Aust Parish Council

LATEST NEWS

• The unconfirmed minutes for the 2012 Aust Annual Assembly can be read by scrolling down to Council Meetings below, where you can also read the most recently confirmed minutes of the regular monthly meeting.  You can read the Chairman's Annual Report for 2011-2012 here.
• Do you belong to or run a voluntary or community group that aims to promote health and wellbeing?  If so, you have a chance to influence the planning of future local services.  Find out here how you can attend a focus group in June 2012 to make your views known.
• One of the highlights of the Olveston and Aust Parishes Diamond Jubilee Celebrations on Monday 4 June, will be a SOAP BOX DERBY, a competition for locally-built soap box cars.  The deadline for entries is 14th May. There will be prizes for the fastest and for the most innovative/craziest design.  You can download all the instructions here.  Make sure your soapbox meets the specifications!  Details of all the Diamond Jubilee fun on offer on that Monday Bank Holiday can be seen on the Events listing for 4 June. 
• A May 2012 Bulletin detailing current and upcoming road works around the M4/M5 interchange is available here. 
• South Gloucestershire Council is committed to supporting the independence and well-being of older people and other vulnerable adults in the area.  They aim to help people live independently and, where possible, in their own homes and they provide some online guidance about the assessments and services provided.  You can see the range of information available here.  
• You can view a poster here about Carers Groups in South Gloucestershire.  There 4 different kinds of groups now: All Carers groups, Dementia groups, Learning Difficulties groups and Mental Health groups.  No need to book.  You can just turn up.  It's a chance for carers to have a cup of tea and a chat and to pick up some information.  Check out the poster to discover how to find your local groups.  You might also be interested in South Gloucestershire's Disability Action Group newsletter for March 2012.
• The South Gloucestershire LINk works to encourage and support people to get involved in shaping local health and care services; from helping to decide what services should be commissioned, to influencing how they are run. It approaches all relevant sections of the community for their views and experiences of local health and care services. It has powers to tell those who commission, run and scrutinise local care services, what local people have recommended, to help improve services and hold them to account. The March 2012 e-bulletin contains information about the LINk, LINk events and meetings (all of which are open to anyone to attend), news and information about the planning, commissioning and delivery of health and social care services in and around S.Glos, plus relevant regional and national information.
• The South Gloucestershire Family Placement Team is keen to find local people who could act, on a regular basis, as carers offering short-term breaks for children or young people, especially children on the autistic spectrum. Share the Care allows people to establish long-term relationships with the children and their families but may involve as little as one weekend per month.  To read more about what is involved and to discover how you can find out more, click here.
• You can read the Severnside Police Beat report for March 2012 here.
• There were articles in the Nov. 2011 and Jan. 2012 editions of Meeting Point about the proposed wind farm at Ingst.  Aust Council will be asked to comment, even though the site is not in our parish but in Olveston parish. You can see a map here, showing the location of the proposed wind farm and the three turbines. But your councillors would like to hear your views about this scheme before formulating their view. What do you think? Please let Tim Pyper, the parish clerk, or one of your parish councillors know what you think - contact details below.
• The Severnside Safer Stronger Community Group met in Aust on 11 January 2012.  You can access the minutes of the meeting here.  And you can access more information about Safer Stronger Community Groups here.
• The Olveston branch of Almondsbury Surgery will close on 1st April 2012.  All services will be concentrated at Almondsbury.
• From 1 January 2012, there are new arrangements for the local registration of births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships.  To read about the arrangements and to find the opening times of your nearest register office, click here.
• The Council has been informed of some recent or upcoming changes to bus services.  You can also check out a wide range of bus times on the South Gloucestershire Council website.  If you are interested in the 622 route, times are available here.
• The Parish Council has received a letter dated 7 September 2011 giving an update on plans for future NHS services in Thornbury, including plans for the Thornbury Hospital site.  Read the letter here.
• The Parish Council has learned of a new website called Well Aware, which gives information about health, well-being and community services for everyone in South Gloucestershire, Bristol, and Bath & NE Somerset. The website, which is run by The Care Forum (a not-for-profit voluntary organisation and charity), gives information about 1000s of groups, organisations, activities and services.  It has a user-friendly format which makes it easy to find support for a friend, family member - or for yourself.
• The Parish Council has received news of an Emergency Carers Service, provided by South Gloucestershire Council, which it thinks local residents would be interested to know about.  You can find out about the service here.

The civil parish of Aust 

This is a small rural parish with a large acreage but an electoral roll of only about 400. There are two very small parcels of registered Common Land in the parish. These are The Pound by the side of the Village Hall, Aust and The Pond in Rushen Lane, Littleton. Oversight and care of these sites are the responsibility of Aust Parish. The Council owns the nature reserve known as Woodwell Meadows in Field Lane, which was acquired with the help of South Gloucestershire Council recently.  It is managed by South Gloucestershire Council as a nature reserve, because of the interesting flora in the meadow. A recent article in Meeting Point, the community magazine, gives some information about the Woodwell Meadows nature reserve and its history.

Councillors aim to promote the wellbeing of the parish and protect parishioners' interests. Main tasks are reviewing Planning Applications and submitting written comments and recommendations when necessary, and monitoring the conditions of roads and rights of way.

Noticeable achievements in recent years have been obtaining speed controls through Elberton and Aust villages and a 7.5 ton weight restriction on Passage Road, Aust.

Council meetings are currently held monthly, on the second Tuesday of the month, with the exception of August and December, when there are no meetings.  The April Council meeting is held on the same evening as the Annual Assembly. 

Click here for our Model Publication Scheme, produced in February 2009, itemising how and where all parish information can be obtained.

Councillors

Council Meetings

Parishioners are welcome to attend Parish Council meetings.  Check out the Events page on this website for dates and times of meetings.   

You can read the most recently approved minutes of Aust Parish Council here. (These minutes are put on the website once they have been approved and signed as an accurate record at the subsequent meeting of each committee.) 

You can read the unconfirmed minutes for the 2012 Annual Parish Meeting, held on 17 April 2012, here.  (The minutes have to be approved at the 2013 Annual Assembly.)

You can read a summary of the annual accounts for the year 2011-2012 here. 

Aust Parish Matters

Reports on parish matters are sometimes included in Meeting Point, our local community magazine.  Printed below is the most recent report from Tim Pyper, the Parish Clerk: