Residents' Update:
Sunday 15th January 2017
Dear All,
This week’s update includes:-
New Tiverton School Update; Whitley Residents Association Meeting; Change of Police Teams; JLR Planning Application; Abbey Road - Over Hanging Branches, Nettles & Brambles; Local History Display at St James Church; Coventry Good Neighbours - Volunteers’ Training in Cheylesmore; Libraries Events; Cheylesmore Doctor’s Surgery; 4G Mast Switch On May Affect Freeview – Whitley Area; Tollbar Improvement; Upcoming Works in our Area; Bus Lane Suspension Begins; Road Gritting; Competition for UK City of Culture 2021 Launched; Faster Broadband; War Memorial Park Fitness Trail; Arts for Dementia Awareness; Coventry Family History Society; The Enemy’s Exhibition at Coventry Music Museum; Media Training; Scams & Recall; Diary; Useful Links. And Finally …
New Tiverton School Update
From the "New Tiverton Delivery Team" for Coventry City Council which consists of Council Officers, the designers and also the builders:
Weekly update: Friday 13th January 2017
The preparation for the main demolition is underway. In one of the buildings, three bats were found. They have now been professionally rehoused in bat boxes elsewhere on the campus as advised by ecologists.
Photograph of the site taken on Wednesday 11th January 2017.
Weekly update: Friday 6th January 2017
Farrans have returned back to site after the Christmas break. They have been making final preparations as the demolition of the building will take place next week. Site fencing is complete.
The trees closest to the building will be lopped by a tree surgeon, on Monday, overseen by an ecology consultant.
From Tuesday 10/01/17 the ecology consultants will be overseeing the main demolition, to ensure any hibernating bats can be safely moved.
Additional signage will be put up to further highlight the traffic route for deliveries and construction/demolition vehicles.
(Apologies for not including this in last week's update)
Whitley Residents & Neighbourhood Watch Association (WR&NWA) Meeting
Last week's WR&NWA gathering was well attended. The focus of the meeting was about safety and traffic calming in the “Whitley Triangle”. The residents are trying to avert a disaster before it happens because the council’s accident statistics do not reflect the dangers in area. These are increasing with the extra traffic coming into the area because of:
- Demolition of Alice Stevens School
- Building of Tiverton School which will have the capacity for 80 special needs children
- Whitley Primary will double in capacity in 4 years
- JLR Expansion
Roger is helping Doug & Rod to set up a petition to bring to the council’s attention the many danger spots in the area. Residents are being sought to help promote this petition. If you’re willing to help then please email
cheylesmore.ward@gmail.com and we’ll pass on your details.
One of the danger issues is that the pupils of Whitley Academy insist on ambling down Abbey Road en masse despite there being 2 footpaths. A local resident copied Roger in on an email that she sent to the vice principal of the Academy that explained her fears for the safety of the children with their current practise. Especially with the recent road conditions, as the children are expecting the traffic to immediately stop for them in icy/ snowy conditions. Roger is very concerned about this activity & passed the email onto council officers in a hope that they can help.
Change of Police Teams
From PCSO Matt Jones, 30277; Binley, Willenhall and Cheylesmore Neighbourhood Policing Team:
You may or may not be aware that Cheylesmore has had its neighbourhood Policing team dissolved, and has been absorbed by the pre-existing Willenhall Neighbourhood team.
This is both good and bad news for you.
Good in that we are a highly decorated neighbourhood team, having won the Force wide Team of the Year award last year, and are on the shortlist to win it again this year, and also winning the Chief Superintendents Commendation for team achievement in the same period.
Bad, in that now we have less staff and double the area to cover.
However, we aren't smothered in awards because we sit around complaining. We aim to achieve as much as we have in the past despite the disadvantage in which we find ourselves placed.
As such, we would like to attend as many residents meetings as we can to gauge what kind of service is required and how we can best apply ourselves. It would be a great help to us if you could forward any dates of meetings to me. We do work a shift pattern but we are flexible and will change if need be, but these this needs a bit of notice to work out best.
JLR Planning Application
On Thursday, 19th January, at 2.00 pm in Committee Room 3, there is to be a planning meeting. One of the applications to be considered is from JLR:
Proposal - Erection of powertrain development facility including office, design, engineering and vehicle testing space, site car parking, a welcome centre, fuel farm building, an electricity substation and alterations to the existing mileage accumulation facility, including construction and associated works.
Read the planning application.
Everyone is allowed to attend these meetings but not participate.
Abbey Road - Over Hanging Branches, Nettles & Brambles
Roger received a letter from a longstanding resident on Abbey Road stating that the shrubbery & trees on the ‘elevated side’ hadn’t been cut for many years and had consequently taken over the grassed area & path.
Response from Streetpride:
I have checked our maps and we are responsible for cutting the grass on a four weekly program and edging the grass on a 4 year program. As for the trees this is the responsibility of a different officer. As for the brambles I will send out grounds crew to cut them back’
Response from Tim Wetherhill, Urban Forestry Officer:
I’ve looked at the trees along the elevated section of Abbey Rd and concluded that all are ok currently. Streetpride have just finished cutting back all the low plants and weeds and the area is quite clear.
I did notice two large Laurel at the edge of the pathway and have been too large for Streetpride to cut, so I will arrange for them to coppiced. This will cut them back to a low stump, from which new shoots will appear in the spring. They will be clear of the pathway for some years though.
Local History Display at St James Church
On Saturday, Roger and Pauline attended the display of the 1,000 years of Coventry History depicted by 20 tapestries, held at St James Church, Abbey Road, as featured in
last week's update. They listened to a talk by Pru Porretta about how all of the panels were designed & created by a variety of groups.
Also available to view were displays by both the Whitley and Willenhall History groups on the local heritage. Roger said that it was fascinating to see photographs of the old hostel that was once located on Baginton Fields.
Coventry Good Neighbours Volunteers’ Training in Cheylesmore
The “Good Neighbours” scheme is an exciting new initiative developed by local churches (via Hope Coventry and Together for Change) in partnership with Age UK Coventry (AUKC) to improve health and wellbeing amongst older people. Working collaboratively, faith organisations and AUKC are seeking to engage with isolated and lonely older people by developing existing social networks and using existing community resources to enable residents to help each other. This could take the form of group activities, 1:1 befriending support, or low level practical assistance.
From Jess Day-Pollard of Coventry Good Neighbours Project Manager:
We have now organised our Cheylesmore Good Neighbours volunteer safeguarding training sessions. They are both at Christ Church, 11 Frankpledge Road, CV3 5GT. If anyone would like to befriend an isolated older person in the area, this session will help them do so safely and with confidence. The sessions are on:
Confirming attendance beforehand by emailing goodneighbourscoventry@gmail.com or texting 07563 902 904 is useful but not essential. It is helpful if people can bring ID with them (passport, driving licence, bill from last 3 months, NI card) for a free DBS check. We have a waiting list of older people to be befriended already, but we are always looking for new older people as well.
Cheylesmore, Finham & Willenhall Libraries Events
Cheylesmore Library Website
Finham Library Website
Willenhall Library Website
Cheylesmore Doctor’s Surgery
This week there was a report about a Cheylesmore Doctor’s Surgery in the
Coventry Telegraph which has been urged to improve.
4G Mast Switch On May Affect Freeview - Whitley Area
Trading Standards have been advised that a new 4G mast has been switched on in the Whitley area which can cause interference to Freeview Television Services.
Local residents living near to the mast were advised of this via a leaflet drop. Information was offered as to who to contact in the event of interference to the television signal reception resulting from the switch on.
However, it does appear that there have been problems reported in a wider area.
The advice in the first instance is to contact AT800 on 0808 13 13 800. Calls to this number are free from UK landlines and mobiles.
AT800 will either arrange for an engineer call out or provide the householder with a filter to attach to the aerial cable at no cost as long as it is confirmed the disruption is due to 4G and you are responsible for your own aerial.
Alternatively, you can go to their website
https://at800.tv/contact-us/
In
our 27th November update we reported this problem as it was affecting the Benedictine Road Area.
A45/A46 Tollbar Improvement Scheme Road Closures:
View the road & lane closures here
Upcoming Works or Road Closures in our Area
London Road (jct with St James Lane), until 3rd February – lane closure. Reason Street Light Replacement by Balfour CCC Lighting.
London Road (jct with Deasy Road), 19th to 23rd January – lane closure. Reason - Replace damaged Pedestrian Guard Rail by Balfour CCC Lighting.
London Road, 16th to 17th January (Night times after 19:00 and off-peak the following day for lining works) - Mobile Closures with Impact Protection Vehicles and Lane Closure. Reason - Bus Lane Removal with the use of hydroblasting method – Relining will be installed the following day
Cecily Road (jct of Daventry Road), 21st February to 17th March – Road closure. Reason - Install Cable Duct by BT
Cheylesmore Library Volunteers
28 people have now expressed an interest in volunteering and we have a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteer coordinator in place. The next volunteers meeting is on Monday 23rd January at 3pm at the Cheylesmore Community Centre
If you are interested in volunteering to help keep the library open then please email:
cheylesmore.ward@gmail.com.
The more volunteers that we have then the longer the opening hours can be.
Bus Lane Suspension Begins
Coventry City Council’s plan to suspend a number of bus lanes in the city, as part of a trial, is set to be introduced.
The introduction of the suspension will be phased from Monday 16 January, with yellow and black signs being placed to inform motorists which bus lanes are suspended.
Bus lanes that do not have a black and yellow sign near them have not been suspended and are still being used as bus lanes.
The bus lanes that will be suspended in a phased approach are:
- Ansty Road outbound at Clifford Bridge Road junction
- Ansty Road inbound at Burns Road
- Binley Road outbound – full length
- Foleshill Road – at Old Church Road in both directions
- Holbrook Lane outbound between Burnaby Road and Holbrook Lane
- London Road outbound at St James Lane
- Tile Hill gyratory – on Tile Hill Lane inbound between Beech Tree Ave and the rugby club entrance. After the rugby club entrance there is a bus gate and no access for cars.
- Tile Hill gyratory – outbound between Renown Ave and Vanguard Ave and on going between Vangaurd and the left turn toward London on the A45. Note the right turn bus lane towards Birmingham remains in operation.
The works to the lines and signs along the routes that are being suspended in this first phase will be complete by the end of February.
The bus lanes will be suspended for nine months under an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order. After six months, Council officers will report their findings back to Council so further decisions can be made.
Road Gritting
With the current cold snap questions have been asked about how prepared the council is with respect to salt supplies.
Response from Peter Ullah, Highways Operations Manager:
Our current salt stock levels are very healthy. DfT guidelines prescribe that we must have minimum stock levels for 48 treatments of the network, which equates to 2400T for Coventry. We currently have 2675T in our salt barn with a further 1000T on hold with our supplier. To put this into context, we only carry out an average of 45 treatments over an entire Winter period so we are well prepared.
Here is an Interactive map of the gritting routes and grit bins
Competition for UK City of Culture 2021 Launched on 12th January
Coventry would be transformed by a successful bid to be UK City of Culture – and the city is ready to meet the challenge head on.
That’s according to the team behind the bid, which is now formally underway after Matt Hancock, Minister of State responsible for digital and culture policy at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, officially launched the competition in Hull.
The Coventry City of Culture Trust has been working on a bid for more than a year and the announcement means it knows key dates and the full bid process.
David Burbidge, the chair of the City of Culture Trust, said the support from the city – and the region – had been incredible so far but now was time to step up a gear.
Read more
Faster Broadband
A resident contacted us asking if we had any more information about faster Broadband in Coventry.
Last year some residents put in a petition requesting Faster Broadband in their area. Here’s an excerpt from the report -
The Cabinet Member is recommended to:
- Respond to the petition organiser encouraging residents to register their requirements for access to superfast broadband with local broadband providers (BT and Virginmedia).
- Review the Councils involvement in regional initiatives such as the Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire Broadband Partnership with a view to improving the coverage of Superfast Broadband in Coventry.
- Work with the Task and Finish groups of Scrutiny Boards 1 and 3, to meet with local Broadband suppliers (BT, Virginmedia, City Fibre etc.) to explore further opportunities for the improvement of the Superfast Broadband infrastructure within Coventry.
Read the full report
Residents can register with Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire Broadband Partnership -
www.cswbroadband.org.uk/register - to receive newsletters and updates of when work is planned in the area.
Read more
Coventry Family History Society
How to begin researching your Family History and help with your ‘dead ends’ at Coventry History Centre, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum
1 pm to 2.30 pm on:
- Thursday 19th January
- Thursday 16th February
- Thursday 16th March
- Thursday 13th April
The Enemy’s Exhibition at Coventry Music Museum
From Pete Chambers BEM, Director Curator at the Coventry Music Museum:
The Coventry Music Museum, is honouring the trio with an exhibition "Live and Die-A Celebration of The Enemy". The exhibition, traces their musical steps. With the full support of the band, the exhibition will feature the bands stage set, showcasing their backline amps & their actual tools of the trade.
The exhibition will also feature behind-the-scenes Enemy photographs taken over a ten year period of the band by local music journalist Pete Chambers BEM. Pete has produced a map of “The Enemy’s Coventry" which can be
viewed here.
The exhibition opens at 10am on Friday 20th January 2016. Normal museum prices apply £3 - Adults, £1 - Children and concessions £2 - (Senior Citizens and NUS Students). The Coventry Music Museum is in The 2-Tone Village, Unit 7, rear of 74-80 Walsgrave Rd, Coventry,CV2 4ED - their
website.
Read more
Read more
Read more
Notes from the Editor
- Our updates are sent out every Sunday. The only exception to this is over Christmas. If you stop receiving them then please check your Spam or Junk Folder, as your email server may have directed them there by mistake.
- Our Website address is www.cheylesmoreward.wix.com/teamcheylesmore. It contains our previous updates, parking scheme information & notices. It's best viewed on a laptop or PC.
- Why do I see empty boxes in this email? Our emails include many pictures which often contain important information. Some email systems don’t automatically display pictures. To read as intended, please click on “View it in your browser” which is in the top right hand corner of all our emails.
- If you would like to advertise your event here then please email cheylesmore.ward@gmail.com
Dates for your Diary
Every Monday 12.15 to 1.30 (term time only) - lunch at Cheylesmore community centre prepared by adults with learning difficulties as part of their Adult Education learning programme.
See the menu
Every Wednesday 12:30-3:00 – lunch at Christ Church (7 Frankpledge Road). Two course meal for £4.00. Transport available for £2.00. Advance booking required by calling the Church Office at: 024 7650 2770 or via:
http://christchurchcov.net/.
Sunday 15th January Coventry Millennium Tapestry at St James’ Church, Abbey Road. Join us for worship at 10am then the tapestry will be on view afterwards until 2pm. Entry Free.
Saturdays 21st January 1.30pm - 4pm Knit & Crochet Group at Cheylesmore Library. Everyone is welcome, no experience is required as basic tuition can be given and supplies are available.
Monday, 6th February, at 3pm in Committee Room 2 at the Council House- the possible meeting for the residents parking scheme and hearing petitions Cabinet meeting will consider the results of the scrutiny meeting with respect to the review of the Residents Parking Schemes in Coventry which includes the Cheylesmore scheme.
Tuesday 7th Feb at 7pm - the Whitley Local History Group will be having a talk by Sheila Woolf entitled “One man’s experiences as a prisoner of war in the far east 1942-1945”. Researched and told by his daughter to mark the 75th anniversary of the fall of Singapore. The group meet on the first Tuesday of the month at the Ibis Coventry South Hotel in Abbey Road.
And Finally Coventry Telegraph’s
50 reasons why you should NEVER visit Coventry
Useful Links and Phone Numbers
Adult Social Care Online Help
Age UK Coventry - Trusted Traders Scheme
Blood test locations to download a document listing the locations
Cheylesmore Parking Scheme Email:
parkingenforcement@coventry.gov.uk
Change Registration number on Virtual Pass
Check if a Vehicle is Taxed
Check the MOT history of a vehicle
Community Activity Directory
Coventry Independent Advice Service
Crime Rates in the area
Disposal of Large or Bulky items
Dropped Kerb Information
European Health Insurance Card
General Online Safety Tips & Advice
Government Services
Local Neighbourhood Police Team
Noise Nuisance
Refuse Collection Information
Report Problematic Drinking to the Council
Report Fly Tipping
Report Graffiti
Report a Missed Bin
Report a Pothole
Report a Street Light Fault
Report Untaxed and Abandoned Vehicles
Road Works
Samaritans
Scams & Warnings
School Closures
Which Consumer Rights -
https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/l/internet-scams
Cyber Streetwise -
https://www.cyberstreetwise.com/
Action Fraud -
http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report-a-fraud/how-to-report-a-fraud
Parking Enforcement phone numbers
Misuse of a visitor pass - 024 7683 4367
Not sure a car has a permit 024 7683 4367
Change registration number on virtual pass - 0345 520 7007
Buy a new permit virtual & paper - 0345 520 7007
Query the status of a PCN (Penalty Charge Notices) - 024 7683 3400
Coventry Council Customer Services
Open 9am - 5pm Mon to Fri (excl bank holidays)
Email: customer.services@coventry.gov.uk
Tel: 0500 834 333 Mobile friendly 024 7683 4333
Visit: www.coventry.gov.uk/myaccount
Emergency out-of-hours 024 7683 2222 (evening 6pm - 3am & weekend 10am - 3am)
Roger’s secretary - 024 7683 1101
