VILLAGERS from Barrow Gurney are being asked for their ideas on how to improve the parish and involve new residents.

Barrow Gurney will be hugely affected by two planning proposals which have been given the green light – the South Bristol Link Road and the development of the old Barrow Gurney Hospital site.

The parish council is keen to discuss ways of improving the village once these developments begin and is asking villagers for their ideas.

Parish council chairman Eric Gates said: “We want to get people thinking about the two major planning decisions which have affected the village in the past couple of months.

“The development of the old Barrow Hospital will double the population of our parish, so what affect will that have?

“The link road will also mean a big change, so what do we want our village to look like? ”These plans are happening, so we can put a positive spin on it and see what we can do to improve our village.” The volume of traffic travelling through Barrow Gurney is expected to be reduced by at least half the amount when the link road is built in 2016.

The working group charged with looking into the affect of these proposals has come up with a few options to make the village more pedestrian-friendly once the new road is in place.

Mr Gates said: “One option is to look at putting pathways in off the street.

“Another would be to put a footpath in all along the side of the street, which would mean some fairly ferocious traffic calming because the width isn’t there, so we would have to put in lights or chicanes.

“A third option is the shared space approach where we take out all the signage and put in road surfaces to remind the drivers that there are members of the community around and make it clear that pedestrians have the same right to the road.”

The parish council also wants to come up with ways to welcome the new residents at the Barrow Hospital site into the village.

Mr Gates said: “We have four centres of population in Barrow Gurney – the hospital, Naish Lane, the village centre and Barrow Court.

“The hospital site is slightly out on a limb from the centre of the village, but we’ve traditionally had quite a good relationship with the hospital. We need to look at how we involve them in the community.”

Villagers can visit the parish hall on October 19-20 from 10am-6pm to see an exhibition on the possible options for the village and to give their views on the proposals.

Members of the working group tasked with looking at the proposals will be on hand to answer any questions.