Where did those three months go!?

I can't believe that it's been three months since my last blog posting. In mitigation, I was out of the country for one of those, then I was a little unwell and, most recently, I've been very busy with my 'real life' work. I don't fully understand why, but it always seems to be blogging that drops when I'm under pressure. Anyway, I try my best!

First item back, therefore, is an update on the last three blog postings that I made back in January:

1. Residents Parking. As has been pointed out by a couple of commenters on the original posting, this has gotten delayed due to all the other works going on hereabouts. I have just seen the draft revised plans this week and they will be public shortly, with a view to the second consultation occurring in May/June. There are some minor changes from the original (like the inclusion of the southern part of Hampton Park), but they are broadly as consulted upon late last year. I will keep people posted as I have more news.
2. Waste collections. There have undoubtedly been some teething problems associated with the new May Gurney contract. Thankfully, the dentists are starting to win and the service is settling down. That isn't to say that there aren't still mishaps and I am keen to hear about any that do occur. However, we're now back to the level of occasional mishaps that we used to see under SITA. The good news is that Cotham is going to be getting the new green bins (including the plastic and Tetrapak recycling) over the next two months. Different streets are being phased in during different weeks and it would be too difficult to explain it all here - if you want to know when you're due, drop me line.
3. New primary school. Plans for the new primary school (actually an offshoot of St John's Primary on Worrall Road) are continuing apace - see the school's special webpage for all the details. I remain very worried about the road safety aspects of the plans, both in terms of ensuring safe routes to the school for children from Redland and Clifton, and in term of providing a safe means of getting vehicles to and from the school. I think that Skanska's plans to date are timid and inadequate, making a number of signficant errors of understanding; I am continuing to pursue these. Meanwhile, the Council is still looking at other possible sites in the local area as the Police Station site won't meet all the local needs.
   

All three of these remain 'live issues' and are taking up a significant amount of my time - though the waste collections are now back to background levels. This is slightly limiting my ability to get involved in other things at the moment, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. The other major thing that I'm spending significant time on are the changes to Whiteladies Road - I'll do a post on that in the near future.