W
Airport Flyer
Bus users of the Airport Flyer will know that the Flyer stopped taking the Diamond Concessionary card for pensioners in July.
But now local residents (including Wrington, Redhill and Butcombe) CAN use the diamond card for FREE travel if they also
show the card for the Airport’s own halfprice scheme for local residents – see online at <http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/about-
us/community> or contact me for an application form.
West of England and the Metro Mayor
You probably heard recently that the other 3 West of England authorities voted in favour of the Government’s proposed
devolution scheme with a Metro Mayor. These councils (B&NES, Bristol and South Glos) ran a public consultation on this up to
15th August. I gather that B&NES Council has to vote on the consultation results in October, since B&NES has returned to a
Committee system instead of having Executive members. If the 3 Councils are all still in favour after the consultation then the
Government will probably agree to devolve the powers on Housing, Transport and Further Education etc with extra funding and
the election of a Metro Mayor next May. North Somerset will not be included since we voted against the package in May this
year.
Community Access Review
NSC is carrying out consultations on its Community Access Review. This is a review of the services dealing with the public ie
Libraries, Children’s Centres, Community Halls, Leisure Centres and Gateways.
The main focus of the review is now Libraries and Children’s Centres. Wrington residents use the mobile library, the library in
Yatton, Congresbury Childrens Centre (Yeo Valley), with some also using the library in Weston Town Hall.
The Childrens Centre options being considered for Congresbury and Yatton are to amalgamate the Congresbury and Yatton
CCs which currently operate from their respective schools, or move the Yatton CC to Yatton library. On libraries the options are
to transfer Congresbury library to Congresbury’s Parish Council, close the Congresbury library, change it to self-service or move
it to the Children’s Centre. For Winscombe library the options are service re-modelling eg selfservice and/or using volunteers or
transfer to a community service. There are no changes proposed for the mobile library at the moment, but if any libraries do
close then there will probably be a demand for more mobile library stops. No changes are proposed for the library in Weston
Town Hall. Any changes would take place next financial year 2017/8.
To take part in the online consultation on the options, go online to <http://consult.n-somerset.gov.uk/consult.ti/> There are also
public consultation meetings in Congresbury on Monday 5th Sept at Congresbury Methodist Hall, High St at 2pm or 7pm, and in
Yatton on Tuesday 20th Sept at Hangstones Pavilion, Stowey Rd at 2pm and 7pm.
For more information see online the report for Item 9 of NSC’s Executive meeting on 21st June
<http://apps.nsomerset.gov.uk/cairo/committees/comidx10-2016.asp>
Deborah Yamanaka
tel 01934 862109
email <d.yamanaka@btinternet.com>