A proposed train depot on the Great Western mainline near Bristol Parkway station has been given planning approval by South Gloucestershire councillors.

Agility Trains wants to build the depot on land at Stoke Gifford, but more than 700 residents signed a petition against the plans and 60 written objections were lodged with the council.

Groups such as the Green Party in Bristol though called for the plans to be approved. They said that, without the depot, the chances of local rail services being improved would be substantially reduced.

Agility Trains said it hoped it would take between 18 and 24 months to build the depot on land, called the Stoke Gifford triangle.

The company said repair work would be done in a sound-proofed building, external lighting would be kept to a minimum – thanks to regulations for safe driving of trains at night – and any noise would be less than the nearby motorway, ring road and Filton Airfield.

It added that  the existing Hitachi depot in Ashford has had no complaints about noise or light pollution, either before or after construction.

South Gloucestershire councillors decided at a planning committee in Thornbury to give planning consent, with 11 votes in favour and one abstention, after a debate which lasted nearly two hours.

They imposed a raft of conditions in order to protect nearby residents from the impact of the new depot.

But afterwards Lesley Cox, one of the residents, told the Evening Post: “I am appalled because the evidence on which the debate was based was flawed.

Another resident, Heather Moseley, said: “We’re disappointed but not surprised. The general feeling was that it was a done deal.

“We feel the residents’ misgivings were dismissed and we were sacrificed in order to knock 15 minutes off the travel time between Bristol and London.”

Bristol City Council House

Bristol Business News

Efforts to ease Bristol’s notorious transport problems are among the priority areas in Bristol City Council’s £50million spending strategy announced yesterday.

The council is boosting its spending by £50m on extra school places and elderly care as well as transport improvements.

The plans, under the council’s ‘Investing in Bristol’s Future’ strategy, include an additional £10m for the three previously-announced Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) major projects as part of Bristol’s contribution (on top of £5m already pledged). The BRT project are the Ashton Vale to Temple Meads link, North Fringe to Hengrove link and the South Bristol link.

This additional funding will reduce the amount the council had planned to raise through a business rate supplement or workplace parking levy to meet Bristol’s overall £42m contribution.

Council leader Barbara Janke said: “Bristol is recognised as one of the most economically strong and resilient cities in the country. We’ve been successful over the last year in attracting government and European funding but we cannot rely on external funding alone.

“For our city to continue to thrive we have a responsibility to invest in essential infrastructure in order to meet the challenges of being a successful city with a rising population. In doing so we will help stimulate the city’s economy by helping to drive growth and create jobs.”

Other spending priorities include:

• An extra £20m for more school places in the city
• £6m for other urgent neighbourhood transport projects
• £5.5m for extra care housing for the elderly. This will be available to create partnership opportunities with private providers to stimulate more extra care housing schemes. This enables the elderly to live independently for as long as possible with care available if needed. It builds on the council’s successful programme of 600 extra care flats – the latest scheme will open in April
• £500,000 of additional funding for aids and adaptations to help the elderly live independently
• £6m for a new swimming pool at Bristol Brunel Academy in Speedwell
• £2m for a recycling centre in Hartcliffe Way

Cllr Janke added: “There are pressing needs and we must make the necessary provision now. This is why we are proposing the Investing in Bristol’s Future package of £50m to focus primarily on funding for essential school places, much needed transport infrastructure and future extra care housing for our ageing population to ensure they can live independently.”

She said the council would raise the extra capital by borrowing sensibly at historically low interest, and fund the repayments through savings in its revenue budget – £1.5m this year.

“The way the council works is changing. It is becoming much more responsive and efficient – and this is allowing us to make the modest additional savings needed to support a major capital investment programme in our city at a time when the local economy most needs it,” she said.

The plan would mean the authority’s debt would grow significantly, at a time when the coalition government is trying to reduce the amount the country owes.

If approved by the full council next month, the £50 million would be borrowed from the government’s public loans board.

With a fixed interest rate of 4%, the council would actually have to pay back £80 million over 25 years.

Tory group leader Peter Abraham said: “I’m very concerned. Worthy as some of it may be, to enter into serious borrowing schemes at this time is not sensible or proper. Some of them are nice to have but not essential.”

Meanwhile, the Labour group leader Peter Hammond gave a guarded welcome, but challenged the lack of imagination in the range of schemes suggested.

“Whilst any investment contributing to solving Bristol’s continuing shortfall in primary school places is welcome, an additional £20million will only go a small part of the way in resolving this problem, particularly if the council continues to spend scarce resources on renting or leasing Portakabins instead of providing permanent classrooms,” he said.

“Bristol’s transport infrastructure needs investment and the contribution to the ‘affordability gap’ in the recently approved Bus Rapid Transit schemes is welcomed but the council needs to announce what mechanism will be put in place to meet the business contribution to the remaining shortfall – what ‘tax on business’ does the Council’s Liberal Democrat leadership propose to make up that shortfall?”

The proposals will be discussed by the council’s Resources Scrutiny Commission on Wednesday, then Cabinet on January 26. The final proposals will then go to the full council budget meeting on February 28.

Edward Heal

A former policeman has slammed a council’s decision to switch off street lights to save money, following the death of a teenage soldier on Christmas Day.

Edward Heal, 19, was walking home from a pub at 1.15am on December 25 with his stepbrother Sam, 24, when he was hit by a car in Clevedon. He was pronounced dead at the scene after a Mazda hit him on the unlit Kenn Road.

Street lights along the road had recently been turned off between midnight and 5am as part of a cost-cutting measure by North Somerset Council.

The authority is to turn off 18,600 street lights across the district by 2014 in a bid to save an estimated £115,000 a year.

But a retired policeman, who worked in surveillance operations as well as on a road traffic unit, has written to the council and criticised the decision, claiming that the outcome could have been “very different” if the lights had been kept on.

“Driving home one night I was staggered by how dark it is without street lights. I strongly believe that had the street lights been on, the outcome of this accident could have been very different,” he said.

“My years of experience in the police force has proved that street lights reduce crime, accidents and people’s fear of crime.

“Street lights were introduced primarily for the safety of all, maybe this tragedy will make the council realise that there is a human cost to be paid for the sake of a few pounds of council tax.

“I have written to the council and they told me the lights are only switched off in areas where there are no road safety issues.

“Well now, following the accident, we have a serious road safety issue in Kenn Road which needs to be looked at.

“The lack of street lighting in a built-up area must of course be a significant contributory factor in this tragic incident.”

Mr Heal, a trooper in the King’s Royal Hussars, had been training for a tour of duty in Afghanistan and was on leave spending Christmas with his family on the night he was walking home.

His friends have set up a Facebook campaign – Edward’s campaign to get the street lights switched back on – to press authority leaders to look again at the decision to plunge Kenn Road into darkness during the early hours.

And on New Year’s Eve hundreds of people lined the street where he died for a candlelit vigil and a protest at the street lights being turned off.

The vigil was organised by Edward’s friend, mum of three, Nicky Lee, 40.

Ms Lee said: “This vigil was not only a tribute to Edward but to register our protest at the street lights being switched off.

“He is not here to fight for them to go back on, so we are fighting for him. His death was a tragic loss of a young life.”

North Somerset Council said every decision to switch off street lights had been “considered carefully”.

Council spokesman Nick Yates said: “Any decision to switch off street lights is carefully considered and investigated before it is implemented and various organisations including the emergency services are consulted.”

Employers must help staff get to work after it emerged low-paid staff in Bristol spend 14% of their salary on commuting by rail, according to a new study.

Operative level staff, defined as those earning about £15,000, spend £2,083 on average on annual season tickets, the report by the Hay Group says.

The average fare rise of 5.9% was announced in December – just below the Chancellor’s cap of 6% – putting the average annual season ticket at £2,028, or 8% of the median UK salary of £25,176.

For those on lower pay though, the fare rises mean the proportion of salary going on transport rising to 14% in Bristol. Cardiff has the lowest proportion for low-paid workers, at just 8%, while those in London spend up to 17% of their salary on commuting.

The Hay Group says employers need to consider ways to help employees beat the pinch – encouraging flexible working and considering “creative benefits”.

Yet only 42% across the UK currently offer their employees interest free season ticket loans. Only two thirds of these (64%) offer them to all UK staff, with most of the remainder (27%) doing so for London-based workers only.

Stuart McMillan from the Hay Group said: “As train fares continue to rise above inflation, and salary increases remain subdued, commuting costs are set to take up more of UK employees’ pay packets.

“Employers need to be aware of this when considering reward packages, and consider benefits such as interest free season ticket loans and greater flexibility to work from home.

“As fares rise, employers may need to consider integrating commuter benefits into total reward packages, to engage and enable staff to help them offset the additional squeeze on employees’ disposable incomes.”

Protests against the fare rises have been taking place today in London over the New Year rises in rail fares.

The fares changed yesterday, but today is the first working day on which many commuters will be faced with a higher bill, particularly if they renew their annual season ticket in early January.

The Prime Minister was personally blamed for the higher fares when he was depicted on placards as The Fat Controller from the Thomas the Tank engine series at a protest at St Pancras station.

First Great Western has said it will increase train fares by an average of 5.8% from January. The company has promised that none of its fares will rise above the 6% formula set by the government.

The Association of Train Operating Companies said money raised would help improve services and stations. Nationally rail fares will go up by an average of 5.9% but some prices will increase by double figures.

First Great Western, which runs most of the services in Bristol, has said that it has done its best to keep increases to a minimum.

And on one of its busiest routes – the service between Severn Beach and Temple Meads – fares have been frozen, although they could still rise if local authority subsidies are cut.

First Great Western managing director Mark Hopwood told the Evening Post: “We recognise the challenges the current economic climate brings, and we’ve working hard to limit the impact of fares changes on customers.

“Many fares across our network won’t rise at all, and those that do – whether regulated or unregulated – will not rise above the formula set by government.

“With the average cost of running a car soaring by 12% in the past year, we hope our decision will encourage even more people to recognise the value that train travel offers.”

While Chris Irwin, from passenger group Travelwatch South West, said it was “good news” the company had tried to “throttle back” the fare increases, others were less impressed.

Campaign for Better Transport’s Sophie Allain said: “Another new year approaches and yet another round of eye-watering train fare hikes loom.

How the Bristol Bus Rapid Transit buses would look

The Bristol councillor in charge of the city’s transport brief has said the city “will finally get the public transport system that a major league player deserves”.

Councillor Tim Kent’s statement came after the government agreed to fund the remaining parts of Bristol’s bus rapid transport system (BRT) plans.

Ministers have said they will fund the third and final route – the £102-million Hengrove to north fringe – along with £15 million of transport improvements in Weston- super-Mare and a £34-million transport package for Bath.

Bristol’s other two routes – the £50-million Ashton Vale to Temple Meads route and the £45-million South Bristol Link – were approved by the Department for Transport last month.

It means the West of England Partnership – the body that represents the four Greater Bristol authorities – has been successful in all five of its major transport scheme funding bids, worth a total of £136 million.

“This is fantastic news. To win full funding and endorsement for all our schemes in this financial climate is very significant,” said Cllr Kent.

“It shows the government shares our belief in the rapid transit network and its power to unlock new areas for economic growth, linking jobs and people by creating fast comfortable routes through the city to the North and South.

“Bristol is the most competitive and economically sound city in England outside the capital, in spite of under-investment in public transport in the past. Now our great city will finally get the public transport system that a major league player deserves.”

The BRT aims to have “clear information, fast boarding and `smartcard’ ticketing linking with wider bus and rail services”.

The West of England Partnership, which has put the five bids together, wants BRT to “create a new way of travelling around Greater Bristol and we want this higher quality of public transport to be a catalyst for transforming other public transport options across the wider West of England area”.

Cllr Brian Allinson, Chair of the Joint Transport Executive Committee said: “We are delighted that the bids have been successful. This is exceptionally good news for the West of England economy and for transport as a whole across the region.

“The packages of transport improvements in Bath and Weston-super-Mare, the North Fringe to Hengrove rapid transit scheme, along with the recent announcements about the schemes in Ashton Vale and the South Bristol link, coupled with the electrification of the Great Western Main Line rail line clearly demonstrate the benefits which can be achieved when the four West of England councils work together in partnership.”

Even though the BTR routes have received funding there are still questions to be answered. They include what kind of vehicles will run on the routes, who will operate them and how will the multi-million-pound funding gap be paid for.

If everything goes smoothly, the Ashton Vale route will be up and running by July 2015, the South Bristol Link by May 2016 and the north fringe by December the same year.

An out-of-service passenger train has derailed in Wiltshire, causing delays to rail services between Bristol and London.

A Network Rail spokeswoman said the train’s wheels came off the tracks at about 2am at Westbury while it was travelling at about 5mph. Nobody was on the train except for the driver, who was uninjured.

Services between Salisbury and Bristol, and Bristol and London have been affected.

First Great Western has said delays of up to an hour are expected and could last until at least 4pm today.

Train services are now able to operate through the Westbury area, however most services will not be able to stop at Westbury until further notice.

First Great Western is accepting South West Trains tickets between Salisbury and Bristol Temple Meads via Reading in both directions. South West Trains is accepting First Great Western tickets between Exeter St Davids and Salisbury in both directions.

For more information, visit the First Great Western Live Updates website at http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/LiveUpdateList.aspx

Chancellor George Osborne delivers his Autumn Statement

Two major transport schemes for Bristol announced yesterday by Chancellor George Osborne will promote Bristol into the ‘big league’ of cities.

The £50m Ashton Vale to Temple Meads link and the £45m South Bristol link road form part of a three-year £5bn package of 500-plus infrastructure schemes unveiled by the Chancellor.

Bristol City Council is confident a third scheme, linking the North Fringe with Hengrove, will be approved later this year along with other schemes in Weston-super-Mare and Bath.

Cllr Tim Kent, the city council’s executive member for transport, said the schemes would promote Bristol to the ‘big league’ of cities.

The Ashton Vale to Temple Meads Line will be funded by £35m from the Department for Transport and £15m from Bristol City Council and a third party. Construction work could start in June 2013 and finish by July 2015.

The South Bristol Link will be funded with £28 million from the Department of Transport, with £17m from Bristol City Council and a third party.

Construction is likely to start in May 2014 and finish in May 2016

Cllr Kent said: “We know the government recognises Bristol and the West of England as a key economic driver for the UK. They know it needs a high quality public transport network to unlock its full potential. They have demonstrated their belief in this area with today’s announcement.

“Bristol is about to enter the big leagues with the kind of public transport network that attracts new players and unlocks new areas for improvement and growth, which is powerful news for local business and local people. It also demonstrates the strength of our cross council working.

“Having won clear support for two of the schemes in the Bristol Rapid Transit package, we are confident that the North Fringe to Hengrove route will also prove a winner once the details have been finalised. It was a late entry into the shortlist, and we are relaxed about the need for further work prior to an announcement. It is a key element of the network.

“Over 200 businesses pledged their public support for our submissions. Their support, and that of everyone who understands the importance of this news, continues to be invaluable.”

Robert Sinclair, Transport Lead for the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership said the announcement was “fantastic news”.

“These two transport schemes play a key role in opening up South Bristol, linking places where people live with places where people work, encouraging more investment and the creation of new jobs,” he said.

“We have always said that the West of England can lead the country out of recession and with the lions share of the transport funding announced by the Chancellor coming to Bristol, it seems he thinks so too.”

Labour councillors broadly welcomed the announcement, but said questions remain over a potential £40m funding gap between the level of government money and the real cost of the schemes.

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, however, described Mr Osborne’s statement as “all pain and no gain”. The Chancellor revealed the 2011 forecast economic growth had been revised down to 0.9% from 1.7%, while the
2012 forecast was revised down to 0.7% from 2.5%.

Meanwhile, borrowing was expected to climb to make up for the shortfall in growth, forecast to be £127bn in 2011-2, falling to £120bn, £100bn, £79bn and £53bn in following years. The Government is now set to borrow £158 billion more than it had planned a year ago.

And public sector staff, already facing cuts to pensions – the reason why millions across the UK are on strike today – face a 1% cap on public sector pay rises for two years after the end of current freeze next year. The state pension age will also rise to 67 to be brought forward to 2026, saving an estimated £59bn.

Bristol East MP Kerry McCarthy said the statement meant the government’s economic plan had failed.

“Families, pensioners and businesses are now suffering and the Government has been forced to borrow money to pay for higher unemployment, when it should have invested the money in creating jobs and strengthening the recovery when it had the chance,” she said.

“Today, we have seen that this ideologically dogmatic Chancellor has become increasingly desperate and out of touch.

“The Government will not be able to reduce the deficit has it had planned. While I welcome the investment in BRT and the south Bristol link, the Government’s half hearted infrastructure plan will do little to address the fundamental problems in our economy.

“Instead of ploughing on with a plan that is hurting but not working, the Government needs a serious growth package that will create long term and sustainable growth that will create jobs.”

Additional reporting by Bristol Business News

Bristol Temple Meads

Bristol Temple Meads railway station could be in line for two new platforms to cope with extra demand.

The BBC has reported this morning that Network Rail says the demand for trains in the city will increase by 44% by the end of the decade.

The rail infrastructure organisation believes the electrification of the London Paddington line will prompt a demand for local rail services.

It also wants to add extra tracks between Temple Meads and Filton Abbey Wood to increase the number of services to Bristol Parkway station.

In July, Network Rail Chief Executive David Higgins said a £5bn investment in electrification and resignalling and the procurement of new trains would make the route “the most advanced inter-city railway in Britain”, providing capacity to cater for a predicted 51% increase in passengers over the next 30 years.

Mr Higgins said at the time that a revamp of Bristol Temple Meads station was also planned. The company now plans to bid for government money via the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership, to redevelop the land and buildings around Bristol Temple Meads as part of an integrated travel hub for the city.

No details have been provided though, meaning a proposed Birmingham Bull-Ring-style shopping complex at the site could still be on the cards.

Bristol24-7 reported in July that an area known as Plot 6 at the station – currently used as a car park – could be converted into luxury shops and restaurants.

It also emerged at the time that the flagship Ashton Vale to Temple Meads bendy bus route will not actually stop at the station, because there isn’t enough money to pay for a stop there.

That means people arriving into Bristol by train won’t just be able to just jump on the bendy bus or vice versa.

Instead the stop for the Temple Meads area is actually outside the KPMG building in Temple Street, the other side of the Temple Circus roundabout.

Metal thieves wreak havoc on train services

Train passengers and companies are paying a heavy price for the havoc being wrought on railway lines by metal thieves, the Bristol Evening Post reported this morning.

First Great Western, which runs most services in Bristol and the surrounding area, says the number of cable thefts has almost doubled in two years, with 30 times as many services cancelled so far this year than in the whole of 2009.

The soaring level of disruption was revealed in evidence from First to a committee of MPs.

The company said that so far this year 117 incidents of theft had led to 381 trains being cancelled and 26,871 minutes of delays.

In 2009, there were just 61 incidents, leading to 13 cancellations and 4,416 minutes of delays.

Tributes left at the scene of the M5 crash (Picture: SWNS)

Funerals of the seven people killed in the M5 fireball can now be held after their bodies were formally released to their families by a coroner at an inquest yesterday.

West Somerset Coroner Michael Rose described last Friday night’s 34-vehicle pile-up on the northbound carriageway by Junction 25 of the M5 as an ”horrific incident”.

Opening an inquest into their deaths in Taunton yesterday the names and causes of death for some of the seven were given.

Michael Edwin Barton, 67, from Windsor, died from chest injuries. He was a back seat passenger in a car driven by his daughter Emma’s fiance. Michael’s other daughter Valerie Margaret Rose Barton, 30, who had been sitting beside her father, died from neck, chest and abdominal injuries.

Malcolm Stanley Beacham, 46, died from a head injury. He had been to the Holiday Inn, Taunton, with his wife and daughter who left in a different car.

Anthony Adams, 73, and his wife, Pamela Dorothy Adams, 70, both of Newport, had been in Taunton visiting their daughter. The cause of their deaths was given as unascertained at this moment.

Cause of death was also unascertained in the case of Terence Peter Brice, 55, of Patchway, Bristol, a passenger in a Ginsters articulated lorry, and Kye Thomas, 38, of Gunnislake, Cornwall, the driver of another lorry.

Mr Rose expressed his sorrow for the families of those who died – but also praised the ”bravery” of the emergency services and public.

He said: ”I would like to express my sympathy to all the relatives of the deceased whose inquests I have opened today.

”Each one of these deaths is a tragedy. People bound on a normal evening’s journey suddenly thrust into the middle of an horrific incident.

”I hope it is of some comfort to them that there sorrow is shared by so many who live in this county.

”I must also praise the work of the emergency services, Avon and Somerset Constabulary, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service and South Western ambulance service, as well as some members of the public – all of whom responded with incredible speed and in many cases considerable bravery.

”I must also mention the staff at Musgrove Park and Yeovil District hospitals, who came in to attend to the many injured as well as my own staff who have allowed me to open these inquests so quickly?”

Mr Rose said he would be releasing all the bodies to the families. This paves the way for funerals of the seven to now be held.

He said: ”In this case I have personally reviewed all the evidence and the reports of three very experienced pathologists who conducted the post mortems and also the circumstances in which the deceased met their deaths.

”I am more than satisfied that the cause of each death has been explored, is correct, and that with-holding the release of any bodies would cause enormous distress to the families.

”This decision is mine alone but one made in the light of very considerable experience as a coroner.”

Coroner Rose said he hoped to resume the inquests within six months.

Speaking after the short hearing, Detective Superintendent Mike Courtiour, who is leading the investigation for Avon and Somerset Police, said the public had now given officers more than 200 leads.

He said: ”Let me start once again expressing our sincere condolences to all those who have been affected by the terrible tragedy we witnessed on the M5 motorway last Friday evening.

”Since this heartbreaking event occurred we have been working non stop to establish what happened and those investigations are still very much ongoing.

”I am leading a team of more than 30 officers and staff, bringing together a vast range of expertise and skills, from roads policing, collision investigation, local CID officers and major crime investigation.

”Other experts have also been asked to assist us and we are liaising closely with other agencies and our partners in the emergency services. ’We also have a team of trained family liaison officers providing direct support to those families most affected.

”We have received a huge number of calls and messages from members of the public and I am very grateful for this. ’This has raised nearly 200 actions, for us to follow up.

”We are working hard to speak with everyone as quickly as possible, however we need to do so sensitively because some have been injured and understandably are deeply distressed and upset by what they saw. ’Therefore you will understand that this is likely to take some time.

”My job is to continue to conduct a professional, thorough and detailed investigation, in the hope we can provide answers to the grieving families who have lost loved ones.”