Kingsway Villagers

As of 23 September 2009 Community Governor Jan Mabson is the new Chair of Governors of Kingsway Primary School.

Much to my disappointment I have had to stand down. I am working away part of the week and cannot do the Chairman’s role effectively. I will remain as an ordinary school governor and give whatever help I can. Parent Governor, Tracey Longden-Thurgood is the new Vice Chair.

I am happy to still talk to parents but am no longer the Chairman. The easiest way to contact the school is via the School website.

I knew the temporary Governing Body was going to be a lot of work when I took it on the year before the school was officially created. Since then it has been whirlwind of activity for the school, we now have more than three times the number of pupils originally predicted by the County Council.

The children from Kingsway and Copeland Park come from a huge range of backgrounds. In the past, some have been better served by the education system than others, and the staff are working very hard to try to get everybody to reach their full potential. We hope we may gain a large number of children from families moving to the area to work for Nato in the near future, and this will add another dimension to the school.

So I predict another very interesting, exhausting, but rewarding year for Kingsway Primary School, and offer my best wishes and support to Jan and Tracey, Headteacher Paula Needham and her staff.

Morning Clive

May I say first of all what a grand job you are doing. I have just moved to Woodvale and have been trying to establish who to contact re issues of concern.
It does seem as if the developers have knocked the houses up, taken the money and done a runner, but that is my first impression.

I have concerns re the parking and speeding issues on Woodvale.
I was led to believe when we purchased some 6 weeks ago that there was no parking along Woodvale; the signs indeed indicate this. Can you enlighten me on how this is enforced please?

A couple of cars have recently started parking in front of my house. This is not only frustrating but it is going to cause a very serious accident.
I live opposite the first entrance into Chivenor Way and I noticed just last night, a moped overtaking the cars that were parked outside my house and then staying on the wrong side of the road around the little island. A car came out of the second Chivenor Way road and nearly collided with it!

I am a local magistrate and like to see the law upheld.
I will pursue the parking issues but wondered if you had any information regarding the proposals for double-yellow lines along the rest of Woodvale from the roundabout to the end of Woodvale, and also are there any plans to open up the road to Copeland Park?

Keep up the good work.

Gloucester City Council are to discuss plans to build houses on Clearwater Drive, Quedgeley, an open wetland area which – the RSPB have confirmed – is being used as a nesting site by some protected bird species!

The planning meeting will take place on Thursday 24 September 2009, at Gloucester City Council Chambers, The North Warehouse, The Quays, Gloucester, at 7.30pm.

According to the Quedgeley Parish Council: "it would be illegal to disturb these birds during their stay in Clearwater drive wildlife area".

Despite that, the Gloucester City Council are set to discuss plans to build 30 houses on the land!

Quedgeley Parish Council says:

"On Tuesday 22nd September 2009 we need as many people, children and friends to be at the Clearwater site for 6pm to show the City (and County) Council’s that we are opposed to any development on a natural wetland area.
We are contacting local media to be present.
We need you!"

You can see more details about the campaign here and read more about Clearwater Drive here.

Gloucester Works are organising a Job Fair on 29th Sept’ at the Gloucester Rugby Club (Kingsholm).

For more information about Gloucester Works click here.

My partner and I moved to Kingsway October 2008 and shortly after this time we put our names on the waiting list for an allotment in Gloucester. We were told that it would be about a year to 2 year wait.

We then found out that the Parish Council had secured land in Kingsway for allotments and we would be able to have one there when they have been completed – which was after all of the housing development had been completed – fair enough!

After waiting for about 6 months we enquired again with regards to an allotment in Kingsway thinking our names had been left off the list (or just forgotten) only to find out that the allotments still hadn’t been completed and no-one knew when they would be. In fact I was told "because of the recession, all the building work stopped, so it’ll be when all of that is finished".
Whilst I understand that it’s last on their "list", would it not make some sense to get it sorted so that people can get on with it?
(Or is it just me being too eager)!

I was wondering if anyone knew when the completion of the allotments will be?

It may sound silly but now is the time we should be ordering our seeds and winter vegetable plants and digging the ground and it would be nice to get an answer!

After all it is the "recession" and we’re just trying to save ourselves some money doing something we enjoy, and trying to be more "green".

This morning I finally made contact with Alistair Jewell, the new Project Manager at QUVL.

I expressed concern that we seem to have been left out in the cold, the Village seems to be deteriorating and is not being looked after as promised.

Specifically, I raised concerns about the grass cutting not happening; he acknowledged the problem and said that the company responsible was not doing what was asked and has had their contract terminated. A new company – Charlon Abbott (I think) – has been engaged, and should be getting on the ball and will regularly maintain it.

Secondly the advertising board on Thatcham that has been broken for a number of weeks, will be repaired.

We will be getting an on-site manager (a chap called Andrew Smith) in the near-term, to sit – as Andy Hunter did – locally, act as an interface and manage local issues.

In the meantime, I wish to collate as many issues that are outstanding now to send as a baseline to them, so please send any issues that are infrastructure related, or that QUVL are responsible for (Editors Note: See developers page for details of QUVL areas of responsibility) and I will add them to the list.

You can add them by commenting here, or email me: mrbpkirby@hotmail.com and I will get them going.

Let’s hope we can get the momentum going that we had previously and then step it up a gear!

Cheers
Barry