FEARS such as the rapid increase in the size of the town, speeding and unsafe roads for pedestrians have been raised in Yate.

South Gloucestershire Council launched a public consultation in December seeking residents' views to help inform its new Local Plan.

The draft Local Plan sets out where SGC thinks 20,490 homes should be built up to the year 2040.

Multiple sites in Yate were revealed as locations plus sites at neighbouring villages and areas such as Frampton Cotterell, Winterbourne and Coalpit Heath.

This includes 162 homes at land north of Ladden Garden Village plus 200 homes in the town centre.

Yate Town Council has now published its answers to the consultation, which include its thoughts on some of the town's main issues plus potential measures to improve transport connections.

When asked for their greatest hope for the area over the next 10 years, a town council spokesperson wrote: "After a period of intense house building, that a period of time is spend developing the local services and infrastructure to support the increase in residents.

"This includes public transport, increased opportunity for active travel, and services for residents (schools, dentists, doctors, social services, youth services etc) as well as to encourage sustainable employment opportunities locally for residents."

The spokesperson then went on describe what the council thought were some of Yate's main issues.

They said: "The rapid increase in size of the town leads to overburden services, increased inequalities amongst its residents leading to segregated communities and the resulting social issues.

"Yate has undergone a period of significant house building and a pause on development is needed to enable Yate to integrate the new build areas into the wider community.

"Speeding within Yate is an issue which needs to be tackled and roads around high pedestrian areas such as the shopping centre need to be made safer.

"Support is needed to ensure developers deliver the promised community facilities for the residents living in the new developments as well as in developing the local employment opportunities and infrastructure to ensure prosperity across the whole of the Yate community.

"While more houses within Yate town should be minimal in the near term, there is a requirement for accommodation which would be attractive to those who wish to downsize from larger four bed properties to single storey buildings eg bungalows.

"Plans to develop the Yate cycle spur are welcome to provide a safe route to join the Bristol to Bath cycle path and opening up a viable option for residents to cycle to both cities as well as destinations on the way "The stretch from the Riverside as far as the train station should be an area which is attractive to walk or cycle.

"Community facilities such as YOSC, Armadillo, Kingsgate Park should be funded sufficiently to enable them to support the increased demand on their services as a consequence of the new housing developments."

A South Gloucestershire Council spokesperson said: “The recent consultation process asked for feedback on an emerging, that is to say draft, local plan.

"No decisions have been taken and prior to the local plan being adopted, there will be a further phase of consultation where the public will be able to share their views on an updated version, which will be drafted once we have been able to process the feedback received this time.

“The new Local Plan won’t be able to take us back in time to make different decisions in the past, but it does allow us to identify what issues now need tackling to meet service and infrastructure needs generated by previous development, as well as those that will be required with any future growth.

"We have prioritised brownfield sites for potential new housebuilding, as well as those sites that are already connected to key infrastructure, including transport links and local employment opportunities.

"The plan will also need to identify what additional infrastructure will be required to support new homes, including schools and health facilities, for example, and how those could be delivered alongside new homes, not long afterwards.

“We are already working on improvements particularly focussed on enhancing local nature and active travel and have put in place a Masterplan for Yate that will see the council working with the partners and the community to improve the town.

“While some potentially difficult decisions may be needed in order to meet the housing numbers we have been set, we also want to make sure the new plan is good for local people now and into the future.

“A key priority is that new homes are sustainable, by having excellent environmental performance they will be better for our environment and cheaper to run.

"We will also need enough new homes to be truly affordable, so that everyone in South Gloucestershire now and for the next generation, can afford to live here if they choose to.

“We value the feedback we have received already and look forward to continuing constructive discussions as we get closer to finalising our new local plan.

"This will help us decide locally where new homes are built, so that we are not left at the mercy of speculative developments, which we know can cause harm to communities and our wider area.”