News – Page 36 – Barnt Green Parish Council

Monthly Parish Council surgery

14 April 2015/in News /by bgexec

Parish councillors will be available at the parish council office at 80 Hewell Road between 10.30am and 11.30am on the third Saturday of each month in order to meet residents and other village stakeholders wishing to raise issues or make enquiries. Come along and meet your councillors.

Better stations and more trains

19 February 2015/in News /by bgexec

Better stations and more trains as investment continues to improve the railway between Barnt Green and Bromsgrove
Work to improve the railway between Barnt Green and Bromsgrove will increase over the coming weeks and months as part of a £100m investment to provide a better railway.

Network Rail and its partners Centro and Worcestershire County Council will be completing a range of improvements, from a new pedestrian footbridge at Barnt Green station to a brand new station in Bromsgrove, over the coming months. The railway in between the two stations will also be electrified and resignalled to help provide an improved and more frequent service to complement the new facilities.

The work represents the biggest investment in transport in the Bromsgrove area since the M42 motorway was built and the result will be a modern railway station with a frequent service to Birmingham and beyond. When complete the new Bromsgrove station will have four longer platforms, step-free access, a 350 space car park and a bus interchange. It is due to open in late 2015.

It will be served by electric Cross-City line trains between Bromsgrove, Birmingham New Street, Sutton Coldfield and Lichfield, with four trains per hour each way on weekdays compared to the current one train per hour service today. Thanks to improvements already made on the line to Redditch, Barnt Green has seen more trains calling at the station from 15 December 2014, with three trains per hour now stopping in each direction. After the Bromsgrove work this will rise to four trains per hour in December 2016.

To deliver the improvements, there will be some short-term disruption as the work takes place but everything will be done to minimise this as much as possible. Road diversions will be in place in the Barnt Green area between January and May 2015 when three road bridges are rebuilt to accommodate an electrified railway underneath. These are:

Hewell Lane closed for vehicles between 10th January and late April 2015. Pedestrian access will be maintained by a temporary footbridge
‘Greens’ occupation bridge (by the M42 on Blackwell Road) closed for vehicles between 6th March and late April, though footpath access will be maintained by a temporary footbridge. Blackwell road will be closed between 30th March and late April
Linthurst Newtown closed for vehicles and pedestrians between 10th January and late March 2015.
Work will also take place at Bromsgrove station from late Christmas Eve until the start of normal service on 27 December as Network Rail makes use of the railway being closed to carry out track work and make excavations ahead of work taking place through 2015.

Work to electrify the railway between Barnt Green and Bromsgrove will take place from February 2015 to spring 2016. People living alongside the railway will be written to in advance to make them aware of the dates and times for this work and any other which may have noise implications.

The new footbridge will be built at Barnt Green station between February and June 2015. The current bridge will remain in place through and be removed once the new one is installed.

Liam Sumpter, area director for Network Rail, said: “This work is part of a £100m investment in the railway in north Worcestershire which will provide a better railway for passengers. It is important that we continue to invest in the rail network to meet the increasing demands being placed on it and provide the best level of service to passengers that we can.

“We have worked closely with our partners to plan and implement the upgrades to cause the least disruption and will do all we can to keep noise and inconvenience to a minimum.”

For further information contact Network Rail’s national helpline on 0845 141 114 or visit www.networkrail.co.uk
(article added 17 December 2014)
Text provided by Network Rail

Barnt Green to Bromsgrove electrification update: 10 February 2015

19 February 2015/in News /by bgexec

The Barnt Green to Bromsgrove electrification project is a local example of the considerable investment going in to the rail network at the moment. Work is progressing on the structure clearance work at Barnt Green, and in parallel the construction of a new railway station at Bromsgrove is taking shape.

These improvements will lead to an improvement to the local rail service, meaning by the end of 2016 Bromsgrove will see four trains per hour in each direction compared to the current one: and at the same time Barnt Green will go from the recently-increased 3 trains per hour also to 4 trains per hour. At least one train each way per hour will connect Barnt Green with Bromsgrove, compared to the solely ‘school hours’ trains we see today.

Engineering work comprises the following:

1) New station at Bromsgrove 200 metres south of the current one
2) Bridge reconstruction to permit sufficient headroom clearance for electrification (January to April)
3) Resignalling of the route (by November)
4) Construction of masts and portal structures for the main electrification works (July 2015 to May 2016).

It is expected that of the above, the bridge reconstruction and main electrification works will be the activities most noticeable in the Barnt Green area.

The bridge reconstruction works have led to the following road closures:

Hewell Lane (Barnt Green) 10th January 2015 – 20th April 2015
Linthurst Newtown 10th January – 30th March 2015
Blackwell Road (closed near the M42 bridge) 30th March – 27th April 2015.

Diversions have been signed, and bus diversions put in place. Most of the time period of these closures is taken in diverting and relocating utilities such as gas, water and electricity. Demolition of the bridge spans each take place over one night, and similarly the basic re-decking of the bridges is typically done in one shift.

The new Barnt Green station footbridge is in the process of construction, and a through walking route will continue during the course of the works: the old footbridge will only be removed after the new one has been opened up.

In October the line between Barnt Green and Bromsgrove will shut completely for 12 days between 20^th October and the start of the train service on 2^nd November, with train diversions and replacement bus services in place. Redditch-Barnt Green-Birmingham services will continue to run through most of this period. This will enable the old Bromsgrove station to be demolished, and a new track layout to be built, which will be set-up handle the additional rail traffic which will use the station from December 2016. The new signalling system being installed between Ashchurch (Cheltenham) and Five Ways will also be brought into use on 2^nd November, as well as the opening of the new Bromsgrove station, albeit at that stage to diesel trains only.

During this 12-day period we will try to concentrate the main electrification works through Barnt Green and Blackwell into daytime hours. However outside this period, there will be some weekend and night-time working, but the contractors will try to minimise the duration and level of noise as far as possible. Details about this work will be communicated to lineside neighbours during the course of construction.

Site clearance and relocation of the tracks in the area of the new station is well underway to create sufficient space for the new station and its 350-space car park. Construction of the 4 brand-new Bromsgrove station platforms has stated, some 200 metres south of the current station, with four platforms, lifts and the new car park The new station at Bromsgrove will be a much improved facility compared to today’s cramped, operationally difficult site.

Electrification work will continue beyond November, involving construction of overhead line stanchions, ‘goalposts’ and final wiring for the electrification.

This work represents the biggest investment in transport in North Wotcestershire since the M42 motorway was built. The result will be Bromsgrove enjoying a modern railway station with a frequent and attractive service to central Birmingham and beyond into the national rail network, and Barnt Green seeing a more frequent passenger service to Birmingham, as well as hourly services to Bromsgrove and better connectivity towards Hereford and Worcester, Wales and the South-West..

If you have any questions or concerns, please visit www.networkrail.co.uk or telephone our 24-Hour National Helpline on 08457 11 41 41.

Text supplied by Network Rail

Standing for election as a Parish Councillor

19 February 2015/in News /by bgexec

The election of parish councillors takes place on the first Thursday in May, every four years. Barnt Green Parish Councillors will be elected this year on Thursday 7 May 2015. Although the following seeks to provide the information required by prospective candidates,

please raise any questions with the Electoral Services Officer, Lizzie Tovey, on 01527 881421 or at

Worcestershire County Association of Local Councils has produced two helpful leaflets for prospective candidates. Both can be accessed by following this link.

To stand for election on the Parish Council you must be aged 18+ and be:

a UK or Commonwealth citizen; or
a citizen of the Republic of Ireland; or
a citizen of another Member state of the European Union.

To be eligible to stand as a Parish Councillor in Barnt Green you must:

be registered as a local government elector for the parish; or
in the past 12 months have occupied (as owner or tenant) land or other premises in the parish; or
work in the parish (as your principal or only place of work); or
live within three miles of the parish boundary.

Party politics are irrelevant. The Parish Council serves the community and has no party political affiliation. However, you should not have been:

declared bankrupt; or
convicted of a crime and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than three months within five years before the election date; or
disqualified under any enactment relating to corrupt or illegal practices.

You cannot be a paid employee of the Parish Council.

There are four initial steps to take before standing in elections:

1. Find out when the Notice of Election is published

Bromsgrove District Council advise this is likely to be 16 March 2015. Please contact the Electoral Services Team for confirmation.

2. Get a nomination form

From the Electoral Services Office, Bromsgrove District Council, Burcot Lane, Bromsgrove, B60 1AA. Copies may also be available at the parish council office at 80 Hewell Road, Barnt Green, B45 8NF.

3. Complete your nomination form

The candidate, proposer and seconder must complete and sign the form. (Electoral Register Numbers are required and available from Electoral Services Office).

4. Return your completed nomination form

These must be returned to the Electoral Services Office between 10am and 4pm on any working day after publication of notice of election until Thursday 9 April 2015.