Kingsway Villagers

Hi All,

After much delay for a number of reasons - we now have the opportunity to train some of us to use the official Speed Gun over the next week or so.

Training will be early evening next week (date and time to be confirmed to fit best with everyone interested), and will consist of showing us how to use the equipment, highlighting where we want to do it and what procedures we need to go through.

If you are interested, please comment on here or email me at [email protected] and let me know your availability next week.

This initial session will enable us to determine the level of speeding within Kingsway in order to take the next steps.

Cheers,
Barry

New trees were planted recently in the area off Marham Drive near the brook.

Over the last 2 evenings I have witnessed three young children pulling out the trees/canes and then hitting the plastic coverings off! I did ask them not to do this and they were quite apologetic and went on their way.

Their play language wasn’t too pleasant either, I had to distract my five year old so he wouldn’t hear it… Disgraceful!

I just hope they don’t come back and pull the rest out…
Why do this?
Boredom perhaps??

Hi All,

I have been getting a rising number of complaints around the speeding on Valley Gardens, Woodvale and Thatcham Avenue, as well as more in the smaller roads as people seek cut throughs.

I have been talking to the County Council Road Safety Department about how to keep the speed down. There are a number of things that have worked well in other areas and they are willing to work with us.

One thing that has worked well, has been putting speed awareness stickers onto wheelie bins so that when the bins go out, there is a constant reminder of the speed limit. To that end, I now have a large bundle of speed awareness signs that will go onto your bins (black and green). If you would like to take part and have a sign, then please get in touch with me. I appreciate that it is only one day a week, but it has been very effective in other areas such as Hardwicke, and it is costing us nothing.

Secondly, we will be setting up a speed awareness group which will have the use of a speed gun and have the proper training etc. If you would like to be involved with this, again please get in touch.

Email : [email protected] or just knock at 70 Thatcham Avenue to pick one up.

Cheers,
Barry

I am now a resident of Kingsway following the much anticipated completion of our new build home in June 2012! I must say how very different my family and I are finding Kingsway compared to our old home and neighbourhood back in Emersons Green, Bristol/South Glos’, phew… very different indeed! It’s going to take some getting used to! Already we are feeling like we are one of the minority residents - neither of us own a crossbred dog, we do not wear hoodies, jogging bottoms (and I’m not talking visits to the gym here), football tops, we do not have a smoking habit, and neither of us sport any type of tattoos, or chunky gold chains! Sounds a bit harsh you may think, but I am being brutally honest here!

Day 1 of our house move, our belongings still being carried off the back of the removal lorry, and we were approached by one of the neighbours, who as bold as brass introduced herself, and her SIX children (all aged under 10 years). Even the removal men commented to us about how ‘full on’ she seemed! Three months on we have heard several accounts, and ‘warnings’, from other neighbours (all from affordable housing) on how to watch out for the family with all the kids on the corner as they have a habit of ‘pinching things’. The only problem I have with the rather large, and young family on the corner, is the amount of noise that can be heard coming from their house from the crack of dawn through ’til midnight! I can report that nothing, (touch wood), has been taken from outside my house, my garden plants still remain safe!

I was disappointed with the lack of respect for the new build park on the corner, a stone’s throw away from our house. The new turf had been down for less than a week when it was strewn with litter - mostly kids sweet wrappers, and the rides covered in child-like graffiti! I was tempted to take a bucket of bleach and have a go at removing the rude marker pen drawings and swearwords from all the new kids’ play equipment, but it seems bleach would not even do the trick! The children clearly need to be taught a valuable lesson in respect for their Community! I can’t imagine the parents would be the ones to do this, judging from the number of parents who seemed to turn a blind eye to their own offspring littering the park!
Teachers in the local primary schools need to take some responsibility here, and perhaps a visit from a Community Police Officer would help. I was also astounded at the number of very young children left unattended in the park. Children as young as four (could have been much younger, but giving them the benefit of the doubt), left to play with their young friends and siblings, no sign of their parents! I witnessed a very young child screaming after she had been left alone in the park by her seven year old sibling. I took her hand as she attempted to climb the railings because she could not open the gate herself. We managed to track her sibling along the footpath, and I watched them walk home together. I simply do not understand why any parent would allow such young children out on their own, left to their own devices, when if they did the same in their own home, left home alone so to speak, the Social Services would come down hard on them!
There were similar type scenes in the local Tesco Express. I couldn’t believe the high numbers of very young unaccompanied children in the store. A lot of them were riding their scooters around the aisles, and the store staff didn’t seem to mind! Back in our old village, there was a strick rule in our local Tesco Express - a maximum of two unaccompanied children at any given time, and certainly no bikes or scooters allowed in the store!

My family and I decided to give the Summer ‘Fun Day’ a go at the Kingsway Primary School. Firstly we were all quite shocked at how the lady taking entrance money at the school gate had a can of lager in one hand, drinking it in between taking our monies! We were hard pressed to find a single non-smoker at the fun day, unless we were to count the very young children, or police lady on the premises!

I know I’m probably coming across as quite judgmental here, but really I am shocked at the different lifestyles here in Kingsway.
Kingsway is a newly built area, and the surrounding countryside looks quite picturesque, so I really can’t understand why any resident wouldn’t appreciate their new home (affordable or owner occupied)!

I feel it is very important to alert the residents of Kingsway about a couple of Con’ Men who targeted one of my customers on the 5th of September.

She (customer) has been away on holiday leaving her Audi car and home under the watchful eyes of neighbours and her lodger. Sometime during the day on the 5th of September two men knocked at her door and told her lodger that they were there to collect her car and take it for repair; they then asked the lodger for the keys.

They had no paper work but were wearing matching tops that displayed a car body repair company name. Thanks to the wise actions from the lodger they failed to take this car as he refused to hand over the keys. This happened near the beginning of Thatcham Avenue.

I have mentioned to my customer that I would post this on this site. I understand this has been reported to the Police and also understand the two men were driving a hired Vauxhall Astra.

I am sorry that this is a bit vague but I felt the need to warn others that this has happened.

I came home Tuesday night after babysitting for a friend, it was only midnight. I caught sight of a couple of young men running past my house, which was a bit unusual, so I came in the house, kept the lights off and watched them steal from 2 unlocked cars (they tried all of the cars out there)…

They stole a stereo and things out of the boot etc. They blatantly did it - no hiding; one kept watch and the other checked out the car. I suspect they hit more than just the cars I saw them do, as they had a carrier bag which they were filling (they stood in the street checking the booty too)!

The men were between 17 and 19 at a guess; one was about 5′ 11″ and the other maybe 5′ 6″, both skinny. One had short dark hair (shaved - no style), and the other fairer / longer hair, but he had a brown cap on, so it was hard to tell. They both had brown jeans (one was darker than the other). The one with the lighter jeans had a white T-Shirt with long sleeves pushed up his arm, the other had a dark T-Shirt on, with his jeans round his butt (I hear it’s a style thing - he looked like an idiot in my opinion)!
I have only given a description here just in case anyone saw these men going home Tuesday night and saw where they are… We need to stand together as a community against this sort of stuff.

Of course I called The Police while it was happening and even though they arrived within less than 3 minutes or so of them leaving, they were unable to find them.

What this whole experience has shown me is that these thieves are opportunists who will take what they can, so don’t give them the opportunity… Lock your cars people, lock your gates, and lock your sheds.