Campaign group revives Toby to step down

THE leader of South Gloucestershire Council will step down in May at the local elections.

Toby Savage has led the council for five years but said he has had a “promotion” after the birth of his second child in February.

Cllr Savage has represented the Longwell Green ward for the Conservatives since 2015, but decided not to stand for re-election so he could dedicate more time to his young family.

He will lead the party in South Gloucestershire into the elections on May 4, after which a new leader will then be chosen.

Cllr Savage said: “I have recently been given a promotion to dad-of-two and will therefore be standing down from South Gloucestershire Council at the forthcoming elections on May 4.

"I have been council leader for just under five years, and it has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve the area in which I was born and brought up.

"These past years have been unprecedented and exhausting. We have led the local responses to a global pandemic, a war and a worldwide cost of living crisis.

"Throughout all of this I have been honoured to work with extraordinary people both inside and outside the council, who serve local people with dedication and distinction. I am proud to be leaving at a time of record high performance for the council on school standards, recycling and investments into our communities, to name just a few."

Labour group leader Pet Rooney has also announced her intention to stand down after the elections.

By Alex Seabrook, Local Democracy Reporting Service Voter ID row: Page 8

CAMPAIGNERS who fought off plans to build 1,800 homes in Coalpit Heath have revived their group, over concerns that plans for hundreds more homes are in the pipeline.

And it is the appearance of small boxes in hedgerows in Frampton Cotterell that has set alarm bells ringing.

The boxes are used to carry out surveys to see if dormice are living in an area - and those surveys are carried out ahead of formal planning applications being drawn up, because dormice are an endangered and protected species. If any are found it can affect development projects.

Members of VALID (Villages Against Locally Intended Development), a group that opposes large scale development in the area, says the boxes are evidence a plan could soon be submitted.

They have been spotted on a site on land between Poplars Farm Shop and Black Rocks in

Frampton.

Bristol architects Pad Design submitted a 40-page proposal for a development of 400 new homes called The Poplars on the site last year, in response to a 'call for sites' by South Gloucestershire Council, asking people to suggest places where housing development could take place.

Details on the submission have been redacted by South Gloucestershire Council – but they indicate the landowner may be willing to sell and the site could be developed in five years.

The document set out “a vision” for 24 acres of housing, with parkland and traditional stone walls.

The Voice has contacted the architects and farm shop for a comment.

VALID, which was first set up in 2016 and successfully campaigned to stop 1,800 homes being earmarked for fields east of Roundways in Coalpit Heath, has now revived with a meeting