There is no action on M4 Junction 18a at present but once Highways England makes its decision we will report here.

The public consultation has now been open for almost two weeks. PPC reps have met several times with the Siston Residents' Group to co-ordinate activities. Councillors and volunteers have:

• delivered a second leaflet to all households in the parish which includes a window poster
• been undertaking directed ‘work packages’ on technical aspects of the options that have been offered, as well as identifying omissions and errors
• analysing datasets we have commissioned on for example biodiversity. 

PPC has also been corresponding with a wide variety of interested agencies: Historic England has this week confirmed it will be making a consultation response concerning the deficiencies of the consultation documents with regard to the historic environment and the Eastern options, and the potential harm to the two conservation areas

We have already developed strong arguments against the Eastern options that will be presented at the public meeting on 12th September.

August Updates

CONSULTATION: PUBLIC EXHIBITION DATES
Residents are urged to attend

• Tuesday 5 September, 1pm to 7.30pm at Pucklechurch Community Centre, Abson Road, Pucklechurch, BS16 9RH
  
  
• Wednesday 6 September, 6pm to 9pm, St Anne’s Church Hall, Gibbs Lane, Syston BS16 9LT
  
  
• Monday 11 September, 4pm to 6.45pm at Westerleigh Village Hall, Shorthill Road, Westerleigh, BS37 8QN
  
  
• Thursday 14 September, 1pm to 7.30pm at Emersons Green Village Hall, Emerson Way, Emersons Green, BS16 7AP
  
  
• Tuesday 19 September, 4pm to 7pm at the Shire Way Community Centre, Yate, BS37 8YS
  
  
• Wednesday 20 September, 12pm to 2pm, the Bristol and Bath Science Park, Dirac Crescent, Emersons Green
  
  
• Thursday 21 September, 4pm to 7pm, Warmley Community Centre, 20 Deanery Road, Warmley, BS15 9JB.
  
  

11th August 2017

Thanks to a hardy bunch of volunteers residents should all now have received, or will receive the newsletter PPC has published - that's 1300 copies printed and delivered by hand.

Phase 1 Report: A copy of the report produced by CH2M has been published by SGC in response to a Freedom of Information Act request made by a resident; you can read a copy here.

Volunteers: a database of information has been collated and each Councillor has been allocated responsibility for particular groups that have been categorised by area, tasks and expertise.

Banners: SGC asked for these to be removed as they were deemed to be in breach of highway advertising rules when attached to verges, railings etc. PPC has other posters to hang in indoor public spaces where people congregate - watch out for these!

Drone flight: Residents and PPC Councillors are producing a short film that shows the Eastern Options from the air and will highlight what would be lost along the way if constructed.

Siston Meeting: Our Chair and Vice Chair attended the public meeting held at Siston yesterday evening - Siston residents were disgruntled by a perceived lack of action and urgency on behalf of their Councillors. The meeting was covered by the press and you can read the report here and read the report here.
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5th August 2017

PPC had a great turn out last Tuesday with 63 volunteers signing up to help and a wide variety of skills and expertise offered to the campaign. If you want to sign up and haven't had a chance yet please download a copy of this form and return to parish.council@pucklechurch.org.

The extraordinary edition of Pucklechurch News has gone to press and will be delivered to every household in the parish by volunteers including members of the WI - if you want to read the text you can download a copy here.

Stop Press

Siston residents have called an extraordinary parish meeting to inform and encourage participation
in the consultation. The meeting will take place on 10th August at 7pm St. Anne's Church, Siston.
All welcome.

Call for volunteers issued

27th July 2017
On Tuesday 1st of August the Parish Council will be holding a "call for volunteers" session at the Community Centre between 18:00 and 19:30. You can read more by clicking here.

Meeting with SGC - Notes

25 July 2017
A working party of Pucklechurch Parish Councillors met with representatives of SGC on 19th July in order to get a clearer understanding of the consultation process, timescales etc. This document summarises the discussion and action points that were agreed. Click here to view the meeting notes 19th July.

Consultation date revealed

23 July 2017
South Gloucestershire Council has confirmed that the public consultation will start on 21st August and last for 8 weeks.
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Information and a questionnaire will be available on SGC's website and there will be public exhibitions at local venues. Details will be advertised on this webpage and elsewhere.

You can also register to receive notifications about the consultation by registering at: https://consultations.southglos.gov.uk/consult.ti/system/home

Pucklechurch Parish Council has agreed a raft of measures to ensure that all residents within the parish are provided with information and an opportunity to make their opinion known. This includes making sure that appropriate guidance and response forms are available in paper format as required and that residents will have access to accurate and up to date plans and associated documentation.

PPC understands that residents have become aware of a number of speculative development proposals that have arisen from several calls for sites as part of the local plan-making process. The Joint Spatial Plan is still being formulated and more consultation is due over the summer.

Pucklechurch has not been identified for strategic housing growth as it was not considered compatible with the spatial strategy.

NONE of these sites has been approved: they have been offered by private developers whose concept documents will always present a convincing case in their own favour whilst playing down the constraints.

There is also much speculation about how building a road through the parish may lead to future housing development as but there is no evidence to support this as a driver for building the road.

Our position is as follows:

 

18th July 2017 - Update

As many of you will no doubt have seen in the news well over 100 residents supported the protest meeting - thank you to everyone that came. The crowd was addressed by both MPs who pledged to oppose the option that would cut through our parish. Chris Skidmore went so far as to say that he would remove support for Junction 18a if the Pucklechurch option remained on the table. A copy of Mr Skidmore's letter of objection to Steve Evans, Director of Environment and Communities, at SGC can be seen here.

BBC Radio Bristol reported the story as headline news throughout its breakfast show and BBC Points West led with it in the evening as did MadeinBristol TV. The event was broadcast live on Facebook by the Bristol Post. See more coverage in the press below:

Bristol Post Report
Yate  & Sodbury Gazette

South Gloucestershire Council statement
SGC issued a statement via its website that incorporated a new version of the plan - download a copy here.
Read a copy of the SGC statement here.

Public Protest Meeting Friday 14th July

Millennium Stone (near Becket Court) - 2.00 pm

There will be a public protest meeting with Chris Skidmore MP and Luke Hall MP in attendance against the Eastern option for the M4 J18a. It is important that all available parishioners attend. I expect press and television so we must make our objections visibly clear!
See you all Friday.
BoB Symons
Pucklechurch Parish Council

5th July 2017
Two options are being tabled for the creation of a new motorway junction on the M4 (18a). Pucklechurch Parish Council was only made aware that one of these options would directly impact the parish approximately 3 weeks ago at a stakeholder briefing. This was the first time an option to construct a brand new link road through the parish to link up with a new motorway junction at the Westerleigh Road was tabled.

Download the Draft Plans here

Watch and listen to the PPC statement and question and answer session here (Bristol Post report)

BoB Symons (Chair) can be contacted on 0117 9374105

PPC discussed this at its full council meeting on 21st June 2017 and this was minuted as follows:

9c M4 Junction 18a briefing
Following the attendance of BS at the recently held above briefing, members were provided with an update. BS explained (with the use of maps) the 2 preferred options for the siting of the junction were identified as Lyde Green and Pucklechurch. BS told members that the public consultation was scheduled for August/September and that he felt the proposals and details of the consultation should be shared with residents to which all members agreed. As the consultation details provided at the briefing were not specific members agreed that more information was required prior to communicating with residents. ACTION. Clerk to invite a Senior Officer from the project to attend the next council meeting in order for members to be fully appraised on the options identified and for specific details about the public consultation in terms of when, format and form to be delivered to be obtained prior to organising and promoting a public.

Information about the proposals were shared with the Neighbourhood Plan group on 3rd July and the response PPC received with regard to its request for SGC officer attendance included as an agenda item for discussion at its full council meeting this evening. As many of you will already know a large number of residents attended this meeting and a question and answer session took place followed by the formal meeting. Draft minutes of the meeting are on our website here - residents should be aware that PPC unanimously resolved to oppose the option for the construction of a new link road through the parish and for junction 18A to be sited at Westerleigh Rd.

PPC has formulated a draft communication strategy to both inform and to enable residents to engage with the consultation process and will be pursuing a meeting with SGC in order to ensure that the timetable and mechanisms by which this takes place is appropriate, adequate and inclusive. More information on the proposals and the consultation will be published here as as soon as possible. In the first instance residents are encouraged to share the information about the proposals with their friends and neighbours.

NB A public meeting has already been scheduled at Pucklechurch Community Centre for the evening of 12th September 2017 - PPC will be inviting both Luke Hall MP and Chris Skidmore MP to attend.

Some residents asked for Luke Hall's contact details which can be found at https://www.lukehall.org.uk/contact