Updates: Tricorn House, Standish Hospital, Purton Hulks and A46 lorries

Updates on these topics which have been discussed at length previously in this blog (use search engine for items):

Photo: Fungi in Standish woods

Tricorn House - Stroud Life report that owners of Tricorn have been accused of trying to block a rival bid to re-develop it. Wellfair Holdings Ltd has put forward two different ideas for Tricorn House to Stroud District Council – but Dale Vince of Ecotricity, who wants to buy it, says they're not serious and the "building needs knocking down." Stroud District Council (SDC) is still trying to secure a compulsory purchase order (CPO) on the site - a move I fully support. The earliest these new planning applications will be decided is expected to be December.

Standish Hospital - Junior health minister Ben Bradshaw has approved the handover of the Standish Hospital site near Stonehouse, to Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust. It closed in 2004 when the new Gloucestershire Royal Hospital buildings opened. Many of us have been fighting to save it from closure for a long time. In July of this year, the PCT outlined various uses for the site including providing health and social care services, accommodation for older people with a range of disabilities, as well as services for people of all ages. Short term health and social care treatment could be made available, plus care for people between hospital and home.

Purton Hulk's - Paul Barnett has made a one man's crusade to save the ship graveyard on the eastern bank of the River Severn. This collection of ships beached has now been covered by the BBC and will appear in the Spring of 2009 with anchor presenter, Neil Oliver. As regular blog readers will know I have backed Mr Barnett's petition to make the site a listed ancient monument. From 1910, the canal authority beached old vessels to form breakwaters and so save the canal from river erosion. The last vessels to be beached were the motorised barge Severn Falcon and seven ferrous concrete barges in the late 1960s. The Friends of Purton are currently recruiting like-minded people to act as site guides, to conduct an ongoing programme of archaeological surveys and participate in forthcoming research programmed for 2009. For details on this or the petition call Mr Barnett on 07833 143 231 or email barnadillo@aol.com

Lorries and A46 - Heavy lorries are set to be banned from using some Cotswold villages as shortcuts as reported before in this blog. Gloucestershire County Council now looks set to approve a measure designed to stop lorries weighing more than 7.5 tonnes from being driven through many villages, except for deliveries. The lorry management zone is set to be brought in at the end of the year and lorries over 7.5t will be banned from using the A46 between Stroud and Brockworth, the A4173 between Pitchcombe and Brookthorpe, the B4008 between Stonehouse and Hardwicke, and the A435 between Seven Springs and Cirencester, as short cuts. This means an extra 34 lorries a day are expected to use the Air Balloon junction and Nettleton Bottom on the A417, with 162 more on the A419 at Stonehouse and an extra 68 at Stroud. The report to the committee stated the maximum increase in CO2 emissions would be 0.5% - however a point I made before is that if you reduce lorries you can increase cycling and walking which will hopefully even out any rises in CO2 that are forecast.