Focus on

New licensing scheme for private rented accommodation launches:

Calling all landlords! The scheme for Additional Licensing of privately rented Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) and Selective Licensing for most other privately rented properties in Brislington West ward comes into force on 6 April 2022. You will have up to three months to submit a valid application together with the part 1 fee. No enforcement for an unlicensed property will be considered until after 6 July 2022. You will not be able to apply before 6th April as the scheme is not live until that date and the online application form will not be activated until then. Please go to the Following webpage from 6th April to apply: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/licences-permits/ apply-for-a-property-licence-page https://www.bristol.gov.uk/licences-permits/ guide-to-what-happens-after-you-ve-appliedfor-a-property-licence • The Part 2 payment can be reduced by £150 if you submit valid gas and electrical safety certificates and a valid EPC. A further reduction of £150 can be applied to the Part 2 payment if you are an accredited member of one of the West of England Rent with Confidence scheme approved providers.: https:// www.westofenglandrentwithconfidence.co.uk/ If both discounts are applied, no Part 2 fee will be required.

• Once the Part 2 payment is paid, your licence will be issued and is valid for five years. This is not an annual fee – it covers the five-year licence period.

You will find more detailed information on the scheme here: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/ licences-permits/property-licences Below are answers to some of the questions most frequently asked about licensing: • Each property will be inspected at least once during the lifetime of the scheme to ensure that they meet licensing standards. For more information on licensing standards please visit here: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/ licences-permits/licences-standards-and-conditions

• If there are three or more unrelated people resident who share some facilities (such as a kitchen or bathroom), it is an HMO and you would need an ADDITIONAL licence with a Part 1 fee of £1,000.

• If you let to a family or to one or two people only, it is not an HMO but will require a SELECTIVE licence with a Part 1 fee of £499. • It is a legal requirement for landlords to make a licence application for each property that they let in the area that needs a licence. Failure to do so could result in enforcement action and prosecution.

• Landlords with properties which already have Mandatory HMO licences (properties subject to the longstanding national licensing scheme for larger houses in multiple occupation) do not need to make a further application under this scheme.

• A Part 2 fee of £300 for all licence types is due some months later once the application has been processed and you will receive a letter asking for the payment and relevant certificates to be provided. More details here: 24

Repairs round up:

We’ve been busy reporting highway maintenance issues in the Sandy Park area this week including a damaged kerb stone on Winchester Road, extensive potholes at the junction with Wick Road and uneven paving and drain covers on Sandy Park Road. We’ve also been helping a local resident who was confused about the status of some fading double yellow lines on Sandhurst Road. When Council workers were repainting the double yellow lines, they stopped on the corner by the Sandringham Pub but did not continue down Sandhurst Road. When local residents questioned this, they were told that the council was no longer going to enforce the parking restrictions on the road so the lines were not going to be repainted. Consequently, local residents have been parking there. However, one of them received a parking ticket recently. Following our enquiries, we discovered that the lines are indeed no longer enforced so the parking enforcement notice was issued erroneously. We’ve told the council that rather than waiting for yellow lines to fade away, they need to be blacked out to avoid mistaken parking tickets in the future. Do let us know if there are any problems you’d like us to get sorted elsewhere in Brislington West.

New signage for Nightingale Valley:

Glad to see the new signage we requested for Nightingale Valley has been installed. It warns visitors about the historic fly-tipping and large quantities of broken glass in certain sections of the valley.

CIL funding deadline:

Time is rapidly running out for local residents and community groups in Brislington West to apply for funding for community projects using Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) money, which developers pay to local authorities to mitigate the negative impact of their developments. We would like to encourage as many local residents and groups as possible to apply for funding to support their projects this year. You can access all the information you need here: www.bristol.gov.uk/people-communities/funding-local-projects Local groups and organisations should put forward their ideas for potential projects by 4th April 2022, but the earlier, the better. We’re asking everyone to write them up on the Stage 1 Outline Proposal Form (available on the webpage attached) and send it to us (see our contact details below).

Bristol Climate and Ecological Community Grant programme:

If you know of any community groups or small, not-for-profit organisations based and working in Brislington who may be interested in this new grant, please do share the details on the Council’s and Quartet’s websites: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/policies-plansstrategies/council-action-on-climate-change https://quartetcf.org.uk/grant-programmes/ bristol-climate-and-ecological-emergency-community-grant/

The Downs public consultation:

Although In North Bristol, the Downs are there for everybody. A new public engagement has been launched to get peoples' views. The survey is live now at http://smartsurvey.co.uk/s/DownsEngagement. The more people who contribute to this, the better! The survey will be open until the 19th April. Hundreds of Brislington West residents have signed up to receive our monthly newsletter via email. You can register using this link: http://www.bristollibdems.org/efocus. By Jos Clark, Liberal Democrat Councillor (Brislington West) Email: cllr.jos.clark@ bristol.gov.uk Mobile: 07584 370429 & Andrew Varney, Liberal Democrat Councillor (Brislington West) Email: cllr.andrew. varney@bristol.gov.uk Mobile: 07584 183381