Conservative councillors in South Gloucestershire say they are helping to make the district ‘greener’. Five new solar electricity photovoltaic (PV) systems have now been installed on council buildings across the district, including Bradley Stoke, Longwell Green, Thornbury and Yate Leisure Centres, to take advantage of the Feed-in Tariff (FIT), which earns money from energy suppliers. The schemes were funded after
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Measures to conserve energy by switching off South Gloucestershire’s street lights between midnight and 5am are to be extended to the district’s ‘A’ roads from the start of May. The ‘part-night lighting’ scheme has already been successfully introduced on the A4174 and many of the district’s minor roads and will now be extended to other ‘A’ roads including the A38,
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Council leaders have welcomed new figures demonstrating high demand for superfast broadband in South Gloucestershire. The survey of local residents and businesses, published today, shows that more than a third of residents would like broadband access at speeds of more than 20 megabits per second, with over a quarter willing to pay extra for the service. Almost half of businesses
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Food waste collected in South Gloucestershire is set to be converted into valuable renewable energy and organic fertiliser at a single location, thanks to new recycling arrangements introduced this month. All food waste collected from local residents is now being sent to a specialist anaerobic digestion plant in Oxfordshire where it will be broken down by bacteria into useful gases
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South Gloucestershire Council will return to a committee system of governance, following a majority decision at Council on Wednesday evening (21st March). The option for the council to return to the committee system from the current Leader and Cabinet arrangements was introduced in the recent Localism Act 2011. The new governance arrangements will be introduced from the Council’s Annual Meeting
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South Gloucestershire Council has tonight voted to abolish the undemocratic Cabinet, and to return to a Committee system of governance, where all members are involved in decision-making processes. Councils were forced to disband their committees by the Labour government, but new powers in the Localism Act allowed them to return to collective decision-making. South Gloucestershire is one of the first
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South Gloucestershire residents have been denied a say on a major constitutional change in what has been labelled a “Black Day for local democracy” in the district. Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors voted down a Conservative proposal to consult with the public at tonight’s Full Council meeting (Wednesday 21st March), even though Bristol residents have the chance to vote in
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Labour councillors in South Gloucestershire have heralded the Council’s decision this evening to scrap its ruling Cabinet and move to a Committee system of decision making which will involve all 70 councillors as great for democracy and transparency. From mid-May, politically proportional committees will make the authority’s key decisions instead of just seven Conservative ‘Executive’ councillors. The decision was made
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The London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) has today (Monday 19th) announced the street level route of the Olympic Torch Relay which will travel through the streets of Bitton, Longwell Green and Hanham on Tuesday 22nd May. Torchbearer Daniel Munden, from Bristol, will carry the Olympic Flame along one stretch of the route through South Gloucestershire when he takes part in
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Thousands more youngsters could benefit from council funding, under new proposals being considered by South Gloucestershire Council (SGC). The Council’s statistics show that, of the 22,000 young people aged 13-19 in South Gloucestershire, only around 20 per cent regularly accessed a council youth centre in 2010/11. And so the council is consulting on proposed changes to its children, young people
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