The South Glos Post

South Gloucestershire Council’s state-of-the-art fleet of new snow ploughs are being readied for the first serious snowfall of the winter.

With weather forecasts showing an increased likelihood of snow through Saturday night and Sunday morning, the council’s winter maintenance team are preparing for all-night operation on Saturday night to grit the district’s roads and plough where snow settles.

Head of Street Care Mark King will be among the team behind the wheel of a snowplough on Saturday night. He said:

“The vehicles have already been out regularly this winter to salt South Gloucestershire’s roads and keep our highways safe and clear of ice.”

“However this will be the first time we have used the vehicles to deal with snow and the winter maintenance team have been working hard to ready the ploughs for a busy weekend.”

“The procedure we follow is to pre-salt roads as soon as icy conditions are forecast, and then return to plough if the snow begins to settle. At the same time, we re-salt the roads to make sure that they remain safe.”

More: New gritters named by local school children »

Source: South Gloucestershire Council

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Council plans to promote access to high-speed broadband throughout South Gloucestershire have taken a crucial step forward with the launch of a new exercise to confirm the areas where internet access should be improved.

The council has teamed up with Wiltshire and Swindon councils to progress its plans and the three councils will be asking broadband suppliers to confirm areas where connection speeds are low and unlikely to be improved by planned commercial investment within the next three years.

Once these so-called ‘white’ areas have been confirmed, the three councils will invite companies to bid to upgrade the areas’ broadband infrastructure, supported by local and central government funding via the national Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) scheme.

South Gloucestershire has been allocated £710,000 through BDUK to support the project, and the council’s Cabinet will be meeting on Monday to make recommendations to allocate £2.2m to the project.

It is hoped that a contract can be awarded to a successful supplier by this summer, with work to upgrade the infrastructure beginning in winter 2012.

More: Consultation is a vital step towards start of upgrade »

Source: South Gloucestershire Council

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Plans to freeze South Gloucestershire’s Council Tax for a second year running will be considered by Cabinet at its next meeting on Monday 6th February.

If agreed, the proposals will have saved the average household over £50 per year over the two years.

The revenue budget and Council Tax proposals for 2012/13 aim to keep costs as low as possible for local taxpayers, while delivering savings through greater efficiency, reducing duplication and waste and transforming the way that the council works.

The Council Tax freeze would be achieved by taking advantage of a Government grant of £2.8m in 2012/13.

Other key features of this year’s budget proposals include:

• Extra funding of £5.6m over the next three years for community care services to meet additional demand
• Additional council funding to maintain planned school improvements first set out last year, as well as support for school energy efficiency improvements
• Plans to use the district’s New Homes Bonus allocation to support additional investment in infrastructure, protect front line services and support new initiatives in communities that have seen new housing growth
• A total of £43m of efficiency and transformation savings to be achieved by 2014/15, of which over £24m over the next three years have already been agreed

More: Residents were asked to prioritise services »

Source: South Gloucestershire Council

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Every home and business in South Gloucestershire will potentially be able to access broadband by 2015 with nine out of ten enjoying superfast speeds of up to 24 Mbps, thanks to nearly £3m of public investment.

South Gloucestershire Council has drawn up plans to invest £2.2m of its own money in providing broadband infrastructure capable of delivering much faster speeds, which will be added to a £710k grant from the government body Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK).

In line with the ambition in South Gloucestershire’s recently refreshed Sustainable Community Strategy to improve access to broadband for all, this project’s aim is to achieve access to a minimum of 2 Mbps broadband speeds for all premises in South Gloucestershire by 2015 and superfast broadband to be available to a target of 90 per cent of premises – also by 2015.

Work to install the superfast broadband infrastructure could start as early as this December because the new tie-up with Wiltshire Council – confirmed earlier this month by South Gloucestershire’s Conservative Cabinet – ensures that the district’s broadband project is one of the most advanced in the country.

It’s estimated that around 82 per cent of premises in South Gloucestershire will be able to benefit from improved broadband infrastructure funded by broadband suppliers themselves, resulting in the availability of a faster and more reliable service by 2014.

The remaining 18 per cent (approx 21,000) of premises – where there are currently no plans by broadband suppliers to invest – will benefit from this public investment in order to make the provision of faster broadband commercially viable.

More: Plan must be ratified by Full Council on 22nd February »

Source: Conservative Group on South Gloucestershire Council

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