A local councillor who has represented the Patchway ward on South Gloucestershire Council for many years has stepped down from the role due to ongoing health issues.

Eve Orpen, who has been undergoing cancer treatment for over two years, submitted her resignation from the council today (14th November).

Cllr Orpen said:

“I have found it difficult to fulfil my district councillor role whilst having treatment because it involves attending meetings and events across South Gloucestershire. My treatment often leaves me very tired, and I don’t feel able to continue.”

“I would like to thank my colleagues for their understanding over the past couple of years, and especially my fellow Patchway councillor Keith Walker, who has had to take on extra work while I have been out of action.”

Cllr Pat Rooney, leader of the Labour Group on South Gloucestershire Council, paid tribute to her colleague saying:

“Eve has represented Patchway on South Gloucestershire Council for 15 of the past 23 years and I thank her for her long service. She has been a committed and valued colleague, but I understand her reasons for standing down now. Recovering her health must come first, and all of her colleagues in the Labour Group wish her an ongoing and full recovery.”

The Journal understands that as Cllr Orpen’s resignation has come within six months of a planned ‘ordinary day of election’, her seat on the council will remain vacant until the next South Gloucestershire Council elections in May 2019.

Photo (l-r): Cllr Pat Rooney and Eve Orpen.

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Details of this year’s Post-16 examination results for students at Patchway Community School show that 44 percent of all grades awarded were in the A*-B band (compared to 51 percent in 2017). The overall pass rate was 98 percent.

Students’ performance in vocational subjects remains strong, with 74 percent of all grades awarded being at Distinction level or above, which the school attributes in part to bespoke learning projects carried out in partnership with organisations such as British Aerospace, Airbus, Rowan Dartington and Rolls-Royce.

A spokesperson for the school said:

“Many students now have the high grades they need to get into the university degree courses of their choice and we are confident that we can sustain and accelerate this progress in the years to come. We would like to congratulate all students on their achievements and recognise our staff for their continued hard work and commitment.”

Subject highlights singled out by the school include:

• In English literature, 75 percent of grades awarded were A*-B
• One hundred percent of students were awarded A*-B grades in textiles and three A-level students have been offered places to study fashion design at university
• Students did exceptionally well in BTEC subjects, where all applied science students were awarded Distinction* grades, as were all those who studied sports studies

More: Top achievers singled out by the school »

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Motorists queuing to get out of the Aztec West Business Park during the afternoon peak certainly have plenty of time to take in their surroundings, but how many of them realise that they are crawling past an architectural gem recently given protected status by Historic England?

An office block at 210 to 290 Park Avenue, visible on the left of the internal roundabout when driving into the park from the A38, is one of 17 bold, playful, brightly coloured postmodern buildings of the late 1970s to 1990s to have recently been ‘listed’ by the public body.

Postmodern architecture emerged in the 1970s as a critical reaction to modernism. In Britain it was closely associated with the economic boom of the 1980s. After a period out of favour, the 2011 exhibition ‘Style and Subversion’ at the V&A marked a revival of interest in postmodernism.

The units at Aztec West, designed by the architects CZWG, have forecourts that follow the turning circle of a car, celebrating the form of transport that enabled the development of out-of-town workplaces. They lend the buildings a Hollywood glamour, accentuated by elements of Art Deco design such as the over-scaled building numbers used as canopies over the main doors (now removed, but soon to be replaced).

The buildings have high, continuous parapets that hide the mono-pitch roofs into the internal courtyards. Beneath the parapets, double-height windows give a sense of scale and grandeur, and act as classical columns around the building. The two-storey buildings have banded cladding of red and buff brick. Completed in 1987-1988, the commission represents a key project by CZWG that combines bold geometries, colours and traditional materials to dynamic effect.

Piers Gough of GZWG, who worked on the design of the Aztec West building, told BBC Radio Bristol he was “completely thrilled” to hear of the listing, describing it as a “wonderful accolade” and a “fantastic retrospective appreciation”.

More: Listing entry for 210, 220, 240, 250, 260 and 290 Park Avenue »

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BBC One’s ever-popular Sunday evening programme Antiques Roadshow is coming to north Bristol on Thursday 17th May.

Fiona Bruce and the team of Antiques Roadshow experts will be waiting to welcome you, so dust off your family heirlooms and dig out those car boot bargains and bring them along for free advice and valuations to visitors.

The Roadshow will be filming at the home of Concorde – Aerospace Bristol. The new museum, located off Hayes Way in Patchway [BS34 5BZ], celebrates the city’s historic links to the birth of aviation and the development of supersonic travel.

At the centre of this new attraction is Concorde Alpha Foxtrot – the last Concorde to be made and the last Concorde to fly.

Last year, the programme celebrated four decades on the road with some truly amazing finds, as presenter Fiona Bruce explains:

“Can this year be even better than our last? We’ll have to go some way to top the most valuable Fabergé ever seen on the programme, a correction to Darwin’s theory of evolution by the great man himself and one of the best collections of show business memorabilia ever seen by our experts.”

“But I have every confidence we’ll do it and the thousands of people that come along to see us will pull some extraordinary things out of their bags/trolleys/bits of newspaper/suitcases/boats – and one year even out of a cart led by a dog. I can’t wait.”

More: Entry to the event is free; no pre-registration required »

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