Southam News

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Warwickshire County Council News has slightly more followers than Southam News with over 300 followers on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wcc_news.

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Ladies, do you want to buy your man a present he'll like?: Of course you do.

Well, you're in luck: you can buy him a pub.

The Bowling Green in Southam is up for sale or, rather, its lease is. Just think how happy he will be when he opens the wrapper and, instead of socks, he finds his own pub.

If you want to buy the pub: click here

Note: Contrary to popular belief, a present [for a man] can be given at any time not just Birthdays and Christmas.

The Chair of Warwickshire County Council, Cllr Jose Compton will today [Friday, September 10] be cutting the ceremonial ribbon to mark the official opening of the Rugby Western Relief Road (A4071).

The entire length of the new Rugby Western Relief Road (A4071) will open for motorists to use for the first time from 4pm.

The north section is complete and will be open to traffic ahead of the revised October target date. The southern section has been operational since June.

Councillor Alan Cockburn, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Environment and Economy, said: “I am delighted to announce that the long-awaited Rugby Western Relief Road will be open to the public from Friday. Everyone will now be able to see the fruition of what we have worked so hard to achieve.

“Although the scheme has taken longer than anticipated to construct, I would like to thank the people of Rugby for their patience while the construction work progressed, and I am sure the town will notice the considerable benefits immediately.”

Members of the public have been able to track the progress of the construction work on a dedicated website.

Rugby Western Relief Road (RWRR) is 3.75 miles (6 kilometres) miles long and has been built to relieve traffic congestion in and around Rugby. On-going residential and industrial development in the town, particularly to the west and north of the town centre, meant more traffic coming into and out of the town.

The new road will cut journey times and help to mitigate environmental damage by reducing noise and air pollution within the town centre. It will also create better conditions for pedestrians, cyclists and other highway users and help to reduce the number of accidents.

The multi-million pound scheme was constructed by Carillion and funded by the Department for Transport, Warwickshire County Council and developers.

More details have become available about changes to the route of the proposed HS2 railway as the  Department for Transport and HS2 Limited now have released details of the “route realignment”.

The document reveals that the entire route, as it passes our area, is now subject to changes. More detailed maps are promised soon.

Loations have been identified where environmental impact can be reduced by alterations to the alignment.

The new route brings the track closer to Southam. Now at ground level and avoiding a flood plain, there is no need for a viaduct. This would also lead to less noise and the ability to, essentially, hide the railway behind earthworks.

The Warwickshire Exhibition Centre is the venue for the International N Gauge Show.

There will be 27 layouts on display along with 30 specialist trade suppliers.

Again this year many of the leading manufacturers and suppliers will be present and Bachman and Dapol are hoping to launch new products at the event.

Over 2,500 visitors are expected to attend. 

As this is the only exhibition dedicated to all things N and the exhibition is highly regarded by N Gauge enthusiasts.  

Layouts on display feature British Steam and Modern Image together with layouts following Continental and American practice.

The event takes place this weekend [Saturday & Sunday, 11 and 12 September].

Opening Times:
10.00am - 5.00pm Saturday
10.00am - 4.00pm Sunday

 01926 614101

 N Guage Site

 Warwickshire Exhibition Centre

     The Fosse, Fosse Way, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV31 1XN   

  What's On Diary

Fuel prices in Southam.

These prices may have changed by the time you get there!

However, the Total Garage seems the place to go:

 Petrol Prices dot com

Democracy haters, HS2 Limited, have announced amendments to the proposed HS2 rail link. Significantly, for our area, the route is to shift further away from Ladbroke towards Southam.

The shift is only a matter of metres but may avoid having to build a viaduct [or 'stilts' as locals have called it] to carry the track east of Ladbroke.

Following the announcement, a man who was personally telephoned by Kenilworth & Southam MP, Jeremy Wright, with the ‘good news’ wants to distance himself from the assertion that “Residents in Warwickshire welcomed the news”.

The Kenilworth Stop HS2 Action Group happened to be holding a public meeting less than three hours after the proposed route realignment was announced, and Richard Kenyon was the first member of the public to speak after the presentation on Wednesday night saying; “I should be celebrating tonight, as HS2 has moved from 100 yards away from my house to 400 yards away, but I’m not because I’ve looked into the proposal and it should be stopped, full stop”.

After the meeting, Kenyon emailed Jeremy Wright MP stating; “It was good of you to call Jan [his wife] this afternoon to tell us of the change of proposed route for HS2. However, you should be under no illusion that we have any great pleasure in the announcement. I trust that in your press release reported on the BBC website you do not include us as among those being pleased by the announcement. I consider that the Government has made the proposed change to try to divert attention and opponents' energy from the real issue, namely that the proposal is so unrealistic that it should be scrapped. As I have told you before, my support for the party has waned and will wane still further if there is no announcement that a proper review of the project is undertaken.”

“At a meeting in Kenilworth this evening I was pleased to hear that you had arranged some meetings to discuss the HS2 project. During the meeting there was a strong feeling that the Ministry had been told by the Government to "get on with this project". If this is correct I find the Government's attitude quite unsupportable.”

Joe Rukin, the chair of the Kenilworth Stop HS2 Action Group said; “We can’t quite understand how the MP for Kenilworth and Southam is saying his constituents welcome these proposed changes, when they mean taking HS2 closer to both Kenilworth and Southam. They also take the railway closer to Cubbington, which is the next biggest place in the constituency. In the case of what is proposed for Burton Green with cut and cover, it’s laughable. HS2 Ltd are more or less saying that they’ll drop the line and build a park on top of it, as there will be loads of room for a park after they still demolish all the houses during the construction phase. Maybe they won’t demolish the hamlet of Stareton, and the villages of Stoneleigh and Ladbroke are slightly better off, but more people are affected, and going through the Royal Showground will affect more businesses and hundreds more jobs, which we know already that HS2 Ltd won’t take into account when they say how good for business the rail link is.”

“The whole thing stinks, and it seems more than a coincidence that it was only revealed on Tuesday, the day before this realignment was announced, that the County Council Cabinet will vote to scrap plans for the ‘Connect 2’ Kenilworth Greenway project, a cyclepath that gets in the way of HS2, this Thursday [September 9].”

“The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter what the route of HS2 is, there is no business case, there is no environmental case, and there is no money to pay for it.”

Read the Augustus article: "Connaught - House of Cards".

Priors Marston and Priors Hardwick School is one of 16 new "Free Schools" detailed in a written Ministerial Statement from Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove.

Michael Gove:

"Today I am announcing the first 16 Free School proposals to progress to the next stage of the process and develop a full business case and plan.

We need to reform our education system if we are to accelerate improvement to keep pace with the highest performing systems of the world and ensure that every pupil growing up in this country gets a better chance of achieving their potential. Free Schools form an integral part of the Government’s education policy to improve choice for parents and raise standards for all young people.

The proposals I have agreed to move forward to business case and plan stage today represent a diverse mix: there are parent-led, community-led, sponsor-led and teacher-led proposals; there are faith and non-faith proposals; there are proposals for large secondary schools and for small primary schools. All of these proposals have been driven by demand from local people for improved choice for their young people and I am delighted that so many promising proposals have come forward at such an early stage.

I hope that many of the projects progressing today will become the first Free Schools in September 2011. This is a challenging timescale, and some groups may decide that it is preferable to open at a later date for practical reasons. To support groups in meeting the robust requirements of the business case and plan stage, we will now be providing the proposers that progress to this stage with support co-ordinated by a named contact within my Department. At the next stage, proposers will need to make a fully detailed business case for the new school and set out their plans for opening and operating the proposed school. I will make an assessment based on this final business case on whether to allow a new school to be set up.

The proposals announced today are just the start of our Free Schools programme. My Department has received a number of promising proposals for 2012 and 2013 and we will be making further announcements about taking these forward in due course. New proposals are frequently being submitted to the Department. We want it to be open to a diverse range of groups to come forward with proposals which meet the needs of their local area, and for proposals to progress at the pace which is right for both proposers and for parents and young people in the local area".

The 16 proposals approved to go forward to business case and plan stage are:
• Bedford and Kempston Free School, Bedford Borough
• The Childcare Company, Slough
• Discovery New School, West Sussex
• The Free School Norwich, Norfolk
• Haringey Jewish Primary School, Haringey
• I-Foundation Primary School, Leicester
• King’s Science Academy, Bradford
• Mill Hill Jewish Primary School, Barnet
• Nishkam Education Trust, Birmingham
• North Westminster Free School (ARK), Westminster
• Priors Marston and Priors Hardwick School, Warwickshire
• Rivendale Free School, Hammersmith and Fulham
• St. Luke’s School, Camden
• Stour Valley Community School, Suffolk
• West London Free School, Ealing or Hammersmith and Fulham
• Wormholt North Hammersmith Free School (ARK), Hammersmith and Fulham (to be known as Burlington Primary Academy)

On Day Eight [8th September] of her walk of the entire route of HS2, the proposed London-Birmingham high speed rail link, STOP HS2 campaigner Lizzy Williams will cross the Grand Union Canal, which was built by her direct ancestor, James Brindley.

Williams, who will today reach Ladbroke, her last stop in Warwickshire before crossing into her “home territory” of South Northamptonshire on Wednesday said; “Like what happened with the canals, High Speed Rail will become irrelevant as a viable transportation system as soon as it is built. Back then of course, the canal builders didn’t know that the railways were coming, the same way the railway builders couldn’t foresee the advent of the internal combustion engine which moved traffic to the roads. Now it is a different story, the people behind HS2 should be able to see that business passengers are going to travel less in the future. Due to the internet, email and video conferencing progressing, businessmen simply don’t have to travel as much as they used to. Fifteen years ago, no-one had even heard of email, now almost everyone uses it. It will be about another fifteen years before HS2 is ready, so who knows what technological innovations there will have been by then? The best way the Government can invest in the UK economy is with high speed broadband, not high speed rail.”

Joe Rukin, Acting Convenor of the national campaigning body, Stop HS2 said; “There are currently 45,000 passengers per day using the West Coast Mainline. The HS2 business plan says that this will somehow be magicked into 146,000 per day. HS2 Ltd say that 65% of these will transfer from cars and normal trains which both pollute less, but a staggering 27% -almost 40,000 people per day- won’t even travel at all until this thing is built. The question I have is why on Earth do they think this is going to happen? According to the original forecast, HS1 in Kent should be carrying about 24 million passengers a year by now, but it’s only got about a third of that. That’s why it’s running at a loss, that’s why they’ve cut the services, and that’s why it’s being sold for a quarter of what it cost to build. Even ARUP, the company which drew up the plans for HS2 has already told employees to use video conferencing instead of travelling to meetings, so why does anyone think HS2 will encourage more people to travel? Isn’t that exactly the opposite of what we should be encouraging people to do anyway?”