Latest news with #Yate
BBC News
27-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
New Aldi at former Yate cinema site 'better than empty shop'
A councillor says turning a former Cineworld site into a supermarket is "better than an empty shop".Residents in Yate have mixed opinions on the town's first Aldi opening after South Gloucestershire Council approved the supermarket chain's planning proposal for a new store at Yate's Riverside Retail Park on 15 to open in early 2026, creating 40 jobs, 314 residents objected to the plans, along with Yate Town Gloucestershire councillor Chris Willmore said shopping centre bosses had attempted to find a new cinema chain to take over the site but there had been no interest. Willmore, cabinet member for planning, said: "It's much better for a town centre if all the units are full. Once you get empty shops, you get vandalism and crime and town centres start to decay."I was one of the lead campaigners to get the cinema, so in an ideal world we would have loved to keep it," she said."The new Aldi is better than an empty shop," she opposing the new supermarket were outnumbered by residents in favour, with 397 letters of support being sent to the council, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Local resident Philip Springate used to visit the cinema weekly, but he now has to drive 12 miles (about 19km) to Bristol."It's a disaster for me and my dad because now we have to travel to Bristol. Even for the big films there were only about 15 people in there, but that's the same everywhere, everyone uses streaming now."Meanwhile, another resident, Michael Parsons, said an Aldi was not needed."We've already got a Lidl, Tesco, Marks and Spencer. This car park is already full and the traffic is going to be horrible."Another cinema or a tenpin bowling would've been nice," he added. But Jennifer Holland said the new Aldi would give locals a choice of where to said: "Aldi is popular and in this day and age I shop around for the best deals. It'll be a bit of competition for the Lidl."I only used the cinema occasionally. Whenever I've been there's hardly anybody in there."The council's principal planning officer, Suzanne D'Arcy, who recommended approval, said developers intended to extend security railings to make the pedestrian bridge safer and that a condition had been agreed to protect the nearby nature said other conditions would restrict the shop's floorspace to protect town centre stores and limit delivery hours.
Auto Car
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Auto Car
Meet the born-again petrolhead building Batmobiles and portable EV chargers
EV specialists Fellten have branched out from Batmobiles to creating a portable charge point with global appeal Open gallery Fellten's Chris Hazell: a born-again petrolhead who fully embraces EVs Donor vehicles arrive at Fellten to give a second life to their battery packs Hazell (left) explains the workings of a Fellten battery pack, this one for a Defender Felten also converts classic cars into EVs with its own battery-electric powertrain Close A flatbed truck carrying two severely damaged vehicles rolls slowly by as we stand chatting on a concrete apron outside the headquarters of Fellten, an EV technology company based in Yate, near Bristol. Your first impression might be that these sorry vehicles have come to their last resting place, but not so. Instead, they're beginning a second life every bit as useful as the first. The cars are electric cars, specifically a Ford van and a Tesla Model 3 saloon, and they're about to donate their most vital organs – their traction batteries – to a new, rule-changing project that promises to do more for cleaning the environment than all the ZEV mandates you can climb over. These batteries will join other second-lifers in a new-tech Fellten high-voltage battery pack called Charge Qube, a 10ft ISO-certified corrugated steel container that can be moved singly or in groups wherever you want on the back of a truck. It comprises an array of up to eight (450kWh) second-life car batteries to provide affordable juice for electric cars where full-on grid connection is either difficult, inconvenient, too expensive or impossible. According to Fellten co-founder Chris Hazell, whom we visited at Yate to hear the story, Charge Qube is the first product in his six-year-old company's already busy history that isn't 'passion driven' by a simple love of cars. But he also believes Fellten's exotic history of electric car creation has proved there is a powerful need for just such a product. Fellten started life under the name Zero EV in 2018, and it has rapidly become part of that group of small but prolific technology companies on which this country bases its claim to be a leader in advanced EV technology. Hazell says he started messing with electric vehicles having built some potent combustion-engined cars in his youth, when he discovered that 'everything had been done'. Everyone was running into the same performance limits, he says. If you built anything super-special it would probably be unreliable and use too much fuel, so it couldn't be used as a daily driver. Hazell's career in large-scale power management started early. First he worked in stage electrics but soon graduated to big stuff. During the 2012 London Olympics, he was put in charge of keeping 650 generators healthy. The much-praised opening ceremony alone needed power from eight massive generators mounted on barges in the middle of the Thames. Hazell did events such as the Glastonbury Festival in summer, then he travelled around the country in winter supervising power systems for temporary ice rink installations. A dalliance with a business called Ramp It Up (which rented car ramps and tool sets to DIYers) lost money, but Hazell says it taught him plenty about running a business – stuff like PAYE and business rates – and about building cars. His first electric car was a Skyline R32 stunt car (find it on YouTube), and another was a Tesla-engined split-screen Volkswagen camper. That led to the creation of a trio of electric stunt cars for a Macau casino – they didn't like the noise and the exhaust gases of ICE cars – and a realisation that film-makers (via YouTube again) often preferred EVs in some situations because they were quiet and could be used indoors. Fellten had the know-how and was happy to oblige. 'The film industry was good for us,' says Hazell. 'We built the powertrains, and their engineers put them in the cars. The co-operation was great. They were mostly motorsport engineers and standards were high. "We had to run hard to keep up, but we learned fast.' Covid lockdowns also helped. The YouTube audience for a Fellten Mazda MX-5 converted to battery power was massive – and good for business. 'We were the first in the business to talk about the insides of our batteries and show them,' says Chris Skelton, who runs the company's training arm. 'Others presented their technology as a black box to hide the magic, but we show everything. "It pays dividends to be open and honest; the only exception is if a client has protected their work with an NDA [non-disclosure agreement].' As a follow-on from the YouTube success, Fellten began making cars for Top Gear, including an 80mph, four-wheel-drive electric ice-cream van called Mr Nippy. One of eight Batmobiles used in a recent film had a Fellten EV powertrain, and BMW ordered six electrified traditional Minis for an anniversary celebration and then allowed Fellten to use its design for customers – so far they've made about 200. One yellow G-plate Mini, still at Yate, was subsequently and famously used by Mr Bean, Rowan Atkinson's madcap comedy character. Fellten was by now using its burgeoning knowledge to build EV conversion kits for other classics, principally Minis, Land Rovers and Porsche 911s. That business was healthy for a while, but the number of buyers seemed finite. Demand waned as Hazell knew it would: he was already poised with plans to embrace bespoke battery manufacture – for customers' converted cars, boats and even experimental aeroplanes. It was profitable and remains so; rivals have got better at integrating technology but are still reluctant to build their own batteries. Skelton offers training courses from four hours (awareness) to four days (diagnosis and rectification). This part of the Fellten business started early in the 2020s and is still well patronised. It was never intended to be wildly profitable, but more to encourage recruits into a subject area where Fellten bosses reckon there's far too little knowledge and to raise awareness of Fellten products among those who will use them. However, all of this now looks like a mere launchpad for the container-sized Charge Qube, the EV charging hub solution that Skelton reckons could lead beyond 2030 to a worldwide 'fleet' of 3000-4000 hired hubs deployed around the world, perhaps as far away as Africa and Australia. The company has built and tested prototypes and is now aiming to raise an initial £5 million from investors to kick-start a new division of its business. Under the current design, every Qube can contain up to 450kWh of power and charge up to 10 vehicles simultaneously via Type 2 chargers delivering power at a typical 7kW home-charger rate. Soon there will be versions capable of rapid-charging two vehicles via CCS connectors at up to 240kW. Hazell is especially bullish about the contribution the Qube can make to pollution caused by vans and trucks. 'Private cars aren't used for 97% of their lives,' he says, 'but commercials are much busier. Qubes – which are designed to be installed without planning permission – can power fleets from their depots then recharge at cheap rates overnight, or from wind or solar sources. It's a big benefit for cars, but I think the benefit for vans will be huge: it will encourage businesses to change their fleets.' What with battery manufacture, EV system design, replacement powertrains, training and the mighty Qube, you could say Fellten was pretty well covered for most electric car aspects, but Hazell sees two more: the invention of a 20-30kWh module to be carried by a vehicle that needs its range to be temporarily extended, and full-on recycling. The former will come soon, he reckons: Fellten has already started inventing it. Recycling is more problematic, he believes. The conventional view is that recyclers will recover lithium and profitably use it again, but Hazell isn't so sure. 'I believe there will be a long-term move away from lithium in batteries – lots of work is being done on that,' he says. 'When it comes, I'm not so sure lithium batteries will have the value people think. We'll give them a second life, but I'm not sure we'll want to shred them.' For a person who came from the big-cubes petrolhead culture, Hazell is almost the complete convert to EVs – although he does still harbour a not-so-secret desire to build a DeLorean hybrid with a V8 engine in the back. 'Covid had a big effect on me,' he says. 'Everything stopped and the weather got better; dolphins started swimming through Venice. That made me think we're not doing enough to make things better. Charge Qube is something I can do now, to make things a bit better. It can help change the game.' Join our WhatsApp community and be the first to read about the latest news and reviews wowing the car world. Our community is the best, easiest and most direct place to tap into the minds of Autocar, and if you join you'll also be treated to unique WhatsApp content. You can leave at any time after joining - check our full privacy policy here. Next Prev In partnership with
The Review Geek
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Overcompensating – Season 1 Episode 7 Recap & Review
Welcome to the Black Parade Episode 7 of Overcompensating starts with the students at Yate taking a break for the Thanksgiving weekend. Carmen's parents are not around, so Benny invites her to their house for the weekend. The F&G list is circulating around, but it made no impact since nobody cares. Peter is spiralling and is not joining Grace for the weekend. So, over the weekend, they have to stick to the lie that Peter is sick and that Benny still plays sports and has joined his roommates' team. At home, Benny and Grace find out that their parents have made some drastic changes since Benny left. They have painted each room a different colour and changed the 65-inch TV to a 105-inch curved screen. The father is not a coach, while the mother works with dogs and is also taking self-defence classes. Carmen has to share a room with Grace, and she is haunted by catholic guilt because of hooking up with Peter. She wants to confess, but Benny asks her not to. He is afraid Grace would lose her cool, and the parents might see through the facade he intends to keep throughout the weekend to show he is still their golden boy. There is a picture of Benny with one of his high school friends in a box in his room. The boy is the same one that Benny has been flashing back to anytime Carmen asks if he has ever kissed a guy. They are in a car, and they almost kiss. Now that he is home, Benny keeps flashing back to that moment often. Later, Benny takes Grace and Carmen to a bar to meet up with their high school classmates. From the murmurs calling Grace a disgrace and talking about how she has lost weight and become sexy. Grace's high school life is not one she wants to remember. On the other hand, everyone is excited to see Benny. While Benny basks in the non-stop standing ovation, Grace and Carmen get closer over the same experiences of being the less favourite child compared to their brothers. Grace tells Carmen the story of the birth of Disgrace. When she was in ninth grade, she texted a nude photo to a guy in the baseball team, and even though it was blurry and her bangs were covering her face, the guy shared it with the entire team, and she got the nickname. Benny and Sammy clear the air about the almost kiss in his car. He apologises to Benny, saying that he misread things. It turns out that when Sammy almost kissed Benny, he pushed Sammy back and insulted him. Benny comes out to Sammy and tells him the truth about his experiences. He was afraid back in high school, and he still is afraid. College has not been the best; he caught feelings for a straight guy, and it became the worst experience of his life. Benny has an amazing first kiss with a guy in the bathroom with Sammy. Meanwhile, Carmen signs up Grace for karaoke. After the amazing kiss, Benny and Sammy enter the karaoke room together. Connor jokes that Sammy had trapped Benny in the bathroom and insults him. Benny stands up for Sammy and punches Connor. Connor retaliates and gives Benny a black eye During Thanksgiving dinner, Benny's father repeatedly expresses his disappointment with Benny for punching Connor. He says he had plans to show him off, but the fight made him cancel. He considers what would have happened if Benny had been arrested. Suddenly, Benny says that he dropped out of business classes because he hated them. He now has no idea what he wants to do. This sets up a chain of truth reactions. In the end, the family does not enjoy Thanksgiving dinner together. Afterwards, Benny and his mother have a heart-to-heart, and she reminds him that he does not have to be perfect. Benny almost comes out to her, but he is still too scared to tell her. At the end of the episode, the family takes a Thanksgiving photograph. The dean summons Peter about the Flesh & Gold leak. The Episode Review What a messy Thanksgiving! For a minute, I thought Benny was about to come out to his mom when they talked in his room. Either way, Benny has come a long way, and his self-acceptance is admirable. The only question now is when will he confess his feelings for Miles? On the other hand, it is bittersweet to watch Grace and Carmen get close. Grace will be more hurt when she learns Carmen slept with Peter. Speaking of Peter, I hope he gets his comeuppance in the next episode.
BBC News
16-05-2025
- BBC News
Yate explosion neighbours: 'We've seen best and worst of people'
The neighbours of a house that was destroyed after a gas explosion fear their empty home has been Cainey has been unable to enter his home since the explosion in Lancaster Road, Yate, on 29 April, because the building was deemed structurally said neighbours spotted someone in his house at 05:00 BST on Tuesday before they were seen "carrying something and running off"."You see the worst of people as well as the best. It's just bewildering. Why would you risk it?" he said. Avon and Somerset Police confirmed reports were made about a man entering one of the homes but no arrests had been force said the man was described as being in his 20s or 30s, white, of medium build with dark hair and wearing a dark denim jacket or shirt, blue jeans and with information was asked to get in touch with Cainey, who has lived in the house for 35 years with his parents, said he was thrown out of bed and across the room when the property next door said he was still suffering nightmares and flashbacks of the explosion."For a few days after, every time there was a noise in the night I was up on my feet without even consciously doing it, having strange dreams about being trapped in houses," he said."It has affected me more than I would probably show. It's hard." More than 40 residents were evacuated after the flames spread to neighbouring people were taken to hospital, with two of the injured people believed to have lived at the house, the BBC said their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening or life-changing. Rich's father Rob said: "It's raw because you've got no base, you've been to one house then you go to another."However, he said he and his family had been "brought to tears" by the kindness of their community in the wake of the explosion. 'Destroys everything' As well as setting up a fundraising page, friends and neighbours have offered the family places to stay, clothing and other essential items."It's really moving," Rob said."No-one expects it. One day you're just living you life, the next minute something like this happens and it destroys everything, and it's people's humanity that makes it easier for every one." The family have been struggling to get their lives in order, but have been hampered by being unable to access documents and devices in the Caineys became entangled in a dispute with Virgin Media after being they would have to pay £225 to terminate their account because the digiboxes stuck in the house could not be Media has since apologised and, after the BBC contacted the firm, confirmed it would waive the charges.
BBC News
25-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Teen wins 'crazy' high jump gold after call-up four days earlier
A 17-year-old high jumper who won gold at the British Indoor Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Sunday - having only been invited four days earlier - has described his victory as "crazy".Otis Poole from Chippenham, Wiltshire, smashed his previous personal best of 2.09m, recording a height of 2.20m to take the teenager, who competes for the Yate & District Athletic Club in Gloucestershire, won the England U20 title earlier in the year and is now ranked second in the world in the U20 qualified for this summer's European U20 Championships in Finland, he is looking further ahead at potentially competing outdoors and gaining a college scholarship abroad. Speaking to BBC Radio Wiltshire after winning gold, Otis said it had barely sunk in."It felt crazy, I didn't really process it because I was so tired but, after a long sleep, I've kind of processed it. I'm not really sure how I've done it."I've ticked off one of my goals for the season, so now it's time to look further." Rapid progress Otis only started competing in the discipline three years ago and has made rapid progress in the even."When I cleared 1.95m a year and a half ago, I saw myself in the top spot for my age group, but now I'm trying to compete against the whole country, all ages. It opens up this sort of much wider spectrum."The 17-year-old currently trains under Joy Bray at the Yate club and is full of praise for her and the club's ethos."She's a very, very good coach. I'm also surrounded by good athletes in the group, and she personalises her training for each athlete."I think seeing their belief, and I think the other training partners, seeing them trying, it kind of pushes you to try and do better than them, but also do well as well."With a career as a professional athlete looming, Otis is already considering his next steps."I think I need to sit with my coach and talk about where I want to go for outdoors. "After A-Levels, I'm looking at going through the American scholarship route. "I've jumped the heights that they'll want me at, and it will make everything very cheap. Because America is very big on their sports, it drives you to do better."
