thornbury and Yate
• Filton and Bradley Stoke

Election statistics from the BBC:

• Kingswood
• Thornbury and Yate
• Filton and Bradley Stoke

South Gloucestershire Council has started a £600,000 programme of improvements to the district’s libraries.

Extensions to the existing facilities will be taking place at Bradley Stoke, Hanham and Winterbourne libraries and later in the year Kingswood Library will have an upgrade to its interior.

Since many of the libraries were built new services have been introduced such as internet access, DVD and computer game hire. The extensions will allow the library service to improve the space for the display of stock and further develop services for children as well as accommodating the new digital formats.

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Source: South Gloucestershire Council

Police in South Gloucestershire have a new weapon to help tackle nuisance – two off-road motorbikes.

Five neighbourhood PCs based at Staple Hill, Filton and Chipping Sodbury police stations have been trained to ride the bikes, which will be used to tackle anti-social use of motorbikes.

In Staple Hill the two officers will be targeting scramblers riding off-road on Siston Common.

The Filton officers will be able to tackle any problems with scrambling at locations including the Three Brooks Nature Reserve and private land at Severn Beach.

In Chipping Sodbury an officer will be able to use the motorbike to resolve any issues with nuisance riders on the commons around the area.

Staple Hill Neighbourhood Inspector Kevin Thatcher obtained the bikes from the Avon and Somerset specialist Road Policing Unit, who also trained the neighbourhood officers.

He said: “A frequent concern for local people is motorcyclists riding recklessly on common ground and other open spaces. These areas are also used by other members of the community, especially children, and people are quite reasonably concerned about the potential for someone to get hurt.”

Insp Thatcher added that the off-road motorbikes would also be valuable to police officers tackling anti-social behaviour and robbery on the cycle path.

He said: “South Gloucestershire officers have been working hard with our colleagues from Bristol to tackle the problems we have seen on the cycle path.

“At the moment the problems have died down, thanks in part to increased patrols and arrests, but we are not complacent. These motorbikes will help us maintain our high-profile patrols of the cycle path to prevent further crime and nuisance as well as enabling us to respond effectively to any offences.”

Insp Thatcher explained that although motor vehicles are banned from the cycle path, police officers can ride the off-road motorbikes along the track to target a particular problem or carry out reassurance patrols. Officers can contravene road traffic legislation as long as it is reasonable in the circumstances.

Source: Avon and Somerset Police