Thank You for Your Vote.

To everyone that voted for me on the 5th of May.

Thank you for your confidence in me.
I will do my best for the Wards of Priestwood and Garth.

New Priestwood Community Association Meeting

Priestwood and Garth residents are invited to the meeting of the New Priestwood Community Association at 7.30pm at Priestwood Community Centre in Priestwood Court Road.


On the Agenda :
Welcome.
Reports – Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer (Presenting the accounts) Manager.
Election of Officers and Executive for 2010/11.
Refreshments and Raffle.
Spokesmen on Heatherwood Hospital – Frank Minal GMB and Russell Bryant

The primary purpose of the AGM is the approval of the financial statement and elections.
Volunteers are needed to help. People who can make Priestwood and Garth and even better place for all to be.

Useful links:
http://www.bracknellnews.co.uk/news/bracknell/articles/2010/04/27/46140-hospital-on-the-agenda-at-residents-meeting/
http://www.makesachange.org.uk/cms/site/docs/Bracknell%20Forest%20LINk%20Steering%20Group.%20who%20we%20are.pdf
http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/news/s/2019010_mp_backs_petition_to_protect_heatherwood
http://www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/other_news/2010/february/heatherwood__wexham_nhs_trust.aspx
http://www.bracknellnews.co.uk/news/roundup/articles/2010/02/08/44701-casualties-of-costcutting-at-hospital/  
http://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/yournh/yournh-tvp-pol-area/pub-pg-nh-upds-N346?id=119836

http://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/priestwood-and-garth.pdf

Garth Hill College, Sandy Lane School, Parking and the old NAGs

I see that the replanting of green screening around Garth Hill College has been taking place. It was a great shame that the mature vegetation had to be cut back to provide for a safe route to the new entrance. The new college though, will be a great asset to the area.

At the Priestwood and Garth Neighbourhood Action Group Meetings (NAGs) we have discussed the dangers of parked cars all along Folders lane up to Bull lane.  Some parents seem to leave the safety of tier children up to others. I have had a car stop in front of me and a child leap out in the “wrong side”. Very nerve wracking.  It also very dangerous when parents park on the bend.

Hopefully the council can come up with a scheme to help make the area safer during the school and college opening and closing hours, once the new College entrance is operational.

The police say that there have been reports from Wick Hill College car park attendants that parents from Garth Hill School and Sandy Lane School keep trying to use the car park at the start and end of the school day. This car park is only for students and the bus from Bracknell & Wokingham College. Some of the car park attendants have been verbally abused by parents. If you are picking your child up from the above schools, you can use Braybrooke Park or Albert Road car parks. There are also reports about some parents stopping on the yellow zigzag lines outside Meadow Vale School. PCSOs have been outside the school as often as possible to stop this happening.
It is good to note, from the above police report, that overall crime was down by 31.2 per cent compared with the same three months in 2008.

Parking as always is a problem everywhere. Of the 291 Priestwood  and Garth residents who responded to the neighbourhood survey on five aspects of life in Bracknell Forest which most needed improvement, parking came in at 43% behind Police on the Streets at 50%, the level of speeding at 39%,  Litter at 39%, and Anti-social Behaviour at 36%.

On a more positive note; on the five aspects of life in Bracknell Forest people in Priestwood and Garth  liked best: Parks and Open Spaces (54%), Access to Nature (42%), Health Services (38%), Sports and Leisure Facilities (29%), Cultural Facilities (26%).

Priestwood's Jewel

I was very pleased that the Koh-I-Noor finally got permission to expand into the vacant unit next door. The restaurant is a great asset to Priestwood, and has won awards for the appearance of the frontage. It is a shame to see any of the local centres with vacant premises. Many people, have asked me, as a councillor, what the hold up was with the gaining of permission. The place is popular with both residents, and people from further afield.

I am doubly pleased, being a curry addict, that it ensures that the restaurant does not have to move elsewhere. It is in easy walking distance for me, and there are two pubs to visit on route if I so wish. The food and service is excellent.

Report from the Bracknell Standard HERE.

Review HERE.

Best

The Bracknell Standard says that Priestwood has emerged as Bracknell’s best-loved area to live in.

I presume that means the whole area of Priestwod and Garth, or as it was Priestwood One and Two.

It is nice to know that we are in a good place!

The monks of Hurley Priory who were Lords of the Manor of Warfield (3rd place) in medieval times. would be pleased of the heritage they left. Perhaps we should thank the New Towns Commision for creating the open spaces that we have? Bracknell was designated as a New Town on 17 June in 1949. The first 50 houses in the New Town were completed here in 1950.

The original New Town was planned for 25,000 people; it was intended to occupy over 1,000 hectares of land on and around 'Old Bracknell' in the area now covered by Priestwood, Easthampstead, Bullbrook and Harman's Water.