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Our town is a very nice town

THE online community newspaper for Nailsea people, their family and their friends

September 2022

Property Peeps

Our Property Peeps page sponsors HENSONS estate agents sold two featured homes within days of Nailsea People posting details online. Read more HERE about planning applications approved and in the pipeline including this 7-storey tower block for the old Weston College town centre site

What's On 2022

This is the page for the food markets, fairs, fetes and fests, basically all the fun things in life. This month we have another favourite Nailsea International Bike Show raising money for CHSW! We have mega Macmillan coffee morning and Backwell Village Show. Read more HERE

Gallery 2022

We have hundreds and hundreds of images in our galleries (under dropdown menu top) and for 2022 it goes from the wassail to wildlife, jubilee to carnival, skatefest to beerfest and much more. The latest slideshows are from Nailsea flower show, August market and Backwell Lake. Email pics to nailseapeople@gmail.com

Fiddling Hands of Street Buskers in Downtown Asheville.jpg

Street entertainers sought

eat:Nailsea food and drink festival returns to Nailsea this autumn - bringing more than 100 local food and drink producers to the Crown Glass Shopping Centre, High Street and in a newly expanded area down past the Link Road towards Tesco.

The 2022 dates are Saturdays, October 8 and December 3, both festivals run between 10am-4pm.

The twice a year festival, supported by Nailsea Town Council and North Somerset Council, are the biggest events in the town each year with the shopping centre and High Street filling with people from 10am enjoying the atmosphere and the great selection of produce on offer.

This includes farmers' market favourites alongside street food, artisan makers and entertainment.

Organiser Bev Milner Simonds said: "We love working in Nailsea and it is honour to be invited back again by the town council.

"By expanding the area this year we are staying to create a bit more elbow room and also create space for some new producers too.

"We will have music from our DJs and space for buskers too.

"If you are interested in busking - please drop us an email so we can plan that in.

"Big thank you to the town council for their support and local estate agents, Hunter Leahy for their support this year too.”

Co-organiser Sarah Milner Simonds explained how the new area will work

She said: “The newly expanded area won’t need an extra road closure.

"This means buses can still get through and residents and businesses access their properties at the rear, but the parking bays will be suspended for the day and stalls positioned in them, facing the pavements.”

To get in touch with Bev and Sarah email www.eatfestivals.org.

Nailsea (coal)mine field

An archaeological dig back in February 2021 revealed little more than minor fragments of 16-17th pottery and the remains of a farmer’s ploughman’s lunch.

But his week a JAO Groundworks crew discovered a potentially more interesting find - a deep shaft.

A seemingly water-filled bottomless hole thought to be a mine shaft was uncovered by a worker clearing earth for a new private access road off The Perrings.

The shock relic from Nailsea’s coal-mining past was discovered on the building site for 14 new homes.

The original planning application had been changed to one detached bungalow, two chalets and 11 houses for Woodstock homes, all seemingly cut deeper into the slope as not to block the views of properties facing The Perrings.

Nailsea is riddled with old mine workings and many voiced concerns on the Nailsea People Facebook that a full survey wasn’t completed before building began.

Work was temporarily halt as concerned neighbours waited for a mining expert to inspect.

Nailsea resident Julia Miners said: “That site was obviously deemed unsafe for housing back in the 1970s.”

Patricia Adams said: “Really?

“Didn’t they do a survey before they started?

“Back in the late 50s when the Mizzymead estate was built it was a compulsory part of the planning process.

“They must have been aware that Nailsea is crisscrossed by mine works?”

Woodstock director Peter Hurst said: "A Coal Authority representative has visited site to inspect the shaft that has been discovered.

"It is not on any of the record maps but is most likely associated with mine works rather than a well as too large and deep.

"Subject to being confirmed as mine workings they will then arrange to fill and cap the shaft.

"I can repeat the assurance from the Coal Authority that with the shaft being cut through rock there is no danger to persons or property outside of the fenced off area."

The planning application can be viewed HERE.

Below is our report from the dig which is on our front page February 2021 HERE.

FINANCIAL CRISIS 1

Nailsea Community Group advised the town council earlier this summer that it was seeing an uptake in the number of people needing support in the town. Its ‘free school meal’ campaign numbers were up 15 per cent compared to when it was started in 2020. Food club members had increased by 20 per cent and the number of users of the food bank has gone up. The community group expects to see a drop in donations as an impact from the cost-of-living rises.

FINANCIAL CRISIS 2

During September Brockley Stores is offering a ‘back to school’ discount on apples, sliced ham and turkey and Pullins six pack white rolls for packed lunches as well as a homemade quiche offer of four for £ 10.

FINANCIAL CRISIS 3

Nailsea town councillor Rod Lees has asked its finance and policy committee to look at the possible reallocation of funds to support residents during the current financial crisis. This is on the agenda for its meeting on Wednesday, September 7, at 7.30pm at the Tithe Barn.

FINANCIAL CRISIS 4

Meanwhile North Somerset Council has announced it faces increasingly tough decisions to set a balanced budget for the financial year ahead with a £17m gap to close – about 10 per cent of its net budget. The first report to be discussed by councillors to develop budget proposals for the year ahead will be presented at its Executive meeting on Wednesday, September 7, starting at 6pm. The report is available along with the agenda and other papers on the council’s website. The meeting is open to the public and also available to watch on the council’s YouTube channel.

NASTY INCIDENT

Police say they were called to The Glass Maker in Crown Glass Place, Nailsea, on Monday, August 29, at approximately 1am following reports of an assault. A female victim sustained a head wound following the incident. She received treatment for the wound and is now recovering at home. Enquiries are ongoing. This happened outside the Wetherspoon pub at Crown Glass Place. Officers who attended were told the suspect had made off. They toured the area to try to locate the suspect, but there was no trace. No arrests have been made as yet and enquiries continue. If anyone witnessed the incident or has any other information which could help the investigation, please call 101 and give the reference 5222208196.

MARKETPLACE

Coffee #1 has opened in Somerset Square. Nailsea People did a caffeine tour of the town centre coffee shops. And in Colliers Walk betting shop Winning Post opened while sadly at Crown Place Place Chic Blooms announced its closure. Read more on our Marketplace page HERE

RECYCLING

Nailsea Community Recycling Hub at 26 Somerset Square has broadened items it can take. Currently it has bins for:

glasses (not cases)
contact lenses and packaging
pens
felt tips
highlighters
correcting fluid
BRITA water filters
plastic toothbrushes
toothpaste tubes
empty medicine blister packs
Pringle tubes
British and foreign stamps
foreign coins (and notes) including obsolete currency
old and broken jewellery.

The community shop hours are 10.30am-12.30pm Monday to Saturday.

NAILSEA IN BLOOM

Sponsor a High Street planter and help to make our town a colourful place. Read more HERE

No new Nailsea homes fitted with gas boilers

A major housing developer has been told by a North Somerset town council it can’t build anymore homes in its town with gas central heating because of fears of climate change.

Concerns for the future of the planet has led Nailsea Town Council to adopt some strict rules for new houses being built.

And with a further 217 homes at Netherton Grange planned by Taylor Wimpey all being fitted with gas boilers the council refused to recommend approval at a planning meeting this week.

Nailsea Town Council climate emergency committee adopted in June 2022 a set of requirements for any new housing developments in the town.

And an environmentally friendly heating system is just one of its requirements.

The development on the western edge of Nailsea does not include any new schools, no community centre, no church or neighbourhood shop.

A new road route has been safeguarded across the site at the request of North Somerset Council however, currently there is no money to pay for it being built.

And at this stage no link to neighbouring Backwell, A370, M5 or any new highway has been revealed.

How all the thousands of extra cars generated by this development and other building sites in the town will be able to safely commute to Bristol and beyond remains a mystery although clues may be contained in the emerging local plan.

Only a dozen or so residents attended the planning committee meeting on Wednesday, August 31, to hear representatives from Taylor Wimpey discussing the second phase for 217 houses at Netherton Grange.

Taylor Wimpey planning executive Laily Richards and site planning manager Joshua Kittlety were joined by architect Oliver Watkins, of the Pegasus Group, in a question-and-answer session chaired by town councillor Rod Lees.

Outline planning permission was given in November 2019 for approximately 450 dwellings to be built on farmland off Youngwood Lane.

Barratt Homes is building a further 171 nearby and other construction sites in the town are active or planned.

Taylor Wimpey is selling six houses every four weeks to mostly local people from the first phase of 130 two, three, four and five-bed homes costing £350,000 to £620,000 which are well under way, the meeting was told.

Allotments, playground, orchard, and wildlife habitats will be provided on the housing estate dubbed ‘Legoland’ with its jutting brickwork likened to 'climbing walls' by its detractors.

But Mr Watkins said: “We are not trying to be another part of Nailsea we are trying to create our own pallet.

“Drawing on influences from Nailsea we have tried to give the homes a contemporary feel with pitched roofs and larger windows, creating green corridors.”

A public right-of-way runs diagonally across the site, the meeting heard.

Included in the second phase is 60 affordable homes, six for rent and 54

shared ownership with several homes constructed for people with mobility issues.

The public open spaces will not be maintained by North Somerset Council but a private contractor with all householders billed for this service.

Every house will have an electric charging point for their vehicles and the larger houses will have two parking spaces plus a garage.

With natural gas boilers being banned from 2025 for new-build homes council vice-chairman Emily Miller made an impassioned plea for Taylor Wimpey to set an example and install the more environmentally friendly hydrogen-blend heating systems on its second phase.

And another impassioned pleas came again from residents of West End whose daily torment of huge contractors’ lorries using the weight-restricted narrow lane through their hamlet to be stopped.

Dianne Bridges said: “I live at West End. Even before your development, traffic out there was horrendous, it is now impossible.”

It was pointed out all cul-de-sac estate roads on the master plan end with a ‘hammer head’ making easy access in the future to develop adjoining fields.

Nailsea Action Group spokesman Antony Evans said: “Disappointingly, for the most part the Taylor Wimpey representatives were unable to answer questions and comments from some of the 15 members of the public present, and from the councillors.

“Consequently, the town council voted convincingly to recommend that North Somerset Council refuse the application, particularly on the grounds that the plans did not sufficiently recognise the current climate emergency and its implications, for example, for domestic heating, solar panel electricity generation and other environmental considerations which the council claimed would not be difficult to implement.

“To their credit, however, Taylor Wimpey will be installing electric car charging points to every dwelling on the development.”

The committee decided ‘No further development will be recommended for approval until the relevant infrastructure to support this is in place and that the application plans show the incorrect alignment of the distributor road.”

www.thetekhut.uk

computer techies for the online community

The TEK Hut was started by Ben Parker in the summer of 2018.

For 12 years Ben had been one of the team at The ICT Workshop which provided a wide variety of computer services to Nailsea, Clevedon, Yatton, Backwell and even Weston-Super-Mare.

Ben felt it right to continue the same great service customers had previously experienced but under new branding for a new business and The Tek Hut was born.

Trading at the familiar location in Nailsea, The Tek Hut will continue to offer the same cost effective, new laptops and PCs, upgrades, onsite support for homes and businesses through to a wide range of workshop services and accessories.