Thornbury Town and District Residents Association
South Gloucestershire Council’s Business Case – Closure of Thornbury High Street
We are holding two Briefing Meetings, hopefully you will be able to attend one or the other
Thursday 24th February 2022 in the Avon Hall at Turnberries starting at 7.00pm
&
Monday 28th February 2022 in the Avon Hall at Turnberries starting at 7.00pm
These are to update members and contacts of TTaDRA to the current situation regarding South Gloucestershire Council’s (SGC) application for Funding from West of England Combined Authority (WECA)
We will then hold a Public Meeting on Wednesday 16th March 2022 at the Conference Hall in the Leisure Centre starting at 7.30pm
This Meeting will be open to the General Public
Please tell your friends and neighbours and get them to come along. The Conference Hall has seating for 300
This will send a message to Toby Savage, Luke Hall and Jayne Stansfield that the Community is still very firmly against South Gloucestershire Council’s actions and proposals
The Outline Business Case was agreed by WECA Joint Committee on 28th January 2022 and the Chief Executive of WECA was authorised to sign off the Full Business Case (FBC) once it was submitted. We believe SGC intend to submit the FBC in March
Aware of the Metro Mayor’s (Dan Norris) concern that Full, Fair and respectful consultation has not been carried out ever since the High Street was closed at the start of the pandemic, in the Spring of 2020, SGC changed tack before the meeting on 28th January
The Leader of South Gloucester Council (Toby Savage) took a late (and we believe devious) decision to change the source of funding through the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) The LEP is still part of WECA but by so doing it ensured that Dan Norris did not have a vote
Four of us spoke at the meeting and 64 Public Statements were submitted to WECA before the meeting
Despite this it was carried 4 – 0 without any discussion by the Leaders of the 4 councils
Thank you for your support in submitting Statements and Questions which we understand was exceptional for a meeting of this type
We chatted with Dan Norris after the meeting and once again in a Zoom meeting last week and his advice has been informative and useful
It appears that South Gloucestershire Council will submit a Full Business Case early in March and we anticipate there may be a little as 2 weeks for us to comment
We do not believe the Outline Business Case is at all unbiased or fair and have spent the past few days going through it with a fine toothcomb in order to make further representations to the Chief Executive of WECA
We are hopeful that the officers of WECA, being professional people, will be rather more jealous of their reputation than our local elected representatives!
Probable Agenda
- At this Briefing Meeting we will endeavour to give you are latest thoughts on the Outline Business Case
- Points raised by members of TTaDRA
- Agree what everyone can do, even at this late stage, lobbying our MP, WECA, South Gloucestershire Leader, Cabinet and Councillor’s, maybe delivering fliers or writing to the press. It would appear that Thornbury Town Council are still sitting on their hands without any empathy for the Residents or Businesses of Thornbury and the surrounding villages
- Other actions would be writing to the press and delivering fliers for a Public Meeting in March
- Raising funds for hire of the Conference Hall in the Leisure Centre for a Public Meeting
The Avon Hall at Turnberries is able to seat 120 to 140 people so should be of sufficient size for the Briefing Meetings
For the Public Meeting in the Conference Hall at the Leisure Centre we have invited Dan Norris, Luke Hall, Toby Savage and Jayne Stansfield to come along and speak if they would like to. We will also invite the press. We do not yet know who is able or will want to attend
We are hopeful of a good attendance
It is intended that we video the meetings but the camera would be located at the rear of the hall so the identity of those attending would be respected
Thank you for your support
Rob Galpin
Secretary TTaDRA
Email secretaryTTaDRA@gmail.com
Website www.thornburyresidents.org