South Bristol Voice August 2018

southbristolvoice August 2018 No. 39

www.southbristolvoice.co.uk

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DRIVERS, cyclists and pedestrians face at least another year of delays and inconvenience after news that roadworks around Temple Gate will not be finished until late next summer.

Work to remove the Temple Circus roundabout and simplify the complex junctions around Temple Meads station will now take until the summer of 2019, with resurfacing work expected to continue for weeks longer.

It means the project will be a year over schedule – it was first expected to be completed by the autumn of 2018*.

It’s claimed changing the roundabout system into a Continued on page 5

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INSIDE • NEW THREAT TO THE 51 BUS ROUTE

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• ANOTHER RECYCLING BIN – BLUE THIS TIME 7

RADICAL PROPOSALS FOR THE BROADWALK CENTRE: Pages 8-9

• THE MAYOR: On the arena and high-rises 10-11

Artist’s impression of flats and restaurants opening onto Redcatch Park

Nowhere to go: Perretts Park was home to Owen Smith and Przemyslaw Maciejewski, pictured with friend Vince Randall, who helped them out Story: Page 3

• PUB FIGHT ENDS IN SWORD MURDER 12 • FAILINGS THAT LED TO KAMIL’S DEATH 13 • WELL HELLO, DEER! Yes, they roam here 16-17 • FOOD FOCUS

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2 Paul Breeden Editor & publisher 07811 766072 paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk Ruth Drury Sales executive 07590 527664 sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk Editorial team: Beccy Golding, Alex Morss, Martin Powell & The Wicked Witch. Deliveries: Greg Champion

Intro

ARENA FACTS THERE’S no doubt that the arena is the biggest South Bristol-related problem on the mayor’s desk.

That’s why when we met Marvin Rees for a lengthy interview, we spent most of the time talking about the pros and cons of a Temple Meads site for a music venue.

The mayor is adamant that he will make a decision based on facts, not emotions. It’s striking, though, that many of the facts he presented weigh against a Temple Meads option.

An arena on Arena Island will bring less jobs and investment than an alternative use, he says. A big venue will

You can find South Bristol Voice on Facebook and Twitter facebook.com/ southbristolvoice Twitter: @sbristolvoice Next month’s deadline for editorial and advertising is August 15th inevitably attract lots of cars, and where will they park, or wait to pick up concert-goers, he asks? And is a 12,000 seat venue big enough for the top tours these days?

Mr Rees makes a good point when he says the main thing now is to decide if the arena should be at Temple Meads.

It’s not a binary question of either the city centre or Filton, he says.

But is his mind almost made up? Read our report (p10-11) and watch the video.

• The SBV YouTube channel has several amateurishly filmed videos which are more or less watchable.

As well as our interview with the mayor, see cabinet transport chief Mhairi Threlfall explain the Temple Meads roadworks, the odd music segment, and more: tinyurl.com/youtubeSBV

August 2018

n BRIEFLY n YOUNG women who can’t afford sanitary products are being given a helping hand by Totterdown’s Healing Courtyard.

There’s a Red Box in the courtyard – the community space behind the Totterdown Centre at 144 Wells Road – in which you can leave donations of sanitary products. These are given to young women in schools. n THERE’S a Family Fun Day at Callington Road nature reserve in Knowle on Saturday July 29, for those whose Voice has landed on the doormat in time! It’s from 2-5pm and activities include pond dipping, wildlife treasure trail, insect identification, crafts and face painting.

Facebook: Friends of Callington Road Local Nature Reserve n FIND out some amazing things about light during Science Week at Zion, the community space in Bishopsworth Road. On Saturday August 4 science communicators Bill Bailey and Mark Pickering will show tricks and magic about light from 10am-1pm. Free entry. zionbristol.co.uk

n IF YOU’d like to help out or have a stall at Whitchurch Village Fete on August bank holiday, call 01275 832148 or email whitchurchvillagefete@ hotmail.co.uk.The event on August 27 includes a dog show, stalls, raffle and arena events from Oldland Brass Band to Ferretworld and martial arts.

On Saturday August 25 there’s a barn dance in the marquee and a car boot sale is on Sunday at 11am. n THERE is no column from the police in this edition of the Voice. Staff shortages are affecting officers’ ability to collate a column of local news, but the Voice will continue to press the police to do this as we believe it’s a valuable community service. n THE WINNER of last month’s competition for tickets to the Edinburgh Fringe previews at the Comedy Box in Southville is Rob Kershaw of Knowle. Winner of the hair treatment at Reflections in Knowle, is Margaret Pegden of Lower Knowle. The winner of The Downs Festival ticket winner will be announced next month.

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My MP? Karin Smyth MP By email: karin.smyth.mp@ parliament.uk By post: Karin Smyth MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA By phone: 0117 953 3575 In person: Call 0117 953 3575 for an appointment.

My councillor?

Post: You can write to all councillors at Brunel House, St George’s Road, Bristol BS1 5UY Christopher Davies Lib Dem, Knowle USEFUL NUMBERS Bristol City Council www.bristol.gov.uk 0117 922 2000 Waste, roads 0117 922 2100 Pest control and dog wardens 0117 922 2500 Council tax 0117 922 2900 Housing benefit 0117 922 2300 Social services 0117 922 2900

Email: Cllr.Christopher.Davies@ bristol.gov.uk Gary Hopkins Lib Dem, Knowle (Lib Dem leader) Email: Cllr.Gary.Hopkins@bristol.gov.uk Phone: 0117 985 1491 or 07977 512159 Lucy Whittle Labour, Windmill Hill Phone: 07392 108805 Email: Cllr.Lucy.Whittle@bristol.gov.uk Jon Wellington Labour, Windmill Hill Phone: 07392 108804 Email: Cllr.Jon.Wellington@bristol.gov.uk Police Inquiries 101 Emergency 999 Fire

Emergency 999 Inquiries 0117 926 2061 NEIGHBOURHOOD MEETINGS Knowle Community Meeting 7pm, September 12, The Park centre, Daventry Road, Knowle

EDITOR’S NOTE: South Bristol Voice is independent. We cannot take responsibility for content or accuracy of adverts, and it is advertisers’ responsibility to conform to all relevant legislation. We strive to conform to the NUJ Code of Conduct for journalists: • nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-code Feedback is welcomed: call editor Paul Breeden on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk.

All stories and pictures are copyright of South Bristol Voice (unless otherwise stated) and may not be reproduced without permission in this or any other plane of the multiverse.

South Bristol Voice Ltd | 18 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BX

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

August 2018

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n NEWS Panto time

Green gym

Rhyme or song Strange shapes

WHO WANTS to be in a panto?

Oh yes you do! Rehearsals start in September for the as-yet unnamed show at Totterdown Baptist church. In the story, the adults keep arguing and it’s down to the children to get the Totterdown Treasure back from Evil Rex the Roofer. Shows will be on December 8 and 9. Find out more by contacting Elaine via tbc.org.uk

DO YOU want to get fitter but find exercise boring? Volunteers at the Northern Slopes Initiative have won £1,200 in Lottery cash for Green Gym, a group which ‘works out’ by clearing paths and other work. The money paid for tools such as scythes and loppers.

The group meets at 10am every Thursday next to 105 Wedmore Vale. Details on 07932 368172. northern-slopes-initiative.co.uk

AS A warm-up to October’s Art on the Hill art trail, young people aged 7-12 are being offered free singing and poetry workshops at an event at the Victoria Park Festival on Saturday September 15, led by musician and choir leader Kate Fletcher and performance poet Spikey Tim Vosper. Details from juniornearlyunplugged@ virginmedia.com or 07387 678466.

Oh no, not again – 51 bus is dropped for a second time TWO YEARS after First Bus controversially withdrew from running the 51 bus service across South Bristol, a second operator has pulled out.

Wessex Bus has sold its business to rival Stagecoach.

Some routes, including the 515 from Stockwood to Imperial Park, and 513 and 514 from Brislington to Knowle, have been taken over by the new owner.

But the 51, which runs from South Bristol hospital to Broadmead, via Hengrove, Broadwalk and Temple Meads, was simply cancelled by Wessex from August 31.

Now First Bus – which said in September 2016 that the service was losing money – wants to take the route back, but with a reduced service, named the 2A. It won’t run at evenings and weekends – angering the Lib Dem councillors who fought to save the route in 2016.

“The offer is inadequate and completely deletes Saturday and evenings, which are important for individuals and businesses,’” said Knowle Cllr Gary Hopkins.

When First pulled out of the

51 in 2016, the council appeared to accept the situation until Cllr Hopkins and his Whitchurch colleague Cllr Tim Kent invited Wessex to take it over.

Wessex offered cheaper fares than First and some passengers said they preferred Wessex.

Cllr Hopkins fears that without competition, First’s reliability will slip.

Cllr Hopkins and Cllr Kent say they are talking to another potential operator which could offer a better service – although given that First has announced its plans, it may be difficult for a rival to step in.

Wessex, based at Avonmouth, did not respond when contacted by the Voice. BristolLive reports that only 60 of its 200 staff will transfer to Stagecoach.

First Bus’s 2A will start on

September 3 and run every 30 minutes from Monday to Friday between 6.30am and 7.30pm, from the city centre to Rookery Farm. From Horsefair, the 2A will follow the 51 route to Belland Drive. It will not be subsidised.

• Your councillors: Page 32

Rising high: Stuart the Minion at last year’s fiesta A BUMPER display of the strangest balloons you’ve ever seen is being gathered for the 40th anniversary of the Bristol Balloon Fiesta from August 9-12.

Balloons shaped like Bertie Bassett will be at the Ashton Court event for the first time since 2003, and other specials include Simbaloo the Longleat Lion and Owlbert Einstein. The event was founded by Don Cameron, owner of Bedminsterbased Cameron Balloons.

Weather permitting, the special shapes lift off at 6pm on Thursday, and after that there are mass ascents at 6am and 6pm each day. Nightglows are at 9pm on Thursday and Saturday. bristolballoonfiesta.co.uk

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Uni plan clears its first hurdle OUTLINE planning permission has been granted for a new University of Bristol campus at Temple Meads.

The university has reduced the height of one accommodation block from 25 to 21 storeys. It has also reduced the maximum number of students from 3,500 to 3,000. It aims to create a £300

million campus on the site of the old Royal Mail sorting office and part of Arena Island. It will have bedrooms for 1,500 students, and teaching and research space for 800 staff. There will be more public consultation on the plans in the autumn.

• The mayor calls it Temple Island: pages 10-11

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Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

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August 2018

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n NEWS New school will be the biggest in the city A SITE has been found for what is expected to be Bristol’s biggest school. The Oasis Academy Temple Quarter will be built at Silverthorne Lane, St Philip’s with capacity for 1,600 pupils.

It’s aimed mainly at students aged 11-18 from the central and eastern areas of the city but is bound to attract interest from South Bristol too.

The site is in the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone, where new businesses are encouraged.

The school is billed as a flagship project, “showcasing how business and education can work together to grow cities and transform communities.”

The project has support from Bristol city council, the University of Bristol and businesses in the Temple Quarter as well as Oasis.

The plans for a free school – which is not overseen by the city council – were approved by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

It was welcomed by mayor Marvin Rees, who has been pushing for more school places to meet a predicted shortfall.

However, the lengthy search for a site means the school will miss its original opening date – first given as September 2018, then September 2019. It could be two years or more away, given that planning permission has still to be obtained.

• Another new secondary school is under discussion by the council and ministry officials in BS4 – thought to be part of new developments in Hengrove.

Park Lodge could be turned into charity office or a house But new loos and a café would still happen – hopefully THE LONG-neglected lodge in Victoria Park looks set for a new lease of life – but it could be at the hands of a developer rather than the community.

The lodge, near the park’s Somerset Terrace entrance, has long been an eyesore and is close to ruin – the roof has failed and the upper floors have rotted. The public toilets are dilapidated and attract frequent complaints.

Victoria Park Action Group has been trying to harness support to repair it for over a decade. Its aim is to provide new toilets, a café and a community room that could be used for meetings and nature education.

The volunteers’ dream appeared to be in sight earlier this year when they teamed up with Steve Sayers, chief executive of Windmill Hill City Farm and an expert in fundraising.

Mr Sayers helped draw up a plan to raise funds for the restoration – expected to cost at least £300,000 – and for VPAG to receive money from the café to pay the running costs.

The plan appeared close to winning council backing. But now the council is considering another option, Mr Sayers told a

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Derelict: The Victorian lodge is close to ruin after years of neglect meeting of the new Windmill Hill Network on July 18.

The lodge could become home to Social Farms & Gardens (SF&G), the charity based in the council-owned building known as The GreenHouse in Hereford Street, Bedminster. The building is in the way of high-rise plans for Bedminster Green.

The charity, which is the successor to the Federation of City Farms, has a 50-year lease from the council at a peppercorn rent and is entitled to a new home.

The council is considering asking Dandara, the developer which the council wants to build hundreds of homes on the council-owned plot, to convert the lodge into offices for SF&G. The lodge would still contain new toilets and a café, said Mr Sayers, and the charity would probably let community groups use a room for meetings. But the chance for VPAG to make money from the café would be lost.

Another option – less favoured

by the council but still a possibility – would be for the Lodge to be sold for housing. That would require access for parking which would “botch up that corner of the park,” said Mr Sayers.

One resident said: “Do you not feel you are being held to ransom over this? The council do not seem to be interested in running it as a community space.”

But Cllr Lucy Whittle, who with fellow Windmill Hill Cllr Jon Wellington is organising the new Windmill Hill Network, said council officers are working “in good faith” towards a community use of the building.

Other residents suggested that it would be better if Dandara was asked to pay for the work rather than carry it out itself.

More than 500 people responded to a VPAG survey on the lodge earlier in the year.

Mr Sayers and VPAG are continuing to talk to the council.

Former councillor Mark Bailey congratulated Mr Sayers on his efforts, saying, “VPAG have been trying to do something with the lodge since 2003, and you seem to have broken the deadlock.”

MRS BROWN’S IS BACK THE OUTDOOR café in Victoria Park run by Mrs Brown’s closed last year but is returning at weekends over the summer as the council has failed to seek a new tenant.

Roller women back hospitals

Search for new unsigned acts

BRISTOL Roller Derby is celebrating raising £600 for Above & Beyond, the charity for Bristol city centre hospitals.

The roller derby team chose the charity after one of their skater’s sons passed away in the Royal Hospital for Children.

They raised the money by hosting raffles and bake sales, doing a Secret Santa and holding a clothes swap event.

The team train at Merchant Academy in Withywood.

A COMPETITION to find the UK’s best unsigned music acts is coming to South Bristol.

Open Mic UK is holding auditions at the SouthBank Club in Dean Lane, Southville, on Saturday September 15. Singers, songwriters, rappers and vocal groups of all ages are welcome.

Acts will audition in front of experienced music industry judges. The UK winner will record an album and video. openmicuk.co.uk

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

August 2018

n NEWS

southbristolvoice

Britain’s greenest school!

VICTORIA Park primary school has added to its green credentials by winning the national Sustainable Schools Award.

The school won the prestigious prize from the Times Educational Supplement for making green living a daily part of school life.

Though the school sits on a triangular concrete site sandwiched next to St John’s Lane, it crams in a garden and a pond. Pupils hold a weekly shoe swap which raises money for bird

feeders, bringing blackbirds and blue tits to their outdoor classroom.

Each class has an Eco Rep, and a Green Team of pupils writes a newsletter with sustainability tips. Other activities include a book exchange for adults, a Switch Off Fortnight campaign and a Waste Week.

Activities are led by the head, Jack Lacey, and teacher Eleanor Walker, who has won the WWF Green Ambassador award.

WHAT YOU SAID Comments to SBV on Facebook: ‘Being a pedestrian and a cyclist, getting to work every day has been an utter nightmare. You never quite know which path/ pavement/ route/ crossing is going to be open.’

‘I have lost count of how many hours I have lost via Temple Meads over the past year.’

Far off: How the junction will look

‘We should have a bridge over the road carrying traffic one way only.

Oh wait! Didn’t we have this?’

Threlfall explaining the changes – and discussing some of the other proposals for the Temple Meads area – on our video: youtube/32x-Akz6XD0 She also invites public views on what should be built in the area – for example, on the site occupied by the derelict Grosvenor hotel (which could be compulsorily purchased), and the car park known as Plot 6 along

the side of Temple Meads station, next to the Friary. * Cllr Threlfall stretched the timetable somewhat, stating that the work started last autumn (it actually began on June 26, 2017) and was expected to finish in winter 2018 (it wasn’t – the end date was given as autumn 2018).

• More pictures of the new Temple Gate junction at Facebook: SouthBristolVoice

TEMPLE MEADS STATION A £200 MILLION makeover of Temple Meads station is being planned to allow for passenger numbers to double from 10m to 22m by 2030. A new entrance to provide access from the east of the city is planned, along with new developments in Temple Quarter.

The Grade 1 listed Victorian building is almost the UK’s last

unimproved mainline station. Tim Bowles, mayor of the new West of England combined authority, has put £2m into a masterplan, involving Bristol city council and Network Rail. “A transformed station will give us a railway station fit for the 21st century, acting as a gateway to the West of England,” said Bristol mayor Marvin Rees.

MORE TRANSPORT NEWS ...

METROBUS THE SECOND Metrobus route, from Long Ashton to Temple Meads and the city centre, is expected to open in September.

Adjustments to the out-ofalignment guided busway are complete, and testing has finished.

Operator First Bus is now training drivers to work on the route, to be known as the M2.

Pupils at Victoria Park primary on a regular litter patrol. The TES judges said: “Victoria Park is an amazing sustainable school. It takes a whole-school approach, including its values, pupil voice and wellbeing – not just a few activities.”

‘Sorry’ as Temple Gate works to last at least another year Continued from page 1 crossroads (pictured) will speed up traffic – especially vehicles coming south on Temple Way – and make life easier for cyclists and pedestrians using the Brunel Mile route from Millennium Square to Temple Meads station.

Bristol city council has apologised for the delays, saying they are due to the discovery of many uncharted utility pipes underground.

This meant the rigid pipework which had been made for the heating network had to be remade, lengthening the delays.

Cllr Mhairi Threlfall, cabinet member for transport, said, “We are very sorry this has happened but we are working very closely with the contractor to make the delays as short as possible.”

Also uncovered were several buried cellars, thought to date from the Victorian era. Nothing of archeological interest was found, and the cellars were photographed and reburied.

You can see Cllr Mhairi

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A South Bristol underground may be on track BUILDING an underground route through South Bristol is a real possibility, says mayor Marvin Rees. A second feasibility study will report at New Year; if it’s positive, the plans will start to progress, he told the Voice in an interview (see pages 10-11).

Three routes have been pencilled in – the most important being the route under South Bristol to lead to the airport.

Not all of the route would be underground – but the first tunnel could be from Temple Meads, under Southville and Knowle, to emerge near the A38 on the way to the airport.

“We have three provisional routes but the first is connecting Temple Meads out through Bristol south to the airport. That’s about connecting the airport as an area of high employment opportunity,” said Mr Rees. The airport has stressed the difficulty of connecting with areas where jobs are needed, he added.

Has any investment been attracted to the scheme, estimated to cost £4 billion?

Not yet, said Mr Rees, it’s too early for that, but there have been several offers from companies offering tunnelling technology and non-rail options including guided vehicles on rubber wheels.

Importantly, the catchment area is big enough that there are enough customers to make the scheme pay, said Mr Rees.

“Let’s see if it’s feasible,” he says. “If we can do it, we will be on the verge of unlocking a chapter change in the way we do transport around Bristol.”

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

August 2018

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n NEWS

‘Mr Hunt - we would like our money back!’ says MP MP KARIN Smyth told the then health secretary: “Mr Hunt - we would like our money back!” over the way NHS buildings are run from Whitehall.

“Put simply, poor planning and costly bureaucracy are endangering local services like the Knowle West health centre and stunting the growth of South Bristol Community Hospital,” the Bristol South Labour MP said.

Speaking at a debate she called in Westminster Hall on July 4, she addressed her appeal to long-serving health secretary Jeremy Hunt – shortly before the Cabinet reshuffle changed his role to foreign secretary.

Ms Smyth believes that Tory health reforms are endangering NHS services in South Bristol.

A 20 per cent stake in South Bristol hospital used to be held

Lisa Simpson takes to streets for Upfest

‘Wake up to Universal Credit before it’s too late’ warning

UPFEST, Europe’s largest street art festival, is recruiting Lisa Simpson to help Bristol Women’s Voice celebrate 100 years of women getting the vote.

The iconic TV series The Simpsons has teamed up with Upfest for its 10th anniversary year, with 400 artists taking to the streets of Bedminster and Ashton from July 28-30.

Stephen Hayles, Upfest founder said: “Throughout the show’s history Lisa has been the character most likely to rally for change and introduce political issues. Lisa has the strongest opinions and the loudest voice and is a great advocate for women’s rights.”

Lisa will be portrayed by three big names in street art: worldfamous female duo Nomad Clan, Bristol-based Zoe Power and Argentinean artist Caro Pepe.

Pictures and report in next month’s Voice. upfest.co.uk

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MANY people who are going to be affected by the rollout of Universal Credit across South Bristol don’t realise the impact it could have on their finances.

A host of community groups and official bodies have offered claimants help getting to grips with the new benefit system, which went live in South Bristol in early June – but so far few people are seeking help.

Officials fear that many people who need to apply for Universal Credit are worried about how to do it but are sticking their heads in the sand and won’t do anything until desperate.

New claimants won’t receive any money for five or six weeks – which means it’s important to claim as soon as possible.

Universal Credit rolls up several benefits including Jobseekers Allowance and Housing Benefit. All new claimants in South Bristol have

by the old Bristol South West primary care trust (PCT).

That PCT has now been abolished – meaning the hospital building is now owned 40 per cent by Whitehall.

Services at the £54 million hospital in Hengrove, opened in 2012, include a minor injuries unit, GP care, day surgery, stroke rehabilitation, cancer clinics and more. It won a CQC rating of

to apply for it, and existing claimants whose circumstances change may be transferred too.

People have to apply online, using a computer. Payments are made every month, not every week or fortnight. And money has to be paid into a bank account, which some people don’t have.

Organisations such as The Park community centre in Knowle, and Knowle West Health Park have been offering advice sessions, telling people how they can get online, and how to open a basic bank account.

But so far very few people have signed up to get advice.

“Some people are just pretending that it’s not happening to them,”Heather Williams, chief executive of Knowle West Health Park, told a gathering of community groups who are working on the issue.

Problems can arise because people may not realise that when

Outstanding in 2017, but Ms Smyth says growth is too slow.

It’s in no-one’s real interests to put the hospital at the core of local health service thinking, she told the Voice. “The lack of leadership and accountability is draining millions of pounds from the local health economy, while making it impossible to get problems fixed or questions answered,” she said.

they receive the benefit it may include money for their rent, which was previously paid direct to their landlords.

“I have heard some horror stories from other areas of people who weren’t aware of this, thought it looked like a lot of money, and just spent it,” said Ian McIntyre, the Universal Credit and welfare reform manager at Bristol city council.

• Your MP: Page 46

WHAT CAN I DO? • You can get a loan to manage during the first month. But this has to be paid back over a year.

• You can use a computer at any library, the Citizen Service Point at 100 Temple Street, or at many community venues such as The Park centre in Daventry Road, Knowle. There’s a list here, plus more help: bristol.gov.uk/universalcredit

ASK A VET: Should I be cleaning my dog’s ears?

DEALLY you should check your dog’s ears weekly. Inside the ear canal is an ideal place for bugs to grow, and ear infections can develop quickly. If your dog’s ears are red, itchy, smelly or squelchy then it’s time to see the vet. But if they are just waxy, then giving them a good clean can prevent an infection from developing. Dogs that love to swim, have floppy ears or suffer with allergies will benefit from regular ear cleaning.

So how do we do it? You will need ear cleaner (available from your

vet), some damp cotton wool and possibly someone to help you. Flip your dog’s ear over so you can see the inside clearly. Gently wipe away any dirt or wax with a piece of damp cotton wool.

Insert the nozzle of the ear cleaner into the ear canal and squeeze gently until the cleaner overflows out of the ear. Don’t push the nozzle in too far.

Flip their ear back, and massage the base of the ear to allow the cleaner to get to work in the ear canal. Most dogs enjoy this bit, but

it can cause them to shake their head and send the cleaner flying out!

Wipe away any excess ear cleaner with a piece of damp cotton wool, and apply any ear drops that have been prescribed.

Important notes Do not use cotton buds as there is a risk of putting them too far in to the ear canal, causing damage.

If you notice any unusual discharge, see your vet. If your dog is not happy with you cleaning their ears, then don’t struggle.

There are always qualified nurses in

August 2018

n NEWS Comedy cash pays for wells HUNDREDS of villagers in a deprived area of India now have clean drinking water thanks to a social event in Knowle.

The Curry, Comedy and Music Shebang at Redcatch community centre on March 17 raised

practices that are able to help. If you would like advice, speak to your vet practice or call Highcroft Veterinary Hospital on 01275 832410.

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

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£1,000. Bev Chapman, a member of Victoria Park Baptist church, took the money with her when a party from the church visited Tenali in Andhra Pradesh.

Now photos have arrived of two wells dug with Bristolians’ cash – in the village of Katevarm, where there was no drinking water, and Kaalvakatta, a slum village where the 500 inhabitants had to walk miles to a clean well.

“All the villagers with their grateful hearts thank the kind donors of Curry Comedy and Music Shebang in a humble way,” said local priest John Paul Pinapati.

The Shebang was organised

by Bev’s daughter Ruth Drury, the Voice’s sales manager. The event was sponsored by more than two dozen South Bristol businesses.

Gushing: The well in Kaalvakatta

What will we do with our blue bins?

And other refuserelated queries put to Bristol Waste by the public COMPLAINTS about missed refuse collections and queries about Bristol’s new blue recycling box were aired at a public meeting in Windmill Hill.

Residents at the Windmill Hill Network, a new forum to air local concerns, were worried that the new boxes would be too much for narrow streets where residents already struggle to put out their bins and recycling.

But all streets will be assessed before the new boxes are handed out, Cllr Jon Wellington told the meeting on July 18. They won’t be given to homes that don’t want them or can’t accommodate them.

The new bins will increase the capacity for homes to collect recycling, said Ed Troughton, community engagement officer for Bristol Waste in South Bristol. The move will give each household 120 litres of recycling capacity a week, matching a national guideline from waste scheme Wrap.

But there are disadvantages, Mr Troughton acknowledged: residents may not appreciate having another box to store.

Mr Troughton also answered questions on collections that were missed in the heatwave.

THE NEW BLUE BOX Dr Stuart Garde BVSc MRCVS Highcroft Veterinary Group

southbristolvoice

MOST homes in Bristol will get an extra recycling box next spring.

The city cabinet has decided that’s better than reducing black bin collections to once every three weeks, instead of once a fortnight.

The blue bin will probably be used for all types of recyclables. It

The heat caused problems for vehicles and crews, he said – any streets missed should have been logged, but residents should report any problems on the council website (below).

What can I do if my neighbour is piling up rubbish in their front garden, asked one resident?

Refuse crews won’t collect rubbish unless it’s on the street, said Mr Troughton. But if the waste becomes a nuisance, the council waste team can intervene.

When will the long-promised Hartcliffe recycling centre open on Hartcliffe Way, asked a resident? There is no date – but it was a manifesto commitment, so it will happen, said Cllr Wellington.

What can be done for people in narrow streets like Eldon Terrace in Windmill Hill, asked a woman who lives there. There’s not enough room for bins, especially where people park on the pavement.

One solution is to have communal bins, said Mr Troughton. This has worked in Warden Road, Bedminster, where refuse trucks couldn’t get through because of parked cars.

Why not do away with the bins and just use black bags, said another resident – it works in some areas.

But leaving rubbish in bags overnight can attract animals, said Mr Troughton. bristol.gov.uk/en_US/report-astreet-issue means Bristol households will have to put out four recycling containers every week: a black box for glass and paper, a green box for plastic, cardboard and cans, a brown bin for food and the new blue bin.

The aim is to reduce the amount going to landfill from the black wheelie bins.

BINS ON A DIET MANY black wheelie bins in South Bristol now bear a yellow tape measure saying “I’m on a No Food Diet” and “Slim My Waste”.

The campaign angered some residents as an unnecessary use of plastic. But the aim is to get people to put food waste in the brown bin, where it is recycled or burned for energy, not the black bins, which go to landfill.

A pilot scheme in Hartcliffe last

Stickers handed out to decorate brown bins

year almost doubled the amount of food in the brown bins, from 10.5 tonnes a month to 19.6 tonnes. The amount of waste in the black bins fell by 10 per cent.

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n NEWS

• THE PLAN: Knock half the centre down • Rebuild at up to 11 storeys • 400 flats, each with a view • Cafés and bars in a courtyard opening onto Redcatch park • 400 parking spaces – same as now, but to serve both residents and shoppers

A

BOLD scheme to change the face of Broadwalk shopping centre in Knowle looks set to dominate debate in the area for years to come as residents and traders weigh the implications.

The owners of the shopping centre, built in the early 1970s, say it is “ailing”, with businesses suffering and the building in need of major repairs.

They propose to knock down about half the centre, including the multi-storey car park, and rebuild at heights of up to 11 storeys, with up to 400 flats.

The former library on

Redcatch Road could become a children’s nursery, while the car parking would be “significantly improved”.

But perhaps the biggest effect will be on Redcatch park, which runs behind the centre.

The proposal is to create a courtyard containing bars and cafés opening straight into the park.

There are hopes of attracting a supermarket – a long-held desire of many shoppers since the Co-op closed its store at the centre in 2012.

Knowle library would stay – but businesses like Wilko, the

THE BROADWALK CENTRE

Broadwalk centre

August 2018

n NEWS

New face: The Wells Road side of the building will get a new facade

A view of the plans, seen from Redcatch park. It shows the new car park enclosed on the lower floors (6), with a courtyard which opens onto the park (1) containing restaurants and bars. The tallest building is the 11-storey apartment block in the middle (4). Two raised courtyards (5) will be for residents of the new flats

bingo hall and the gym would have to close during the works.

The aim is to have 40-50 shops – slightly more than at present.

The proposals were presented at an exhibition in the centre on

events had been largely positive.

Of those who filled in comment forms, 90 per cent were in favour and six per cent against, he said.

Knowle’s two councillors, Lib Dem members Gary Hopkins and

July 20 and 21 – first to neighbours and traders, and then to the public.

Tom Selway, the spokesman for the developers, told the Voice that the feedback at the two

NTEREST in the Broadwalk centre proposals has been huge. The Voice’s story on Facebook, posted on July 16, was widely shared and was viewed by 17,000 people.

Many are worried that vital businesses and services will disappear. Some feared for the Wells Road dental surgery and library – though it appears both can be retained.

Others worry about parking – the plan is for 400 spaces, about the same as now. But with 400 flats, there won’t be a space for every home. It hasn’t been decided how many spaces to give shoppers.

“Parking will be the big issue.

It’s no use saying people need to catch the bus. People have cars and want to use them!” posted one resident on Facebook.

Some wonder about the effect

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THE REACTION

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HOW KNOWLE COULD CHANGE KNOWLE has slowly been gentrifying, especially over the last 10 years. The arrival of upmarket Parsons bakery in Wells Road in 2015 was seen as a minor milestone. News that Costa was

Chris Davies, are broadly in favour. The pair have been talking to the developers for some months and believe they have won concessions. Cllr Hopkins said: “There will no on Redcatch park from removing the wall which divides it from the centre: “The developers hadn’t considered the affect on dog-walkers and young children’s safety,” posted one woman.

Another cautioned against too much change: “It would be great to see a revamp of shops and amenities but I for one do not want another Cabot Circus – overpriced and no character.”

There were positive comments, though: “Thank God. Ain’t changed since we were kids,” noted one man.

Another said: “This could be great, hopefully the shops will be affordable for everyone ... it will be better than the centre closing altogether.”

One neighbour to the centre voiced two common worries, “Will Wilko, Iceland, Superdrug or B&M have to close in the process? How much noise? Cos I will hear almost everything.” coming to the old Co-op bank in 2017 – and then pulled out – attracted both fans and critics.

Now there seems a chance of new, major retailers moving in. The developers have spoken to several supermarket chains. The plans will take five years to complete, though, so none is ready to

doubt be discussion about the parking – but two things: the development is not aimed at families, and both retired and young people use fewer cars, especially when services and public transport are so handy.”

Some spaces can be dual use, he said – used by residents at night and by shoppers in the day.

The Voice spoke to the man in charge of the design, Moorfields’ development manager, who didn’t want to be named.

He acknowleged there could be issues around opening up a courtyard with cafés and bars into the park but insisted: “We don’t want to do anything apart from enhancing this wonderful community asset.”

Moorfields is talking to council planners and expects to start drawing detailed plans shortly.

Completion of the complex project will take about five years.

Retailing is changing, with many major chains in trouble, but the Moorfields boss said: “I don’t know what the face of retailing will be in five years, but our ambition is to retain 40-50 shops here.” Preliminary talks have already been held with supermarkets, he said. commit to Knowle yet.

Will Appleby, who owns Belle’s Café and butchers MW Meats inside the centre, said: “This will breathe life into the whole area. It will make Knowle a destination.”

He is relaxed about the effect on trade in the year or more while the centre is torn apart – his shops

ROADWALK shopping centre can’t survive with shops alone, its owners believe. The centre has been run by administrators Moorfields since early 2017 after its previous owner, Frogmore, had a row with its bankers and gave up the deeds. The owner is now a US private equity fund, Cerberus Capital, which specialises in “distressed assets”.

Moorfields have come up with an ambitious plan that builds on the location next to Redcatch park. It wants every flat to have a view of the park or to Dundry.

Crucially, the shopping centre will open straight into the park.

The plan involves demolishing half the centre. Wilko, B&M, the Fit4Less gym and Bingo 2000 will go, while all the shops from McCall’s and the veg shop remain.

The Redcatch Road side of the centre will be rebuilt with flats above new shops, restaurants and the car park. The front of the centre will be refurbished, and the offices above turned into flats.

The plans will be on display in the centre and can be seen at regeneratingbroadwalk.co.uk

PARKING WOES THE DISCOVERY that the multi-storey car park needs major work was the spark for the plans.

The parking available on most floors has been halved by increasing the size of the spaces to reduce stress on the building.

Ironically, this has calmed the row caused when the centre started fining drivers for parking over the lines of its notoriously tight spaces (designed in the 1970s when cars were smaller).

The new car park would be enclosed under the new flats.

Access would be from Redcatch Road, and the exit would run through the building to Broad Walk, but removing the road that runs alongside the park. will remain but major attractions like Wilko and Bingo 2000 will have to close during the building work.

Will is confident shoppers will come back: “This place is like a community centre, it always has been. People come here not just to shop but to meet other people, especially the older generation.”

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk 11/05/2017 14:04

August 2018

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n NEWS Lack of parking, too few seats and better alternatives for the site – all reasons why Marvin Rees may not back a Temple Meads arena

T

HE ARENA debate is not an either-or question, says mayor Marvin Rees: we shouldn’t be asking whether to put it at Filton or Temple Meads.

The important point is what is the best use of the island site, he told the Voice, in a wide-ranging video interview in which we focused on the arena.

Mr Rees has been criticised for not backing a city centre arena after councillors on the scrutiny committee in June discovered contractor Buckingham was willing to build it on-budget at £122 million after all – months after it had been assumed that the cost had soared by ten of millions.

Consultants KPMG had given Mr Rees a report saying a Temple Meads arena would be expensive and wouldn’t provide as many jobs as alternative uses – but failed to discover Buckingham’s cut-rate offer.

Buckingham and the arena’s potential operator, Live Nation, told the scrutiny committee they had both improved their offers to the council last year.

Mr Rees, though, is adamant that these offers weren’t put

THE MAYOR SPEAKS Watch the videos of the Voice’s interview with Marvin Rees – about the arena, tall buildings and his first two years as mayor – at tinyurl.com/ youtubeSBV

‘If we had built it six months ago, we would have built the most expensive arena in the UK’

The arena: Let’s ask the right clearly to the council in 2017.

“Why wasn’t that presented to us? That is a good question,” he tells the Voice.

The first question, he says, is whether a city centre arena is affordable.

“If we had built it six months ago, we would have built the most expensive arena in the UK,” he says. Now, after Buckingham’s apparently cast-iron guarantee, he accepts the cost is affordable.

The next question, he says, is whether it’s the best use of the land. The site has been known for some years as Arena Island; perhaps tellingly, Mr Rees refers to it as Temple Island.

“Some people have tried to create this binary, good or evil debate, and it’s not,” he says. “We

have to grapple with the [KPMG] report which says that an arena would bring £350m of economic uplift and 650 jobs, whereas the alternative plan brings you £900m and over 2000 jobs.

“If you are going to walk away from that, you have to … talk to the city about what you are going to do to make up that £500m and those 1,500 jobs.”

But, asked the Voice, those alternative plans for the Island site – for a conference centre, hotel and housing – are a long way from reality, while the arena plan is drawn up and has planning permission.

In fact, says Mr Rees, the people that are suggesting the alternative plans “are very credible organisations, have a

good relationship with government and have a track record of delivery”. Government departments are very supportive of the way the council is approaching the decision, he says, partly because of the reputation of these organisations.

He also questions whether the arena is needed as a catalyst to regenerate the area – one of its major selling points when it was first planned. Now, though, there is soon to be a £300m new campus for the University of Bristol at Temple Meads, alongside a £200m revamp of the station itself.

“The catalytic role of the arena is no longer there,” he says. But his criticisms don’t end here.

“Is a 10,000-seat arena really

August 2018

n NEWS

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THE ARENA, TALL BUILDINGS AND AMBITION FOR BRISTOL

‘The skyline of Bristol is going to change, that’s going to be inevitable’

questions, says the mayor big enough? Are we building an arena for the world as it was six years ago? Most places are expanding the size of their arenas now.” (The offer by developer YTL for a Filton arena is for a bigger, 16,000-seat venue. The Temple Meads plan was for 12,000 seats but has apparently been cut back – perhaps to save money.)

The other big problem, the mayor says, is parking.

“The modelling tells us you would have 3,500 cars coming into the city for a sellout event.

That’s huge.”

Parents will want to ferry their offspring to and from gigs, he says.

Many South Bristol residents are also worried about parking.

But in 2016 it was stated that

there would only be 20 sellout events at the arena each year, leading Totterdown’s Tresa community group to believe that the traffic impact of an arena could be less than for other, more intensive uses of the site.

Mr Rees questioned that projection, saying he believed an operator would want as many sellout events as possible.

“We don’t think you can do it without car parking [near the arena],” he says. Where? That’s a real challenge, he agrees.

He says he won’t make easy political gains by jumping to a popular decision (councillors voted decisively for a Temple Meads arena earlier this year, and the idea is backed firmly by Bristol South MP Karin Smyth).

‘We are not looking to release a Wild West of

development in Bristol’

TOWERING AMBITIONS

here, physically develop the jobs market, make sure there’ an inclusive economy, make sure that economy is sustainable, make sure that people can actually get around the city.”

He’s clearly excited by the prospects for Western Harbour – his vision to knock down the concrete swing bridge between Ashton and Hotwells, and build 2,000 homes or more, along with a new harbour crossing – perhaps even a tunnel.

Like the plan for an underground, it’s a tall order – but Mr Rees says there is plenty of ambition to get things done in

“I WAS at a conference centre in Singapore and somebody said to me, this used to be [under the] sea.

“Why is there this assumption that we can’t make big things happen [in Bristol]?”

Marvin Rees is talking about the determination he meets in other cities to get big things done, and what he calls the “village mentality” that can affect Bristol.

One thing that demonstrates ambition is tall buildings, he has said. But a recent consultation on high-density housing found overwhelming opposition to

residential tower blocks. Proposals for buildings of up to 22 storeys on Bedminster Green and 16 storeys on Bath Road at Totterdown are also solidly opposed by residents and local councillors.

Is the mayor really prepared to pursue his high-rise ambitions against the wishes of the people?

The skyline of Bristol will change – “that’s going to be inevitable” – to meet the desperate need for housing, he says.

He sees tall buildings as needed, even though he is on track to meet his 2,000 homes-a-year target by 2020. But they will be “appropriate” and the process will

involve local communities, he says.

“We are not talking about building loads of blocks like there were in my mum’s road when I was growing up [in Easton],” he says.

“We are not looking to release a Wild West of development.”

But homes are needed for the thousands of people on the council waiting list and hundreds in temporary accommodation.

“You can’t go through the growth in population that we are going to have without Bristol looking different. Otherwise the question is where are we going to put the 50,000 or 100,000 people that are going to come into Bristol?

So the skyline will change.”

It will, he insists, be appropriate development so the city remains an attractive place to live.

He becomes more heated when the conversation moves to the desire to preserve Bristol’s skyline and the vistas to landmarks such as St Mary Redcliffe.

“If all you think about is the skyline, you risk looking up and tripping over the person that’s lying in front of you on the pavement.”

The skyline is one of the things the council has to think about: “We are balancing the need to develop the city so that people can live

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11

Bristol. “Take Channel 4 [the hope of getting the broadcaster to move its HQ to Bristol]. One of the early bits of feedback I got was that we hadn’t got a hope. Now we are on the shortlist!”

Western Harbour is already attracting serious interest from investors, he says. It’s also helping put Bristol on the map as a city with credible plans which the Government recognises.

“It’s a fantastic spot, it’s on the waterfront, it’s got views to Avon Gorge and Ashton Court. We’ve left that land sitting under a flyover for all those years, and developers are very excited about it.”

Mr Rees has already shown he’s prepared to take the flak for delays in order to reach the right decision – in 2016 he walked away from the original arena

contractor, Bouygues UK, because the deal wasn’t working.

The buck stops with him, he says. A decision on what to do with Temple Island – or Arena Island – will be taken at the cabinet on September 4.

The Voice asked Mr Rees why he hadn’t pitched the idea of a Temple Meads arena on his trips to the Far East and Cannes, wooing investors to the city. The arena didn’t even appear in brochures of the area.

But the arena had a budget; it didn’t need investors, responds Mr Rees. He is seeking funds for a £1bn sustainable energy scheme called Leap, and ambitious projects like Western Harbour, he says.

“You weren’t telling investors about it either,” said the Voice. “I wasn’t not telling people about it!” he responds.

Nevertheless, the mayor’s many views on why an arena might not be the best use of the island site which has waited empty for so long will leave many wondering whether he has already made up his mind.

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August 2018

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n NEWS Top musicians will play for Perretts park MUSICIANS looking for a chance to perform are invited to join in a concert to raise money for COPP, the Community of Perretts Park.

Kevin Lindegaard, treasurer of the friends group of the Knowle park, plans a musical evening at Totterdown Baptist Church.

The aim is to raise money for another piece of equipment in the play area but also raise awareness about the community group and its activities in the park.

Already signed up is Allan Schiller, internationally-renowned classical pianist, and secretary of COPP. Also on the bill are soulful young Knowle singer Mattie Reynolds and Balkan music duo Razzomo, guitarist James Tomlinson and violinist Lucy Razz, who have played Womad, Glastonbury and other festivals.

To find out more, email Kevin at Kevin@wondertree.co.uk.

BEDMINSTER GREEN

Murdered after row in pub A FIGHT which started at a Totterdown pub ended two miles away with a man stabbed to death through the back with a giant martial arts weapon.

Kerr Somers, 29, formerly of Bloomfield Road in Brislington, was convicted of murdering Bristol man Nathan Jones.

The trial at Bristol Crown Court ended on July 20 with Somers sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 18 years.

The jury heard how Somers stabbed 39-year-old Nathan in Leinster Avenue, Knowle West, late at night on Friday January 12.

It came after a fight between the two men in the New Found Out pub in Green Street.

Lead officer DI Jim Taylor, of the major crime investigation team, said: “Following the fight at the New Found Out, Kerr Somers made the decision to arm himself with a bladed weapon and lay in wait for Nathan. He stabbed

Above, the giant samurai blade used

by Kerr Somers, left, to kill Nathan Jones Nathan in the back while he was unable to defend himself, causing horrific injuries. Despite the incredible life-saving efforts of paramedics at the scene, the injuries were too severe for Nathan to survive.” Somers

claimed he acted to protect his partner and children. But he was taped by police in prison saying he had sneaked up on Nathan, intending to kill.

DI Taylor said: “It was a cold and calculating act which has had a catastrophic impact on Nathan’s family and friends.

“I’d like to thank Nathan’s family for working with our team and for their unwavering support throughout this investigation.

Our thoughts remain with them.”

Nathan’s family released a statement which said: “We’d like to thank everyone who supported us and the relentless effort which has gone into the investigation of Nathan’s murder.”

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August 2018

n NEWS

T

HE RACIST murder of an Iraqi asylum seeker was preventable and could have been avoided, an official review has concluded.

A Safeguarding Adults Review released on June 21 – just after the last edition of the Voice went to press – reveals a long list of missed opportunities which led to the killing of Kamil Ahmad at a supported living house in Wells Road, Knowle.

Kamil was stabbed to death and mutilated on July 7, 2016 by Jeffery Barry, another resident of the house on the corner of Beaconsfield Road, where they both had their own flats.

Barry, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, claimed the killing was the result of his illness and admitted only manslaughter.

But a jury at Bristol Crown Court ruled that he was responsible for his actions and convicted him of murder. He is serving life in a secure hospital.

Bizarrely, the report refers to Kamil by name but calls Barry – whose conviction was widely reported in the media – Mr X. • Barry was a binge drinker – but restrictions on his drinking had been lifted • He made many threats and forced his way into other residents’ rooms • The drug which had controlled his behaviour was stopped • Private hospital which released him didn’t know his drug history • Tribunal released Barry against advice of psychiatrist • Desperate staff tried to get court order to stop Barry coming home

T

he list of failings in the case makes heavy reading. Barry moved to 246 Wells Road, a house with nine independent flats for people with mental health needs run by Milestones Trust, in 2010. He had left institutional care in 2008 without any incidents which caused concern.

However, the review noted, in 2010 a Restriction Order which forced him to limit his alcohol

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WHAT WILL CHANGE? THE BRISTOL Safeguarding Adults Board (BSAB), which brings together social services, Milestone Trust, the NHS, police and the other bodies which dealt with Kamil, has accepted all the recommendations in the review.

BASB said it would bring about

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THE KILLING OF KAMIL AHMAD

The avoidable tragedy of Kamil Ahmad • Jeffery Barry killed Kamil Ahmad hours after being released from hospital • He had attacked and abused Kamil for years • A judge was asked to ban him from the home in 2014 • Barry was a known racist • Police were set to charge Barry with hate crime • A tribunal released Barry from secure care without knowing all the facts consumption was lifted. “For an individual with a long-standing problem with alcohol, this was a significant development,” it said.

Kamil Ahmad moved into the house in January 2013. An Iraqi Kurd, he had been tortured by Saddam Hussein’s regime and escaped to the West. He suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, but he had had been refused asylum in the UK. The pair first clashed in June 2013 when Barry tried to enter Kamil’s room uninvited. Six months later, after drinking, Barry punched Kamil in the face.

Kamil believed the attacks were racist – and weeks later, when Barry was in hospital, Milestones asked a court to ban Barry from returning to the house. But a judge refused, because Barry was not present.

Barry was put on a final warning of eviction by Milestones.

To calm the situation, Kamil was offered the chance to move – but he didn’t want to, and Kamil’s therapist suggested Barry should be the one to leave.

Barry’s schizophrenia was kept under control by a drug called clozapine. But it has side effects including heart problems. better co-ordination between care providers, and review how patients are discharged. It also agreed to look into “unconscious bias” that may have been held against Kamil as a “failed” asylum seeker.

The full report and recommendations can be read at tinyurl.com/kamilahmad

In 2015 he was put on a safer drug – but his behaviour became steadily more worriying.

In April 2016, Kamil told police that Barry had been harassing him for two weeks.

Police recorded a hate crime, and flagged Kamil as an “enhanced victim”. But because of problems finding interpreters and making appointments, they didn’t interview Kamil until June 10.

Kamil would not file a complaint – but he did ask Milestones to move Barry away.

In a further blow to Kamil, on June 9 he was told his need for care had been downgraded and he would have to move. “The loss of his flat and all it represented was very difficult for him to cope with,” said the report.

On May 24 Barry talked about murder and not caring if he spent the rest of his life in jail.

On May 25 Barry himself called police, claiming Kamil was a terrorist and had raped a female resident. Barry admitted to smoking cannabis and started to expose himself around the house. On June 10 staff found notes in which he made threats to kill Kamil and others, with graphic sexual references.

Mental health staff and a crisis team met to discuss Barry’s unravelling behaviour – but there were no beds in any hospital.

Staff at the home were told not to work alone, and residents told not to let anyone into their flats.

But Barry remained free until June 13, when he was taken into police custody, accused of threats to kill and indecent exposure.

Barry was passed to the care

• Jeffery Barry killed Kamil Asylum hours after being Ahmed seeker Kamil released from hospital Ahmad, left, • He had attacked and and Jeffery Barry, right abused Kamil for years • He was a known racist • Police were set to charge Barry with hate crime of Avon & Wiltshire mental health partnership (AWP). The criminal case against him remained live – and could have been revived when he left hospital. But police were told no more about Barry’s whereabouts.

Pressure on beds meant Barry was transferred to the privatelyrun Kewstoke hospital in Weston-super-Mare on June 20.

It was there on June 28 that Barry told a mental health tribunal that he wanted to be released – and they agreed.

But the tribunal hadn’t contacted Barry’s AWP psychiatrist, the police, or Milestones. Nor did the tribunal know about Barry’s problems with the drugs which controlled his behaviour.

Milestones had already decided to evict Barry, and his AWP care co-ordinator thought that Barry would be sent from Kewstoke to another hospital.

But he was not. Milestones was given two hours’ notice on July 6 that Barry was returning home. Staff immediately tried to get a court injunction – but it soon became clear that this couldn’t be done until the following day.

The staff, who often worked beyond their hours, were never present at the home overnight.

Only CCTV recorded Barry return to the house after an evening of heavy drinking.

The report spells out the events that followed: “At 1.30am Mr X [Barry] telephoned the AWP Crisis Team stating that he had drunk a litre of rum and felt like punching an Asian resident who lived in the accommodation.

Mr X became angry when told he would be held responsible for his actions and said that he was ‘insane and wasn’t responsible’ before ending the call. He did not answer when staff tried to call him back.

“The crisis team contacted the police using the 101 nonemergency number just after 2am. Less than 10 minutes later, Mr X called the police stating that he had murdered Kamil.”

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

August 2018

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n NEWS

August 2018

n NEWS

southbristolvoice

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Mel’s fitness idea is set to become a worldwide success A RUNNING group started by a South Bristol mum as a way to get herself fit is now on the brink of becoming a worldwide business after winning backing from major investors.

This Mum Runs started with a single Facebook post in 2014 when Mel Bound decided she wanted to find some other women to run with.

Now the idea has grown into a company with 35,000 members signed up online – and Mel is aiming for global success.

“At the very start, it was a personal need, because I had become very inactive after having kids,” said Mel, who lives in Southville and is mother to an eight- and a four-year-old.

Her appeal to other mums to join her in a non-competitive jog uncovered a huge demand – 75 women turned up to that first run around Greville Smyth park.

“I knew I had immediately tapped into this need,” she said.

This Mum Runs was born – offering women the chance to get fit at their own pace in an unpressured environment.

The social runs are free, and This Mum Runs also offers paid-for classes. The firm has expanded into fitness clothing and gifts – even men are now customers, as many buy running-themed presents for

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THIS MUM Runs founder Mel Bound has a view on how the authorities should be encouraging businesses that are trying to improve people’s health.

Bristol city council is planning to charge businesses like dog walkers and fitness instructors that use parks. This Mum Runs won’t be affected – they mainly run around the streets – but Mel thinks it’s a backward step.

“You look at the cost of inactivity, and the consequences in obesity and diabetes, and their cost to the city – to then charge small businesses who help people become more active is quite difficult,” said Mel.

Wanted: Keen gardeners who want to share their passion

New growth: Gardening is a great release for people in care

Mel Bound (third from left): Aims to get 250,000 more women running their partners.

This Mum Runs has groups in Bristol, Bath and London, with 5,500 active members in Bristol alone.Investment of £150,000 from a group called Bristol Private Equity Club will help Mel employ two staff to help her build a template which can be used to start up branches anywhere.

The plan over the next two to three years is to build a global brand with up to 250,000 mums running in branded clothing in towns and cities across the world.

Mel was the ideal person to make a success of her idea. She has a degree in sports marketing, and worked for UK Athletics as well as for major tech and car companies.

“It built on all the experience I had built over the years in sport and marketing and as a mum,” Mel said.

She is determined that the expansion will not ruin This Mum Run’s personal touch. She is struck by how “relentlessly positive” its members are in the way they support each other.

The work will involve training more Run-Makers, who are paid, qualified coaches, and recruiting more volunteers – Run Angels – who accompany every run and make sure everyone is happy.

“We probably could have expanded faster but I have been trying to protect the integrity of

the experience we give to the women who come,” she said.

“A lot of the mums who come haven’t exercised for a long time and if they turn up and it’s a rubbish experience, they won’t come back.”

Mel is also a Facebook ambassador, travelling abroad to give talks under the title She Means Business. That’s after winning a string of other accolades, including a place in the Sunday Times Top 100 Disrupter Brands.

She wants to show that a home-forged business can grow into a major success – even when you have to juggle life with two small children.

PEOPLE with green fingers who want to share their passion are being invited to share their skills with older people.

Growing Support is a group which works in South Bristol to enrich the lives of older people living in care.

It’s holding a workshop on Tuesday August 7 to show volunteers how they can spread their enthusiasm for gardening to older people who no longer have their own gardens.

Volunteers work with an expert social and therapeutic horticulture facilitator to help care home residents get all the benefits of taking part in activities outdoors.

Find out more from Sarah Mountford, volunteer coordinator, via email at volunteers@growingsupport.co.uk or 0117 377 4756.

The sessions are organised by the charity Alive. aliveactivities.org

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Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

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16

n NEWS

August 2018

WILDLIFE SPECIAL – DEER, HEDGEHOGS & BUTTERFLIES

Yes, you can believe B your eyes – there are deer roaming and thriving here in South Bristol

POPULATION EXPLOSION

Deer? We had no idea! But they’re not so rare as you think, writes Voice wildlife expert Alex Morss

A

CITY centre park might not be where you’d most expect to bump into a wild deer … but sightings in South Bristol during July have caught many people’s attention.

Ben Hennessey filmed a deer in a garden on Windmill Hill on July 7. “It headed off to the church and then disappeared,” he said. Then people began posting

RITAIN’S deer population is believed to be at its highest level for 1,000 years, and to have doubled in the last year 20 years. The British Deer Society, which monitors populations, says: “They are increasingly entering areas close to our towns and cities as they take advantage of more urban habitats.”

Last year, a study by the University of East Anglia recommended culls of half the muntjac and 60 per cent of the roe deer populations in some areas.

High deer populations can heavily graze the understorey of

unprotected woodlands, which wipes out some important ground flora and food sources for birds and

sightings on social media of what appears to have been the same deer. Carolyn Hecker was the next, asking: “Has anyone else just seen a deer skipping around Victoria Park, or are me and my children going mad?”

She added: “I was so amazed in the moment that I didn’t even think to get my camera out until it was too far away.” Caroline

Daisley agreed: “There have been a couple of other posts about a deer in Totterdown running through gardens.”

Avradeep Chakrabarti said there had also been talk about a deer being seen on North Street around the same time.

Karen Bowers saw a deer in Arnos Vale too. Others reported sightings at Conham and Crews

Muntjac: Widespread in the UK PHOTO: ©Peter Trimmings, Creative Commons

Elgar House Open Day - Wednesday 1st August

August 2018

n NEWS

southbristolvoice

WILDLIFE SPECIAL – DEER, HEDGEHOGS & BUTTERFLIES DEER FACTS

small mammals, as well as causing economic losses to farmers and commercial forestry.

Some people have suggested we should be allowed to hunt more deer to reduce numbers to more sustainable levels, given the lack of natural predators apart from humans, but the Deer Act of 1963 restricts that practice.

Others have called for more rewilding of Britain, with more wild areas to support our native fauna, so animals are not so much in conflict with other land uses, and reintroducing wolves, which were the natural predators of deer until people wiped them out.

Hole along the River Avon.

I was contacted by many residents who saw what looked like a baby deer roaming gardens and streets in and around Victoria Park and Totterdown.

Deer are shy, so people are surprised when they see one.

Around June to July, the young fawns are born. It’s normal for the mother to leave her fawn hiding in the undergrowth and revisit every two to three hours.

It’s best to stay away and keep dogs under control so they don’t chase them.

Generally, deer are most active at dusk and dawn, and will wander into gardens and parks during quiet periods and often under cover of darkness, to graze

Garden visitor: A muntjac deer snapped by Ben Hennessey in early July

• BRITAIN has six common deer species. Red and roe deer are indigenous. Fallow deer were believed to be native but have died out and been reintroduced twice, by the Romans and the Normans. Three alien species, Reeves’ muntjac, Chinese water deer and sika deer, have arrived since the 19th C. • The muntjac may be the most abundant deer species in England. The muntjac is from Asia, and was introduced to Britain at Woburn Abbey, but quickly spread across England and Wales. Now they turn up in urban gardens as well as woodlands and scrub.

• The muntjac has a more hunched appearance than other deer, as its rump is higher than its shoulders. It has a wide, flat tail, which is raised when disturbed, with a white underside. The muntjac screams when frightened. The doe and fawn communicate with squeaks. The male muntjac has small, straight antlers, with black stripes on his face. Females have no antlers, but a dark crown on their heads.

on flowers, herbs, fungi, berries, grass, nuts and sometimes tree bark.

There could be more than one deer involved, but all the photos I saw were of an adult female muntjac. Even the adults are quite small. The young usually

including the river ways, railway lines, parks, alleys, waysides and gardens. Members of Bristol Naturalists’ Society have even seen deer swimming across Avon Gorge from Leigh Woods side.

They’ve also been seen along the canal near St Anne’s.

have cream or white spots like Bambi, the fur soon fading to rusty brown. They suckle from their mother for about three months.

We have green corridors through our city which help lots of wildlife to traverse across,

Please don’t forget the hedghogs

Elgar House supports patients to make the transition from hospital to home and it is focussed on enablement and recovery. Our highly skilled and enthusiastic Nurses work in partnership with patients by encouraging and empowering them to be as independent as possible.

We are excited to be holding an Open Day on Wednesday 1st August, 10.00-14.00. This will provide a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the department and see for yourself the fantastic work that is happening. Elgar House can provide an excellent opportunity for Registered Nurses

working in a nursing home or similar setting, looking for a supported return to the NHS. There is an award-winning Practice Development Nurse who supports staff to learn new skills and become part of this amazing team.

For any enquiries relating to the event, please email George.Duffield@nbt.nhs.uk or Bev.Davies@nbt.nhs.uk Elgar House, North Bristol NHS Trust, Southmead Hospital, Southmead Road, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, BS10 5NB

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

HEDGEHOGS are in decline all over the UK, but at least one hedgehog family is doing well thanks to the attention of a Redcatch Road resident.

Roc Walker and his family are putting out food and water, and have even built a hedgehog hut.

An automatic camera has captured at least two adults and two young hogs, born this year.

Remarkably, they appear to be getting on with local foxes – even drinking out of the same dish. Foxes have been known to kill hedgehogs, even adults.

“What really surprised me was the fact that we have two foxes around most nights and foxes and hedgehogs seem to take very little notice of each other,” said Roc.

17

... and look out for butterflies!

Caught on camera: A fox and hedgehog don’t seem bothered to be sharing the same water bowl in a Knowle garden. But foxes do eat hedgehogs.

WHAT HEDGEHOGS NEED • Water • Food – cat or dog food, not bread and milk • Access – a small hole in a fence

WILDLIFE broadcaster Sir David Attenborough is asking people all over Britain to take part in the Big Butterfly Count – and nowhere is the need more vital than in South Bristol.

Some parts of the area – notably Bedminster – have less wildlife than anywhere in Bristol.

The hot summer is ideal basking weather for butterflies – but there are fears that if there is a drought, butterflies could suffer as plants wither away and caterpillars starve to death.

The Big Butterfly Count runs until Sunday August 12. To take part, just spend 15 minutes outdoors noting all the butterfly species you can see. There’s a guide on the website below.

Readers are also welcome to send their sightings to the Voice. bigbutterflycount.org

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

August 2018

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18

Shoppers hand back the plastic wrapping

Toby Perkins, 3, as Batman, with dad Martin; right, Steve Griffiths with the giant squash thriving in Knowle

Shopping centre tip-off leads to Class A drugs find POLICE have arrested five Way, Withywood, was arrested people and say they have taken after several wraps of suspected thousands of pounds worth of Class A drugs were found. suspected class A drugs off the On July 4, officers stopped a streets in the latest clampdown man seen acting suspiciously in on drug dealing in South Bristol.

Maynard Road in Hartcliffe. He The action began on June 28 was found to be have about 60 with reports of a suspicious wraps of suspected Class A drugs. vehicle at Broadwalk shopping They arrested a 19-year-old from centre in Knowle. Officers Greenditch Avenue in Hartcliffe. stopped the vehicle, searched the The next day, officers tracked occupant and found a large a car to St Anne’s Park after a amount of cash and suspected member of the public reported class A drugs. seeing a drug deal in Brislington.

Police later searched a Inside the car they found property in Knowle and suspected class A drugs worth discovered more suspected class about £1,000. An 18-year-old A drugs, worth around £20,000. man from St Anne’s and a A 36-year-old man from PROPERTY 19-year-old man from WottonMAINTENANCE Queenshill Road was arrested. under-Edge were arrested.

The following day, officers All the men PAINTING were arrested on INTERIOR & EXTERIOR stopped a car on Gatcombe Road • PATIOS suspicion• of possession with FENCING LANDSCAPING in Hartcliffe after reports that it intent to supply Class A drugs LOG STORES • GUTTERING • FASCIAS was being driven suspiciously.

A and have been released under 22-year-old man from Sherrin investigation.

ELECTRICS • DOORS • PLUMBING

19

SHOPPERS in South Bristol gave their backing to campaigners against plastic packaging, in the latest peaceful protest in a movement that has spread around the world.

Around a dozen activists gathered outside Lidl in Sheene Road, Bedminster on July 9 – after gaining permission from the store – to urge shoppers to remove all the plastic wrapping they thought was unnecessary.

All the shoppers the Voice spoke to were in favour of the campaign.

“I think this is a great idea,” said Lydia Bannon of Bedminster. “I think any way we can reduce the amount of plastic

Wrap banned: Grant and Katrina Taylor sign a petition against unneeded plastic packing at Lidl in Bedminster with Green councillor Martin Fodor, right packaging is great. It sends a message to the shops that we don’t want this.”

Like many shoppers, she intends to visit a shop where she can buy refills of cleaning

PLASTIC-FREE SHOPPING Where you can buy food and household goods without plastic • Fox & West 172 Wells Road, Totterdown foxandwest.co.uk • Chi Wholefoods Chapel Court,

products and buy food loose (see panel).

Keiran Fox of Marksbury Road was alerted to plastic pollution of the oceans by David Attenborough’s Blue Planet. He Chapel Street, St Philip’s chiwholefoods.co.uk • Zero Green 12 North Street, Bedminster zerogreenbristol.co.uk • Better Food Company Gaol Ferry Steps, Wapping Wharf betterfood.co.uk

was tearing wrappers off the fruit and veg he had bought. “I can do without it – you can always wash it afterwards,” he said.

“Lidl is convenient, the quality is good and the prices are low,” he said, but added: “Part of me thinks I should get more things from a greengrocer, and it’s probably cheaper.”

Grant Taylor of Bedminster said he was also a fan of Lidl – but he would consider using another supermarket that made efforts to get rid of plastic.

Organiser Alex Morss was delighted with the turnout. More than 200 people signed a petition, and a trolley was filled with the unneeded plastic – only half of which can be recycled locally.

The Plastic Attacks started in Bristol and Keynsham earlier this summer led by Alex, who is also the Voice’s nature writer, and local campaigners.

The idea has been picked up around the world – and there are plans to hold a co-ordinated action worldwide on World Clean-Up Day, September 15.

Facebook: One by One Conservation

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southbristolvoice

NEWS

n NEWS Knowle’s own little garden paradise THE SUMMER fair at Redcatch Community Garden on July 15 attracted a big crowd, keen to sample the home-grown produce and arts, crafts and food stalls.

Head gardener Steve Griffiths and volunteers have transformed the former bowling green with fruit trees, vegetable beds and polytunnels. In one tunnel is a huge squash plant looking like it belongs in the tropics. “Someone gave me the seed from Italy and said it will flower but it won’t fruit”, said Steve. They were wrong!

August 2018

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RELIABLE, FAST, FRIENDLY SERVICE

LOG STORES • GUTTERING • FASCIAS ELECTRICS • DOORS • PLUMBING

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

August 2018

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20

n FEATURES

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Colston move is divisive

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August 2018

THE LORD Mayor’s role is to promote Bristol and represent its citizens in a non-partisan way.

The new Lord Mayor, Cleo Lake, highlights cohesion, inclusion and representation as her main aims. Yet one of her first actions was highly divisive. This was the removal of Edward Colston’s portrait from the Lord Mayor’s Parlour, which was publicised in both local and national press to promote herself and her support for the pressure group Countering Colston.

To make things worse, this associates the Lord Mayor of Bristol with the same old half-truths peddled by this pressure group, such as the introductory statement on the Countering Colston Twitter page: “Ending the public & private celebration of Colston in Bristol, a genocidal mass-murderer who trafficked and enslaved my ancestors & yours for personal gain.” Is this how we wish to be represented? As well as the extremely inflammatory language it includes untruths (slave trading was bad but it does not make Colston a genocidal mass-murderer) and it implies Colston made his money for personal gain when, in fact, he was probably Bristol’s greatestever benefactor in education, social care and poor relief.

I have submitted a complaint to Bristol city council about the conduct of the Lord Mayor and await their response. I have suggested that the Lord Mayor should make amends by seeking a resolution of this divisive debate, based on education, not whitewashing or obliterating, explaining the truth about Colston (both good and bad) and Bristol’s role in the slave trade.

Mr JE Hill, Knowle

Park bikers are not a surprise REGARDING the article about motorbikes in Victoria Park in the latest SBV, I’m curious as to why the council and police are so shocked by this. When Sustrans put forward their original proposals for their cycle superhighway this was mentioned countless times in

resident objections, over several months. These pound shop Evil Knievels could squeeze their way into the park before, so the fact that they’ve widened the gates (and in some places left huge gaps) is just mind boggling.

What on earth did our glorious community leaders think was going to happen?

Tom Horn, Totterdown

Witches don’t need to iron ...

I ENJOYED reading the views of the Wicked Witch of Knowle in the July issue, on home-making and on being houseproud. I agree about the craziness of the house market, in the South especially.

I could make a killing if I sold up and moved back to the grim Up North. How it thwarts the lives of young people trying to find a place to live within their means and aspirations.

I’m all in favour of “eclectic” when it comes to home furnishings. I was one of the first customers in the new charity shop in Knowle Broadwalk. Great retail therapy. I’m all against ironing for other people, especially Him Indoors sitting in judgement – let them start doing it for themselves. By the way, why not leave the dishes in the sink while you go gallivanting? They will still be there when you get back.

Wicked Witch of the Wirral, Knowle

... and they don’t like otters I WAS interested to read about your hunt for the elusive otter.

I’ve actually seen a wild otter in Wales. Admittedly, it was exciting to see. But why are we encouraging their return? Is it because they are super cute furballs? Stop! They’re merciless assassins who use their intellects for great evil. I’ve seen a video of an otter attacking a monster carp – as soon as that carp was dead the otter swam away, leaving the body behind, it was just not fun any more.

The male otter is slightly nastier than the female (which makes a change). It has been reported that a male otter approached a pup floating on the surface while its mother was diving for food. The male forced the pup underwater as

21 Write to paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk or to 18 Lilymead Avenue, BS4 2BX

if trying to drown it. When the female surfaced, the male stole her food. Anglers hate them and fisheries have to spend thousands on electrified fencing to try and keep them out. The fact is otters are finely tuned predators with a dash of evil and if I found a pile of scant I would probably run!

Wicked Witch of Knowle

World will not end with Brexit “BREXIT/the country is in chaos.” That battle-cry, have you noticed, emanates almost entirely from those who are largely responsible for any chaos, by their unremitting attempts to overturn the democratic vote to leave the EU. They have undermined the UK’s negotiating position, to the delight of EU bureaucrats, but not the 27 other countries with whom we should be negotiating.

The Chequers document does not offer the outcome for which 17.5 million voted. It would leave the UK still subject to the EU Court, though a customs union was outvoted. Cameron’s £9.3m booklet, the EU, and all sides in the referendum, stated that Brexit meant leaving the single market and customs union. There is no hard or soft Brexit, only Brexit or no Brexit.

Jacob Rees-Mogg and Dennis Skinner have both said that the UK should pay nothing to the EU. The EU will not accept the May proposals, will attempt to humiliate further, and will lose more if the UK walks away, given the EU trade surplus.

UKIP believes the UK should negotiate from a position of strength, not present abjectness.

As with the millennium bug, the world will not end in March 2019 if the UK walks; meanwhile, UKIP membership is growing once more, to confront the self-seeking, self-interested, illiberal antidemocrats posing as patriots.

Daniel Fear, Hartcliffe Chairman, Bristol UKIP

We’d like to join garden awards I NOTE with disappointment that Windmill Hill and Victoria Park have not been included in this year’s Bedminster Good Garden awards. Having just

walked through Southville I see that almost every house has received an award – even one with a concrete car port at the front, albeit with two hanging baskets. Perhaps the award should be renamed as Southville Good Gardens as the rest of us don’t get a look in. BS3 is a very large area, but we have been included in previous years. The judging seems to be haphazard and piecemeal as Hill Avenue has been covered as well as some of the roads leading off towards St John’s Lane. However, I noticed that Fraser Street doesn’t seem to be displaying certificates.

Di Weston, Windmill Hill

Sad to see our flowers mown AS SOMEONE who has spent several hours working on wildflower sites in Victoria Park, it has been very depressing to see so many sites mowed – in spite of the locations being reported to park and council officials. It must be particularly upsetting for the school children who helped us create some of the sites.

The mowing of long grass areas last autumn also chopped up two hibernating hedgehogs.

I also think it’s very sad to see mowers across Bristol destroying magnificent displays of buttercups. I know there are people who prefer grass to be neat and tidy, but I think that those of us enjoying the wild flowers and animals in our parks are – or are becoming – the majority.

Thank you for your park articles in South Bristol Voice, they are interesting and helpful.

Name supplied Windmill Hill

Amazing kids I WOULD like to say a massive congratulations to Victoria Park primary school for their amazing performance of African dance, drumming and singing in the park on July 13. I heard the drums from my house and went to see what was going on.

It’s great to see such talented children and teachers. My own children went to this school in the 1980s. It was a great school then and it certainly seems to be a great school now. Brilliant!

Liz Goodsir, Windmill Hill

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

August 2018

southbristolvoice

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SUSTAINABLE EATING

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Seek the shops and WIN A BIG BREAKFAST!

Never boring: EYG’s tart of beetroot leaves, squash and sage

Eat Your Greens

156 Wells Road, Totterdown 0117 239 8704 Facebook: Eat Your Greens Open 10am-10.30pm WednesdaySaturday, 11am-5.30pm Sunday HE SUMMER is a quiet time for many restaurants but not for Eat Your Greens, which has been busy ever since it opened in April.

The Totterdown restaurant serves plant-based food but chef Babs Greaves is determined to get away from the slightly dreary image that vegetarian food has

T

Kala Chng by Marcus Way

BREAKFAST at Eat Your Greens is a meat-free affair, but carnivores are unlikely to feel short-changed.

On the breakfast plate are vegan sausages, roasted vine tomatoes, garlic mushrooms, hash browns, baked beans, crispy tofu and sourdough bread. (As usual at EYG, there’s a gluten free alternative to the bread.)

To win two breakfasts, value £19, tell us: Where does EYG buy its fruit and veg? Email paul@ southbristolvoice.co.uk or post to 18 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BX, by August 14. had in the past. So there are no boring dishes on the EYG menu – currently Babs is very excited about her latest four-bean choptle chili (£13), which comes with a jackfruit fritata.

The latest menu includes big plates such as a summer squash and beetroot tart with an almond-quinoa herbed crust

August 2018

southbristolvoice

SUSTAINABLE EATING

23

ADVERTISING FEATURE

restaurants that make a great food scene (£13, pictured) as well as smaller dishes like almond cream cheese and raw courgette rolls with fresh mint, red pepper and sweet potato (£5).

Everything is sourced as locally as possible, with bread from Totterdown’s Baked, fruit and veg from Chi Wholefoods in St Philip’s, and salads from Nibley Leaves. Beer is from Moor Beer and Arbor, and cider from Barley Wood in Wrington.

Chi Foods

Chi Foods stocks a huge range of locally-sourced food with minimal packaging, including herbs and spices

C

and quality organic foods and health products to both local businesses and the public.

Chi Foods works with local farms, growing projects, importers and local artisans to provide a broad range of fresh foods, ambient products and high quality health foods. Chi has a walk-in fridge full of fresh produce that’s open to the public and also provides fully

Unit 3, Chapel Court, Chapel Street, St Philip’s BS2 0UL 07584 063895 chiwholefoods.co.uk Open Monday-Friday 7am–6pm, Saturday & Sunday 9am-1pm HI FOODS is a speciality organic health shop and wholesalers based in St Philip’s, just behind Temple Meads railway station, near Feeder Road. Its focus is to provide a resource of affordable

customisable veg box deliveries covering most areas in Bristol.

A major attraction of Chi is the room full of loose and unpackaged products, including culinary and medicinal herbs, dry foods and household products.

These are presented in dispensers, scoops and refills, and discounts are provided for bringing your own containers.

This is great for anyone looking

to lower their environmental impact in an affordable way. Chi is unique in providing many medicinal herbs from around the world in the loose dispensary.

Chi has friendly, knowledgeable staff with a wealth of experience on natural foods, lifestyle and supplements. Chi opens seven days a week and has an easy-access car park.

Feature continues overleaf

EXCITING WAYS WITH PLANT-BASED FOOD

Fully licensed plant-based cafe with day / evening menus. Sunday roasts, local beers & ciders.

156 Wells Road, Totterdown

0117 239 8704 | DOG FRIENDLY Open 10am-10.30pm Wednesday-Saturday 12-5.30pm – Sunday roasts @eatyourgreensbristol

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

August 2018

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SUSTAINABLE EATING

Continued from page 23

Totterdown Canteen

141 Wells Road, Totterdown BS4 2BU 0117 908 2124 Facebook: totterdowncanten Open Monday-Saturday 8am-3pm, Sunday 9am-3pm HE TOTTERDOWN Canteen is very much a traditional café – “a greasy spoon with a modern twist,” as food writer Mark Taylor of the Bristol Post put it. But it’s doing its bit for the environment too: for some time now, all the packaging used for takeaways has been biodegradable. That means all the drinking straws, cups and lids and other takeaway wrappings are made from PLA, a plant-based plastic derived from corn, which can be composted.

The Canteen, run by Aaron and Becky Wardle, is now open seven days a week and extra staff have been taken on.

The World Cup and the heatwave were really good for business. “It’s been a very good year,” said Aaron, “we’ve gone from strength to strength.” The

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Busy summer: Totterdown Canteen Canteen will be open throughout the summer, instead of closing when Aaron and Becky go for a well-earned break.

Still popular are the legendary breakfasts, which come in enough options to keep everyone happy. The popular Buy One, Get One Free offer continues on small breakfasts on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and takeaway drinks are just £1.50.

Special events include Steak Nights every month, and there’s a plan to bring back pop-up Sunday roasts in future.

TOTTERDOWN CANTEEN HAVE YOU TRIED OUR STEAK NIGHT? EVERY MONTH – check Facebook

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Fox & West

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152 Wells Road, Totterdown BS4 2AG 07920 886053 or 07970 715691 Facebook/Instagram: Dinewithi; Frankielovesava; avaslounge frankielovesava.co.uk RANKIE Loves Ava has already become well known on Wells Road for offering a variety of experiences behind one door – a quirky gift shop, an event planning service and a gourmet dining club in the cellar.

Now it’s adding a new experience – Ava’s Lounge, a new café and tea shop set to open on August 6.

Ava’s serves Bristol Twenty coffee and tea, and a range of freshly-baked cakes and pastries.

Frankie Loves Ava, run by Sharon Lowick, calls itself “a hidden slice of old-school glamour” and it’s got the kind of vintage collectibles that make unique gifts – as well as unusual backdrops to any event you are planning, from a wedding to a party.

The shop specialises in upcycling furniture, Mr Buzz

Quirky style: Some of the unusual finds at Frankie Loves Ava beeswax wrapping, and quirky gifts.

Downstairs is the cosy speakeasy-style dining room. The Cellar Supper Club is run by the infamous Tim Owen, AKA Dinewithi. He serves regular evening meals from local ingredients, plus Sunday roasts, and also caters for events and private parties.

Frankie Loves Ava

Monday-Saturday 8am-3pm Sunday 9am-3pm CClosed Bank Holidays

• BOOKING ADVISABLE • BYO ALCOHOL

141 Wells Road, Totterdown BS4 2BU

totterdowncanteen.co.uk

0117 908 2124

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SUSTAINABLE EATING

Frankie Loves Ava

172 Wells Road, Totterdown BS4 2AL 0117 300 9086 foxandwest.co.uk Open Monday-Friday 8am-6pm, Saturday 9am-5pm ELLO! This is our chance to thank you all for your support ... it’s nearly been a year since we opened and we’ve loved becoming part of the community. We’ve been building our stock and trying to consciously reduce plastic use for you and for us as a business. No mean feat!

All of our takeaway packaging is currently compostable and we stock beeswax wraps, bamboo toothbrushes, metal straws and lots of ‘naked’ veg!

Watch this space for more locally produced, ethical and sustainable products gracing our shelves. Over the summer we will be closing from August 6-20. In this time we plan to extend our dry goods range available to purchase by weight, and have a little refurb in the process.

In September we are delighted to

• CARDS & GIFTS

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Hannah and Lucy

What’s for dinner?

389 Bath Road, Arnos Vale BS4 3EU 0117 971 5551 allspiceindian.co.uk Open 5.30pm-11pm, seven days a week F YOU are driving along Bath Road near the cemeteries you will see a place that looks ordinary from the outside – but this is the finest Indian takeaway in the South West, the winner of South West Takeaway of the Year 2017.

Allspice’s mission is completely different from its

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competitors. They don’t put any artificial colour in their food; they prepare and make everything on the premises from scratch. They even have a machine to make minced meat from raw meat, which is used in many of their dishes prepared on site. Allspice make all their dishes using their own ingredients, such as handmade samosas and cheese.

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To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

Have you tried one of our delicious meal kits yet?

A new recipe every week ... dinner for two made easy.

Why not pop in and try foxandwest172 Fox & West something new today? foxandwest.co.uk

ALLSPICE 389 Bath Road, Arnos Vale BS4 3EU 0117 971 5551 www.allspiceindian.co.uk 10% OFF ALL ORDERS UNTIL AUGUST 31 IF YOU BRING THIS ADVERT!

ALLSPICE donates food to Victoria Park Baptist Church Foodbank

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

26

n FOOD SPECIAL: Profile 1

southbristolvoice

‘Farming should be a conversation with nature’ Meet the farmer who wants you to visit to see how his food is made – there might be a bit of a party going on, mind ...

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UKE HASELL doesn’t live in South Bristol – but he wants to have an impact here. Luke is a farmer, based at Herons Green Farm in the Chew Valley, but for many years he’s been a part of the Bristol food scene.

Have you been to Yurt Lush, the quirky Mongolian yurt serving daytime meals in a yard behind Temple Meads station?

Or Root, the veg-oriented restaurant set atop Wapping Wharf’s shipping containers overlooking the harbour?

Both are collaborations between Luke and Michelin-

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starred chef Josh Eggleton, who runs the Pony and Trap at Chew Magna (and is, incidentally, a Windmill Hill resident).

More recently, Luke has started a solo venture at Wapping Wharf – Meatbox, a butcher selling only locally-sourced meat from high-welfare farms including his own.

If that wasn’t enough, the farm is also home to Valley Fest, the Bristol area’s own familyfriendly weekend festival, which is almost upon us (see panel).

But all of this almost didn’t happen. Sixteen years ago Luke was an engineer working for the giant Kier Group as a project manager, and about to emigrate to Australia for a new posting.

Then: “My dad suddenly died.

There was no question, I moved home to help my mum on the farm,” he said. “Tragically, mum

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August 2018 A FARMER WITH A VISION

Luke Hasell: Serving up home-reared meat at his very own festival was also diagnosed with cancer, and they passed away within a few years of each other.

“My parents loved the land, they loved sharing food and having a laugh with family and friends. Which is why I did two things when I took over the farm.

Firstly, I made it organic.

Secondly, I started a festival!”

More than a decade on and Luke has made several of his ambitions reality, and seen consumers become more interested in where their food comes from – particularly their meat.

“Organic farming is really important to me,” he said. “We shouldn’t be poisoning the land, farming should be a conversation with nature and done in harmony with the land and wildlife.”

Aware that many people are wary about how animals kept for meat are treated, he sells only meat from named farms whose animals are pasture-fed and outdoor-reared. Some. not all,

are also organic.

“To farm the way that we farm is good for the health of humans and the planet,” he said. “That’s partly why I do Valley Fest. I want people to think about the environment and where their food comes from.

“Having a festival on a working farm means that people can get a better understanding about farming, they can run their hands through the soil. They can do foraging, have a look round the farm, meet the farm animals, pick veg, and enjoy talks and workshops on everything from fermenting to cider-making.

“This is why it’s a great family festival – to show kids where their food comes from and teach them about the land is wonderful – this is the next generation of environmental stewards.”

This approach has not gone unnoticed: Luke was nominated for BBC Food & Farming’s Outstanding Farmer of the Year award in 2014.

WIN A FAMILY TICKET TO VALLEY FEST But be quick!

the ethos, with a fancy dress banquet on Friday night, a giant Midnight Feast on Saturday and a Sunday Picnic involving chefs like Josh Eggleton.

HOW TO WIN We have a family ticket for two adults and two children under 12 to Valley Fest, worth £110, including camping (but not parking – money raised from that goes to the Teenage Cancer Trust).

To win just tell us: What’s the backdrop to Valley Fest?

Answers by email to paul@ southbristolvoice.co.uk or by post to 18 Lilymead Avenue BS4 2BX by July 31. Give your name, full address and phone number. BS3 and BS4 residents only.

VALLEY Fest, from August 3-5, is a small family-friendly festival set against the backdrop of Chew Valley Lake.

Music highlights this year include St Paul and the Broken Bones, Rae Morris and My Baby.

Kids and adults can meet the farm animals, pick vegetables, learn skills like fermenting and take part in cookery workshops.

There are wacky games like hobbyhorse gymkhana, eating challenges like fluffy bunnies, and a big dose of fancy dress. Sharing food together is also a big part of

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

August 2018

n FOOD SPECIAL: Profile 2

Meet the chef who believes cooking can heal the troubles of the soul Beccy Golding meets Barny Haughton, founder of some of Bristol’s best-known restaurants and also of a unique kitchen for the community

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ARNY HAUGHTON was brought up in Yorkshire and moved to Bristol in 1985, with plans to open an ethical restaurant.

“Bristol had a feel of somewhere things could happen, and I’d not lived in a city before - it had the opportunities you don’t get in a provincial town.”

He opened Rocinantes on Whiteladies Road in 1988, a pioneering tapas bar and restaurant. “The ethos was that good food needs good ingredients, and good ingredients come from good soil. For the first three years we didn’t mention it was organic, with its association with hippies, lentils, and so on. It was about the style of eating – not posh – I remain really anti posh food.

Barny traded with his brother Phil, who set up Better Food Company on Gloucester Road.

His sister Liz Haughton’s Cooking Company runs the cafes at the Folk House and Spike Island.

“I come from a family of 10 children. We all became competent in life skills early, by necessity. But I had an extra interest than my siblings – I’ve always loved cooking.”

As a young chef Barny worked in the south of France. “I was tasting different food – not Yorkshire food! And going to

southbristolvoice

27 A CHEF FOR THE COMMUNITY

PHOTO: Beccy Golding

Barny Haughton: ‘Cooking and eating together is a healing process’ beautiful markets – it was a revelation – what you’d be having for dinner was defined by what was in the market. This has defined my cooking and teaching.”

Barny’s next Brisol restaurant was Quartier Vert: “it was a statement of sustainability and eco-gastronomy [a term invented

by Carlo Petrini, founder of the slow food movement]. As well as the restaurant we had a bakery and a cookery school.” Launched as an antidote to fast food, slow food aims to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and farming.

Barny is a visiting professor at the University of Gastronomic Science, also founded by Carlo Petrini, in northern Italy. Twice a year he goes there to teach food education – plus what happens at the Square Food Foundation, which Barny set up at The Park community centre in Knowle West.

Barny’s success led to an offer from a property developer of a huge space on the Harbourside.

In 2006 he opened Bordeaux Quay (17,000 sq ft, compared to QV’s 1,600 sq ft).

“It was an opportunity and a millstone,” he says. “The objective was a unique food hub that adhered to the principles of sustainable gastronomy – building materials, water, electricity, gas, were all taken into account, and we hired a manager of sustainable development. We had a brasserie, restaurant, school, shop and bakery.

“We made an impact – we

made food more discussed in Bristol.” And the downsides? “We opened just before the big crash, with huge borrowings [£3million].

And we failed conspicuously in that we didn’t cross social values – other than the teaching. BQ was only relevant to middle class people in Bristol.”

Barny was fired as a director of Bordeaux Quay “because we weren’t paying our loans back quickly enough. It was a pretty unpleasant ousting of me over six months – and then the classic situation – I was phoned and told to clear my desk. It’s hard to talk about, in fact I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

“I’m writing a no-holds barred book – it will all be in there.

“I went into clinical depression. It was an amazing revelation into what some of my clients experience. I am open about mental health issues, I talk about them with my students. I went through it, I know – it’s an

HOW TO BE A CHEF THIS three-day-a week, 12-week programme is for 16-25 year olds who may not have many qualifications but want the chance to show their love for food. “This could be a turning point in their career, and their life.

Good chefs will never be out of work,” says Barny.

To inquire about places call 0117 903 9780 or email info@ squarefoodfoundation.co.uk

important part of our work here, addressing people’s mental health challenges.

“Cooking and eating together is a healing process for people in distress or lonely – it makes people better.” This is a mantra Barny is clearly strongly committed to – it runs through all the work he does now.

The Square Food Foundation opened in 2011 on the site of Merrywood secondary school. As we’re talking Barny has been preparing food – frittata for The Park’s café in what used to be the school’s kitchen. “I knew I wanted to start a different kind of cooking school that had clear goals as a community food education business.

“The principle is teaching people from all walks of life to cook good food from scratch. And from this, things in life make better sense.”

Masterclasses, corporate events and private parties all help pay for community work with groups including people with learning difficulties or mental health issues, children in primary schools, women from One25 (the charity that works with Bristol’s street-sex workers), and over-55s – “a cornerstone of what we do – they cook and eat together, and also prepare food for the One25 group – there’s a circular economy feel to it.”

Barny is excited about his new project starting this autumn.

How To Be A Chef brings the principles of eco-gastronomy to “develop the next generation of young chefs. It will enable a joyful relationship with everything to do with the story of food. The first recipe is how to make compost.

“When I first began Quartier Vert, I knew it would be a long journey – 50 years – I’m halfway through. You need to be patient, have faith, you need amazing people around you – which I have. I’d like to see our beloved mayor pay more attention to the importance of the connection with what you eat and your health – and for us to be part of the policy development of food education in our city, getting funded for what we do.”

The best thing about working in South Bristol? “I am constantly discovering my own relationship with the world through the people I work with and the people in the community of Knowle West.” squarefoodfoundation.co.uk

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

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n PLANNING APPLICATIONS Knowle ward: Awaiting decision 115 Queenshill Road BS4 2XG Part two storey, part single storey rear extension.

299 Redcatch Road BS3 5EE Single storey rear extension to extend beyond the rear by 3.75m, of maximum height 3.64m with eaves 2.54m high.

97 Kingshill Road BS4 2SW Single storey rear extension.

14 Withleigh Road BS4 2LQ Rear roof extension in connection with loft conversion.

southbristolvoice

extension. Granted subject to conditions 12 Copse Road BS4 2HZ Garden summer house. Granted 2 Norton Road BS4 2HA Part single, part two storey rear extension. Granted subject to conditions 7 Withleigh Road BS4 2LG Single storey rear extension.

Granted subject to conditions

Knowle ward: Decided

70 Beckington Road BS3 5ED Hip to gable roof extension and rooflight to front roof.

Granted

Flat, 188 Wells Road, Totterdown BS4 2AX Single storey rear and side extension.

Withdrawn

75 Kingshill Road BS4 2SW Single storey and part twostorey rear extension. Granted subject to conditions

41 Imperial Walk BS14 9AD New dwelling with access, screening, parking, landscaping and associated works. Refused

43 Beaconsfield Road Knowle BS4 2JE Rear and side dormer roof extension. Granted

47 Jubilee Road, Knowle BS4 2LR Conversion of a dwellinghouse (Use class C3) into two 1-bed flats (Use Class C3) with 3 storey extension to rear. Granted subject to conditions 17 Langham Road BS4 2LJ Details in relation to condition 2 (Sample panels) and 3 (Details drawings) of permission 18/00294/H: Two-storey side extension to create kitchendining-living space downstairs.

Granted 93 Queenshill Road BS4 2XG Part double storey, part single storey side and rear

13 Stoneleigh Road BS4 2RH Rear dormer roof extension.

Granted

Knowle, Totterdown, Windmill Hill

with lean-to roof, re-building of garage. Replacement porch.

Widening of dropped kerb and driveway to provide off-street parking for 2 vehicles. Granted Windmill Hill ward: Awaiting decision Broad Plain Rugby Club South End BS3 5AZ Fell white poplar within TPO (Tree Preservation Order).

2 Tyning Road BS3 5DE Two storey rear extension, incorporating new kitchen and dining space, WC and utility to the basement.

21 Nottingham Street BS3 4SS Single storey rear extension.

33 Dunford Road BS3 4PN Single storey rear extension to extend beyond rear of house by 3.7m, of maximum height 3.9m with eaves of 2.9m.

12 Knowle Road BS4 2EE Retrospective permission for erection of dwelling.

11 Leighton Road, Knowle BS4 2LL Single storey infill extension. Granted subject to conditions

25 Paultow Road BS3 4PS Hip to gable roof extension, rear roof dormer window and second floor rear extension above outrigger.

61 Talbot Road BS4 2NN Change of use to a 6 bedroom HMO (House of multiple occupancy) with all en-suite rooms, communal kitchen and living room. Granted

4 Stanbury Road BS3 4QG Two single storey rear extensions to extend beyond rear of house by 3.55 & 3.05m, of maximum heights of 3.5 and 3.25m with eaves of maximum height of 3m.

418 Wells Road, Knowle BS14 9AF Details in relation to condition 2 (Landscaping) of permission 18/01187/H: Single storey wrap-around extension

45 Hill Avenue BS3 4SR Mansard extension to main roof, including rear dormer roof extension.

Need more space?

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August 2018

44 Brecknock Road BS4 2DD Rear dormer roof extension.

44 Brecknock Road BS4 2DD Single storey rear extension to would extend beyond rear wall of house by 6m, of maximum height of 3.3m with eaves a maximum of 2.8m.

Windmill Hill ward: Decided 5 Haverstock Road BS4 2DA Single storey rear conservatory to extend beyond rear a house by 4m, of maximum height 2.8m with eaves a maximum of 2.8m.

Granted 28 Almorah Road BS3 4QQ Single storey side

infill and wraparound rear extension. Granted subject to conditions 19 Almorah Road BS3 4QQ Loft conversion and rear dormer.

Granted 51 Cotswold Road BS3 4NX Single storey rear extension. Granted subject to conditions 154 Marksbury Road BS3 5LD New outbuilding. Refused 32-38 St Johns Lane BS3 5AD Variation of conditions 4 (Land affected by contamination), 5 (Remediation scheme), 6 (Land affected by contamination), 7 (SUDS), 8 (Construction management plan), 9 (Samples), 10 (Noise sensitive premises assessment) attached to planning permission 17/00764/P. Granted subject to conditions 362 St Johns Lane BS3 5BA Retention of raised timber passageway from first floor door providing access via steps down to garden, plus timber barrier, trellis and covered storage area below. Refused

August 2018

southbristolvoice

n THE MAYOR

MARVIN REES Mayor of Bristol

Our summer of festivals shows what a diverse city we are

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UMMER is in full swing, and Bristolians are making the most of our reputation as a festival city.

St Pauls Carnival returned for its 50th anniversary, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the Empire Windrush. Fears had been expressed that the carnival might have been lost to the city but with the perseverance of community activists, council officers, and partner organisations such as the Arts Council, it was a huge success.

The week after was Bristol’s main Pride event. Many people see Pride as a carnival – a time to have fun. That is an important part of it, but of course it represents so much more than that. Pride is an active stance against discrimination and violence towards the LGBT+ community. The event itself was

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really well attended, and a huge celebration of diversity, recognising the significant value that it brings to our city.

This year’s Harbour Festival, our annual showcase of the city’s culture and maritime heritage, had a huge range of things to do, across three miles of the city centre. Building on last year, its focus returned to water-based activities, bringing us back again to the heart of the city and putting a focus on the

Harbourside, our traditional gateway to the world.

Upfest represents a more modern view of Bristol and its reputation as a street art destination. The event, now in its tenth year, brings an estimated 50,000 people to see the art up close.

Of course, the high point for many is the Balloon Fiesta. A key event in our world class calendar of events, we have worked in partnership with the organisers over many years to establish and build the fiesta as a major international event and we continue to support this uniquely Bristol celebration.

Finally, I’d like to mention a different type of festival we are currently developing. We are planning on hosting a housing festival which will look at new and innovative ways of providing housing over the coming years.

This will explore a host of new approaches, re-imagining better ways of living for everyone in cites. I am hoping the event will bring forward solutions for the housing crisis – a key priority for my administration.

All of these events bring so much to our city, not just to our own experiences, but also the economic benefits of having a strong tourism offer and building our international profile for being a vibrant festival city. I hope you are able to enjoy as many as possible this year.

32-38 St Johns Lane BS3 5AD Variation of condition 20 (Approved plans) following grant permission 17/00764/P: Demolition of garage and erection of three 4-bedroom dwellings and six 3-bedroom dwellings. Granted subject to conditions 52 Quantock Road BS3 4PE Single storey rear extensions, rear dormer roof extension and insertion of front roof lights.

Granted Garages adj to 56 St John’s Crescent Outline application for building containing 3 self-contained flats (only the access, layout and scale to be considered). Refused Bedminster ward: Decided Fowlers of Bristol Ltd, 2-12 Bath Road, Totterdown BS4 3DR Two storey extension to accommodate motorbike showroom. Granted • The status of these applications may have changed since we went to press. Check for updates at planningonline.bristol.gov.uk

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

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Highcroft Veterinary Hospital and Surgery is a trading name of CVS (UK) Limited: a company registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 03777473. Registered office: CVS House, Owen Road, Diss, Norfolk IP22 4ER Terms and conditions* Please present this advert to reception on arrival. One pet per consultation. This offer applies to the consultation fee only. This offer does not include any other services, any medication prescribed or products purchased which are chargeable and must be paid in full. The offer has no other monetary value. No cash alternative. This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or scheme, including The Healthy Pet Club.

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Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

August 2018

southbristolvoice

30

n COLUMNS In witch I am a princess

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T ALL started after returning from a coach trip to Gloucester with my art group. I loaded my car full of friends and drove off chattering, when the car lurched to the left with a loud flapping noise.

“Sounds like a flat tyre” said a knowing voice from the back. I gave the voice a death-glare, pulled over and rushed around the car. I found the offending tyre, poking it with my toe in disbelief. Luckily, I had a foot pump. A leg-aching 20 minutes later, the leaky tyre was slightly plumper and I managed to deliver all my friends safely home.

I like to think of myself as a feminist and as such I should be able to change this tyre. But I am not a proper feminist: I am a witch

Who is the Wicked Witch?

She’s the one trying to mend her tyre with a toad.

THE WICKED WITCH OF KNOWLE

with a sliver of princess. I fluttered around Himself, sobbing about my predicament, hanging onto his leg in a wet weeping pile of woe.

Himself also believes in feminism – he lets me put out the bins EVERY WEEK, as is his right. He looked down at me with an expression of pure disbelief, a look he has perfected over our many years together. He muttered something about a spare tyre and he would have a look after he’d wiped my tears off his sock. My predicament was instantly forgotten.

My car does not have a spare or

n NEWS

a can of magic foam so I decided to use my emergency number, not my Dad, but the RAC. The next morning I could feel the judgement as a rather grumpy Mr RAC plugged in his electric pump, and we both stood staring at my slowly inflating tyre just when the yummy mummies were tottering past. It was a tad embarrassing.

“That should get you to Cabot Tyres” he grunted. “I’ll follow, just in case.” I muttered my thanks as my gut filled with dread. Cabot Tyres?

That place is a murky Totterdown mancave, ripe with exhaust fumes and rubber. No place for a princess.

But I did what I was told, my car squeaked into the darkness that is Cabot and I gave a girlie thank-you wave to Mr Relieved-To-Be-Rid-OfMe RAC. Cabot Boy immediately diagnosed the problem (an embedded screw). It was fixed in a

Down on the Farm News from Windmill Hill City Farm with Beccy Golding

School report

Adventurous times

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he Farm Adventurers have proved so popular they are expanding to

flash and I went to find the Godfathers to pay. These two huge smart-shirted blokes, squeezed in the smallest office ever, are seriously serious. I didn’t know whether to kiss their gold-ringed hands before or after I paid.

Cabot Boy, being lovely, offered to reverse my car out for me. But I suppressed the princess – I’m a witch, dammit, I can do this. Behind the wheel I took a deep breath.

That mancave was not built for cars, you drive in happily and then realise that reversing out is a nightmare. “Full lock left” shouted Cabot Boy. “LEFT,” he screamed as my wing mirror pinged off a tower of tyres. “Don’t cry. Don’t cry,” whispered princess as I manoeuvred inch by painful inch back into the welcoming sunshine, filled with butterflies and fluffy bunnies.

southbristolvoice

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Wanted: 10 young people who seek an arts career

INVITATION

windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk

fun, pressure-free environment.

They will be running Under 5s sessions at the farm, as well as birthday parties for children up to 10. littlekickers.co.uk

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Y THE end of the summer term the farm’s education team had played host to visits from more than 2,000 school children in 2018. The team offer a range of options for school visits, with sessions including Farm and Garden Explorers; Mini Beast Madness; Pick It, Cook It, Eat It; and seasonal sessions. They are now accepting bookings for the autumn term. For information and early bird discounts visit the website and search School Visits.

August 2018

Green Day

Outdoor fun: One of many visits by schools to the farm five days a week, mornings and afternoons, from September.

Farm adventurers, for 2-5 yearolds, are based in a log cabin in a natural, wooded section of the

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farm. Sessions provide children with the opportunity to freely explore the outdoors, with activities including animal care, growing and gardening, cooking, mud kitchen, pond dipping, bug hunting and more.

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he farm has been award a Green Flag community award for 2018-19.

The award rewards the best green spaces in the country, recognising the regeneration and improvement they bring to an area.

Pitching in

Fired Up

f you fancy having a kickabout on the great pitch, the farm has some new opportunities.

Starting on September 12, WHCF Drop-in Footie sessions are for anyone wanting to play football without committing to a team.

Every Wednesday, 12.30-1.30pm, £4 per session. Email info@ windmillhillcityfarm.og.uk if you’re interested.

Walking football is aimed at people over 50, but many older people take part. With no running allowed the risk of injury is minimal, allowing people to safely return to a sport they love, or try it for the first time. If you are interested in joining the farm’s Walking Football team email info@windmillhillcityfarm. org.uk Little Kickers aim to give children a positive introduction to sport by teaching football in a

he FoodFireEarth supper on June 30 was a huge success with around 50 people enjoying fantastic food.

There’s another one planned for later on in the year.

I

T

Signing on

A

new accredited BSL sign language course starts in September, along with other courses from the WEA including art, stained glass, yoga, jewellery making and poetry.

Sign up now! Details on the website.

CJ Hole Southville invite you to accept our offer of a free sales or lettings valuation.

To arrange an appointment, please telephone the office or call in personally.

Farm friends

T

he next Farm Friends membership meeting is Tuesday September 18, 5.30-6.30pm. Have your say about how the farm is run.

Membership is £10 per year sign up at the meeting.

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

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n YOUR COUNCILLORS

R

August 2018

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32

EADERS will remember that two years ago First Bus arrogantly removed the 51 Gary bus service and Hopkins council officers Lib Dem failed to inform Knowle councillors and local people about it.

With the help of Hengrove Lib Dem councillors, we fought a short but very vigorous campaign to attract Wessex buses to provide a replacement service, which they have now run for two years. It even had an affect on neighbouring First services on the 50, where the awful reliability got a little better.

Well, Wessex have now given up on Bristol, finding the combination of First Bus and Bristol city council too much of a challenge, and have given notice to withdraw the 51 and their other services from the end of August. As this goes to print we have already found another bus

Knowle

operator interested in running the 51, but the fly in the ointment is that First have done a deal with the council to run a partial replacement service – a deal which, of course, we were not consulted upon. This may well be an effective spoiler against getting in a proper replacement service, but by the time you read this a solution may have been found.

Another big issue that will have developed between writing and publication is the development of Broadwalk shopping centre. Chris and I have had meetings with the owners, who are planning a massive investment.

Given the state of retail around the country that is a massive vote of confidence in our area. The latest version of the plans will have been displayed at the shopping centre and we do expect concerns about a couple of aspects which may bring changes, but overall we think this is very good for the area.Watch this space.

S

How to contact your councillor: p2

ALCOMBE Road recreation ground, known affectionately as The Jungle, is changing, with Chris the introduction of Davies a new play area and Lib Dem landscaping of the Knowle surrounding open space.

Following our successful campaign to recover the funding removed by mayor Marvin Rees from the land sale for the adjacent 35 new homes, we arranged a public meeting to discuss residents’ preferences.

It’s not everyday the community get to develop Bristol’s first new park in years, and everyone was presented with various items of play equipment to choose from, together with the size of the fenced-off dog-free area it would occupy. The landscaping, trees, shubbery and seating were also discussed, and dog walking trails as well.

To reflect the change of this

open space it was proposed to rename it Paignton Park and give it a new identity for future generations.

Plans are being prepared and will be open for further comment at our Knowle Community Meeting, to be held at The Park centre in Daventry Road at 7pm on Wednesday September 12.

Completion of the new park will be within nine months time.

If there are any other concerns or matters you would like discussed, or if you are unable to attend, please send them to me for the agenda.

Meanwhile, to maintain the peace and tidiness of The Square parkland, off Crossways Road in Knowle Park, can those who regularly park outside the Knowle Park Centre please deposit their empty beer cans in the bins provided? I regularly receive complaints from residents regarding the huge amount of empty beer cans littering the pavements and the open space.

The police have been informed and are monitoring this problem.

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n YOUR COUNCILLORS

I

N OUR ward we are lucky to have three excellent libraries within walking distance of our Jon homes. Libraries Wellington in Knowle, Labour Bedminster and Windmill Hill Marksbury Road are highly valued by those that use them.

However, as part of the requirement to save £92m a year over the next few years, a consultation was launched last year to determine which libraries were to close to save around £1.4m a year from the library service. These are difficult decisions and understandably brought about opposition from library users and councillors.

Following the consultation, where the public rejected the measures, mayor Marvin Rees has this month announced that there will now be no library closures after all, until at least 2020. I welcome this news as it

been lost since the 1930s.

Plantlife calls for councils to cut less, and later in the year.

I wrote to the head of parks to try to find out more about our policy and was told that the parks department are cutting verges less as a cost saving and to improve ecology. Some verges come under the highways department, so I will speak with them too.

I would like us to adopt Plantlife’s guidelines. One of the problems facing councils is public relations. Many residents will see un-mown grass and feel that their area is being neglected, so an important part of the council’s role is communicating that verges are being managed for wildlife. It’s also helpful if residents let the council know we want wildlife verges; several councils only adjusted their mowing regime after people called on them to act.

To find out more and sign the Plantlife letter to the council, folow this link: tinyurl.com/plantlifeletter

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WAS contacted by a constituent recently to ask if an overgrown verge could be left for wildflowers to bloom before Lucy mowing, because Whittle they are an Labour important resource Windmill Hill for insects. It was an issue I was already concerned about; this year the BBC’s Springwatch highlighted the shocking impact we are having on wildlife. Bird populations are being devastated, partly due to declining insect numbers. I believe that one of the council’s priorities must be to support wildlife, because all human life depends on the biodiversity of the world around us.

The charity Plantlife have reported an almost 20 per cent loss in the diversity of plants, which has led to a decline in the insects that depend on them.

Roadside verges are especially valuable as a habitat because so many traditional meadows have

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gives us the time to discuss what a city library service ought to look like in the 21st century. I have been re-appointed to the council’s communities scrutiny commission and I am sure we will have these discussions in the coming year. Members of the public can come to these meetings too.

Libraries are a rare example of free indoor space, where you are not obliged to buy something to take part. This, for me, is the key service that they provide.

Information is now freely available though the internet and libraries and library staff no longer perform this function as they did before. However, we have a real shortage of noncommercial space for the public, and we still have people that cannot access the internet at home. These should be the priorities for the coming decade, as well as providing free access to books, newspapers and magazines, and other media.

How this is funded and delivered is the key problem we face.

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Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

August 2018

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34

BRISTOL ARC UPDATE

From Bristol Animal Rescue Centre

Will you help Molly set off on her Big Adventure?

August 2018

n COMPETITIONS

T

HIS summer, Molly, our longest-stay resident at Bristol Animal Rescue Centre, is going to be taking on a very big challenge!

Alongside her volunteer walker, Robin, Molly is taking on the Gromit Unleashed trail.

Molly will journey by bus, train,

Hot on the scent: Molly on the Gromit trail at the Children’s Hospital, left, in North Street, centre, and at Arnos Vale cemetery, right car, and of course, paw, to tick off all 67 sculptures on the trail map.

Molly kicked off her adventure in July when she visited Arnos Vale cemetery and sniffed out her first sculpture.

We hope that through the trail

Molly will catch the eye of a potential new adopter. She has made lots of new friends on her journey so far.

You can keep up to date with her adventures on our Facebook page @BristolAnimalRescueCentre

and on our website: bristolarc.org.uk/blog You can sponsor Molly on her adventure by texting TAIL18 £5 (or the amount of your choice) to 70070. Thank you for your support.

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35

WIN Tickets to a summer blockbuster

WIN Tickets to a Bristol pirate tour

OMETIMES it’s great to escape the summer heat to enjoy an absorbing film in the cool of a cinema – and with the help of Cineworld at Hengrove, you can do just that.

There are lots of great films set for release during the school holidays. Would you like to see the children’s favourite Christopher Robin, the latest big Disney release, starring Ewan McGregor?

Or would your young ones prefer animated adventure in Teen Titans Go To The Movies?

For older tastes there is adventure with Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Adults have plenty to choose from – the latest deep-sea shark thriller, The Meg, Denzel Washington in EQ2, the

HO WAS Blackbeard?

Was he the fearsome pirate of legend, ready to slice up anyone with his cutlass?

Or was that fake news he spread to terrorise his enemies?

You can find out what we really know about the most famous real-life pirate, real name Edward Teach, who was probably born in Bristol in the 1680s.

Blood, Blackbeard and Buccaneers is a walking tour devised by Sheila Hannon, founder of award-winning Bedminster theatre company Show of Strength. It starts at the historic Golden Guinea pub in Redcliffe and ends close to the Centre. It lasts about two hours, visiting dockside pubs and landmarks on the way. Drawing on new evidence about Blackbeard from

S

She’s going on a tour of all the Aardman sculptures

southbristolvoice

Children’s fave: Christopher Robin Equalizer sequel. The Darkest Minds is a thriller about teens who mysteriously develop powerful new abilities – but are seen as a threat by the government and detained.

We’ve got two pairs of tickets, worth around £40, to Cineworld Hengrove to give away to the Voice readers who can answer this question: Who is the star of the new Disney film Christopher Robin?

Tickets are valid for any film, 2D or 3D, adult or child.

Email answers to paul@ southbristolvoice.co.uk or post to Cineworld Competition, SBV, 18 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BX, by August 14.

W

HOW TO ENTER WE’VE got two pairs of tickets to Blood, Blackbeard and Buccaneers to give away to the Voice reader who can answer this question: Where does the new pirate tour of Bristol begin?

Email paul@southbristolvoice. co.uk or post to Blackbeard Comp, SBV, 18 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BX, by August 14.

Jamaica, and the discovery of his ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, it may change your view of pirates forever, says Sheila.

Tours run on Wednesdays and Saturdays until September 12.

• Blood and Butchery in Bedminster, a tour of the dark history of BS3, sold out its first run and is back in September.

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36

n HISTORY Mary spoke up for the feral children the rest of society wanted to ignore IT WON’T have escaped the attention of regular readers of these features that the subjects of our stories about historical figures connected with South Bristol have mostly been men.

The reasons are obvious: the lack of a vote, or of any real economic or political power, meant that women found it much harder to make an impact on public life until the 20th century.

But there have always been women who rose above their circumstances and ignored the barriers that were put in their way. Mary Carpenter was one: a reformer who changed the way that “child delinquents” were treated so radically that she won fame not only in the UK but across the world.

M

ary Carpenter was born in Exeter in 1807, the daughter of a Unitarian minister, but spent most of her life in Bristol. She never married, though she did adopt a child late in life, and she dedicated most of her life to children who the rest of society seemed to want to ignore.

Her entire life was spent fighting to persuade Victorian Britain that child delinquents were first and foremost children, and deserved to be treated as such – not thrown into jail.

She was also a supporter of a thorough education for all girls – something else that many contemporaries thought unnecessary – and was courted by the early suffragette movement which was calling for women to be given the vote.

Mary privately supported the idea, but would not say so, because in the mid-19th C the idea of women voting was so controversial that she thought it would damage public support for her reforms in education and prisons.

There’s no better mark of her

A childhood in Bristol’s Victorian slums taught Mary Carpenter that desperate poverty was not a crime – and children who stole to survive should be helped, not imprisoned social standing than the invitation she received to meet Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale – two of the most influential women in the world – at Windsor Castle in 1868.

Mary was clearly someone who wanted to use her influence to maximum effect, in order to achieve as much reform as possible without upsetting those in power who could help her.

It was only in the year of her death, 1877, that she finally backed the cause of votes for women, joining a public event run by the Bristol and West of England Society for Women’s Suffrage.

She died in June 1877 and was buried at Arnos Vale cemetery. Her funeral cortege was half a mile long – and her reputation as a reformer persists to this day. What drove Mary Carpenter to ignore the modest ambitions of a churchman’s daughter and devote her life to the lawless children of the streets?

I

t may be her family’s move from Exeter to Bristol in 1817, when Mary was 10, that set her on her career. The Carpenters settled in Lewins Mead – now

August 2018

’A CHILD DELINQUENT IS STILL A CHILD’

Mary Carpenter: Made her name speaking up for child “delinquents”, but also spoke out on prisons, poverty, reform in India and the US, and education – especially for the right of girls to a decent schooling part of the city centre office area, full of tower blocks and shops.

In 1817 it couldn’t have been more different. Lewins Mead was a slum. One of many in the city, to be sure, but one of the worst.

Here families lived four, five or more to a room, adults and children crammed in together.

The name suggests the area had not long ago been a field, but by the 18th C it was a crowded maze of streets where new industries such as sugar refining and Fry’s chocolate works sprang up.

Between them were narrow courts of housing, two or three storeys tall, each with two or three bedrooms, and probably with a family in each room.

Many had no back yards and access to a shared privy which had no proper drainage. Sewer waste found its way into the harbour, not far away, adding to the smells of the new factories.

Disease was rife and epidemics hit Bristol in waves: a single attack of cholera in 1849, for example, killed 2,000 people.

When people fell sick they had no hospital to go to. Bristol’s first medical officer of health, David Davies, reported that he

frequently found typhus patients lying three to a bed at home; in one slum room he found seven people helpless on the floor. “The water drank in many houses was only undiluted sewage,” he wrote in 1865.

The misery and poverty are almost impossible for us to imagine. Families were large precisely because living conditions were so poor that many children died from illness.

In the early 19th C there were no schools for all these children.

Indeed, they weren’t always viewed as children. Like everyone else, they were supposed to work if they were to survive, and the children of the poor often had back-breaking jobs.

Factory work was common and the Factories Act of 1833 only restricted the work that could be done by children – it didn’t forbid it.

Until 1842, it was legal for children under 10, and for women, to work underground in mines, and sometimes whole families toiled together in the South Bristol pits.

But what about those who couldn’t find jobs? The children

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

August 2018

southbristolvoice

n HISTORY

37

MARY CARPENTER, SOCIAL ACTIVIST

Idealised view: “Mrs Mary Carpenter and Her First Reformatory Girl, Annie Woolham”. Painted, at Red Lodge in Park Street on October 10, 1854, by George Edmund Butler PICTURE: © The Red Lodge Museum, Bristol Culture whose parents were out at work, or, worse, were unemployed?

Even a working family could barely make ends meet.

The result was a wave of criminality, much of it committed by children. Why not, when there seemed no other way to survive?

Children hung around the streets in riotous gangs that became a notorious nuisance. The Bedminster youngsters were especially well-known for rowdy behaviour.

Shops proudly displayed their wares outside and it was easier for children to snatch some food and run away unnoticed than it would be for an adult.

The most common crime was this kind of petty theft, but when the young villains were caught, they were treated a villains rather than children. It was an age that chose to see wickedness as a quality that was inbred, and where even being homeless was a crime. So a child of seven who had stolen a loaf was a wicked little creature who had to be punished, rather than a victim of poverty and circumstance.

This meant that when a child was caught after a crime, they would go to court, and quite likely to prison. A Victorian jail

would not only be a brutal experience but an ideal academy where the youngster could learn more and better ways of thieving and wrong doing.

A VICIOUS POPULATION

T

his was the neighbourhood Mary Carpenter moved to at the age of 10. Her father, Lant Carpenter, ran the Lewin’s Mead Unitarian meeting house. The Unitarian movement had grown out of the 17th C Enlightenment, with values of reason, tolerance and a belief that God had planted the seeds of perfection in every human.

It led naturally to the belief that all humans were created equal, and that there was no justification for keeping people as slaves. To the Carpenter family, it meant that the people of Lewin’s Mead, said to be an area “notorious for the general vicious character of its population”, had as much right to improve themselves as anyone else.

Lant Carpenter ran a school in Lewins Mead where he taught his daughter as well as his three sons. When she was 20, Mary left for a job as a governess on the Isle of Wight. Two years later,

aged only 22, she became head teacher at her father’s school in Brandon Hill. Building on her experience as a governess for a well-off family, this was a boarding school for families who could afford to pay.

However her ambitions were about to be broadened. The Unitarians were an international movement and the Carpenters welcomed many visitors from abroad, including Dr Joseph Tuckerman, a Unitarian minister from Boston, US. Her American contacts awakened her to the plight of slaves in the US. Another visitor, Ram Mohan Roy, was founder of an Indian movement which broke away from the strict caste system of Hinduism. He taught that all castes of people were to be treated equally – a revolutionary notion for a country where some people were born into castes that swept the streets, while others were priests or property owners.

The story goes that Mary’s determination to make her own stand for social equality came when she was walking down a street near her home with Dr Tuckermann in 1833. They saw a small boy dressed in rags running down the street.

“The boy should be followed to his home and seen after,” said the doctor.

Mary decided her genteel school was not enough. In 1835 she began a Working and Visiting Society which visited the poor in their homes and tried to understand what caused their plight, and help the children to get an education.

But the children of the slums were not much interested in reading and writing: it would not help them find food or get a factory job.

In 1840 Lant Carpenter died, and Mary took on more of his charity work around Lewins Mead. She still helped run the family school, but she was writing to Tuckerman in the US and learning about his “farm school” teaching practical skills to delinquent children.

More visitors from the US fired up her increasing opposition to slavery, including a visit from Frederick Douglass, a former slave who had escaped captivity in the South in 1838. The northern states opposed slavery – but sometimes the courts there would return escaped slaves to their “owners” in the South.

M

ary was becoming convinced that the only way to reform the lawless children of Britain’s cities was to provide them with free schools. But different branches of Christianity were competing for influence. An attempt in Parliament in 1843 to pass a bill setting up free schools failed, because nonconformists thought it gave too much power to the Church of England.

The failure sparked Mary into action. Raising money from the middle-class supporters who backed her Visiting Society, in August 1846 she set up a Ragged Industrial School – a free school in Lewins Mead for “the instruction and moral improvement of those whose poverty, habits and mode of procuring subsistence have unfitted them for belonging to any other school”.

A master, Mr Grant, was appointed, and he went on to the streets looking for pupils, telling them he would teach them to read and write for free.

The first day, a Sunday, three boys turned up in the morning.

The afternoon was better: 13 or Continued overleaf

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

n HISTORY Continued from page 37 14 attended. Mr Grant wrote in his diary: “That afternoon I shall never forget. Only 13 or 14 boys present; some swearing, some fighting, some crying. One boy struck another’s head through the window.

“I tried to offer up a short prayer, but found it impossible; the boys, instead of kneeling, began to tumble over one another, and to sing Jim Crow.”

Slowly, order was imposed, and soon 30 boys aged from six to 17 were attending regularly.

As well as reading and writing, there was “religious improvement”, and practical skills taught by a tailor and a shoemaker. Girls were soon taught too, though it seems only boys were given a bath every day.

Girls, perhaps, were thought more likely to bathe at home.

THE DANGEROUS CLASSES

M

August 2018

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38

ary was studying which methods worked best in other countries.

She was gathering expertise, and in 1851 she published an essay: Reformatory Schools for the Children of the Perishing and Dangerous Classes and for Juvenile Offenders.

To us, the title says a lot – she saw some youngsters as a “dangerous class” which threatened the rest of society. But that is to ignore her message, which was shocking at the time: that “child delinquents” were children first, and the best way to improve them was through love.

Her essay tried to convince the public – and more importantly, decision-makers – that prison was not the remedy to lawless youth.

“Of the 24 boys who were in prison during 1850, 12 have become decidedly more hardened and reckless since their imprisonment,” she wrote of the boys she had studied.

She described one boy who was first jailed at the age of seven – the youngest age prison was permitted – after being caught begging. Prison only helped him to move on to different crimes, and his sixth jail term was awarded for stealing a coconut.

After this he was sent to Mary’s Ragged Industrial School, but the school had no power to keep him in class, and he was soon back on the streets. At his ninth court case, Mary described how he bounded into the dock,

’A CHILD DELINQUENT IS STILL A CHILD’

The Red Lodge, where a plaque bears Mary Carpenter’s name “his prison life having made him bold and insolent.”

The next year, in 1852, Mary was arguing her case for reform at a House of Commons select committee, insisting that harsh penalties would not work, and a child must be treated as a child.

She tried to recast the image of a young “delinquent” as a pathetic being in need of help, writing: “…their tattered garments, their bare feet, their starved lok, their mean and degraded aspect … must touch even those who regard them only as young beings, susceptible as our own children of privation and suffering.”

She treated her young charges as individuals, and tried to instil a family atmosphere for children whose own notion of family life had been horribly corrupted.

She described one boy as “doomed almost from infancy to be a convict.” The boy’s father had, in some extreme of desperation or mental ill health, taken his two small boys from their bed, apparently telling them he was going to kill them. Mary claims the mother, far from arguing with her husband, told him to keep the boys’ shoes. The man took them to a canal and succeeded in “throwing the eldest in with violence, as if he were drowning a dog; all this may seem incredible to some, too revolting to human nature to be true.”

Incredible or not, Mary’s testimony, and the humanity of her own methods, won her influence over new laws which were passed, starting with the Youthful Offenders Act of 1854, which gave some state funding to Ragged Schools such as her own.

More reforms followed with Industrial Schools Acts in 1857, 1861 and 1866.

Meanwhile, Mary had opened the schools for which she is best remembered in Bristol: in 1852 a reformatory for children of both sexes in Kingswood, which soon became boys-only, and in 1854 Red Lodge Reformatory for girls in Park Row. This grand Tudor building had been built in the 16th C by royal courtier John Yonge as a mere annexe to his Great House, which stood where the Colston Hall is now.

Backed by money from Lady Byron, widow of the scandalous Romantic poet, Mary set about restoring the lodge, which had become derelict. It was a grisly job – in her diary she recorded finding the remains of a human foot in an outhouse.

Mary succeeded in making the lodge a homely place, a sharp contrast to the prison-like workhouses poor families were often sent to. She insisted on well-trained staff, a family atmosphere and an approach that tried to persuade the child to co-operate – they were not forced to work, and recreation and sport were encouraged. These things were not common in other schools of the day.

Mary wrote of the Red Lodge girls: “The delinquency of these poor girls may in almost every instance be directly traced to parental neglect or mismanagement. Their low educational condition is usually a direct consequence of this and no amount of subsequent teaching can compensate for this early neglect. Every effort is however made to cultivate the intellectual

powers of the girls as a means of raising them from their degraded condition.”

Yet her practices were not entirely to modern tastes: there are records that girls had their hair cut short as a punishment, or were locked in the basement.

The ambition for the girls was that they should become house servants, and Bristol’s wealthy matrons were said to be keen on employing the Red Lodge’s well-trained girls. It was at least better than a life on the streets.

Mary refused to make fixed rules about how long her “reform” of wayward young pupils should take. Nor did she prescribe the exact methods, saying: “Each case should be dealt with on its own merits, release dependent on the progress made, and decided by the school managers.”

Neither did she insist on a rigid set of religious beliefs. Mary met opposition from Catholics in particular, and claimed that Roman Catholic priests in Bristol told Irish families that they should avoid the Ragged School.

She told a Commons committee in 1861: “The children told us that the priests had in one case flogged a child for coming to our school, and had used very strong influence to prevent them from coming, and that I have myself been absolutely insulted in the street by Catholic children ... who feel erroneously that they were showing their zeal for their own religion by insulting Protestants.”

She was not imagining this opposition: after her fame spread across Europe, the Pope condemned her books in 1864.

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n interest in prisons sprang naturally from Mary’s work on reforming the young offender, and she published a book called Our Convicts in 1864. She spoke to the National Association of Social Science, and at the International Penal and Prison Congress in London in 1872.

In the same year, she was invited by Princess Alice of Hesse to help organise a Congress of Women Workers in Darmstadt, Germany. It was not sexual equality by our standards: the meeting resolved to work towards a “better preparation for domestic life”. But, at Mary’s

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August 2018

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n HISTORY suggestion, it led to an International Union for the Industrial Education of Women.

She studied the liberal prison system of Louis Guillaume in Switzerland, and in 1873 went to America, where she visited prisons, met slavery abolitionists and criticised the “ dreadful state” of prisons in New York.

Mary had wanted to visit India since meeting Raja Ram Mohan Roy in Bristol in 1833.

Roy was, and still is, revered in India. He died of meningitis while he was in Bristol. He is buried in one of the most elaborate tombs in Arnos Vale.

In 1866 Mary achieved her ambition of visiting India – but it was no holiday; she was determined to shake up the system there as much as she had in England. Helped by Roy’s Hindu followers and the American Unitarian mission in Calcutta, she investigated how to improve the education of girls in India.

She found that few girls received any schooling after the age of 12. An education like her own – at her father’s school, she had been taught mathematics, the classics and sciences to the same level as her brothers – was beyond almost any Indian girl.

The governor of Bombay allowed her to inspect schools, prisons and hospitals. However, Mary resisted giving her name to a state-funded school system, fearing it might have different priorities from hers. Instead she supported the efforts of Indian reformers in schools, prisons and hospitals. She saw it as crucial that more Indian women became teachers, nurses and prison workers – but for that to happen, Indian girls needed better schooling.

At first she helped send teachers from Britain. Her schools were poorly attended at first, but eventually they became popular. Mary’s efforts also influenced the start of university education for women in India.

Mary returned to India three times. In 1868 she set up a Normal School to train teachers, and in 1870 she set up the National India Association to provide a focus for those who wanted social reform.

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here are several elements in Mary Carpenter’s story that will seem out of place to modern eyes. She was a

Raj Mohan Roy: Mary met the great Indian reformer shortly before he died in Bristol in 1833, inspiring her to visit India, where she set up her own girls’ schools tremendously progressive figure for the time, yet she persisted in describing the children in her reform schools as different – not just difficult, but as potentially dangerous to the rest of society.

Words like “delinquent” are rarely used today, but Mary was reflecting what was widely believed at the time – that a child was more or less condemned by their early circumstances to a lowly position in life.

Her message seemed to be that street children were not doomed to a life of crime and vagrancy, but they could not expect anything more but a menial living even if they did reform themselves. “Poor but honest” was their highest aim.

Yet she resisted dictating how these wayward souls were to be treated. She created a fairly strict and religious environment, to be sure, but she also emphasised the importance of love and a family atmosphere as the best

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MARY CARPENTER, SOCIAL ACTIVIST correctives. One wonders what her own daughter thought of her.

Mary was 51 (and unmarried) when she adopted her daughter Rosanna, five, in 1858.

Mary wrote: “Just think of me with a little girl of my own, about five years old! Ready made to hand and nicely trained, without the trouble of marrying, etc, a darling little thing, an orphan. I feel already a mere de famille, happy in buying little hats and socks and a little bed to stand in my own room, out of my own money. It is a wonderful feeling.”

It sounds as if Mary saw her child, a little selfishly, as an addition to her happiness. She later wrote, “God put it into my mind that I ought to be a mother to the little thing.”

Rosanna’s mother had been widowed and placed her daughter in the hands of a religious family whom she paid to look after her.

However, when the mother disappeared and payments stopped, Rosanna’s fosterers passed her on to the Red Lodge.

Two years later the mother reappeared, and demanded her daughter back, claiming she had been stolen from her. Funds were raised to enable her to come to Bristol, where she confronted Mary. She then had a change of heart, apparently convinced that Mary was caring for Rosanna better than she could, and she disappeared from Rosanna’s life.

Rosanna was educated at a boarding school and later became Mary’s housekeeper. It was she who went to her mother’s bedroom in Red Lodge in June 1877 to find that Mary had died peacefully in the night. Mary left Rosanna an annuity, a third of

her glass and china, and all her books and pictures which were not promised to someone else.

It’s hardly the legacy which an only child would expect: to the end, it seems, Mary Carpenter saw her young charges as in a different class from her own.

But perhaps we should not judge one age by the standards of our own. Our social attitudes, after all, will be criticised by later generations.

Mary has an important legacy which cannot be wiped out. Not only did she put her considerable influence behind all kinds of improvements to public health, prisons, hospitals, the justice system and education – especially for girls. She also insisted that a child “delinquent” was first and foremost a child, and deserved to be treated as such. That’s a lesson that some would say we have not yet fully absorbed.

Sources • Women and Welfare: Ten Victorian Women in Public Social Service Julia Parker 1989 • Conceptualizing Cruelty to Children in Nineteenth-Century England Monica Flegel, 2016 • Women on Their Own: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Being Single edited by Rudolph M Bell, Virginia Yans • Mothers: Mary Carpenter thirdsector.co.uk • Bristol Ragged/Day Industrial School Peter Higginbotham childrenshomes.org.uk • Public Health in Victorian Bristol: the work of David Davies, Medical Officer of Health Peter Malpass and Michael Whitfield, Avon Local History & Archeology society

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2011 to make “new plays that dissect the 21st century experience”.

This show, their 13th, has a cast of six, plus Tom Crosley-Thorne providing a live soundtrack of echoing guitar, harmonica and perfect atmospheric whistling.

We start in a lecture about film-making, then cut to live action snippets as we uncover the past of Mae, our protagonist (Helena Middleton). She’s on a mission to find the truth of a tragedy that happened when she was a child.

On the way she picks up a sidekick, Anne, played by Jesse Meadows, who’s spent too long on her own characters including Nia and the troublesome African trucks, Ace the show-off race car from Australia, a few helpful cranes in Brazil along with old trusty favourites Annie and Clarabel.

The three youngsters I went with had mixed responses. Benaiah, 3, said: “I liked the trains and the car. He was fast but mean.”

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was nice enough. It didn’t have unexpected tame swear words in it, which makes a change from most children’s films these days, and the negative characters got their comeuppance. I agree with my seven-year-old in that the female character could have been the fast race car just for a change. It had some nice songs which were sweet and catchy and I saw a few younger audience members dancing along!

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and that they were all from different countries. But why couldn’t the girl have been the fast race car who was really cool?”

Ten-year-old James said: “I thought it was really good. I liked the fact that Thomas dreamt big, he didn’t just want to stay at home and pull trucks forever. I love that the film showed us that even when Thomas made mistakes, he tried to go back and fix them.”

My parental response is that it

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ranks when the outsiders arrive.

What matters just as much as the setup is the delivery of the whole thing. Described as a spaghetti western with pasties, this is slick, clever and funny, in full technicolour. An actor seamlessly places a chair just as another sits on it; props appear in the hand at just the right time; moments are created with just a few words.

The epic finale features a huge gun fight – the cast flinging themselves around in ever-more exaggerated death throes – an exhausting, hilarious sequence, timed to perfection. Beccy Golding

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August 2018

Witty look at how Bill kept top of the plots

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Week at Zion, supported by Bristol Community Energy Fund. zionbristol.co.uk n Wild Outdoors Club Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster.

From 10am- 12 noon every Thursday until August 23.

Crafts, cooking, nature activities and outdoor games for 6-9 year-olds. Cost: £10 per child (concessionary places available). windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk Friday August 3 n Friendly Ever After Creative Workspace, Queens Road, Withywood Brazilian artists Nos Three present a funny and interactive show about friendship

and all its beautiful discoveries.

After the show, a family workshop teaches clowning techniques and how to play together. Show 11.30am, family workshop 1pm. Tickets £2.50. creativeworkspacebristol.co.uk n Fun Quiz St Paul’s Church, Coronation Road, Southville.

Starts at 7.30pm. Open to teams of four, £5 per person including light supper. n Morbid Curiosity Tour Arnos Vale Cemetery. Have you ever walked around a cemetery or graveyard and thought “I wonder how they died?” This tour is your chance to find out.

From a fatal stabbing, to diseases

Bold humour: Lucy Porter and Carey Marx try out Fringe shows

humour delivered from a slightly puzzled perspective, with a sideways smile to show us he knows exactly what he’s doing.

Content I can mention includes riffing on the theme of selfidentification, online dating as a newly single 52-year-old, bat spotting in Australia, and how to be as confident as Trump.

The Hen & Chicken Studio has seen some improvements. The new Studio Bar occupies the old green room – a much more sensible place to order your drinks. There’s also a new LED lighting rig (no heat), new sound system, and a new hardwood floor. Further changes are planned.

Beccy Golding

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(concessionary places available).

No booking needed. windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk Thursday August 2 n The Curious Cube Zion, Bishopsworth Road. Come and see a strange mirrored cube structure which comes to life with the questions that people ask. It’s Zion’s turn to host The Curious Cube, on tour from We The Curious, the new name for the @Bristol science centre. It aims to gather 10,000 questions to make a new exhibition created from the curiosity of the city.

Special Kidcraft session in the morning. Everyone welcome, 10.30am-3pm. Part of Science

Making the menopause a laughing matter n Lucy Porter and Carey Marx Comedy Box at the Hen & Chicken Studio N JULY the Comedy Box runs these double-header Edinburgh fringe festival preview shows.

You get to see seasoned performers trying out their nearly-ready acts.

Lucy Porter often appears on telly or Radio 4. She’s bright and breezy, relaxed and open as she

when it’s off duty) had a circle of chairs surrounding a hay cart.

Patrons cooled off with Ye Olde Choc Ices, and the action began.

This brand new comedy has been written specially for the Bristol Shakespeare Festival. It’s inspired by the book of the same name by James Shapiro, focusing on the amazingly productive year

of 1599, in which Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and Hamlet.

The cast of three are Will, Phil and Bill. Will Kemp, one of Shakespeare’s own players, is played by Chris Yapp, who looks dandy in hose, and quick changes in and out of full Elizabeth I ruff and gown.

Diarist and theatrical impresario Philip Henslowe is played by Kirsty Cox and Bill Shakespeare himself

by Alison Campbell – the whole cast is witty and engaging and flits between modern references, plot-driven dialogue and a selection of the most famous Shakespearean soliloquies with aplomb.

The end of the show sees them build a replica of the Globe Theatre before our very eyes, regaled with fairy lights. It’s a magical end to a hot, sticky, educational and thoroughly entertaining evening.

Beccy Golding

n 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare Stackville Playhouse T WAS that sweatily hot Saturday, the day England beat Sweden in the World Cup quarter finals, and anyone who could had found a spot with a nice cool breeze. Pity, then, the actors dressed in full doublet and hose, velvet cloaks and ruffs. The audience were hot and fidgety, the cast soldiered on through the stifling heat – no mean feat in itself, regardless of the fact that they played with energy, enthusiasm and humour.

The Stackpool Playhouse (which I strongly suspect is the St Thomas Mar Thoma church hall

describes her two problems – one’s a health issue, one’s more philosophical. Health-wise, it’s the menopause – another high-profile woman sharing her experience of an issue which is getting more and more talked about. Hats off to her – it’s not your standard stand-up subject matter but she makes it accessible and funny. The philosophical problem is about

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n WHAT’S ON

n WHAT’S ON Sunday July 29 n Games Sunday Ashton Court mansion. Artspace Lifespace, the arts group which is helping to run the mansion until at least 2020, is hosting an afternoon of fun. The Bristol Wind Band will play between 2-4pm and, if the weather is fine, the Courtyard Cafe will break out the barbecue.

Come play croquet, enjoy free entertainment from the band and take a photo with Ashton Court’s Grommit. Also on August 19, with music from What The Folk. artspacelifespace.com n Sunday Market Tobacco Factory, North Street. Around 40 food and craft stalls, featuring produce and products grown, cooked or made in the area. Open 10am-2.30pm, kids activities from 11.30am-2pm. tobaccofactory.com/whats-on Tuesday July 31-Thurs August 2 n Jump Into … Tech Knowle West Media Centre, Leinster Avenue. Free holiday fun at KWMC for ages 10-16. Explore exciting new technologies including robots, Virtual reality, 3D printing, Microbits, drones and coding. July 31 is a girlsonly session from 10am-1pm.

All welcome on August 1 and 2, 10am-3pm. Details from Dot on 0117 903 0444 or e-mail dot@ kwmc.org.uk. More activities from August 7-9 (see below). kwmc.org.uk/events Wednesday August 1 n Wood Water Fire Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster. Outdoor nature play on Wednesdays, 10am to 3pm, until August 22. Make the most of the great outdoors with the farm’s play team. For ages 3 and above. Cost: £2 per child

August 2018

The Bard and his burdens in 1599

legacy, death and aging – with short ear canals, how many pairs of jeans you need before you die, glass clown ornaments, her experience as a woman in comedy, rage and virtue signalling all covered in her casual way as if it’s all just popped into her head.

I wasn’t so familiar with Carey Marx but quickly came to enjoy his boyish sense of fun and mannish sense of bawdiness. Much more obviously still working out his material and checking his bundle of notes, there was much in his set that I can’t mention – adult

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of the past such as cholera and smallpox, open your mind to the ways people used to die. Note: not for the faint hearted, or children. 7.30-9pm, £10. Also on other dates in August, along with another macabre tour, Murder, Mayhem & Mystery. arnosvale.org.uk n Battlemoose The Thunderbolt, Bath Road, Totterdown. Charity gig in aid of Paul’s Place, a centre for disabled adults in Coalpit Heath. Battlemoose are a Bristol rock and pop cover band who promise “mighty floorbangers”.

Advance tickets £2.50 or £4 on the door; 7.30-11.45pm. thethunderbolt.net Saturday August 4 n Strummerjam Fiddlers Club, Willway Street, Bedminster.

A night of music in memory of the late Clash frontman Joe Strummer. Headlined by festival favourites Mankala with support from Bristol Samba, Itinerants, and Bristol’s leading Brazilian dance campany, the Sambazinhas. Profits to the Joe Strummer Foundation and Musicians Against Homelessness. 8pm, £11/£8.80. fiddlers.co.uk Friday August 10 n Cider & Sausage Fest Zion, Bishopsworth Road. Enjoy tasty bangers (veggie options available) and sample different ciders. Music from Stompin’ Dave, performing bluegrass, blues, country, folk, rock ’n’ roll and more. Bar open 5-10pm.

Over 18s only. Free entry. tinyurl.com/zionciderfest Tuesday August 7-Thursday 9 n Jump Into … Photography Knowle West Media Centre,

Leinster Avenue. Free holiday fun at KWMC for ages 14-19, from 10am-3pm each day. Try your hand at studio, fashion and street photography and photo journalism. Exhibition at the end of the week. All kit provided but please bring lunch. Email dot@ kwmc.org.uk or call Dot on 0117 903 0444. kwmc.org.uk/events Wednesday August 8 n Marky Jay’s Monkey Magic Zion, Bishopsworth Road. With his monkey assistant, Professor Steve Chimpington, Marky Jay tries to amaze every child in the room with magic tricks and juggling, which never seems to go to plan. For ages 3+, cafe open from 9am. 10.30-11.30am, £3.83. zionbristol.co.uk

Timeless tale of powerplay and tragic conflict

others, spotlit moments bring atmosphere and intimacy.

The production is a showpiece for this year’s graduating students of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School – all the actors and many of the technical and creative team, with the exception of director Lucy Pitman-Wallace, who trained at BOVTS in 1993. Back-of-house, costume designer Daniel Scott and supervisor Rian Stockton deserve mentions – I enjoyed the hooded robes of the women of Thebes and the linen uniform of Prince Tydeus.

For the actors, I found it hard to pull my eyes away from James Schofield as the damaged child soldier, and Bonnie Baddoo as

n Welcome to Thebes Tobacco Factory

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ELCOME to Thebes is a massive play – set in a war-soaked near-future, remniscent of ancient Greece. We witness war and madness, politics, manipulation and family tragedy, overseen by a distorted soothsaying crone. At times it’s lights-on, shouting, brutal outrage, while at

Thursday August 9Sunday August 12 n Bristol International Balloon Fiesta Ashton Court estate. The 40th annual balloon fiesta – the biggest in Europe – opens at 12 noon. The special

shape balloons lift off at 6pm on Thursday, weather permitting, followed by the spectacular night glow at 9pm and a firework finale. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday there are mass ascents at 6am, with model hot air balloon competitions at 8am, and an evening lift-off at 6pm. There’s another nightglow on Saturday.

The balloons are on tethered display on Thursday and Friday at 12 noon, and there’s arena entertainment with aerial displays from 12-5.30pm on Saturday and Sunday. bristolballoonfiesta.co.uk See your event highlighted like this from just £5 per month. To find out more email Ruth Drury at sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk Sunday August 12 n Mantic Muddlers Tobacco Factory bar, North Street. “The Mantic Muddlers combine a rich influence of sonic stylings and serve up their stories on a foundation of infectious grooves and raucous melodies… For lack of a legitimate genre, you’ll be hearing roots, rattle & roll!” Free, 8-10pm. tobaccofactory.com/whats-on Monday August 13 n Baby Comedy Depot Zion, Bishopsworth Road. Stand-up comedy for adults with little ones in tow. Headliner Suzy Carr has supported Russell Kane and reached the final of Jimmy Carr’s Comedy Idol. Adult lunches on sale (don’t bring your own) but you can feed babies and no one will complain if anyone starts crying – as long as they’re not an adult. 1-2.30pm, £7. zionbristol.co.uk

Tuesday August 14 n Board Games Tobacco Factory bar, North Street. A massive selection of board games, with beers, food, and board-gaming fun.

Games such as Magic Maze, Sheriff of Nottingham and Pandemic. Entry £3.50, 6-10pm.

If you fancy a particular game, leave a message on Facebook. facebook.com/tobaccofactory Wednesday August 15 Sons of Bill The Tunnels, Temple Meads. Three brothers whose father is, unsurprisingly, called Bill, make “complexly layered, emotionally intimate and sonically expansive” music.

“Unknown to most, their fans adore them.” £13, 7.30pm. thetunnelsbristol.co.uk Friday August 17 n Comedy Depot Zion, Bishopsworth Road. The August headliner is Tom Glover, who’s been on the comedy circuit since 2010, winning over any crowd with his tales of life on the outside and his observations on the minutiae of the everyday. He also does funny accents and pulls silly faces. 7.30pm, £6. zionbristol.co.uk/events Sunday August 19 n Gavin Strange, Aardman Animations Arnos Vale cemetery. Talk for teens and adults (not children) by the creator of the Gromit Unleashed 2 Day of the Dead sculpture at Arnos Vale. Gavin, senior designer and director at Aardman Animations, will talk about creating his Gromit design and his involvement in the previous two award-winning trails in aid of The Grand Appeal, Continued overleaf Age-old themes of brutality and power are evoked by young cast

Antigone – both mesmerizingly watchable, and Marco Young as Prince Tydeus was oozing with powerful potential – I feel sure I’ll see him again. For the rest of the

cast, the women carried it – the team of Thebes stateswomen were all strong and committed: I especially warmed to Hannah Livingstone as Aglaea, likeable, human and direct, while Emma Prendergast as Euridice could play the role of smiling politician in real life.

It’s an intense production – in moments of chaos I found some lines were lost, but this is theatre in the round depicting the theatre of war – timeless themes of power and poverty – what a place to start a career! Beccy Golding

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

southbristolvoice

44

August 2018

It's going so badly, you’ll have a riot n The Play That Goes Wrong Bristol Hippodrome T’S GOING wrong even before we take our seats – a man is running through the foyer shouting “Has anyone seen my dog?” Turns out he’s Trevor, the lights and sound guy (played by Gabriel Paul). He sits playing on his phone, when he’s not on stage trying to fix disasters.

The play is an Agatha Christie-style mystery – Murder at Haversham Manor, performed by the Cornley Polytechnic drama Continued from page 43 the Bristol Children’s Hospital Charity. Tickets £3, 2-3.30pm. arnosvale.org.uk n Death Café Arnos Vale cemetery, Spielman Centre. All welcome to chat about death in a relaxed, social café environment.

The objective: “to increase awareness of the reality of death, so we can enjoy feeling more fully alive”. Free, 2-4pm. arnosvale.org.uk Wednesday August 22 n Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires The Tunnels, Temple Meads. Members of the hardrocking, tell-it-like-it-is school of Southern rock, Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires are billed as “not for the faint-hearted or sensitive of hearing, but an unmissable event for lovers of passionate and honest rock and roll”. 7.30pm, £12. thetunnelsbristol.co.uk Friday August 24 n Glory Days: The Boss Experience The Tunnels, Temple Meads. Two and a half hours of hits from The Boss – Bruce Springsteen, featuring the vocal talents of James G Brennan and his group. £10, 7.30pm. thetunnelsbristol.co.uk Saturday August 25 n Band Of Holy Joy + Micko & The Mellotronics + Bush & Fey The Thunderbolt, Bath Road, Totterdown. Post-punk but hard to categorise, Band of Holy Joy have just released a new album, Funambulist We Love You. Support from Micko & the Mellotronics, a four piece artrock band featuring Jon Klein,

ex-Siouxsie & the Banshees, and South Bristol favourites, inventive songsters Bush & Fey. 7.30pm, £10.00 on the door. thethunderbolt.net Sunday August 26 n Athea Tobacco Factory bar, North Street. Paul Bradley, ex of Organelles, Bradley Bros and Three Cane Whale, presents a new duo with drummer/ percussionist Emma Holbrook.

“This is improvised music of beauty, invention and virtuosity.”

Free, 8-10pm. tobaccofactory.com/whats-on Tuesday August 28-Saturday September 1 n Summer School: Theatre Challenge Tobacco Factory theatre, North Street. Two groups aged 8-12 and 13-19 spend five days creating their own piece of drama, with the help of professional theatre makers. Rehearsals will involve acting, movement, trust and teambuilding, and script work, from 9.30am-4pm each day.

The week culminates in a show on Saturday at 5pm – tickets £3. Cost for the week £180 (help available – email bryony@ tobaccofactorytheatres.com). tobaccofactorytheatres.com Friday August 31 n Quiz and Supper Night Windmill Hill Community Association, Vivian Street.

Held on the last Friday of every month, 8.30pm-late. Bar open. whca.org.uk Sunday September 2 n Bristol Aquarists Society Annual Show Hengrove Community Centre, Fortfield

I

Mistimed to a tee: The cast are in disarray right from the start

surreptitiously sneaking off stage when his stretcher collapses, endlessly getting caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, or speaking the key line at just the wrong moment. Other stand out Road, Hengrove Bristol BS14 9NX. See “the best goldfish in the country” as the Bristol Aquarists hold their annual open show.

Auction of members’ surplus stock 12.30pm. Show open at 2.30pm; admission free. bristol-aquarists.org.uk Wednesday September 5 n Charity quiz night In aid of Dogs for Good at Grounded café, Bedminster Parade. Dogs welcome! 7pm, £2 to enter, prizes and raffle, with all proceeds to Dogs for Good. Contact Rosie Blanning on 0117 203 3213 for more information. dogsforgood.org Saturday September 8 n Quiz and tea afternoon Ashton Vale Youth Club, Silbury Road. Ashton Vale Silver Social Club is holding a quiz with afternoon tea included. Tickets £5, 2pm. Proceeds to Ashton Vale youth club. Donations of raffle prizes welcome. Details on 07920 441176 – please leave a message.

Regular events

To advertise your event here from just £5 per month, contact Ruth at sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk n Cultivating Emotional Balance Totterdown Centre, 142 Wells Road, BS4 2AG. Four Monday sessions on September 17 and 24, October 1 and 8, 7-9pm. A secular course inspired by the Dalai Lama and created with Western psychologists to cultivate a calm and stable mind and a happy heart. Includes

southbristolvoice

n THE CITY PAGE

n WHAT’S ON society. Some of the cast gurn and play up to the audience, some take it terribly seriously, one mispronounces the words scrawled onto his sweaty palm.

Behind-the-scenes leaks out in all manner of ways. Sandra Wilkinson (played by Elena Valentine) and stage manager Annie Twilloil (Catherine Dryden) fight over the female lead role of Florence Colleymore, sometimes speaking the words in unison, when one or the other of them isn’t out cold.

Confused? It doesn’t matter!

In this cornucopia of corny gags and clowning, the laughs come every few seconds. Steve Rostance, playing Jonathan Harris playing Charles Haversham, is very funny as the corpse – flinching when others walk on his hand,

August 2018

set-pieces include when the cast somehow get stuck in a loop of dialogue, until finally one of them remembers the next line; an actor knocked out by a door slammed in her face is pulled through the window in a most undignified manner, and is shut inside a grandfather clock; and the study suddenly collapses, leaving two actors dangling from the furniture.

The final moments, when the whole set collapses around the cast, is a wonderful homage to the slapstick of Buster Keaton. Creators Mischief Theatre Company return in February with The Comedy About A Robbery. I’ll be there.

Beccy Golding emotional skills training and short, simple meditations to use every day. £60.

Email erikauridge@hotmail. co.uk or call 07487 647990. cultivatingemotionalbalance.org n Fitness Pilates with Lucy A dynamic core stability workout for the healthy adult. Tuesdays 7-7.45am Pilates Intervals; Thursdays 7-7.45am Morning Flow. At Brave Move, 51 St Luke’s Road BS3 4RX. Drop in, £7, mats provided. To book, email lucyeyrefitness@gmail.com n Danceblast “Bristol’s most exciting dance school.” Every Saturday and Sunday at St Francis Church Hall, North Street, Southville. Saturday: juniors, 3-4 years 10-11am, 5-6 years 11am-12 noon, 7-9 years 12 noon-1.30pm, 10-11 years 1.303pm, 12-13 years 2.15-4.15pm.

Sunday: seniors 14-18 years 1.304.30pm, Tobacco Factory studio.

Call Anne on 07984 069485. danceblast.co.uk n Iyengar Yoga with Naomi General level – suitable for beginners or those with some experience. Thursdays 7.459pm, Totterdown Methodist Church Hall, Winton Lane. £8 drop in. 07970 678872. Bring your mat, or spares are available. n JollyTots Music & Singing Workshops. Fun drop-in music class for 0-5 years and their grown-ups. No booking, just turn up! Tuesdays 10am (term time) in the Padfield Centre, Victoria Park Baptist church, Sylvia Avenue. £3.50 (siblings under 1 are free). jollytots.org.uk

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

45

BRISTOL CITY ROUND-UP

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Now that everyone knows Sometimes it feels like City what it is like to be a Bristol City are not far away from the top fan – huge excitement followed level. Seeing Danny Rose among by ultimate disappointment – those getting game time in the let’s hope some armchair fans World Cup semi-final for will pop along to watch a live England was a case in point. He match when Bristol City start the played 17 games for Bristol City long Championship season once in 2010 while on loan from again on August 4 against Tottenham, showing his potential Nottingham Forest. even then.

Of course, it won’t just be new If the club are going to faces in the crowd as the season compete at the highest level starts. We welcome Hakeeb players need to be at City in their Adalukan, Adam Webster, prime - not when they are Andreas Weimann and Jack learning the game or after their Hunt to City. They will have to best seasons. Arguably Joe work hard to gain the sort of Bryan, Korey Smith, Matt Taylor, affection that Aden Flint, Bobby Bailey Wright, Nathan Baker and Reid and Hordur Magnusson some of the new faces are at that enjoyed before leaving this stage, so the team are ready to summer to ply their trade make a real challenge for the top elsewhere. this year.

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n YOUR MP

The rollout of Universal Credit will hit South Bristol very hard

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VER since the announcement of the move to Universal Credit, I’ve received calls from constituents worried about what this might mean for them. Along with Labour colleagues, I’ve raised concerns about the new system, which combines housing benefit, jobseekers’ allowance, tax credits and disability benefits for working-age people into a single monthly credit payment.

We were especially critical of the delay between submitting an application and receiving payment, knowing that many people in Bristol South do not have the means to tide themselves over for a month or two.

A recent report from the independent National Audit Office (NAO) stated that Universal Credit was not currently providing the “value for money” that the Government

insists it does, and neither did it look likely to provide value for money in the future.

However, the NAO conceded that now that the roll-out was in progress there was no practical alternative but to continue with it.

The full roll-out of Universal Credit is

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now under way here in Bristol South, with all new benefit claimants having to apply for the new single payment, as well as those people who have a change in their circumstances, such as a giving birth to a baby, reducing their hours at work, or a house move. Many vulnerable people will now be forced to claim the new benefit and risk going up to six weeks without any income.

This will hit Bristol South hard. We know that our area of the city has some of the highest levels of poverty in Bristol, along with serious health inequality: around one in 10 working-aged adults are unable to work due to ill-health. There are almost 6,000 people in Bristol South claiming Employment Support Allowance (ESA) because they have a disability or health problem which means they cannot work – that’s over 1,000 more than in any other Bristol constituency.

The NAO report revealed that more people were falling into rent arrears or having to use food banks in areas where Universal Credit was being introduced. I’ve been contacted by several constituents in difficult positions and recently raised the issue in Parliament.

I will keep pressing the Government on this important issue and will always try to help constituents having difficulties with Universal Credit.

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