Just to confirm, Firstbus will be changing the number 5 bus route on 29th April 2018 as per the recent consultation.

This is initially for a trial period to see if the new route will work, after which they will decide if the new route will be adopted or if it will revert back to the previous route.

Therefore from 29th April 2018 the number 5 bus will be travelling to the end of Newton Road, going up Pennyquick, turning into The Hollow, down to mini roundabout by Beehive Surgery, where it will turn up into Haycombe Drive.  It will go around Haycombe Drive to the stop at the circle of trees, it will the go back around the trees and then down North Way to pick up the old route back down through Twerton and into town.

This is the route that was proposed by Firstbus following numerous issues on roads around Twerton. It will mean that people living on Wedgwood Road, Poolemead Road and Shaws Way would need to remain on the bus from town until it comes back down through Twerton.

We will also be monitoring this new route as there are a few points of concern.

Here are a few images of the worst parts of North Way.  I have been trying to get this road put into the budget to have a full structural repair as I did last year with Kelston View.

I have been requesting a meeting on North Way with the Cabinet Member for Highways, however, he has not yet responded to any of my emails.

These are the questions I have asked:

The deteriorating Road surface at North Way and Poolemead Road is causing concern.

1) I am sure the cabinet member is confident that the advice of his officers to only monitoring and patch repairs as required will keep this road in a safe condition for heavy buses to run both ways on, but will he agree to meet me on site to see for himself the problems that I am talking about.

2) Will he listen to local residents who are concerned for the safety of the road and its users and conduct a safety audit on this road and agree to carry out urgent works if they are identified as a result of the road safety audit.

I look forward to receiving a response to these questions

Confirmation from FirstBus of which rout the number 5 service will be taking whilst the final phase of work on Kelston View is completed can be found here.

They have agreed to ensure a service will run around Haycombe Drive, so it will just be the Kelston View bus stops that are out of service.

The planned work should take approximately 4 weeks, but given the surprises that came out of the last phase this may not be the case.  I will confirm as soon as we have a final completion date.

Following my previous post to confirm I had managed to secure funding to finally re-surface Kelston View, I am pleased to confirm the initial section from The Hollow to the Junction with North Way was completed in April and is considerably better. The drain covers that have sunk are being sorted in the next few weeks.

The second phase of work on the section from Haycombe Drive to the Junction with Wedgwood Road will be completed week commencing 19th June 2017 and should take approximately 3-4 days.  This work will take slightly longer than the initial phase as the concrete slabs need to be re-stabilised in places, prior to re-surfacing.

I have also had confirmation that the final stage on the worst affected area between the junctions of Wedgwood Road and North Way is due to commence in July, but will result in the road being totally broken up and therefore no access will be available in this area for several weeks.  I am awaiting written confirmation of the proposed start date and length of the road closure.  During this work, buses will not be running from Twerton up through Whiteway and therefore alternative options will be in place and I will confirm what has been agreed as soon as I know this.

During 2016, I led a campaign, assisted by local Councillor Tim Ball, to make the roads across our area safer for all users.

The campaign included surveys, petitions and numerous meetings with Council Officers and the Divisional Director for Environmental Services to ensure the issues that affect everyone in this area were highlighted.

I am pleased to confirm that we have secured £155,000 to be spent specifically on the severely deteriorating road surface on Kelston View.

We appreciate this is not enough to replace the complete road, however, we have been told that some of the road will be re-surfaced with micro-asphalt and the worst area in the middle of Kelston View will be subject to a new process of re-stabilisation and re-surfacing.

The Council have agreed to include me in any discussions that take place throughout this work to ensure that residents views are taken on board throughout. If you wish to make any comments or express any views on this work, or would like to be kept informed of progress of the work, please do get in touch.

Councillor Tim Ball and I will continue with this campaign to ensure other roads across the area are also fully repaired and not just patched, this may take a bit longer to achieve, but we will not stop until every road in this area is sorted.

Please contact either Liberal Democrat Councillor Tim Ball or muself if you would like to discuss this or any other issues you may have.