Local residents have until Sunday (30th October) to comment on South Gloucestershire Council’s plans to close a section of Highwood Road to general traffic.

The proposals represent the detailed implementation of a condition in the planning consent for the new Charlton Hayes development that required Highwood Road be converted into a single carriageway between the Standing Stone Roundabout (near The Mall) and ‘The Boulevard’ (entrance to Charlton Hayes near the HMC Garage).

A ‘reserved matters’ planning application for the scheme, approved in February 2011, established the following features of the scheme:

• Creation of parkland on the southern carriageway of Highwood Road, with landscaped areas (including tree planting), grass, paved areas, benches and informal vehicular access to the properties in Charlton Hayes (from the ‘side streets’), as well as pedestrian routes and a cycleway.
• Conversion of the northern carriageway of Highwood Road into a dedicated bus lane with ‘fast’ commuter cycleways in both directions.

Full details of the proposed scheme are available on the ‘Patchway – Highwood Road‘ page of the SGC website. The plans may also be inspected in the foyer of the Patchway Town Council Offices.

See also the Patchway Journal’s interactive map of the Highwood Road – Proposed Traffic Management Changes and SGC’s design principles plan.

More: Aim of scheme is to “integrate communities”

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Police are appealing for witnesses and information after an arson in Patchway.

The incident occurred on Tuesday 25th October 2011 at Durban House, Durban Road, just before midnight.

A communal shed was set on fire, causing the shed to be completely burnt out, and causing heat damage to a vehicle parked nearby and a block of flats.

Anyone in the area at the time is asked to contact police on 0845 456 7000 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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Children at St Chad’s Primary School in Stoke Lodge, Patchway, have created a new piece of sculpture that will be installed in the school’s garden.

Recycled materials such as rolling pins and milk bottle tops have been used to create the artwork.

Artist Peter Margerum worked with the whole school during the week and helped the youngsters transform the materials into a huge sculpture.

The project was organised by school art coordinator Rachel Sayce, who told the Bristol Evening Post:

“There are trees made from all different pieces of wood, such as rolling pins and blocks, and then the children are also making insects, fruits and flowers from different coloured milk bottle tops, coloured paper and other things they have brought in. The idea is that it will go outside and the children will always be able to see it.”

Read more: Recycling at root of pupils’ inspiration for tree art

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Patchway’s Stoke Lodge Primary School has been rated “good” by Ofsted inspectors who visited the school at the end of September.

The team of four inspectors observed a total of 18 lessons at the 368-pupil school, located in School Close, off Bourton Avenue.

Lead inspector Christine Huard writes in her report:

“Stoke Lodge is a good school. It has some outstanding features particularly in the high quality of care it affords its pupils and in some aspects of their personal development. It provides its pupils with an interesting and inspiring curriculum which means that pupils are well motivated and as a result they have made good progress with their learning.”

Remarking on the improvement shown since previous inspections in 2005 and 2009, which had rated the school “satisfactory”, the report adds:

“The school has moved forward greatly since the last inspection. Attainment has steadily risen year on year from significantly below average to above average in 2011.”

Areas where the inspector believes further improvement can be made include providing more challenging work for higher attaining pupils in mathematics, ensuring that teachers’ action plans contain success criteria that are specific and easily measurable and giving pupils a better understanding of the diversity of faiths and cultures in the United Kingdom.

More: Report welcomed by school leadership »

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