As The Journal goes to press next week, B&NES Council Cabinet will meet to approve both the recommendations for Radstock's half-a-million pound Capital Funding Project and also to discuss the responses to the proposed local schools' expansion plans, which will affect six schools locally – notably, Paulton Infant and Junior Schools and Peasedown St John Primary School.

The meeting, due to be held on Wednesday, 10th April, will seek Cabinet approval for the £500,000 allocated to Radstock to be spent in the following ways, following a four-week consultation period last

October. Interestingly, out of approximately 5,276 people living in Radstock ward, only 33 email responses to the consultation were received.

£160,000 of the fund has full approval to be spent on the Victoria Hall, to bring the building back into community use. It is currently closed, awaiting electrical works and asbestos removal to make the building safe. Additional contingency funding, the Council say, will help to relocate the library, enable a lift to be installed and create meeting rooms and exhibition space.

This leaves £340,000 to be allocated for the regeneration of the area. The recommendations being put forward by B&NES are that:

• £135,000 should go to the Radstock and Westfield Economic Development Forum, which oversees and manages the delivery of an economic development action plan for the area to encourage the economic, social and community growth in both Radstock and Westfield. The Forum is made up of both B&NES and local Councillors, local business representatives, and representatives from both Writhlington School and Norton Radstock College.

• £50,000 to be invested into additional community facilities, including updating the children's play park in Writhlington and to promote more opportunities to use such facilities.

• £140,000 for investment to streets, highways and public safety – which includes plans to widen Morley Terrace in Tyning to provide better parking and improve access to homes, improving road safety for people on foot and for cyclists on Frome Road, Radstock, by widening the pavement and introducing an additional crossing – something that has been campaigned for vocally for years. There are also plans to use the money to roll out a 20mph speed limit in Haydon, specifically at Haydon Hill and on Kilmersdon Road to St Nicholas' School. Clandown may also benefit, with recommendations to provide a pavement between Upper and Lower Clandown, on the blind bend.

• Plus £15,000 towards the provision of Heritage signage for Radstock.

Council officers are recommending that in both the monies for the community facilities and in the Economic Development Forum cases, a competitive and open bidding process take place for the money to be

allocated over the course of the next year. The Council say the proposed aim of the Radstock Capital Funding project will be to 'improve the street scene, encourage property regeneration and attract private sector investment'.

B&NES Cabinet will also be considering the responses submitted during the statutory notice period in which it proposed to expand six local primary schools. The Council say there is a serious shortfall in pupil places, due to increased birth rate and new housing developments in the area, particularly in Paulton and Peasedown St John, and has a statutory duty to ensure there are enough school places for local children. Expanding Peasedown St John Primary School by 105 places will not require any extra building work, however, the Paulton Schools will need building work, with revenue from future Section 106

developer contributions and the Direct Schools Grant from the Government.

Concerned parents and residents had launched an E-petition against the Paulton Schools expansion plans, with worries of congestion and that making the schools larger would be detrimental to their children's education. But the Council maintains that all of the schools put forward for expansion are rated Good or Outstanding, a good basis to start from. With regards to moving the schools entirely, B&NES say they would prefer to keep the schools in a central location and cannot justify a new school on the Polestar site. The Council's main aim would be to cut the number of local families using cars to transport children to and from the expanded schools, hoping to reduce congestion in the village and proposing a 'Park and Stride' system, whereby parents walk their children the rest of the way to school. These alternative transport suggestions will be included in any planning application submitted.

Wednesday's meeting will also see important approval sought for the Highway Structural Maintenance Programme for 2013/14, which, with prolonged periods of wet and freezing weather, is also of some urgency. Included in the meeting will be improved street lighting in areas of Midsomer Norton, particularly Charlton Park, the A39 at Hallatrow and the centre of Paulton village. £30,000 is being recommended for highways drainage for Bath New Road, Radstock and £50,000 for the Coombend Culvert. Resurfacing works up for approval include A367 Bath New Road, Radstock, A367 Fosseway, Westfield (part), Bath Road in Peasedown St John, part of Camerton Hill and the B3115 Tunley Road, Dunkerton.