yate&sodburyvoice www.yateandsodburyvoice.co.uk
January, 2021 Issue 69
FREE EVERY MONTH IN YATE, CHIPPING SODBURY & SURROUNDING VILLAGES
Grave outrage
A GRIEVING dad wants to know who vandalised his son's headstone – and why. PAGE 9
New speed limit
A childhood stripped away A YATE couple say their three-year-old son’s childhood is being "stripped away" after he was suddenly diagnosed with leukaemia. Mitch Clark and Sophie Kenvin's son Jaxson faces years of treatment to save his life. And with the family constantly on the move between hospital and home, having already been hit financially by the coronavirus pandemic, hundreds of donors have joined a fundraising campaign to help them through. Jaxson’s symptoms started to appear at the beginning of November, when he started to have leg pains. Sophie said: “He was moaning about his legs. They were hurting and aching and he didn’t want to walk anywhere – we thought maybe he’d pulled something.”
Then during a weekend sleepover at his grandma’s house, Jaxson had two heavy nosebleeds. When Sophie collected him she found a thyroid gland on his neck had swelled to "the size of a golf ball". She called the NHS 111 line and mumps was suggested as a possible cause, but Sophie was not convinced, as Jaxson had already been vaccinated. The following Monday Jaxson had a temperature and Sophie rang her GP surgery in Kennedy Way, Yate. She was told that he had to have a COVID-19 test before he could be seen, but when the test came back negative and the high temperature persisted, she called again, convinced that something else was wrong. Turn to page 3
THE main road through a Yate estate with hundreds of homes is set to get a new speed limit. PAGE 3
Tree brightens year of gloom YATE'S Tree of Light is helping residents remember loved ones and celebrate special events. PAGE 5
Lights promise YATE Town Football Club will receive new floodlights and other improvements – if a new housing development is approved. PAGE 17
Pub, hotel and shops vanish from centre plans A NEW neighbourhood centre to serve nearly 2,500 homes proposed for Yate has been approved – despite a pub, hotel and most of its shops vanishing from the plans. Barratt Homes’ centre for the “new neighbourhood” in north Yate was expected to include seven shops plus a pub and hotel, according to a master plan
given outline permission in 2015. But the final version approved by South Gloucestershire Council's strategic sites planning committee included just one shop, 48 flats, parking, a green space for residents and a paved area with seating and cycle parking. Land is also set aside for a health centre and community
centre and the developer must make a contribution towards these. But a Yate town councillor said the loss of the 50-bed budget hotel, pub and six out of seven small retail units meant it was "no longer a district centre in what we would all recognise." Town councillor Chris Willmore told committee
members: “On the application before you the hotel has gone, the pub has gone and most of the shops have gone." Objection letters from 22 residents of the Ladden Gardens development included concerns that “amenities promised when we bought are being removed from the plans”. Turn to page 4