A few weeks ago, a council survey got people thinking and talking about their local area. The survey showed that the council wanted to hear the views of local residents on a number of matters. We thought it was a great idea to continue the theme of giving voice to the community in our own way.
In these Vox Pop articles, we ask three local people for opinions on a given topic, which can then be read and discussed by everyone who visits our site.
This week, we asked people on the streets of Bradley Stoke: “What do you like about this area?” Here are three unique views from people in your locality…
Anne Petrie: “I like the fact that Bradley Stoke has good access to central amenities like the leisure centre, library, shops and doctor’s surgery. It’s also near the motorway, which is helpful for my husband when he has to travel to work.”
Ali Shah: “I like this area because it is clean and people are generally quite friendly around here. Multi-culturalism is also a positive aspect of this area because it gives variety and diversity: you can meet interesting people from different backgrounds and still feel part of one community.”
Barbara Colfer: “I moved to this area about a year ago and I am very pleased with my neighbourhood. The people in my close are very friendly and welcomed me when I arrived. We had a great Jubilee party last year and everyone participated in the celebrations.”
Do these views represent what you feel are the best features of Bradley Stoke? Perhaps you see some of the things expressed above as negative rather than positive. Do you have anything to add about what you like in the area? Please let us know what you think by leaving a comment below and participating in the discussion!
Unfortunately, Bradley Stoke, having survived the Sadly Broke crisis of the 90s, continues to attract negative comment from some outsiders.
“It’s a maze of roundabouts, I always get lost.” “All the houses look the same.” “It’s just a dormitory town with a big Tesco’s in the middle.”
But I think most people who live here, especially those with children, think it’s a pretty good place to live, due to the good schools, community facilities (leisure centre, library), community organisations and shopping facilities.
It’s also well placed for getting to centres of employment and transport links are good (OK, the traffic can be hell at rush hour and the bus service is pretty dire).
All in all, I’m quite content living here.
Our house was four wooden stakes on a patch of grass when we chose it. We moved from Little Stoke, previous to that Patchway. I remember someone complaining about not having an opticians, dentist etc in the town. It has all taken time but we have it now.
Can’t imagine living anywhere else unless its a little retirement cottage in our favourite town in Cornwall.
I have lived in Bradley Stoke for almost a year now, and moving from Bedminster to Bradley Stoke is different.
I played alot of skittles back on the south side and loved my local social club for a few drinks or get away for a little bit, but in bradley stoke we don’t seem to have a social club and the closet is little stoke..
Broadband speed is just totally useless, from being a 30mbps user to a 2mbps is a massive difference, we all know the issues so i won’t go into details.
The house we brought is amazing but one flaw to it is the bedroom where cars can go underneath to park their cars in the car ports at the back, in which we didn’t mind when buying the house, but we noticed over time people use it as a shortcut, and its really annoying when people use it as a meeting centre at the back (Mostly kids) and druggies… Every morning the same patchway school girl will go onto my drive and look into my house when going under the bedroom for the shortcut, its really annoying and i don’t know what the planners were thinking back in the 80’s
Bradley Stoke Dentist is too full i got no chance of getting in and need to stay at broadwalk dentist at knowle.
I sound like a moaning old person but really i’m young! However there is some likes to bradley stoke such as the pubs, aldi being close to my house, fish and chip shop etc.
I have lived in Bradley Stoke for 16 years now, and in that time it’s gone from a “town” with no amenites except a couple of Primary School’s, to a proper town, with a centre, all the services you would expect, and a secondary school. When my children were small, there were plenty of groups, activites and parks, but as they’ve grown up and moved to secondary school, I’ve found that there is very little for them to do, except go to “big tesco”, which I don’t like them doing.
Neither of my children attend BSCS (I expect the majority of 11+ in the area don’t either) so they travel to Thornbury schools by bus everyday and don’t get to see many of their local friends daily. So on that basis I would like to see more youth provision in the town, but not an out of date “youth club”, just somewhere kids could go, listen to music, chat, maybe have a drink (soft, obviously), I think they are called Juice Bar’s? I know we have a small problem with Anti-Social kids in the area, as does every area, but there are more good kids with nothing to do and nowhere to go than bad kids who want to cause trouble.
But all in all, I like living here. I think there’s a great sense of community and plenty of opportunities to celebrate this, the summer festival, the fireworks etc. On the whole, a friendly, clean, tidy, well kept town.
Shame about the the lake area could be really nice but love all the speed humps in the road as they make driving such a pleasure!
We moved here 11 years ago from Scotland, I think the area is good, we now have good facilities, and I have noticed everywhere has it’s down sides, but on balance to me there are more positives than negatives.
I find the place bland, boring and soulless. The Willowbrook centre is just tesco plus a bunch of tat shops and a few food places thrown in.
It has no character in the slightest.