Out and about with Jos and Andrew

Another round-up of local news from your hardworking Lib Dem team: Asbestos Removal at Callington Road Flats

Over the past few weeks, a number of residents from the Callington Road flats have been in touch to complain about their treatment by Bristol City Council during recent asbestos removal work. The asbestos was found in the separate lockable storage area below the flats where many residents store their valuables in metal cages. Before work by specialist contractors commenced, residents were told that items that could be saved would be washed and returned to them and items that needed to be disposed of would be photographed for compensation purposes before being destroyed. Unfortunately, we have been informed that many items which could have been cleaned and saved, such as bicycles, have instead been thrown away. Furthermore, other items have been discarded without being recorded by the contractors for compensation. This has left residents feeling upset as they have lost not only items of value, but items of sentimental value too. We are working on behalf of residents to try and sort out this unfortunate situation.

Arbour Walk Care Home Briefing

We were all worried recently when Brislington West became one of the worst places in the country for COVID infections. It quickly became clear that an outbreak in a local care home, Arbour Walk in Hungerford Road, was the location of this spike in numbers. As the councillor for Brislington West, Jos had a number of briefing sessions with council officers to ensure that everything was and is being done to bring the numbers down and put in place measures to prevent this from happening again. The Council and the Care Quality Commission are working together with the care home to deal with the current infections and prevent further infections when they are able to admit new residents. We want to give all the affected residents, family members and care staff our very best wishes at this challenging time.

Sorry State of Sparke Evans Bridge

The elegant Sparke Evans footbridge was recently added to the Bristol Local List as an important heritage asset. Unfortunately, despite being structurally sound, the beautiful lattice work railings have become badly corroded and are quite jagged and sharp in places. However, it would be a travesty if these were replaced with unattractive sheet metal panels, which would also be an invitation to local graffiti artists to grab their spray cans! Therefore, we have written to the Council to insist that when repairs are carried out, they are done so in a sympathetic manner and the beautiful character of the bridge is protected.

Successful School Streets

Since February, 2020, An 18-month School Streets pilot scheme has been trialled at two Bristol primary schools, Wansdyke Primary School in Whitchurch and St Peter’s C of E Primary School in Bishopsworth. The aim of School Streets is to make roads directly outside of schools safer, by turning them into pedestrian and cyclist priority zones before and after the school day using moveable bollards. Residents living within the new school street zones are issued with permits, allowing them to continue to enter and leave the zone freely. Emergency services and Blue Badge holders are also exempt and have normal access. The trial is proving to be popular and BCC is now looking to extend it to other schools. Following discussions with parents and local residents, we have asked for Holymead Junior School on Wick Road to be included in the trial. This would likely involve the closure of neighbouring Eton Road to through-traffic at school opening and closing times. Once full details have been worked out, local people will be consulted before any changes are implemented.

Brislington Tree Champions Unite

Both of us are members of the Bristol Tree Forum and are Tree Champions for Brislington West. Our role is simply to see Bristol’s trees protected and new ones planted. To help coordinate our efforts we have started working closely with our fellow Tree Champions in Brislington East and we held our first meeting recently. Top of the agenda was of course the illegal felling of trees at the former Wyevale Garden Centre site on the Bath Road, but we also spoke about the Environment Agency work in the Nightingale Valley and discussed possible future sites for tree planting. If you spot a tree at risk or have suggestions for planting locations, please let us know.

Dumped Bikes Reported

As local residents, we regularly spot issues that need dealing with such as blocked drains, broken lampposts and flytipping. Last week, Andrew spotted two dumped bicycles in Brislington Brook by Water Lane. These were immediately reported and we are pleased to say have already been removed. If you spot a local issue such as this, let us know and we will deal with it.

Pond Restoration on Stockwood Open Space

Work continues on one of the old ponds on Stockwood Open Space. Council staff have now fenced it off to prevent dogs from accessing it, as dogs create a turbulent, silt-rich environment that is detrimental to the establishment of aquatic plants and spawning amphibians. Great crested newts have been spotted here in the past, so the work will hopefully create the right conditions to help this protected species thrive. There is also money available from Natural England to create new ponds for great crested newts and the council are looking at Stockwood Open Space as a prime place for this habitat creation work. There are a further two ponds on the adjacent golf course and we are working with the golf club and a conservation officer to see if they can also be included in this habitat improvement work.

West Town Lane Update

Construction work has now finished on the new look scheme for the small green on West Town Lane. Most of the unpopular yellow hoops have been removed and the remaining ones have been repositioned and are now much less visually intrusive. We have been in touch with the Tree Bristol team and are hoping to get three trees planted this autumn.

New Parking Scheme Problems

Unfortunately, the new Permit Parking scheme on Edward and Chatsworth Roads has not got off to a very auspicious start. We have received several complaints from residents and local businesses concerning the signage, the operating hours of the scheme, and the inclusion of Bath Road properties in the scheme. We have followed up these concerns with council officers and have written to all local residents. We hope the PPA is a success but we have consistently expressed our misgivings about the viability of the scheme. We believe that local people may still struggle to find a parking spot as there are around 100 households and space for only around 80 cars. Having paid out for a parking permit, it would be incredibly frustrating for residents if they were then unable to park their cars. Furthermore, local business owners whose customers can no longer park nearby have told us they may well be forced to close. The empty units will most likely be converted into residential use, meaning the pressure on parking in the area is likely to increase still further.

Keeping in Touch We believe in keeping residents up to date on important local issues and publish a quarterly newsletters, Focus on Brislington West’ but unfortunately, we are currently unable to deliver a paper version due to new government guidelines during the pandemic. However, we have a digital version of our newsletter and if you would like to receive it, please register using this link: http://www.bristollibdems.org/efocus.

Best wishes, Jos Clark, Liberal Democrat Councillor (Brislington West) & Andrew Varney, Liberal Democrat Councillor Candidate (Brislington West)