October 30 update: It’s open again! Hurrah! Here’s what you and us had to say during the closure.

Monday update: The complaints continue to roll in about the traffic hell Bradley Stoke residents are experiencing at the moment.

Since Gipsy Patch Lane closed queues have been going back from Aztec West to as far as Tesco every single morning.

Louisa says: “When attempting to turn right out of Woodlands Lane (past the entrance to the Hilton) onto Bradley Stoke Way the traffic already queuing to get onto the Aztec roundabout and turn left down the A38 doesn’t flow sufficiently enough to allow more than three or four cars out and once you are out and the lights have changed you are stranded in the middle of Bradley Stoke Way.”

Want to add your views? Click into the main story and use the form at the bottom of the page.

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The Examiner has learned that the Highways Agency is planning on SEVEN weeks of overnight roadworks on the M4 from October 9.

The work will take place alongside houses on Palmers Leaze, Fennel Drive, Juniper Way, Ormonds Close, Stanley Mead, Trench Lane and Hawkley Drive.

Amazingly, the HA has said the work is being carried out during the night to “minimize disruption to the network”, not bothering to take into account the lives of the hundreds who live alongside the motorway.

In a letter delivered to residents they add: “As a consequence you may experience some additional noise” … “however this is not expected to be significantly higher than normal traffic noise”. A slight contradiction, surely?

The firm, InterRoute, who are carrying out the roadworks on behalf of the HA have helpfully printed contact information should you wish to complain. I suggest you call in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep for the sound of tarmac being flattened.

• InterRoute customer care team: 01454 452300 or email customercare@area2.interroutejv.co.uk
• Highways Agency: 08457 504030

A Bristol City councillor is to ask city council leaders if nuclear trains, which pass by Bradley Stoke, are safe.

The issue has been highlighted since The Mirror managed to sneak a fake bomb on to a similar service in London.

Sue O’Donnell will raise the issue at a meeting later this month.

She said: “These trains were built to withstand accidents, but terrorism is a different matter. We should be questioning whether there is a need for them to pass through residential areas at all.”

Bristol West MP Steven Williams is also to raise the issue at Westminster, according to BBC Points West.

Greenpeace has also published timetables for the services in a bid to highlight, they say, how unsafe they are.

The trains travel, twice a week, through Parkway station and through Winterbourne - just a mile from BS32.

As we revealed in the Examiner, nuclear trains are passing through the area, but now it has been revealed one had a faulty valve.

The Evening Post is carrying a story claiming a train, with nuclear waste from Plymouth on-board, had the problem with a flask last year.

The defective flask on the freight train had fuel from the submarine HMS Talent which was docked at Davenport Dockyard.

John Large, the expert who carried out the report, claims that “Since these flasks travel through cities they could affect quite a considerable number of members of the public.”

The incident, which took place in April 2005, apprently only posed a “minor risk” to nearby residents.

Apparently the train in question travelled through Coalpit Heath, Winterbourne, Yate and then though the Wickwar Tunnel.

Had anything happened to the train; had it had caught on fire or been involved in an accident then the potential for a leak was massive.

You can read more about the incident in this BBC story.

Greenpeace reports that nuclear waste trains are travelling through Bristol Parkway several times a week.

The news comes on the back of a Mirror investigation where a fake bomb was placed on a similar service.

The service highlighted by the environmental campaigners leaves Parkway at 1310 [link to timetable is a PDF] on Monday, Tuesday and/or Thursday.

It transports waste from Hinkley Point power station in Somerset to Crewe, Cheshire.

Greenpeace says it has published the timetable to “make sure the government acts before terrorists do”.

Obviously, this waste has to be transported somehow, but these services are unnervingly close to our homes in BS32.

If you happen to spot one of these trains then Greenpeace is asking for images to be sent to them at this address: webteam@uk.greenpeace.org

Obviously, the Examiner would like a copy too. Mail ‘em to: news@sadlybroke.com

We’d also be very interested to hear what you think about these trains.

If you’re in the homepage, click into the main story here, and then use the box at the bottom of the page to get in touch.

We’ll publish a selection of views here.

Our four local councils - Bristol, South Gloucs, North Somerset and Bath/NE Soms - have won �42million of funding to create a new network of Showcase bus routes.

The good news for Bradley Stoke is we are included on two of the routes.

The �42million is to be supplemented by �20million further investment from First which will buy new buses to operate on the network.

A statement from the council quartet said: “We have the green light now to press ahead in developing a trailblazing bus network over the next four years - which will transform our transport choices and make a real difference to everyone who needs to travel around the area, as well as going a long way to tackling congestion and improving air quality.�

Tony Anthistle, MD for First Bus operations in Bristol, Somerset and Avon said of the news: �This is excellent news for everyone involved, especially the residents of the areas, who will benefit hugely from the Showcase schemes and from the Joint Local Transport Plan as a whole.”

Bus corridors

The cash has come from government agency the Department of Transport.

Bradley Stoke would be included in corridor 3 of the network - linking the city centre via the southern end of the A38, and links us at the other end with Cribbs Causeway.

The town also features in corridor 7 which runs along the Avon Ring Road via the M32 and onwards to the city centre.

On Thursday, one poster to this website said: “Bristol needs more buses like it needs a hole in the head.” - we would be interested in hearing your views. Would you use a new Showcase bus route, or would nothing tempt you out of your car?

Work on the new routes should begin in summer 2007.

Article main image from Wikipedia.

Read more on this story:
BBC News report

Here we go again! Every time I read this document it makes me more and more mad!

Investigate workplace parking charges in the North Fringe and cordon charge in Bristol City Centre.

So they’re now proposing charging people to park their cars in the north fringe areas like Bradley Stoke and Patchway - which could include companies such as Orange, the RAC, Rolls-Royce and Airbus.

What’s the point? Surely the congestion problems are inbound to the city centre?

If you fancy giving the councils who organised this work a rocket, or feel like reading up, then have a look here.

I don’t disagree that something needs to be done, but surely the way to do it is to encourage people out of their cars with cheap, reliable public transport, rather than forcing them out by way of hitting motorists in the wallet.

All you will achieve by penalising motorists financially is to alienate them and make them want to drive their cars more.