Staff and residents at Stoke Gifford Retirement Village (SGRV) have been ‘ringing the praises’ of the people who regularly volunteer there during a week of special celebrations.

Volunteers Week, which ran from 3rd – 7th June, gave staff the opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who works tirelessly to keep leisure activities at the village running smoothly.

The week kicked off with an awards ceremony. This involved afternoon tea for those who volunteer on a regular basis and the presentation of three awards to people who were deemed to have ‘gone the extra mile’ when it came to their volunteering. Laura Jones, volunteer organiser at SGRV said:

“All of our volunteers play a fundamental part in each area of the village and as a means of showing our appreciation and gratitude I have introduced this recognition programme to share and celebrate the efforts of those volunteers who reflect the core values of excellence, teamwork and integrity through their volunteering activities.”

The first award, for Excellence, went to Vince who is a local artist and visits the village once a week to teach an oil painting class. The second was the Teamwork award and this went to Vickie and Barbara who run the Acorns ‘n’ Oaks inter-generational playgroup every week and, finally, the Integrity award went to Laura-Jane, a student volunteer who continues to help at the village even though she has completed her required volunteering hours.

Laura-Jane said

“I was not expecting to even have been nominated for a volunteer award at the village, let alone win the award for Integrity in Volunteering. I thoroughly enjoy my role at the Village and have learnt so much from the residents themselves.”

The theme for this year’s Volunteers Week was ‘ringing the praises’ of all of the committed volunteers who work at the village. Throughout the rest of Volunteers Week, Laura, as well as other members of staff, went along to a variety of activities that were taking place and literally rang a bell as a way of expressing their gratitude to the volunteers.

More: Interested in volunteering? Please get in touch. »

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The annual FREE summer play scheme for children aged 5 to 11 gets under way at Little Stoke Community Hall on Monday 29th July for two weeks and then moves to The Poplar Rooms, Stoke Gifford Trust Ground for another two weeks until Friday 23rd August.

Running Monday through Friday until 23rd August, the play scheme is run by the Four Towns Play Association, which receives financial assistance from Stoke Gifford Parish Council.

The aim of the play scheme is to ensure children have fun over the school summer holiday and also to provide a break for parents. It is designed to support children in the local area to play and learn, in the presence of others, in a safe and child-friendly environment.

Children attending the sessions take part in arts and crafts, sport and team games. There are also visits from sports coaches, dance teachers and library staff.

Sessions run from 10.30am to 12.30pm, closing for lunch and are back in operation from 1.30pm to 3.30pm. It is essential children are collected during the lunch period as the play scheme is not covered by insurance during that period.

There is no need to book, just turn up and complete a registration form [or download one beforehand]. The scheme runs on a first-come, first-served basis, so please arrive promptly to avoid disappointment.

Similar sessions are being held at venues in Patchway and Filton and Bradley Stoke.

More information can be found on the Four Towns Play Association page on Facebook or by phoning Barbara on 01454 868571.

See also: Four Towns Summer Play Scheme (SBCP)

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2019 issue of the Stoke Gifford Journal magazine (on page 14). The magazine is delivered FREE, EVERY MONTH, to over 5,000 homes in Stoke Gifford, Little Stoke and Harry Stoke. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.

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Jackie Day, from Stoke Gifford Community Library, recently visited the children at Abacus Pre-School to celebrate National Bookstart Week, now known as Pyjamarama. The week, which is dedicated to celebrating the magic of reading for children, ran from 3rd to 9th June and Jackie visited Abacus on Thursday 6th. She read the group of excited children two stories: ‘Lucie Goose’ by Danny Baker and ‘Car, Car, Truck, Jeep’ by Katrina Charman, a copy of which was then given to each of the children.

Pyjamarama is part of Bookstart which is the world’s first national book gifting programme and has been running for over 25 years. It aims to promote and encourage families to share books, stories and rhymes as early as possible and is based on the simple premise that children who have an early introduction to books and are read to every day, benefit educationally, culturally, socially and emotionally. Bookstart has two packs; Bookstart Baby which is gifted from 0-12 months, predominantly through health visitors and Bookstart Treasure which is gifted at 3-4 years of age, through libraries, pre-schools and nurseries.

The community library, which is located in the mezzanine above the Old School Rooms Coffee Shop, has helped to distribute the Bookstart Treasure pack to pre-school-aged children across Stoke Gifford. Jackie said:

“It was a privilege to read to the children at the Abacus nursery; stories are fun, help develop language and, hopefully, a love of books.  It was also a good opportunity to advertise our local community library.”

Kirsty Goodman, manager at Abacus Pre-School Stoke Gifford (based at the Poplar Rooms in North Road), said:

“A huge thank you to Jackie from the community library for giving up her time to come and read a story for our children. Jackie involved the children with the story and grasped their attention on the first page encouraging them to join in with repeated phrases. One child said: “My brother read my book to me at bedtime.”

More: Free Pyjamarama books are available from community library »

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Police mobile speed camera vans that pay regular visits to enforce the controversial 30mph limit on the Stoke Gifford By-Pass have detected the tenth highest number of offences across all speed camera sites in South Gloucestershire during the 2017 to 2018 financial year, the Journal can reveal.

And despite enforcement at the site being active only for the final six months of the year, it has detected the highest number of speeding offences across all mobile camera locations within the district.

The startling conclusions can be drawn from the response to a Freedom of Information request recently published by Avon and Somerset Police, which shows that 658 notices of intended prosecution were issued in relation to the Stoke Gifford site for offences detected over the period 21st September 2018 (when enforcement commenced) to 31st March 2019.

Comparing this figure to the previously reported 307 offences recorded up to 22nd January 2019, the data also shows that the rate of detection accelerated significantly in the final two months of the financial year.

The news comes just as South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) has complied with an obligation to provide a formal response to a resident’s petition calling for the speed limit on the by-pass to be raised because “it has a speed limit that quite drastically does not match the engineering standard of the road”.

Alex Hosking’s petition ran on the SGC website from 22nd January 2019 to 23rd April 2019 and attracted 527 signatures.

Several Journal readers have commented that although the by-pass is a wide road, sweeping across open countryside for half-a-mile from its junction with Hambrook Lane to the A4174 Ring Road, it has a speed limit that is lower than the main road through densely populated parts of nearby Bradley Stoke.

Travelling south from Parkway North Roundabout (near Nuffield Health), the by-pass (officially named Rosedown Avenue) initially has a 40mph speed limit before changing to 30mph shortly before the traffic light-controlled junction with Hambrook Lane.

Between Hambrook Lane and the Oxleigh Way traffic lights (entrance to Highbrook Park) the road has the appearance of one which might be expected to have a higher speed limit of at least 40mph, save for the presence of street lighting columns.

More: Yellow backing boards added to 30mph signs »

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