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Car clamping in Nailsea
Look what's coming to a seaside town near you
Pier mistress Linda Strong is booked to talk to Nailsea WI later this month about a multi-million pound project about to start on Clevedon seafront.
Work is due to begin on Monday, October 6, on the £2.25 million development tasked with breathing new life into the stunning Grade I listed Clevedon Pier.
Bristol based architects O’LearyGoss have designed a glass superstructure for the shore end to create a tea room with toilets, function and education room, shop and exhibition space plus top-deck viewing platform to the elegant Victorian structure.
Architect Robert O’Leary said: “This is the only Grade I listed pier in England so is a fantastic project and wonderful to ensure the pier’s future for the next 150 years.
“We worked on this for four years; taking into account the weather and tides.
“We also had to ensure the pier stays open while building work is carried out by creating a scaffold walkway.”
Financial support came from a number of charitable trusts and sources including £720,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £750,000 from the Coastal Communities Fund.
Ninety per cent of funds required have been raised with the Pier Trust aiming to bring in the remainder through a charity share issue to be launched in 2015.
Clevedon Pier Trustees chairman Simon Talbot-Ponsonby said: “O’LearyGoss’ fabulous new building will secure the long term future of the pier for the people of Clevedon and North Somerset.
“This project is the culmination of many years work.
“The new facilities will help visitors fully appreciate the pier and allow the Pier Trust to be financially self-sufficient enough to carry out long term maintenance.”
Clevedon Pier was an engineering feat for the 60-strong team of men who began work on it 18 months before it opened in 1869 at a cost of around £12,000.
Built from discarded railway track used by Isambard Kingdom Brunel on the Great Western Railway it stretched 850 feet out on the Bristol Channel which has the second highest tide in the world.
Once described by former poet laureate John Betjeman as the ‘most beautiful pier in England’ two of the spans collapsed during stress testing in 1970 and demolition was proposed.
But fundraising and heritage grants allowed it to be dismantled for restoration and reassembled and it reopened in 1989.
Ten years later it was awarded Pier of the Year by the National Piers Society.
The pier is now once again a landing stage for steamers and a popular attraction for tourists and anglers.
More recently the pier hit the headlines when pop group One Direction breezed in to film their latest music video.
However, as freezing winds tore across the open structure band mates Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson looked less than impressed with the sea air from the Severn Estuary.
Other filming has included Never Let Me Go starring Kiera Knightley and TV series Broadchurch also featured the pier in the background.
Full restoration wasn’t completed until 1998 by which time costs had reached £3.6 million.
The long term maintenance of the pier is around £1 million every decade to cover major repainting and repairs.
Linda said: "This will provide much needed facilities for visitors and a learning area for school children.
“It is a very exciting time to be involved, watching it grow from strength to strength.
“Last year was a very good year for visitors and I look forward to seeing many more people who come to see the work carried out.
“I would like to thank all those people who have supported the plans.”
But the WI ladies who meet at Christ Church vestry hall at 7.30pm on Wednesday, October 8, will learn firsthand about the exciting project on our doorstep.
Linda’s talk with be follow by a Q&A session.
O’LearyGoss is an 11-strong team of Redland-based architects who are also behind the £5.2 million transformation of The Regent in Clevedon’s Victorian conservation area on Hill Road.
The Regent was a derelict 19th Century former bakery, hotel, pub and restaurant in Clevedon into 20 luxury one and two-bed apartments, shops and local Sainsbury outlet with high levels of sustainability and renewable energy.
O’LearyGoss has also completed a number of multi-million pound projects including 22-24 Portland Square, Seeleys Hotel and Bridge House in Clifton and The Robinson Building in Bedminster.
Next door to the pier 17 one and two bed luxury apartments and two three-bed penthouses are being built in what was the old Pier Hotel.
For more information about the pier click HERE.
SEA FRONT: The two top images are artists impression of how the building will look when finished. Also pictured are O’LearyGoss project architect Niles Tainton and architect colleagues, Jenny Goss and Robert O’Leary all wearing hard hats and below pier mistress Linda Strong
A car parked on a Nailsea road has been clamped for not having any road tax.
Road clamping vans have been patrolling the town equipped with roof-mounted cameras which automatically reads number plates (ANPR).
The vehicle at Orchard Road is believed to be the first to have been ‘caught’ since the new rules on road tax discs came in this month.
An eagle-eyed Nailsea resident spotted the clamp and took this photograph.
He said: “It is a clamp. The big yellow sticker says untaxed vehicle.
“You might not need a tax disc any more but you still need to pay.”
From Wednesday, October 1, drivers no longer have to display the paper tax disc on their windscreens.
The ANPR camera can instantly check against DVLA database records of untaxed vehicles.
Untaxed vehicle or those without a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) can either be clamped or towed away.
If a vehicle is clamped car owners have 24 hours to pay a release fee of £100 or produce a valid tax disc.
Failure to do so can lead to further clamping or impound fees.
Prosecution costs and fines can also apply.
The police are not wheel clamping operators, it is a private company called NSL Ltd which runs the service on behalf of the DVLA.
The DVLA van was also spotted on Trendlewood this week and can detect peeps who haven't paid the TV licence!
Car owners have to call a telephone number on the back of the INF32 leaflet left on the vehicle to get their vehicles unclamped.
