Two boys from Bradley Stoke are having trouble finding sporting memorabilia to sell off for charity.

Callum Howard and Adam Snook, 11, want sport items to auction in aid of the RSPCA, reports the Bristol Evening Post.
So far they have only bagged a Bristol City shirt and an email from Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger.

All of the letters have been sent on RSPCA headed paper with a letter from the charity confirming what the pair are doing.

Callum’s dad, Philip, is appealing to the community for more items. You can call him on 0771 858 2177 if you can help out.

The sale itself is planned for Saturday, 20 January between 11am and 2pm at the Bradley Stoke Community School.

Global warming has made its mark on Bradley Stoke with the creation of a giant new lake.

The rain has poured down next to Tesco and the Three Brooks pub to create the new water feature.

The lake is on the corner of the land where new housing is currently being built.

It will be a welcome sight for people hoping to buy new houses in the area – lakeside properties are at a premium.

It is hoped that ducks and other wildfowl will eventually make a home for themselves on the water.

* Yes, we know this is rubbish, but it’s a slow news week and we wanted to give you all a laugh.

The problems for Gipsy Patch Lane continue with drivers starting once again to do a dangerous u-turn around queues.

As cars drive northbound on Gloucester Road North and pull off past Filton Airfield many are turning near the Post Office traffic lights.

Some motorists are also driving past stationary traffic at breakneck speed in a bid to avoid queuing.

The Examiner has been keeping an eye on the problem since the summer after a reader tipped us off.

It seemed as if the problems had subsided but on Tuesday night the Examiner spotted no less than seven cars in one phase of the traffic lights using the u-turn.

One car had a very lucky escape missing a Post Office van, which had right-of-way, at the junction.

The u-turn is entirely legal but hardly in the spirit of good old British queuing …!

The Bradley Stoke Examiner is looking for more of your stories in 2007.

The Examiner is the town’s only independent and interactive news website and is attracting a big following.

Perhaps you have a news story you’d like to tell us about or maybe an event you want some publicity for.

All you need to do is email the details to news@sadlybroke.com and we’ll take a look.

The BBC has been celebrating Bradley Stoke’s 20th birthday with a series of features.

BBC Radio Bristol broadcast live from the town during their breakfast programme on Wednesday, 3 January 2007.

There is also a story on the BBC News website quoting former mayor Julian Barge saying BS32 is “misunderstood”.

He goes on to say the town is trying to develop a community spirit: “This is a young town which has a lot of young people and families.”

Points West also broadcast live from the BS Leisure Centre during the evening (watch again for 24 hours here)
It is lovely to see some positive coverage for the town and sets the 20th anniversary in 2007 off on just the right note!

Other links of note today:

• BBC Video archive from 1988: 30 mins documentary ‘Boom Town’
• Pictures from the Three Brooks Nature Reserve

A news release from Bradley Stoke Town Council has revealed a worrying trend with youths targeting ethnic minorities.

The council says that, as the Examiner has reported, youth crime and anti social behaviour is becoming a problem.

But the fact that ethnic minorities are being targeted is a worrying trend.

The release goes on to say the police are ‘targeting the ringleaders’ and using other strategies including ‘early intervention’.

The news comes as changes happen in BS32’s policing arrangements: PC Shaun Oliver has moved on to be replaced, on a temporary basis, by PC Lee Neale. A permanent replacement is due to follow in the coming months.

Avon and Somerset Police add that they have found office space to use in the town which will act as a constabulary post which will allow officers to spend more time here.

If you want to talk to the police then you can at the beat surgery. It’s at the leisure centre on January 11 between 4 and 6pm.

It’s been months in production and has caused the loss of blood and some tears too. Oh yes, we’ve made a forum.

We employed a crack team that included a monkey and a boffin from the university to create the best ever chat system which we’ve just launched.

Either that, or we just downloaded some cheap software off the internet and uploaded it between Christmas Guinness. You decide which is true.

Either way, you’ve all got somewhere to chat now and we expect all of our many visitors (thousands across November, and December’s already getting close to beating that) to use it. Go there now.

It’s bare and there’s hardly any posts. It looks different to the rest of the site. But, hey, we’re cheap, and we don’t deny it!

Hope you can all drop in and say hi otherwise have a very merry Christmas and we hope Santa brings you all that you asked for.

>> Click here for the forum