southbristolvoice
April 2019 April 2019
southbristolvoice
No. 42
www.southbristolvoice.co.uk
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Revealed: plans for thousands of homes SOUTH Bristol is to take an even bigger share of the new homes planned for the city over the next 16 years, according to the latest version of the Local Plan. The south of the city was already earmarked for the largest portion of housebuilding to meet a target of 33,500 new homes – and maybe many more – by 2035. The Local Plan, now out for public consultation until May 24, calls for 11,000 of those homes to be built in South Bristol, and 11,500 in Central Bristol. However, the bulk of the homes slated for the central area will be in South Bristol or on its doorstep – in St Philip’s, at Western Harbour (Cumberland Basin) and the Temple Quarter. To meet the targets, many would have to be in high-rise or high-density buildings. In addition, the south of the city is expected to find room for thousands of student rooms. Some of the Green Belt could be sacrificed for homes. Full story: pages 6-7
PARKING: SURVEY OF BS3 SHOWS THE FULL MISERY ‘The situation got so bad that we are now selling our house as it’s become so stressful’ STORY: Pages 4-5
BS3 traders voice upset over tagging
INSIDE • BEDS GREEN PLAN WAVED THROUGH
6-7
Upfest denies it’s worsened by festival SOUTH Bristol’s biggest street event, Upfest, has come under fire as traders voice upset that North Street and the wider area is festooned with tagging months after the event took place last July. The festival of street art is taking a break in 2019, the year after its 10th anniversary year brought record numbers onto the streets of Bedminster. Around 50,000 people came to the free festival to see 400 artists at work, making murals on the sides of buildings such as the Tobacco Factory and many others in and around North Street, as well as venues such as Ashton Gate stadium and South Street park. Most residents and businesses seem to support the festival, which is the biggest event of its type in Europe. Founder Steve
• LET’S GET BEDMINSTER’S GARDENS BLOOMING 9 • MAYOR TOLD: YOU CAN’T DEFEND AIRPORT EXPANSION 11 Daubed: A shop on East Street
• BEDMINSTER’S FIRST COMMUNITY FRIDGE 13
Hayles and his team have won praise for putting South Bristol on the map, and raising thousands for charity. But for the first time, the Voice has been hearing complaints – of a wave of unwanted graffiti tagging that peaks during the festival and is often not cleaned up. It is not hard to find walls and shops covered in unsightly tags which Continued on page 3
• HISTORY: THE MAN WHO BROUGHT LIGHT TO THE CITY 24-25
the place for you… Spring sales, lettings, mortgages & conveyancing. oceanhome.co.uk
Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk
IN
April 2019
southbristolvoice
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 THE LIGHTS ARE ON RED COMPLAINTS about parking are often dismissed as an inevitable part of city life; as a middle class problem, or a First World one – something, in other words, that gets people upset but isn’t really important. The results of the survey of 1,229 people by RateBS3 put the lie to that point of view. Parking, to a majority of people in this area, is a serious issue which affects them most days. For many, the issue has reached crisis point – it has provoked them to move home. Many simply cannot stand the endless circling to find a space, the long walk home with children or shopping, the
Independent Community News Network member Twitter: @sbristolvoice Facebook: southbristolvoice Next deadline for editorial and advertising: April 17th anxiety that stops them going out because they fear not being able to return easily. Worse, there is real danger – from the parking on yellow lines and junctions that reduces visibility and makes accidents more likely, and from the inability of ambulances and fire engines to get into our roads. Many are agreed that among the chief causes are matchday parking, and the overflow from existing resident parking schemes. More matchday restrictions, and new RPZ schemes, would seem to be among the answers. Yet the only reason we have a survey that reveals the problem is because we have a resident market researcher, Matt Gibbs, who did the work for free. These problems have existed for years. When will they be tackled?
HOW DO I GET IN TOUCH WITH ... 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: (all councillors) City Hall, College Green, Bristol BS1 5TR. Celia Phipps Labour, Bedminster USEFUL NUMBERS Bristol City Council www.bristol.gov.uk 0117 922 2000 Waste, roads 0117 922 2100 Pests, dog wardens 0117 922 2500 Council tax 0117 922 2900 Housing benefit 0117 922 2300
By phone: 07469 413312 By email: Cllr.celia.phipps@bristol.gov.uk Mark Bradshaw Labour, Bedminster. By email: Cllr.mark. bradshaw@bristol.gov.uk By phone: 0117 353 3160 Stephen Clarke Green, Southville By email: Cllr.stephen.clarke@ bristol.gov.uk Charlie Bolton Green, Southville By phone: 07884 736111 By email: Cllr.charlie.bolton@bristol.gov.uk
Social services 0117 922 2900 Police Inquiries 101 Emergency 999 NEIGHBOURHOOD MEETINGS None planned as the Voice went to press.
COMPLAINTS Despite our best efforts, we sometimes get things wrong. We always try to resolve issues informally at first but we also have a formal complaints procedure. If you have a complaint about anything in the South Bristol Voice, contact the Editor using the details below. We aspire to follow the the Code of Conduct of the NUJ (National Union of Journalists), nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-code. Further details of the complaints process can be found on our website (below) or can be obtained by contacting the Editor by email: paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk or by post: 18 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BX or by phone: 07811 766072. southbristolvoice.co.uk/complaints-procedure All stories and pictures are ©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 | Co. no. 09522608 | VAT no. 211 0801 76
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April 2019
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n NEWS
Upfest defends its record Continued from page 1 remain there for months on end. Two years ago, a police unit, Operation Block, was targeting taggers, and sent some to prison. Now the operation has no dedicated officers. And though the council and police claim to be working together in a Graffiti Action Group, weeks of inquiries from the Voice have failed to elicit from the council what the group is doing, and what is being done in Bedminster. In some areas – but not BS3 – the council has made paint available to community groups to cover up graffiti. But the council was unable to say how the scheme worked or if local groups could apply. It’s believed that the traders of BS3, through their Town Team group, want to engage Bristol Waste in a six-month operation to clean unsightly tagging in the area, at a cost to the traderfunded body of up to £15,000. One North Street trader, who wanted to remain anonymous, thinks Upfest has grown too big and should not return. No one else the Voice spoke to shared that view. But George Ferguson, ex-mayor and owner of the Tobacco Factory, said he thought it was right that Upfest is taking a breather in 2019. Tagging can be destructive, he said, on historic buildings such as the NatWest bank on North Street, where the Bath stone has been damaged by repeated tagging and cleaning. But, said Mr Ferguson, Upfest has “brought much more positives than negatives. Any event is bound to bring an element of stupid behaviour, and there’s undoubtedly an element of that, whether the event is Upfest or Glastonbury. “I’m full of praise for what Steve Hayles and his team have done. I deplore the tagging but, on balance, we are so much better off with all the activities we have.” But, he added, “We should be really tough” on illegal taggers – “It would be good if there was a blitz on tagging across Greater Bedminster.” Mike Pope, manager of Strada Cycles in North Street, said: “I don’t have a problem with the festival, but I do struggle with the amount of tagging that we get, a level that wasn’t there before.” It
was “a little ironic” that the Town Team money is being used for the clean up, he said. He welcomes the festival, but doesn’t believe his business benefits – “We might as well close for the day,” he said. Martyn Lewis, managing director of Wyatt & Ackerman stationers, also backs Upfest, but is disappointed that he is left
Unsightly: A wall off East Street with metallic silver tags sprayed on his walls, which have been there for months. “It seems to be getting bad lately,” he said. Steve Hayles, founder of Upfest, believes the problem is a widespread one and Upfest does not make it worse. “Tagging is a nationwide issue, it’s rife on motorways, road networks and train lines as well as city buildings. It’s not a problem that’s particularly worse in Bedminster in comparison to other areas of the city and there’s no research to suggest a direct relationship to areas that promote street art,” he said. “Upfest is about celebrating the underground art scene that continues to flourish in Bristol, and is now a USP for the city. We only work on walls that can be legally painted and will continue to work with the community, business owners and landlords to identify these opportunities and ensure we create art that adds to the vibrancy of the area. “While we can try to help minimise tagging, it isn’t within our power to prevent it. We will help in any way we can to improve the area and keep it clean and tidy but we can’t do that alone.” The council said: “As part of the Clean Streets campaign, we have been working with the police, Bristol Waste and citizens in a Graffiti Action Group on ways of addressing increasing graffiti tagging in Bristol. “We have piloted an approach
of making paint available to local groups and the Community Payback [offenders] project, something we hope to widen the availability of in the future. “The reporting of graffiti should still take place via bristol. gov.uk/streets-travel/graffiti and also to the police where criminal damage has occurred.’’ The council used to remove offensive or racist graffiti quickly, often within 24 hours, while other material took longer. This policy is being changed – but despite being given several weeks, the council couldn’t say when the new policy would be ready. The police said they were discussing a problem-solving strategy which could bring a long-term impact on graffiti if adopted with the council. “We will continue to investigate graffiti as criminal damage and work with our partners,” said a police spokesperson.
The Garage Door Guy
Come and add an artistic touch PEOPLE who want to brighten up a community centre are invited to leave their own artistic mark on Saturday April 6, when South Bristol mural maestro Andy Council visits the Chessel Centre. Andy will incorporate the favourite animals of children at the centre’s nursery into blank spaces on the outside of the building in Chessel Street, from 10am-1pm. Andy’s trademark, visible all over the city, is dinosaur images made up of brightly coloured terraced houses like those in Totterdown. Inside, members of the public will be able to decorate blank canvasses in the Jasper community room, which is available for hire from the centre’s owner, BS3 Community. The charity wants to hear from people how the space should be used and said: “Come and express your opinion!”
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April 2019
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n NEWS MP hails rail delay victory THE MOST comprehensive
Great outdoors HOLIDAY fun this Easter at Arnos Vale cemetery includes a chance to explore the woods, learn how to make a den or hear an outdoor Stomping Story. arnosvale.org.uk
survey of public opinion ever undertaken in BS3 has found that the parking situation is so serious that people are moving house to avoid it. In what many people are hoping will be a wake-up call to the council, more than 1,200 people shared their views, showing that the impact of this everyday problem can be shocking. A majority – 72 per cent – of residents say they experience parking or road safety issues in their area all or most of the time. More than half – 56 per cent – favour a new resident parking scheme – but this rises to 70 per cent in some parts of Ashton, worst affected by football parking. The distress caused is shown in statements such as: “I have lived here for 20 years but the parking is making it miserable. I hate hearing the shouting.” “I genuinely worry about my
What you said ... “RPZ in Southville and Bedminster have just moved the parking problems down into Ashton. It’s a nightmare daily. I have lived in Ashton for over 50 years and never known it so bad on weekdays.”
Dangerous: Matchday parking “Finding a space can take 30-40 minutes. It seems nonsensical to be driving around and polluting the air for that amount of time.”
children’s safety due to nonresidents parking and dangerous driving on match days,” said another resident. And several said they were moving because of parking problems, or they knew people who had: “The situation got so bad that we are now selling our house as it’s become so stressful and neighbours are turning against
each other over a parking space!” The survey was made possible by market researcher Matt Gibbs, who lives in the area and decided that it was so important to gauge public opinion that he would do it for free. Using the name RateBS3, he has also conducted research into the positive impact on the area of the Winter Lantern parade. It means BS3 is luckier than
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people are moving out of BS3 speeds that people use on Palmyra Road and the threat of violence from drivers towards each other that I regularly observe.”
“We usually end up parking several streets away from our house, or in some cases literally miles away on match days if we are stupid enough to drive somewhere on those days.”
With Kayleigh, Bishopsworth St Peter’s Church Hall Church Road BS13 8JR Monday at 5.30pm and 7.30pm Call Kayleigh on 07432 198886
southbristolvoice
n NEWS
Parking misery is so bad that
COMMUTERS using Great Western services will be able to claim compensation if their trains are more than 15 minutes late, whatever the cause, bringing it into line with other rail franchises. Bristol South MP Karin Smyth called the move, which takes effect on April 1, a “long overdue victory for passengers”. The Labour MP complained in the Commons of the “gross inequality” of compensation offered by rail companies. She said there “are still a wealth of issues that need addressing with the Great Western mainline”.
April 2019
“I feel strongly about people paving over front gardens for parking. This results in loss of urban non-paved habitat and also makes parking very tricky.”
cars to the area whilst providing far less spaces than residents – a ridiculous idea.” “My child was knocked over in the summer while crossing opposite my house. There isn’t a safe point to cross due to congestion and over parking.”
“Many residents have moved simply because of the parking problem. The Brewery area is about to be developed, bringing even more
“Parking makes me cry. Literally. It is hellishly bad and if ever I raise my voice I get abuse from football fans who think I deserve this level of misery due to my ‘choice’ of house.”
most other areas of the city. The council has told all councillors they can test local opinion to see if any changes are needed to the parking regime – but it has given them no resources to do it. The survey was conducted between November 7 and February 1 and collected 1,229 responses on paper and online. The large numbers from each area – 562 from Ashton, 102 from Ashton Vale, 418 from Bedminster, 188 from Southville and 29 from elsewhere – mean the findings are statistically reliable. Ashton is the worst affected area, with 80 per cent suffering problems all or most of the time. The chief concern is “inappropriate” parking, mentioned by 74 per cent of respondents, followed by 65 per cent who were aggrieved by vehicles not related to residents or local businesses. Half – 53 per cent – are worried about lack of access for emergency vehicles, 35 per cent about damage to parked cars, and 15 per cent about
arguments over parking spaces. Seventy per cent say they are affected by matchday parking problems. More than half – 56 per cent – want a new RPZ, rising to 64 per cent across the whole of Ashton, where there is no RPZ and residents suffer not only matchday parking but overflow from the Southville RPZ. In Ashton Vale, 49 per cent oppose an RPZ, even though 75 per cent suffer match day woes. Some smaller areas are particularly badly affected. In what RateBS3 calls “Area 1”, bounded by North Street, Luckwell, Ashton and Duckmoor roads, 85 per cent have parking issues most or all of the time, and 70 per cent want an RPZ. Even worse affected is Area 6, bounded by St Francis, Carrington, Friezewood and Balfour roads, where 95 per cent cite frequent parking issues, and 82 per cent want a new RPZ. Many believe the RPZs in Southville and Bedminster East, introduced in 2015, have made
the problem worse for those living south of North Street. Others blame commuters, who park to walk into the city, or even catch a bus to the airport, and employees working locally. “Employees now arrive around 6am just to get a space,” said one resident near Luckwell Road. “They leave their engines running adding to pollution and noise. When we leave for work at 7am they are queuing for our space. It’s absolutely ridiculous.” The study was commissioned by a cross-party alliance of the Green councillors for Southville, Charlie Bolton and Stephen Clarke, and the Labour members for Bedminster, Celia Phipps and Mark Bradshaw. They will be presenting the results to the council and calling for action – though it is not clear whether City Hall has either the resources or the will to tackle the problem. • Your councillors: Pages 18-19
Learning to make us laugh A CHANCE to learn theatre skills in a fun environment, from a troupe that specialises in interactive comedy, is coming to Southville. The Natural Theatre Company begins evening classes on May 1 at the Hen & Chicken, to run until July 3. The classes are designed as an alternative to traditional performance techniques: students will be taught the Naturals’ style of comedy acting, including improvisation, physical performance and street theatre. Elle Roberts, manager of the Natural Theatre Company, said: “We started with the aim of giving grown-ups a chance to have fun and de-stress after work in a supportive environment. We believe that having fun is just as important for adults as it is for children!” The 10-week term costs £95. naturaltheatre.co.uk
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n NEWS BEDMINSTER GREEN FRAMEWORK WAVED THROUGH BY CABINET
T
HE FRAMEWORK drawn up by developers to build up to 1,500 homes on Bedminster Green was accepted by Bristol city council’s cabinet on March 5 in the face of a tide of opposition from residents and community groups. As reported in the March issue
Continued from Page 1 The number of homes for central Bedminster has quietly been increased – from 2,200 last year to 2,500. The full document can be seen at tinyurl.com/BrisLocPLan Here’s some of what’s planned: Temple Meads The station will be transformed with a new entrance. Silverthorne Lane Workspace; homes; student accommodation; leisure; and education facilities. Temple Island Formerly Arena Island. Workspace, a university campus with student accommodation, conference/
BEDMINSTER GREEN / LOCAL PLAN
of the Voice, public consultation found most respondents heavily opposed to what they fear will be a cluster of 10 or more high-rises. But Paul Smith, Bristol’s cabinet housing chief, told residents that the council’s new Urban Living policy demands high standards for tall buildings, and no planning applications for high-rises have been passed since it was agreed. Members of the public and of
WHaM, the Windmill Hill residents’ group, stood to make one-minute speeches, telling cabinet members they fear the Green will be changed forever. Matthew Montagu-Pollack, founder of Bristol Campaign Against High Rises, told the meeting that mayor Marvin Rees is trying “to ram a high rise vision of the future of Bristol down the throats of its citizens”. Tower blocks
are unnecessary, he said, claiming that “the entire architectural profession” agrees that a larger number of homes can be built more cheaply at a mid-rise level. Towers bring higher rates of depression and suicide, he said, and they are bad for families because there is nowhere to play. Dianne James of WHaM voiced fears about parking and worries about what the Framework will
Development sites revealed
Western Harbour Mayor Marvin Rees is seeking investors to sweep away the 1960s swing bridge, which is near the end of its life, and replace it – perhaps with a tunnel – and build “at least” 2,500 harbourside homes, plus 500 student homes. The area includes warehouses on Coronation Road, and tannery site. The plans are very fluid – the mayor and his advisers have previously talked of between AVAILABLE APPOINTMENTS ONLY WEEK DAYS 7AM TO 4PM 1,200 and 3,500 homes here. OR THURSDAY EVENINGS FROM 5PM TILL 8PM Central Bedminster Target of 2,500 homes – but now SPORTS MASSAGE 1,000 student rooms as well. Zone includes not only Bedminster Green (1,500 homes) hotel facilities and new homes. York Road/Mead Street New workspaces and new homes. St Philip’s Marsh Hundreds of student homes (many already proposed) and private housing, mainly near the Feeder canal, Albert Road and the New Cut. While retaining the 3,500 jobs that exist, the aim is to add industrial, distribution and food workspaces. High rises are clearly being considered.
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Some of the sites earmarked, if the current owners move on 122 Bath Road, Totterdown Car sales site next to The Thunderbolt pub. Up to 20 homes. Ashton Sidings A narrow empty site sandwiched by Brunel Way and the railway. Suitable for 150 homes – if access can be agreed. 1-25 Bedminster Down Road Businesses next to Parson Street
April 2019
n NEWS allow – “the only thing we can be sure of is very tall buildings. The Green will be surrounded by tall buildings and it will be in shadow for most of the year,” she said. Cllr Charlie Bolton, one of two Green members for Southville, said he now regretted having voted for the first tower block to be allowed near the Green – a now-dropped 2014 plan for St Catherine’s Place. He was persuaded by promises of
proposed for Yewtree Farm, next to the Pavilions office complex on Bridgwater Road (200 homes); Ashton Vale, to the north of the Metrobus route (500 homes); and land off Elsbert Drive, Highridge (150 homes). The park and ride at Brislington could hold at least 750 homes, 40 per cent of them affordable. The allotments will be retained. • More on the Green Belt on the Voice website Affordable homes Aim is to build 800 affordable homes a year. Tall buildings “In all cases the design of a tall building should create a high quality environment both for its users
station. Space for 20 homes. Marsh Lane/Winterstoke Road, Ashton Car sales plots: 13 homes. 233-237 West Street, Bedminster Halfords Autocentre – room for 20 homes. 155-169 West Street, Bedminster The Paramount Cars showroom: space for 10 homes. 35 Hartcliffe Way, Bedminster The Motorzone car sales site: up to 55 homes, with workspaces.
Bedminster Road/Highbury Road, Bedminster Former car sales site; planning application for 29 flats in up to four floors. Land between North Street/ Durnford Street, Ashton Includes Old Brewery site, already proposed for 94 homes. With other sites on Durnford Road, up to 250 homes. 1-7 Smyth Road, Ashton Monarch House studios and workspace: 15 homes.
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BEDMINSTER GREEN / LOCAL PLAN
affordable housing to follow. Now he feared the plans would lead to a “massive student village, lots of flats and small numbers of affordable housing”. To applause, he added: “The concept of the Framework seems to be a good thing but the one we have seems to be weighted far too much in favour of the developers.” His Southville colleague Stephen Clarke said he also backed
the idea of the Framework but said it had serious problems – “the main one is that the buildings are just too tall, they are not what people want, and it’s not what’s needed to get the [housing] density.” Bristol Civic Society has suggested the Green is such a historic opportunity that it should be treated like King’s Cross in London and planned by a public-private consortium.
Mr Rees read a statement from Cllr Nicola Beech, the cabinet member for city design, who led the council’s negotiations with developers. (Cllr Beech had just given birth.) The Framework brought new employment opportunities for South Bristol, regeneration for East Street, and “hopefully provides the local community with stability and confidence,” Cllr Beech’s report said.
in the Local Plan
but industrial zone around Whitehouse Street. “Tall buildings in the right setting and of the right design may be appropriate.” Brislington At least 350 homes along Bath Road, apparently on current commercially-used sites, plus “high quality workspace”. Hengrove and Knowle West No numbers, but plans must fit with the Hengrove and Whitchurch Park neighbourhood plan, and the Knowle West regeneration framework. Homes planned for Filwood Broadway, Inns Court, Novers Hill and Airport Road. Green Belt Land inside the South Bristol Link road could lose Green Belt protection. Homes
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and also for surrounding development and the public realm.” They should not cause harm by “excessive shadowing and wind deflection” or “unduly dominating impacts”. Other topics The Local Plan also includes policies on economic development, traveller sites, housing for older people, offices, industry, the port, shopping, transport, energy use, digital connectivity and green space. Agent of change A new principle that mainly protects music venues – developers must shield new residents from existing sources of noise. Could protect the Thunderbolt (see panel below). Hengrove Leisure Park 150 homes if undeveloped land is used, more if the site (home to Cineworld) is redeveloped. Broadwalk shopping centre, Knowle Now granted planning permission for 420 homes. Suited for “intensive” development. Marmalade Lane south, Brislington Green space between Tesco car park and Calllington Road hospital: 40 homes.
Invisible transport, talking pets and the midnight market where all currency is accepted. Welcome to Southside, a mystical and little known neighbourhood between Hartcliffe, Withywood and Bishopsworth. Inspired by the experiences of the local community, BS13 Theatre presents a tale of overcoming adversity, challenging oppression and waiting for buses that never arrive.
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n NEWS Landlord finds Explore your backyard as Find out about Bedminster’s a way to avoid the Walk Fest uncovers rich history demolition THE OWNER of the illegal house built in two back gardens behind Marksbury Road has avoided a council-set deadline of March 21 to knock the building down. John Fry of Dundry, who owns about 50 properties in the Marksbury Road area, has issued an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, whic h will have to be heard before enforcement action can be taken. The Voice revealed in February that Mr Fry had built the two-bedroom property behind 154 and 152 Marksbury Road and was letting it to tenants, though he denied this. Mr Fry had planning permission for a “garden room”, but not for a dwelling. In February he was refused planning permission for eight houses on land between Dawlish Road and Marksbury Road.
hidden stories all around SOUTH Bristol will be better represented than ever before when the seventh Bristol Walk Fest takes place from May 1-31. The festival’s full programme isn’t due to be unveiled until early April but organisers predict there will be at least 260 walks and events – 100 more than in 2018, and most of them free. The South Bristol line-up will include: • Art and history walks in Arnos Vale cemetery; • A trail charting Bristol’s tobacco trade, ending in Southville; • A story walk for families and young children from Creative Workspace in Withywood; • A Wells Road Womble, led by Totterdown community group Tresa; • Guided tours of Crux Bottom,
Manor Woods and the Malago Valley near Hartcliffe; • The Broadwalk Mile – a chance to look at what’s good/ bad for pedestrians on Wells Road; • A photography walkshop led by Knowle West Media Centre; • A meander through 150 years of Totterdown history with The Road Project; • Walking sports – among them slow tennis, netball, hockey, football and new age curling – at venues including The Park, Hengrove Leisure Centre and Knowle tennis club. For updates, find the Bristol Walk Fest page on Facebook, follow @briswalkfest19 on Twitter, or visit bristolwalkfest.com Pam Beddard
MAY is Local History Month, and Bedminster library is hosting several events where residents can find out about the area’s past. Bedminster’s coalfields are the subject of a talk by author Mike Taylor on May 1 at 7.30pm, with books and pamphlets for sale. On May 7 at 6pm, the library displays are linked to the walking tour Blood & Butchery, about the seamier side of BS3 history, run by theatre group Show of Strength. The tour starts at 7pm. Bedminster’s Tobacco Women are the topic of a talk by Helen Thomas at 7.30pm on May 14. Her book of the same name will be on sale. On May 22, Rosemary Caldicott talks about Life and Death in Two Bristol Workhouses at 7.30pm. Booking is advised for all the events and can be done at any Bristol library.
southbristolvoice
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n NEWS
Let’s all make Bedminster blossom! Time to start greening the neighbourhood DO YOU have an eye for what makes a special garden? You don’t have to be an expert gardener, just have an interest in plants and wildlife, in order to be a judge in the Greater Bedminster Front Garden Awards. The awards are in their 17th year and aim to get people all over BS3 thinking about how they can brighten up their front garden – even if all they have room for is a window box. Green space is especially important in Bedminster as there is so little of it – with so many densely-packed streets of terraced housing, the area is one of the poorest in Bristol for wildlife. Judges will be given several
Small space, big ambition: Some of Bedminster’s winning gardens streets to look at between June 22 and July 14. Those that have made a special effort are rewarded with a certificate. “Our volunteers often tell us how pleased people are to receive a certificate,” said Laura Murgatroyd, one of the organisers. If you’re interested in being a Front Gardens award judge, or for more information, please contact laura_murgatroyd@hotmail.com
Make your front garden more wildlife friendly Suggestions from Greater Bedminster Front Garden Awards Flowers and herbs With a mix of herbaceous, biennials (plants that flower every other year) and annuals (plants that flower every year) you can have something in flower most months. Single petal varieties that have an open centre allow bees and insects to get in. Flower colours that are attractive to bees are blue,
purple, violet, white and yellow. Bees and bugs enjoy roses, sunflowers, marigold, alliums, scabious, honesty, borage, teasel, perennial wallflower, nicotiana, aquilegia, forget-me-not, verbena bonariensis, Michaelmas daisy. Hedges give fruit, shelter and cover to wildlife. Ideas – hawthorn, beech, holly and hazel. Smaller – rosemary, heather and lavender. Small trees – rowan and crab apple. Shrubs lavender, buddleia, dogwood, hebe, fuschia, pyracantha.
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April 2019
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n NEWS
CLIMATE CHANGE
April 2019
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n NEWS
Airport expansion is needed to fund mass transit: Rees
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AMBITIOUS plans for a mass transit network around Bristol will be “severely undermined” if the city airport’s proposed expansion does not go ahead, according to mayor Marvin Rees. He said the business case for a “chapter change” in the region’s public transport system, which could include buses and underground or overground trains, depended on new links to the site in North Somerset. He was responding to a members’ forum question from Cllr Stephen Clarke, a Green member for Southville, criticising the airport’s plan to raise passenger numbers from eight million to 12m a year. Cllr Clarke asked: “How do you think we can possibly achieve Bristol’s carbon neutrality target in 2030 while this council supports the airport expansion?” The mayor said it was not a choice of “good and evil”: “We have these challenging aims in Bristol of delivering an inclusive and a sustainable economy, and sometimes sustainability and creating jobs clash. “The model of the airport is not just about adding flights to the UK’s total. The airport’s plan
Mayor clashes with Southville Green, who says airport growth is incompatible with climate change goals
Your Bard
of Windmill Hill, makes an appearance. Billed as “an awardwinning poet, modern storyteller, lyrical comedian and stand-up philosopher”, the Bard appears at 1.10pm.
PREPARE to be entertained at St Francis Church in North Street on Friday April 26 when Trevor Carter, aka The Bard
is to ease Heathrow by reducing the number of car journeys from the South West and Wales to Heathrow and Gatwick. You’re talking about thousands and thousands of car journeys being taken off Bristol’s roads.” Mr Rees said a mass transit network could change the way people travelled, thereby reducing pollution. “If you don’t have a mass transit system, you step away from making possible the chapter change in public transport the city so urgently needs,” he said. “On balance I support the expansion of the airport because it’s a key part of the future of the city, tackling poverty, the strength of our economy, and all the other things it can unlock in terms of our mass transit system. “If you walk away from that you’ve got to say what the alternative is. Believing eco-jobs
Barn dance in aid of Africa villages appeal
are just going to fall out the air is not a plan. It’s a wish.” Cllr Clarke told the Voice: “The extra carbon and pollution over South Bristol from the 23,600 extra planes a month are simply not worth the promised 1,000 jobs in the region, and only 92 in South Bristol.” Cllr Clarke is also chair of the scrutiny committee at the West of England Combined Authority, or Weca, which oversees the region’s plans for transport and housing. In his column for the Voice (see page 18) he writes: “I have been campaigning against the airport expansion simply because it makes no sense to produce so much extra carbon when we are in a climate emergency.” By Adam Postans, Local Democracy Reporter
LINKS between South Bristol and two villages in Kenya will be celebrated at the Maji Safi Barn Dance at Ashton Park School on Saturday April 27. Maji safi means “clean water” in Swahili, and the aim of the charity is to support schools and families in the villages, near Mombasa. The dance, at Ashton Park School in Bower Ashton, is the group’s 18th annual fund raiser, and features the Cats Whiskers band and callers Mike Courthold and Dave Leverton. It starts at 8pm and tickets are £8.50 including a ploughman’s supper. There’s a bar and African crafts on sale. The charity takes no management fee, so all the proceeds will be spent in Africa, Tickets are available via email from lindagreenland@hotmail.com or Dave Byett on 01934 835435.
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n UNIVERSITY FOCUS ADVERTISING FEATURE n OUT & ABOUT Visit the showcase exhibition of all the latest research at the University of Bristol
Robots and nanoparticles Research Without Borders
university. The public will be able to learn about what goes on behind the university’s doors and University of Bristol connect with the latest generation of researchers contributing to Bristol Doctoral College solutions to the complex bristol.ac.uk/rwb challenges facing the world. From robots to nanoparticles, OIN the opportunity from prehistoric life to cultural to discover the latest cooking, visitors will be able to postgraduate research explore ground-breaking research emerging at the University of in new and exciting ways. Bristol at a showcase exhibition. It’s on Wednesday May 15, More than 50 interactive, Colston Hall, 11am-4pm. Other hands-on displays will feature events take place from May 7-15. developments at the cutting edge Free tickets: bristol.ac.uk/rwb of research from across the Friendly sociable community club, with low fees, set in the beautiful surroundings of Greville Smyth Park. New season starting 1st April 2019 Various memberships available Including - Full year adult £50, Family membership (2 adults and upto 2 children) £95, various other concessions. Membership gives access to various planned weekly club sessions for adults, families and juniors, as well as access to booking a court at any time in the rest of the week.
J
Adult and junior coaching available, led by our professional coach Matt Elston. Adult improvers – 2 x 5 week courses, 11am – 12noon, on Saturday mornings – course 1 – 27th April-8th June, and course 2 – 15th June-13th July. £30 for members, £40 non members. Junior coaching – 5-11 year olds, 12.30-1.30pm Saturdays, 12 yrs plus, 1.30-2.30pm – 27th April – 13th July. £4 members, £5 non members/session. Junior summer camps – 12th – 16th August 9.30am – 11.30am (£45 members, £55 non members), £5 discount if you sign up before 14th July. £12 per day. Please email or call Matt with any coaching related questions, mattelston-ace@hotmail.com, 07894 330 695. For full details of this year’s programme & fees, visit www. grevillesmythtennis.co.uk We look forward to welcoming new members along. All
ADVERTISING FEATURE
Lovely place to play tennis Greville Smyth Tennis Club
Greville Smyth Park, Ashton Gate Road, BS3 2EA grevillesmythtennis.co.uk
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REVILLE Smyth tennis club is a friendly, sociable community club, with low fees, set in the beautiful surroundings of Greville Smyth park. Adult membership costs £50 – less than £1 a week – while for a family (two adults and two children) the cost is £95. Membership gives access to various weekly club sessions for adults, families and juniors, as well as access to courts at any time in the rest of the week. New members are very welcome, and there are social taster sessions to see if you like it before signing up! Courses available include Adult improvers – two 5-week courses, 11am-12 noon, on Saturday mornings, starting April 27 and June 15, at a cost of £30
Beautiful setting for friendly club (£40 for non-members). Junior coaching for 5-11 year olds is at 12.30-1.30pm on Saturdays, while for ages 12+ it’s at 1.30-2.30pm, from April 27-July 13. The cost is £4 per session (£5 non-members). A junior summer camp runs from August 12-16, 9.30am11.30am, and costs £45 (£55 non-members), with £5 off if you sign up before July 14. Adult and junior coaching is led by professional coach Matt Elston. To find out more, call Matt on 07894 330695 or email mattelston-ace@hotmail.com. For full details of coaching and joining, visit the website.
April 2019
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n NEWS INSPIRING photographs celebrating women exercising went on display at three of the city’s hospitals on March 8, to mark International Women’s Day. The photographs focus on parents fitting exercise into their busy lives, and are intended to inspire other women to look for ways to fit in physical activity around their normal routines. South Bristol Hospital is one of the venues for the photo exhibition, along with maternity wards at Southmead and St Michael’s hospitals. It’s an initiative by Bristol Girls Can, a campaign which aims to break down barriers around exercise and inspire more women to get active in a variety of ways. Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees said: “The mums’ example shows us all that you don’t have to have a gym membership, expensive sports clothes or lots of free time. It’s about doing what you can, when you can.’’ Among the women featured in the exhibition is Claire, pictured
Jail for violence at City game
Mums aim to inspire
Free swim: Mum-to-be Claire features in the exhibition PHOTO: Jeni Nott enjoying a swim at Hengrove Park leisure centre. A keen cyclist and swimmer before pregnancy, and wanting to maintain her fitness levels, she took advantage of the free pregnancy swims offered by Bristol city council. She said: “It felt liberating to strip off into a bikini with the
bump. People stared, but I enjoyed it, so who cares? My advice for anyone thinking of taking up exercise while pregnant would be to embrace it. “Swimming has helped me turn off from the stresses of daily life and I can just concentrate on myself and the baby.’’
A MAN charged in connection with anti-social behaviour and violence at the Bristol City v Swansea City match on February 2 has been jailed for 12 weeks. Ryan Greenslade, 26, of Brislington admitted causing fear or provocation of violence before Bristol magistrates on March 21. He was also banned from all Football Association matches at home and abroad for six years. Paul Villis, 48, from Portishead, was given 120 hours of unpaid community work as well as a football banning order for five years by magistrates on March 28 for using threatening or abusive behaviour. He must also pay court costs and a victim surcharge totalling £170. Kevin Morrison, 32, from Knowle, admitted breaching a football banning order. He was fined £300, with a victim surcharge of £30 and court costs of £85 on March 28.
Fridge for all aims to cut Get ready for waste and foster sharing HOLIDAY
Anyone for tennis? Friendly, community-run club Two courts, with something for everyone Adult social sessions and league matches Junior and adult coaching for all levels New season starts on April 1 Membership costs: Family Adult Senior 65+
£95 £50 £40
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www.grevillesmythtennis.co.uk To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664
BRISTOL’S first ever Community Fridge has opened its doors in a Bedminster school – and within its first two months has distributed 440kg of food, the equivalent to 1,042 meals. After a successful trial, the Community Fridge will have its official opening at Compass Point Children’s Centre on April 11. Supported by Bristol Food Network and the environmental charity Hubbub UK, the aim is to tackle food waste and foster a spirit of sharing. The fridge is not meant to be another food bank. It’s for residents, allotment holders and businesses, such as supermarkets, cafes and restaurants, to share their surplus food, and for anyone to help themselves to fresh produce that would otherwise be wasted. Julie Long from Compass Point Children’s Centre said: “We want to encourage families to live well and have a healthy, varied diet. We often see families on low incomes struggling with this. “Having the fridge means
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10am-12 noon and 1-3pm Create something out of wood using hammers and nails outdoors – just drop in
Free and fresh: The new fridge good food, that would otherwise be wasted, is taken and eaten. “We have had parents coming to our group bringing things from their store cupboard and taking away fresh produce – the perfect sharing community that needs to be encouraged.” The fridge is open Monday to Friday from 9am-4pm. There are also recipe cards that can be taken, and advice from local chefs who support the project. Volunteer opportunities with accreditation will also be available. To find out more, email jacqui@bristolfoodnetwork.org.
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FARMCRAFT
11th April, 10am-12 noon Like Minecraft, but played outdoors! A real-life adventure around the farm
EASTER TRAIL & PANCAKE MAKING 17th April, 10am-12 noon and 1-3pm Try the Easter art trail and make pancakes over a fire
Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bristol BS3 4EA
0117 963 3252
WILD OUTDOORS CLUB
18th April, 10am-12 noon
Make the most of the Easter holidays with cool crafts, cooking, nature activities, and outdoor games! FIND OUT ABOUT ALL THESE AT: www.windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk/events
Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk
April 2019
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n PLANNING APPLICATIONS Bedminster ward: Awaiting decision 93 Ashton Drive BS3 2PR New 2-bedroom house. 41 Ashton Vale Road BS3 2HW Details in relation to conditions of 17/06938/F: New plant machinery, steel portal frame and three portable buildings to materials recycling facility. Demolition of buildings (Major application). 5 Hardy Road BS3 2SN Single storey rear extension 4.8m long, of maximum height 3.1m with eaves 2.8m high. 194 West Street, Bedminster BS3 3NB Details in relation to condition 20 (Noise from commercial unit) of 16/05234/F: Demolition of rear extensions and outbuildings; change of use and extension of Plough and Windmill to one 1-bedroom and six 2-bedroom flats, construct three 3-bedroom dwellings. 177 Ashton Drive BS3 2PU Detached two storey 1-bed annexe. 77 Duckmoor Road BS3 2DH Demolition of two storey rear extension and front porch. New single and double storey rear/ side extension. Roof extensions. 53 Ruby Street BS3 3DX Single storey rear extension. Bedminster ward: Decided 149 West Street, Bedminster BS3 3PN Change of use from Office (Use class A2) to residential (Use class C3) with single storey rear extension. Refused
Bedminster, Southville, Ashton & Ashton Vale
2 Argus Road BS3 3PA Non-material amendment following 16/04363/F: Changes to external elevations. Refused 2 Park Farm, Parklands Road BS3 2JP Fell four sycamore trees. Granted 11 Banwell Road BS3 2DW Single storey side extension and open porch to front. Granted subject to conditions 54 Brighton Crescent BS3 3PR Details of condition 2 of 18/01498/F: Detached two storey dwelling. Granted 4 Bower Road BS3 2LN Hip to gable and dormer roof extension to the rear; two roof lights to front. Granted 54 Swiss Road BS3 2RT Details in relation to conditions 3 (PV panels) and 4 (Land contamination) of 18/01236/F: Construction of detached two-bedroom house to rear of 54 Swiss Road. Withdrawn 58-60 Avonleigh Road BS3 3JA Change of use from hot food takeaway (Use class A5) and dwelling to a single dwelling house. Front and rear roof extensions, alterations to facades. Granted subj. to conditions 37 Ashton Road BS3 2EQ Rear infill extension. Granted subject to conditions The Old Tabernacle, Palmyra Road BS3 3JQ First floor side extension and alterations to windows to provide one 2-bedroom apartment (C3) within roof. Parking for 5 cars. Granted subj. to conditions
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16 Allington Road BS3 1PS Single storey rear extension. Granted
Southville ward: Awaiting decision 1 Stillhouse Lane BS3 4EB Vary condition 7 (Approved plans) of 17/05509/F: Erection of replacement dwelling and change of use from workshop; construction of new dwelling. 67 Raleigh Road BS3 1QS Change of use from shops (Use class A1, financial and professional services (A2) betting office, payday loan shop or mixed use, to residential (Use Class C3). 12 Stillhouse Lane BS3 4EB Details of conditions 10 (Sample panels), 11 (Detailed drawings) and 13 (External lighting) of outline permission 17/06438/P: Demolition of buildings and erection of 10 flats (Use class C3). 38 Gathorne Road BS3 1LU Single storey rear extension. 215 North Street, Bedminster BS3 1JH Demolition of building and construction of new flat. 39 Gathorne Road BS3 1LR Rear dormer roof extension. The Imp, Alpha Road BS3 1DH Vary conditions 4 (Odour management plan) and 18 (List of approved plans) of permission 16/03638/F: Now proposed to increase floorspace. Southville ward: Decided 45 Exeter Road BS3 1LY Single storey infill and rear extension. Granted subject to conditions 117 Greville Road BS3 1LE Rear roof extension. Granted
16 Mill Lane BS3 4DG Non-material amendment to 18/03459/F: Conversion of building to three flats, construction of three new flats on adjacent land. Now proposed alteration to footprint of new build. Refused 58 Raleigh Road BS3 1QT Demolition of kitchen lean-to; new side return extension. Granted subj. to conditions 125-131 Raleigh Road BS3 1QU Demolition of buildings; new block comprising offices (Use class B1a); four storey block of six flats (Use class C3) with access from Cigar Factory. Granted subj. to conditions 86 Bedminster Parade BS3 4HL Change of use of banking hall (Use class A2) to restaurants and cafés (Use class A3); demolition of rear two storey annexe and new single storey rear extension. Granted subject to conditions
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southbristolvoice
LETTERS and provide your postal address.
Please keep letters as short as possible,
HGVs are out of place on our narrow streets Open letter to Cllr Kye Dudd, cabinet lead for transport
I
WOULD like to know what the council is doing to discourage vehicles (particularly HGVs) using the city as a through route, rather than using the motorway and trunk road network? I live in Totterdown, close to the Wells Road, which is blighted by severe traffic congestion and pollution. These large vehicles, which pass just inches from the narrow pavements, place a massive burden on Totterdown, making the Wells Road seem more like an HGV motorway at times. My analysis of these vehicles clearly shows that a significant number use the A37 through the city centre and the M32 as a short cut to the motorway network, instead of using the road network
to the south of the city – presumably to save cost. These vehicles contribute nothing to the city but have a significant negative impact on factors such as air pollution, road damage and congestion. I’m not sure if you have ever experienced cycling in close proximity to HGVs? It’s quite an intimidating experience, even for someone who has spent his life cycling. This has a number of effects, encouraging people to use cars instead of cycling or walking, and discouraging people from using local businesses. Crossing Wells Road (which is not well served for pedestrian crossings) can be a challenging and intimidating experience, and one not to be attempted with young children. Address supplied, Totterdown
Why can’t I dream a little? I’M ENCLOSING some verses – contemplations on the Year of the Pig 2019, on International
Windmill Hill ward: Awaiting decision
Need a professional
17 Shepton Walk BS3 5NU Conversion of double garage to one-bed house.
scaffolding company that won’t
44 Bedminster Road BS3 5NY Demolition of two storey extension and construction of new dwelling in garden.
let you down?
• The status of these applications may have changed since we went to press. Check for updates at planningonline.bristol.gov.uk
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Women’s Day 2019, for your consideration. I’m also wondering when we are going to have better planning and spending on public transport? Dial-a-ride gives me the chance of independent travel in Bristol, when I want more than screens for company, but for how much longer? April Foy, Lower Knowle Contemplation on the Year of the Pig 2019 Pigs might fly so why can’t I have a bench to rest on, at the bus stop as I wait to use my freedom pass? Pigs might fly so why can’t I catch a train direct from Temple Meads station to Lime Street, my native city in the grim Up North? Pigs might fly so why can’t I forget bus travel and trains settle for screens on tablet or TV Be part of the revolution in communication, why can’t I?
We can start to change climate IT’S ALWAYS a good weekend when the SBV comes through the door. It was good to read that you are keeping climate change at the fore and getting us to think of ways we can reduce our carbon footprints. Your comments about not being able to do anything about [emissions from] shipping got me thinking. It’s a tricky problem but I think there is something we can do. It came to me as I wrapped up a load of plastic tat for a nine-year-old’s birthday party that my daughter had chosen. All we have to do is consume less – particularly less plastic and stuff from China. I accept it’s a massive task to change a culture but your comments made me realise, we all feel we’ve done well getting rid of plastic straws and cutting back on plastic bags, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. JR, Totterdown
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southbristolvoice
April 2019
April 2019
southbristolvoice
ADVICE FROM A PHARMACIST
We’re ready to deal with any Brexit issues
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REXIT is now a talking point impossible to avoid. Its impact on groceries, travel, NHS staff shortages and the British-Irish border form part of the endless daily chatter. Brexit and your medicines have also been in the spotlight, causing a lot of concern. The availability of medicines, such as ongoing access to refrigerated insulin, are among the daily queries our patients ask about. Will my medications be available after Brexit? Should I get an extra prescription to allow me to stockpile? Do I need to keep expired medicines in case of any future shortages? We do understand why people are worried. Rumours of
shortages shared via social media are further feeding a frenzy of panic. Medicines do from time to time go out of stock — manufacturing issues and problems sourcing raw materials are usually the cause. Community pharmacies work with prescribers such as GPs and hospital consultants to resolve this, much of the time without the patient even being aware. Yes, Brexit, and what form it takes, has possible implications on goods such as medicines. UK and European health colleagues have long been at work finding solutions to cope with any eventuality. This is independent of the Brexit agreement. The Government has instructed all pharmacies on the best ways to manage stock and availability. The NHS collectively is working to make sure no additional pressure is created by any part of it stockpiling and
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with Ade Williams Ade Williams of Bedminster Pharmacy shows how pharmacies can help people with a variety of health conditions, and ease pressure on the NHS
over-ordering. UK medicine suppliers are holding additional stock ready to send out if required. While we completely understand why an individual may want to over-order and stockpile their own supply, it is not helpful or appropriate. This would only add pressure on the availability of medicines for patients elsewhere. Please understand this. What if things fall apart? What can your local pharmacy do? Remember the Bedminster Pharmacy team are very experienced at sourcing medications using different
Buddy, can you spare time?
Be Ambiious Nursery Pre-School and Reception Open Morning and Launch of the ‘Hive’: Wednesday 27th February 2019 admissions@cliftonhigh.co.uk | 0117 933 9087
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Matching volunteers with new opportunities DO YOU have spare time and feel you could use your experience to help other people? BS3 Community, the local charity that undertakes community development projects in Southville, Bedminster and Ashton, may have the answer. The group has partnered with Volunteer Makers to develop a platform where individuals and organisations can register to find interesting challenges and interested volunteers. To find out more visit bs3community. volunteermakers.org
The platform features great opportunities for budding volunteers. For example, if you have a bit of spare time to share your tech knowledge and skills in a fun and lively environment, then Tech and Talk is looking for new volunteers. This computer café for the over 55s takes place fortnightly and a wide range of people come to ask questions about tech while enjoying a chat and company over a cup of tea. Volunteers can help with queries from switching on devices, how to use email, how to look up topics of interest, do online shopping and so on. To find out more, email ruth.green@ bs3community.org.uk BS3 Community is also looking for new members to join its board of trustees. “We are
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looking for people with the SOUTH Bristol communitypassion to make a real difference based amateur dramatic group to our community and the Bristol Musical Theatre stage professional skills to help us to their latest production, Crazy For fulfil our ambitious plans You, from May 1-4. including the opening of an The group, which has many intergenerational nursery, members from the south of the inspired by our involvement in city and rehearses at Ashton Vale the uplifting Channel 4 show, primary school, is one of the Older People’s Home For 4 Year longest running amateur theatre Olds,” said the group’s chief societies in Bristol and has won executive, Dr Simon Hankins. several regional awards. It will BS3 Community would be mark its 75th anniversary in particularly interested to hear 2021. from people with experience in Crazy For You has music by law, accountancy, human Gershwin with famous numbers resources, health and social care. such MAINTENANCE as I Got Rhythm and People will need to attendPROPERTY Someone To Watch Over Me. four board meetings a year. INTERIOR & EXTERIOR PAINTING Tickets for the shows, at the Applications are particularly LANDSCAPING Redgrave• theatre in Clifton, are welcome from black andFENCING minority • PATIOS with discounts for groups. ethnic candidates. For details, LOG STORES£15, • GUTTERING • FASCIAS bristolmusicaltheatre.co.uk email hr@bs3community.org.uk.
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suppliers and manufacturers. We also have local plans to help us communicate across the NHS. The Government will be giving special powers to pharmacists in an emergency to recommend and supply the best alternatives. If you are worried about your medicines speak to us. This is also an excellent time to talk about the benefits of signing up for the quicker electronic prescriptions from your surgery alongside other ways we can support your health. Do please remove any expired medications from your home and return to us to dispose of. Are you travelling abroad? We can also help here. If the solution in future requires a Del-boy type van trip to Europe or beyond, we stand ready to act, but we know it can never come to that. Never doubt our commitment to take care of you.
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paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk
n YOUR COUNCILLORS
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April 2019
southbristolvoice
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VER the last couple of years, my experience of the council is that it has become incredibly Charlie difficult to get Bolton anything done. Green I put this down Southville largely to the eight years of austerity (or is it nine?) leading to a collapse in resourcing within the council. Not every part of the council, but sufficiently widespread just to make it all difficult. I have spent three years lobbying for something to be done to improve road safety around Holy Cross primary school in Dean Lane. Not much – a few pencil bollards. I’m hopeful, but not certain of an outcome. But, for goodness sake – three years! I’ve also been contacted by residents from Gathorne Road, who have problems at the end of the road as it enters North Street. They have set up a petition to
Southville
highlight the issue of visibility as vehicles try to get onto North Street, especially when vehicles stop on the double yellow lines to buy things from a shop there. Residents on Warden Road are after a bin store. Bristol Waste have worked with them to offer communal waste bins, instead of individual ones which blocked the pavements. This is fine, but they now need to have a place to store the bins. These are both entirely reasonable requests. But the only means I can see by which they can fund these is via something called CIL, or Community Infrastructure Levy – money available as part of planning gain. The problem with this is these projects are part of a vast competition for the small pot of money available, so no individual project has a big chance of success. It even gets to the stage where you have to send multiple emails to officers just to arrange a meeting. Yours in frustration ...
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How to contact your councillor: p2
Parking HE FOUR councillors in Ashton, Southville and Bedminster came together Stephen to organise a Clarke parking and road Green safety survey in the Southville area and it makes interesting reading: ratebs3.com Some of the conclusions are not surprising; for example match-day parking is an issue for 70 per cent of residents. But more than 70 per cent of residents experience parking or road safety issues in their local area all or most of the time. The most quoted problems are inappropriate parking and non-local parking. Fifty six per cent of residents across the area are in favour of a new parking scheme, but in the area around Carrington and Friezewood roads this rises to 82 per cent, which is a huge majority and really needs to be acted on. A number of people talked
about the impact of parking on relationships with neighbours; one person said “I hate hearing the shouting.” Someone else said “Parking makes me cry. Literally.” The survey it contains many heartfelt statements like these. I will be meeting council officers and the relevant cabinet member to emphasise that inaction really isn’t an option any more. To quote another response to the survey, I will be saying “Please, please, please fix this!” Airport expansion I have been campaigning against the airport expansion simply because it makes no sense to produce so much extra carbon when we are in a climate emergency. As 16-year-old Swedish student Greta Thunberg says: “This is an emergency. The house is on fire, so act like the house is on fire!” Please drop me an email with anything I might be able to help you with. We hold a surgery outside Southville Deli on the first Saturday of the month from 10.30am-12 noon.
To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664
April 2019
southbristolvoice
n YOUR COUNCILLORS
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Bowel Cancer PRIL is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month and this is just a plea for anyone Mark with symptoms Bradshaw or concerns to Labour contact their GP. Bedminster Be persistent in asking for follow up, and have a look at the information at the websites below. Early diagnosis and treatment is more effective, but awareness of this cancer and its impact remains fairly low. bowelcanceruk.org.uk nhs.uk/conditions/bowel-cancer The Local Plan THE COUNCIL’S latest draft Local Plan is out for consultation. This will set the planning and development policies and priorities, including new homes, across Bristol until 2036 [Story on pages 6-7]. Do take a look and submit any comments by May 24. There are several proposals affecting Bedminster and this is an opportunity to have your say.
Bedminster
West Street AT THE recent Way Out West AGM and priorities meeting I was delighted to be reelected as chair. We want to refocus our efforts to improve West Street and the immediate area. This is a request to any local residents and traders to become involved and help support the work of WoW. Information can be found on Twitter at @WestStreetBS3 or Facebook @WOWBS3 New skills centre A NEW centre for South Bristol teaching construction skills will open in 2021, to give 850 people training in trades in its first three years. In all, over £6m will be invested at the City of Bristol College at Hengrove park. This comes at a time when new methods of construction are increasing. For South Bristol, with relatively high levels of unemployment and low levels of formal qualifications, this is good news. This is part of a national effort to close the skills gap in construction and fill the expected vacancies over the next 20 years.
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19 How to contact your councillor: p2
RISTOL Waste is launching the Bristol #WasteNothing Challenge to encourage us Celia all to reduce Phipps household refuse, Labour save money and Bedminster help the planet. The challenge is for 50 volunteer households across the city, starting from April 1, to measure and record the waste and recycling they produce, logging it all online for the whole year. There are rewards: those who participate will be provided with a composter or a wormery, as well as vouchers and discounts from Bristol-based partners to help you reduce waste when you shop, cook, work and play. The aim is to meet the standards of Zero Waste International, which calls for responsible production, consumption, reuse and recovery of products and packaging, all without burning and with no discharges to land, water or air
that threatens the environment or human health. Find out more here: bristolwastecompany.co. uk/wastenothing. You can also take part in the Great Bristol Spring Clean and complete a litter pick in your street or green space. There is more information on the Bristol Waste website or you can email hello@bristolwastecompany.co.uk. Repair Café THE BS3 Repair Café will be held on April 27 at the United Reformed Church on West Street from 1.30pm. This is a chance to have those broken items fixed – last month over 60 items were brought in for repair. While you wait, you can enjoy a cup of tea and cake from the pop-up café. Monthly surgery OUR monthly surgery is on the move again! From May, we will be found in the North Street Gallery from 10.30-11.30am on the first Saturday of each month. If there is anything you would like to discuss with us, do drop in or contact us via mobile or email – our details are on page 2.
Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk
southbristolvoice
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way, puppetry performances and songs will tell stories of the more than 30 Bedminster men who refused to be conscripted into the army in 1916-18, and the network of people who supported them. The walk is the culmination of a three-month collaboration, assisted by Bristol Archives and Bristol Libraries, with support of £4,200 from the National Lottery. There will be two performances of the walk on April 7 in the morning and afternoon. To book places visit otherstory.org/datestickets The story of resistance to World War I is also remembered in a national festival, the Commemoration, Conflict and
Conscience Festival at M Shed on April 27-28. This will unite community groups, writers, researchers, artists and performers. Otherstory will perform their puppet show, Taking a Holiday, at the Southbank Club in Dean Lane on Saturday April 27 – the amazing story of the secret beneath a Bedminster bike shop. The story behind the show, about cycle shop owner and war resister George Barker, was told in the Voice last year. On Sunday April 28 at 10.30am, Otherstory will lead another performance of their puppet history walk from M Shed. everydaylivesinwar.herts.ac.uk/ ccc/
Help us take bags to Africa STUDENTS at Ashton Park school are appealing for bags – they want to take them to Africa. Students and teachers from Ashton Park visit Inspirations School in Kenya every year, helping to build classrooms and provide educational materials and training. It’s also become a custom to take cloth bags, for which the Kenyan children find many uses, including carrying their school books and storing their clothes. In 2017 the expedition took just 40 bags; in 2018 they took 400 – many made or decorated by students, teachers and residents in BS3. Bags must be well made, suitable for a child (ideally unisex) and up to 50cm x 40cm. For more information and step-by-step instructions on how to make a tote bag, please see ashtonpark.net/bags-forkenya-2019
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Making history: A puppetmaking workshop in the run-up to the WWI Bedminster history walk
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Follow the puppet trail to secrets of the war BEDMINSTER will see a history walk with a difference on Sunday April 7 – there will be puppets taking part. South Bristol theatre company Otherstory will use puppets to tell the untold stories of Bedminster people who resisted the First World War. Otherstory devised the walk with local people and a group called Remembering the Real World War I. The event will start at the Tobacco Factory café bar and wind its way through Southville, along North Street and part of East Street, ending at the Steam Crane pub. At points along the
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April 2019
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n TAKE A BREAK
April 2019
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n CHURCH NEWS
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T’S A BIT weird to be a minister of a religion whose symbol is an instrument of execution. It’s like having a guillotine or hangman’s noose as your logo. To be honest, it’s a bit morbid; and, interestingly, followers of Jesus didn’t use it as their symbol for a long time as it was considered too extreme. Whenever I go into St Paul’s I walk through the graveyard which is, obviously, full of dead Regular services
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Bedminster Church of Christ
298 St John’s Lane BS3 5AY Minister Jason Snethen 07795 560990 churchofchristbristol.org Sunday 10am Bible Hour for all ages; 11am worship; 5pm worship; Tuesday 7.30pm Bible study; Thursday 10am Coffee morning; Friday 3.45-5pm After-school; 7-9.30pm youth group.
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April 2019
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Bedminster Quaker Meeting House Wedmore Vale BS3 5HX Clerk Chrissie Williams 0117 923 0020 bristolquakers.org.uk Sunday Worship 10.45am; 2nd & 4th Sunday Children’s meeting; 2nd Sunday Shared lunch.
Thought for the month With Rev Nick Hay, minister of St Paul’s and St Aldhelm’s bodies; it’s a sobering reminder of my mortality. All this might give the impression that the faith is a bit “death focused”,
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St Aldhelm’s Church
Chessel Street, Bedminster BS3 3TT hello@staldhelms.org Minister Rev Nick Hay 07534 249338 staldhelms.org Sunday 10am Morning service, informal with mix of traditional and contemporary songs. Creche, Sunday school, refreshments; House groups meet on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, 7.30pm.
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St Paul’s Church
2 Southville Road, Southville BS3 1DG stpsouthville@gmail.com Rev Nick Hay 07534 249338
morbid or, to put it bluntly, pretty depressing. You get that in people’s attitude to church: it is not a place of life but a place about death; you don’t go for a party, you go to be miserable. That’s why I love Easter: really the faith is all about life. Jesus was full of life, he loved a party; he said he came to bring life in all its fullness. Churches used to be the centre of village life, the band that played in
church on Sunday would play for the village dance. It was a place where all of life was celebrated. The reason the cross is the symbol of the faith is because it didn’t work: the amazing claim is that Jesus was executed but rose from the dead. That’s why Jesus’s followers party on Easter Sunday. Well, you may or may not buy into this, but even if you don’t, Easter is a great time to celebrate life, so enjoy and have a good one!
saintpaulschurch.co.uk Sunday 10.30am Worship is a mix of contemporary and traditional with groups for children and young people. Also: 1st Sunday 9am Traditional Communion Service; 2nd Sunday 7.30pm Praise and Prayer; 4th Sunday Sunday Sessions in Rope Walk pub.
Victoria Park Baptist Church
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St Francis Church 279 North Street, Ashton Gate BS3 1JP
staldhelmsandstfrancis.org.uk Priest-in-charge Rev Andrew Doarks 0117 963 9121 Sunday 10am Communion or Morning Worship; 1st Saturday 10am Open church; Thursday 10am Eucharist.
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Sylvia Avenue BS3 5DA Minister Rev Brendan Bassett 0117 977 2484 victoriapark.org.uk Sunday 10.30am Service includes groups for all ages, and adults; coffee 11.30am; 2nd Sunday Parade service; 3rd Sunday Communion.
Salvation Army Dean Lane BS3 1BS
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Corps officer Ben Ellis 0117 966 4952 salvationarmy.org.uk/bristolbedminster Sunday 10.30am Morning Worship; 11.30am Kids Alive!; 5pm Evening Worship.
Celebrate Easter at your local church
April 2019
southbristolvoice
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n THE MAYOR
MARVIN REES Mayor of Bristol
We’re making progress to our goal of a carbon neutral Bristol
cent by 2020. Thanks to making our buildings more energy efficient, investing in renewable energy infrastructure such as wind turbines and solar panels, electrifying the council’s fleet of vehicles, and upgrades to street lighting across the city, we reached our target in 2018 – two years early. The overall reduction of carbon on the national grid, through increased national renewable energy generation, has also played a major part in this reduction. We achieved this with a 71 per cent reduction of carbon emissions in 2017/18 (against a 2005 baseline). The council will soon be proposing a new, ambitious target to cut even more carbon emissions from its direct activities. This is the second time the council has hit its carbon reduction target ahead of schedule and is a clear marker for our continued commitment to build a carbon neutral Bristol. I am incredibly proud of our energy projects and our ever-growing reputation as a leading energy city. I’d like to thank officers across a number of teams for their hard work in achieving this target and for continuing to strive for further carbon reductions. This is only the beginning of what we hope to achieve alongside partners in Bristol and to continue in our position as a leading sustainable city.
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RISTOL is a city famous for leading the way on environmental issues, so I am pleased that the council has taken positive steps to improve our sustainability and reduce our impact on the environment. At City Hall, we’re taking action to reduce single-use plastics and promote sustainable alternatives. Hot drinks will no longer be sold in single-use cups, which means staff will have to bring their own re-usable cups and visitors will be served drinks in ceramic mugs. These small changes can have a positive impact. It is estimated that more than 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups are used in the UK each year. Due to difficulties in separating the plastic lining from these cups, only one per cent of this amount is ever recycled. The vast majority find their way to landfill with a
further 500,000 ending up as litter every day. The environmental impact of this is significant and affects us all. This is one of a number of changes that will reduce single-use plastics in council-run outlets and buildings. We know we need to lead by example and bring the whole city with us. So it was great to announce we have also achieved our target to reduce carbon emissions from its direct activities by 65 per
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ST ALDHELM’S, Chessel Street BS3 3TT Good Friday, April 19 12.30 Stations of the Cross, followed by service at 2pm. Easter Sunday, April 21 Easter Day Communion Service 10am.
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SALVATION ARMY, Dean Lane Street BS3 1BS Maundy Thursday 7pm Evening Reflections Good Friday 12.30pm Church on the street in Broadmead Easter Sunday 9am Easter Celebrations VICTORIA PARK BAPTIST CHURCH, Sylvia Avenue Palm Sunday Service 10.30am. Maundy Thursday 7.30pm Communion. Good Friday 8.30pm Service followed by hot cross buns. Easter Sunday Service 10.30am.
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BEDMINSTER CHURCH OF CHRIST, St John’s Lane April 8-10 10am-12 noon Easter Holiday Bible Club for primary school children Easter Sunday 11am Breaking of Bread service; 2-4pm Easter Day Gospel Trail in Victoria Park: all ages, details 07795 560990;5pm Easter Evening Worship.
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April 2019
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n HISTORY THE MAN WHO BROUGHT LIGHT TO BRISTOL Out of the gloom, into the Gas Age thanks to an outsider with a big idea
John Breillat: More fascinated with chemistry than with his own trade in silk, he spent years persuading the great and good of Bristol that the streets could be lit by gas
John Breillat was an outsider when he arrived in Bristol from London in 1793. Once he found out about the potential of a new light source derived from coal, he persisted until the city saw the light
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T’S HARD for us to imagine nowadays what the world was like before the most simple of civilised technologies – street lighting. For more than 200 years we’ve got used to the fact
that in almost any built-up area, we can see where we’re going at any time. Some of us may have fears about walking the streets of Bristol after dark, but in reality
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our city is pretty safe. By and large we expect to be able to perform our normal activities in darkness – travelling to work, going out to socialise, or walking the dog. Yet Bristol in the early 19th century was a very different place. In the winter, it was dark most of the time, almost everywhere. There just weren’t any bright lights as we know them. The brightest available were oil lamps, and only the wealthy classes could afford these outside their homes. Even then they cast little illumination beyond the owner’s front door. The poor might have a candle indoors, but even those cost money, so the only light might come from a small fire. At least coal from Bedminster and Kingswood was widely available. So the temptation was not to venture out at night. You needed a good reason to traverse the dark, uneven streets, and then you might be regarded with suspicion by one of the city’s 90-odd night watchmen. If they observed someone “lurking” or seeming to conceal something, it was enough to bring an arrest. Darkness was the natural state of the night-time world, and had been since humans first opened their eyes. In the early 20th C, the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung was fascinated how different the lives were of people in Africa who lived without artificial light. He patronisingly called these people “primitives”; but he surely was describing
something real when he wrote about the state of the world before artificial illumination: “When the great night comes, everything takes on a note of deep dejection, and every soul is seized by an inexpressible longing for light. That is the pent-up feeling that can be detected in the eyes of primitives and also in the eyes of animals.” You’d think, then, that when a way was found to effortlessly cast light across whole streets, and to banish darkness from indoors too, that the people of Bristol – and the rest of the world – would leap at the opportunity. But it wasn’t quite like that.
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ohn Breillat, the man who was to light up Bristol (and many other places in the West Country), wasn’t a Bristolian, but by the end of his life he was one of its most honoured citizens. His first wife Mary was the first person to be buried in the new Arnos Vale cemetery in 1839, and the family tomb, with its 12ft obelisk, is one of the more impressive monuments there. But in 1795, when he married Mary at St Nicholas Church, he was an outsider twice over – once as a Londoner, and again as a Huguenot. The Huguenots brought the term ‘refugee’ into the English language. Tens of thousands of these French Protestants fled persecution in their Catholic homeland from the late 17th C, and their greeting in England
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April 2019
n HISTORY was just as mixed as it is for migrants now. Like some of today’s refugees, they were so desperate that many crossed the Channel in small boats, and often drowned; and when they arrived they were accused of taking work from English professions and driving up London rents. But economically this was England’s gain and France’s loss. The Huguenots were mainly skilled workers such as clockmakers, clothiers and glaziers. Some credit their arrival with kickstarting the scientific and commercial boom which led to Britain’s world-wide empire. Meanwhile in France some towns saw three-quarters of their skilled silk weavers emigrate. The novelist Daniel Defoe believed immigrants brought prosperity: “Opening the nation’s doors to foreigners has been the most direct and immediate reason for our wealth and increase,” he wrote in 1709. (It’s not often noticed that when Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe, his novel based on the real-life castaway Alexander Selkirk, who had set off from Bristol, he made his hero into a German. “I was called Robinson Kreutznaer,” the novel begins, “but by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called Crusoe.”) Others, however, feared the innovations the French migrants brought, such as weaving looms. The Bristol MP Sir John Knight opposed a 1693 bill to allow refugees to become citizens, saying: “Let us first kick the bill out of the House, then the foreigners out of the kingdom.” But Sir John was in a minority: the House of Commons found a pamphlet containing his speech so offensive, with its reference to “Froglanders”, that members ordered it to be burned.
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he fine clothing that John Breillat displayed in his shop at 56 Broadmead was welcomed by Bristolians. He traded in silk – the finest fabric available, bought only by the well-off – and dyed it too. He was also a calenderer – now a forgotten trade, but it meant he had a calendar, a machine which pressed cloth between two large rollers to make it glossy. But his big idea took years to catch on – even when he demonstrated its benefits, for free, to the citizens of Bristol for four years.
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THE MAN WHO BROUGHT LIGHT TO BRISTOL the first factory to be lit by Murdoch, in 1805. Suddenly mill owners could make the best use of their expensive machinery. It was wasteful (and sometimes difficult) to shut down rows of looms. Now they could be operated round the clock by shifts of workers. For good or ill, the industrial age had begun. Factories up and down the country were illuminated by Murdoch’s employer, Boulton & Watt, over the next five years. The revolution didn’t reach Bristol as it lacked the large cotton mills seen in the North. Hence much smaller places were lit up first: Dolphinholme in Lancashire, for example, had its mill and its main street lit up in 1811 – thought to be the first gas-lit village in Britain. In London, fashionable Pall Mall had been lit up in 1807, but it was an exception. People were suspicious of this new technology with its hissing pipes and the risk of fire. It wasn’t until 1813 that Westminster Bridge acquired gas lights, fed by pipes made of wood.
Bright idea: Gas lights made Bristol safer – but someone had to light them! PHOTO: Bristol Gas Co collection in Bristol Archives, 28777/U/Ph/2/4 Gas lighting was far from new when John Breillat first lit his flame outside his shop. But just like the first people to use this new technology, his first impulse was not to make the streets a safer, brighter place. He probably just wanted to work longer hours. The first person to have used gas for lighting was probably William Murdoch, an engineer who worked in the 1790s in Cornwall, constructing some of the earliest steam engines used in pumping water out of the tin mines. Murdoch is credited with many inventions, from the the sun and planet gear, which allowed the beam of a steam engine to turn a rotating shaft – and thus power a mill – to the pneumatic tube to send capsules through a pipe pushed by air pressure. The tubes are still used in supermarkets to send cash safely from the tills to the office. From 1792, Murdoch was trying to make light from coal gas. He noticed that if he burned coals and captured the gas in a three-foot iron tube, and then piped it through an old gun barrel, he could ignite the end of
the barrel and get a bright flame. Many experiments followed: Murdoch’s house in Redruth was the first to be lit by gas, and he sometimes carried a bladder of gas under his arm to supply a portable lantern – this time the jet was an old clay pipe. None of this paid the bills, though. In 1798 Murdoch moved to the Soho foundry in Birmingham, where he managed to light some of the interior. In those days, indoor work of most kinds ceased at nightfall. A foundry with its furnaces was perhaps an exception. But in the burgeoning textile mills, delicate work by puny oil lamps was difficult – and expensive, as many lamps were needed. It was also time-consuming: each oil lamp had to be filled and lit by hand. The cost of lighting meant some jobs were not profitable to continue after dark – they were literally “not worth the candle”. After years of experiments, Murdoch found the best way to burn coal and use lead pipes to carry the gas where it was needed. The Philips and Lee cotton mill in Manchester was
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ohn Breillat had been born into the dyer trade but did not fancy it much. But perhaps the complex task of manufacturing his various dyes had got him hooked, because he took an interest in the new science of chemistry, and in 1804 attended a lecture at the Lyceum in London where a Mr Winsor showed the brilliance of the new coal gas. Breillat was fascinated, but realised the technology was in its infancy. He began conducting his own experiments at the back of his shop, and finally in 1811 he placed advertisements in the Bristol Mirror reading: LECTURE and EXHIBITION of the GASLIGHTS. J BREILLAT respectfully informs the Nobility, and Gentry, and Public, that he intends for a short time to exhibit, every evening at his own house, a Specimen of the above interesting discovery, accompanied with a Descriptive Lecture, to commence on Monday, Sept 9, at Seven o’clock in the evening.— For particulars see hand-bills. No. 56, Broadmead. • How did Bristolians take to the new-fangled light? Find out next month when we continue the story.
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April 2019
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Hammond organ and a John Barry vibe characterise Corduroy, who won fans in the 1990s with a groovy set of filmic tunes. Tickets from £8.25, 7pm. fiddlers.co.uk Monday April 8 n Getset For Growth: Business Finance Principles Unit 24, KWMC: The Factory, Filwood Green Business Park, Hengrove Way. Masterclass on basic financial documents, and financial health in business. Email thefactory@kwmc.org.uk or call 0117 403 2306 to book a free place. One of a series of events for those starting in business. kwmc.org.uk/events n Kev’s Comic Masterclass Zion, Bishopsworth Road. Kev F Sutherland draws for the Beano, Doctor Who and Marvel comics, and wants to show you how easy it is. You’ll leave with a comic made by everyone in the class. £10, 10am-1pm, ages 7+. zionbristol.co.uk/events Tuesday April 9 n Board Games Tobacco Factory bar, North Street. A huge selection of board games, with beers, food, and gaming staff to guide you. 6-10pm, £3.50. tobaccofactory.com/whats-on Wednesday April 10 n Marky Jay: Magic Show Zion, Bishopsworth Road. With his monkey assistant Professor Steve Chimpington, Marky Jay shows off magic tricks and juggling, which never seem to go to plan! Ages 3+, 10.30am, £3. zionbristol.co.uk
Doomed? Not yet, says top scientist
half the nation will reply. We’ve got rising knife crime, more people living on the streets, our schools and health service are in crisis. And what about climate change? Well, take murder – in the medieval period, about 35 people in every 100,000 would be murdered every year. In Europe today, the risk of homicide is just one per 100,000. (Pinker might have pointed out that the UK may now be facing a knife crime epidemic, but the murder rate in London is half what it was in 1990.) Take life expectancy. In the 1770s, the average person worldwide died at about 30. Now it’s 71 – and that includes the poorer parts of Asia and subSaharan Africa. Disease, hunger, poor mental health – they’re all on the decline. For Pinker, that’s down to the values that blossomed in the Enlightenment from the 17th
n Review Prof Steven Pinker Bristol Festival of Ideas, University of Bristol Wills Building TEVEN Pinker has been called one of the 100 most influential people on Earth. He’s up there with Stephen Hawking or Carl Sagan – so why haven’t more people heard of him? Perhaps because his message is so hard for many of us to accept: the world is getting better and better. More democratic, spreading wealth, education and better health across the planet – this is the tide of history, says this Harvard professor of psychology. Huh? He’s not talking about us,
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n WHAT’S ON
n WHAT’S ON Until April 6 n A Midsummer Night’s Dream Tobacco Factory theatre, North Street. The Tobacco Factory’s artistic director, Mike Tweddle, swaps the genders of the lovers to give a decided edge to Shakespeare’s fantasy of vengeful fairies, amateur actors, mind-altering herbs and dangerous desires. 7.30pm, tickets from £12. tobaccofactorytheatres.com Friday April 5 n Fun Quiz St Paul’s Church, Coronation Road. Teams of 4, £5 per person including light supper. Quiz starts at 7.30pm. n Carl Hutchinson: I Know I Shouldn’t Behave Like This Comedy Box at the Hen & Chicken Studio, North Street. Following a sold-out 2017 tour, Geordie comedian Carl Hutchinson is back, displaying his uniquely adolescent approach to grown-up issues. 7.45pm, £13. thecomedybox.co.uk Sunday April 7 n Wedding Fair Arnos Vale cemetery, Bath Road. Among the 30 “alt-wedding” providers are circus acts from Rachel Mayes, temporary tattoos from Doris Loves and food from Cleverchefs, as well as florists, venue stylists and photographers. 10am2pm. For stories of murder, rioting, adultery and more, join the Murder, Mayhem and Mystery Tour at 11.30am, £8. arnosvale.org.uk/events n Corduroy Fiddlers Club, Willway Street, Bedminster.
April 2019
Convicts turn the tables on civilised values n Our Country’s Good Tobacco Factory theatre, North Street Wednesday April 17-May 13
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HE STORY of the first convict colony in Australia – and what happens when an enlightened officer allows them to stage a play. Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play is based on a book by the acclaimed Australian author Thomas Keneally. Battling ridicule and the threat of hanging, the actors discover the lives they could have led if society had cast them in different roles. Set in the “wilderness” of Australia, the play questions the meaning of civilised society and who has the right to determine its Thursday April 11 n Wild Outdoors Club – Farmcraft Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster. Farmcraft is a real-life adventure session, linked to the computer game Minecraft. Starting in a biome called Windmill Hillcraft, collect ore, stone, wood and gold to swap for tools, resources and equipment. Snack provided, £10, 10am to 12 noon. windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk n Easter Decorations KWMC: The Factory, Unit 24, Filwood Prof Steven Pinker on Trump: “Everyone’s entitled to his own truth, but not his own facts”. century. Freedom, democracy, the value of education, and the increasing kindness we show each other and our children as we become wealthier, better fed, and better able to enjoy our lives. These facts, based on hundreds of studies, are rattled off to the backdrop of a rapid slide show, with graphs aplenty. Yet Pinker’s mild tone and West Coast rock-star perm soften the onslaught. Yes, climate change is a crisis: we have to reduce carbon emissions to zero. But the stats
Our country?
PHOTO: Joe Roberts
future. Our Country’s Good is the second in the Factory Company’s 2019 season and is directed by Anna Girvan, who returns to the Tobacco Factory from the RSC and the National Theatre. Tickets from £12; age 14+, 7.30pm, matinées 2pm. • BSL interpreted performance Friday April 26. • Post show talk follows the performance on Friday April 26. • Director’s Lab Friday April 26, 11am-5pm. Join director Anna Girvan on the set for a day. tobaccofactorytheatres.com Green Business Park, Hengrove Way. Learn how to design and make a laser-cut Easter card. Free, 10am-12.30pm, 16+, no experience needed. For details e-mail thefactory@kwmc.org.uk or call 0117 403 2306. kwmc.org.uk/events Your event could be highlighted like this for just £5. Email ruth@southbristolvoice.co.uk n Forest School Arnos Vale cemetery, Bath Road. Bushcraft show that as societies get richer, they clean up their factories and power plants. No, it’s not enough, and the anti-fact brigade such as Donald Trump do not help. But for Pinker, progress is always possible. Why don’t we all know this story? Because news is about the unusual. If journalists had different priorities, we might be hearing how, yesterday, 137,000 people escaped from extreme poverty. The same thing happened every day for the last 30 years. Only once did Pinker shock: “Inequality is not an issue,” he said. “Poverty is an issue. How rich the rich are is irrelevant.” To many Brits, this sounds like right-wing politics. Pinker sees it as backed by evidence. This point aside, his arguments are overwhelming. Why aren’t we listening? Paul Breeden stevenpinker.com • More on the Voice website
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skills in the cemetery’s outdoor centre. Learn to start and control fire safely in the outdoors, try campfire cooking and den building. Advance booking required, £20 (includes snack but not lunch), ages 6-10 (under 8s must be accompanied throughout), 11am-3pm. arnosvale.org.uk/events Friday April 12 n The Secret History of Frenchay Hospital Knowle and Totterdown Local History Society. Alan Freke visits with an intruiging story of Bristol history. 7.30pm, Redcatch Community Centre, Redcatch Road, Knowle. Members £1.50, visitors £3. knowleandtotterdownhistory. org.uk Saturday April 13 n Riverbank Clean-up Franc, Friends of the Avon New Cut, welcome new hands to tidy the river bank between Totterdown’s Banana Bridge and Bath Bridge. Meet at 9.50am. Usually followed by refreshments at 12 noon. franc.org.uk n Gary Numan & Kraftwerk Tribute Fiddlers Club, Willway Street, Bedminster. Pat Martin pays homage to synth pioneer Gary Numan while Man Machine play Kraftwerk. 8pm, £10. fiddlers.co.uk Tuesday April 16 n Eggsplosions Day! Creative Workspace, Queens Road, Withywood. Craft workshop with Laura from Colourful Minds, for a day of splat painting and safe but egg-splosive science experiments. Advance booking recommended. Drop in 11am3pm, £2.50 in advance. creativeworkspacebristol.co.uk Wednesday April 17 n Pete Ka Mally & guests:
In your face: The cast of Trainspotting are also in your lap, drinking your pint, and are not entirely concerned whether you’re bothered ...
Choose cider, choose chaos, choose life n Review Trainspotting Loco Klub
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HERE’S a party going on in the fourth tunnel back in the Loco Klub, the appropriately grungy venue underneath the ramp at Temple Meads station. Acid house classics are playing loud and there’s a crowd of gurning ravers having a blast. They welcome the audience in, taking us to our seats around the long, catwalk-style stage. This is the third time Trainspotting Live, based on the novel by Irvine Welsh, has raged into Bristol. I’m so glad I finally caught it. Every member of the cast is excellent, but I was riveted by the dexterity, bravado and
Not in My Dinnertime The Thunderbolt, Bath Road, Totterdown. Pete K Mally is a metal fan, and a stand-up comedian. An evening of comedy and metal, with Craig Dixon , Dougie Carter and Bristol rock outfit Flowerpot. 7.30pm, £7. thethunderbolt.net
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versatility of Lauren Downie, who played June and a range of other roles, and Andrew Barrett as our hero Renton, charming, human and totally committed to the role – though he did corpse a little at his own ad lib-joke, insulting a couple of lads in the audience as Hanson lookalikes. This production is immersive to the max. Entering the party was exhilarating, you feel right inside it and I was grinning my head off. But anyone who’s read the book or seen the movie will know that the dark outweighs the light in this savage depiction of heroin culture in Edinburgh in the 1980s. There is explicit depiction of drug-taking – at once fascinating and devastating, in your face nudity (literally), sex, violence and all the bad language you could shake a syringe at (bad taste?) At one short end of the stage there’s a mashed up, soiled old
sofa, at the other, a stripped bare mattress. Action takes place end to end, and in and over and through the audience, with cast members swigging our pints – ‘“Ugh, that’s cider – I thought it was lager, ya ken?” – scooching in to sit amongst us, shouting, threatening, flirting, hugging or crawling over us – and they come in and out of the side tunnels, making great use of the performance space. The Worst Toilet in Scotland scene is a humdinger – I wouldn’t want to spoil it if you’re planning to go the next time the show comes through Bristol – but I can tell you it made the audience squeal and duck for cover. A brutal strobe scene summed up the chaos and confusion of one character’s descent to rock bottom. But there is something triumphant and joyous to have been part of it all – a reminder of the mantra – choose life! Beccy Golding
Tuesday April 23-Saturday 27 n The Believers Are But Brothers Spielman theatre, Tobacco Factory, North Street. If you have What’s App on your phone, leave it switched on for this groundbreaking show exploring an online world of hate. Javaad Alipoor exposes
a generation of young men burning with resentment, without the money, power and sex they think they deserve. What does this mean for our society, and where has it led us? Tickets from £12, 8.15pm. tobaccofactorytheatres.com Continued overleaf
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n WHAT’S ON A playhouse all can enter, but not as equals HIS play about the first female actresses couldn’t have come at a more relevant time, in this age of #Me Too and exposure of the glaring gender inequalities that still exist in theatre and the
Moorcroft, and the grand dame of actresses Mrs Betterton (Jessica Roy) stand out, one for her bawdy naivete, the other for her dramatic ambitions. But Cynthia Goldstein steals the show as the straighttalking, even bawdier Doll Common. As a kind of impish narrator, she keeps a reality check on the actresses’ hopes, especially Nell’s, and gets the best lines. “I’m usually the dead one under the cloak, or else I’m sweeping,” she says of her stage career, and when asked about the seedier aspects of the playhouse, “Do they fornicate?”,
“Nah. Say poetry and walk abaht…” There’s pathos too, when Mrs Farley, played by Caroline Baker, descends into prostitution when her theatrical life ends. Sarah Cullyer as the loyal playhouse employee Mrs Marshall, declares it’s time that actresses were paid to act, and not seen as novelties. The play ends fittingly with Doll’s impassioned speech of how they are just all playhouse creatures destined to perform for men in what was after all a bearpit, and Nell’s final powerful assertion, “Now we can say anything.” Elfyn Griffith
Continued from page 27 Friday April 26 n Bristol Disability Equality Forum The Café, Gatehouse Centre, Hareclive Road, Hartcliffe. If you are a disabled or older resident and want to meet new people and talk about how to make change happen in South Bristol, join in from 10.30am12.30pm. For more information email Mike Steel mike.bristoldef@ gmail.com or call 0117 914 0528. Saturday April 27 n Stand Up For The Weekend with Ian Stone & Co Comedy Box at the Hen & Chicken Studio, North Street. Despite his easy-going manner, Ian Stone has an edgy take on the news – a talent honed in the Comedy Store’s acclaimed weekly Cutting Edge show. £12, 7.45pm. thecomedybox.co.uk Sunday April 28 n Michaela Fedeczko Tobacco Factory bar, North Street. “Dazzling soul and pop vocalist whose voice really glistens and close harmonies are pitch perfect.” Free, 8-10pm. tobaccofactory.com/whats-on
Wednesday May 1-Saturday 4 n Keep on Walking Federico Spielman theatre, Tobacco Factory, North Street. Follow Mark Lockyer’s self-penned story which began with Living With the Lights On in 2017. Mark is struggling with relationships and going grey. Plus, he can’t get his head around Snapchat. Then a letter arrives, and he has to leave … with no idea if he’ll ever come back. Age 14+, £12, 8.15pm. tobaccofactorytheatres.com Thursday May 2 n John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett The Thunderbolt, Bath Road, Totterdown. Otway’s chaotic stage demeanour is also his appeal. £15, 7.30pm. thethunderbolt.net Saturday May 4 n So Crafty Party Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster. Art and craft sessions for children, with all materials provided. Sessions from 9.30-11.30am, 12-2pm, 2.30-4.30pm. £12.75, ages 6-10. windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk Sunday May 5 n Boundary Ramble Arnos
Vale cemetery, Bath Road. A tour exploring the 45 acres of cemetery grounds, 10.30am12 noon. See how the 1830s cemetery expanded in the 1860s and 1890s. Part of Bristol Walk Fest (see page 9). Free, donations welcome. arnosvale.org.uk/events n Topette!! SouthBank Club, Dean Lane, Southville. AngloFrench acoustic five-piece Topette!! visit Southville on their UK tour, with their energetic take on folk. With Radio 2 Folk Awards winner Andy Cutting on accordion and French bagpiper and banjo plucker Julien Cartonnet. 6.30pm, £15.40. southbankclub.webs.com/events Sunday May 5-Monday May 6 n The School Trip / The Little Village of Oaktown Acta theatre, Gladstone Street, Bedminster. Double bill from Lockleaze Youth Theatre. A school trip takes a wrong turning and becomes an adventure; meanwhile, nothing ever happens in Oaktown, until the day of the new arrivals. 12 noon, £2. acta-bristol.com
Regular events
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BRUSH STROKES DECORATING
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n Iyengar yoga classes. Beginners welcome. Qualified teacher, equipment provided. £8 (£6 concessions). Centre for Whole Health, 12 Victoria Place, Bedminster BS3 3BP. Monday 7.30-8.45pm. Call: 07984 039737. n BS3 Repair Cafe Repairs for a donation, plus cream teas and home-made cakes. 1.30-4.30pm, last Saturday of every month, United Reformed Church Hall, West Street, Bedminster. Facebook: BS3 Repair Cafe n Baby Sensory is a learning development programme for babies 0-13 months at Victoria Park Baptist Church, Sylvia Ave BS3 5DA on Tuesdays. Email bristolsouth@babysensory.co.uk babysensory.com/bristol-south n Folks & Bairns parent and baby choir The Milk Shed, Southville, Wednesdays 1-2pm. Free taster; £60 a term (12 sessions, pro rata for less). Email folksandbairns@gmail.com or visit folksandbairns.com @folksandbairns
A mythical tale of South Bristol n Southside Stories Zion Saturday April 13-Sunday 14 FTER a sell-out run at the Tobacco Factory theatre, Zion brings its homegrown piece of South Bristol theatre to its own stage in Bishopsworth Road. Written by Liz Mytton and co-produced by Zion Community Space, it tackles themes of deprivation, diversity and finding light in the darkest of times. Invisible transport, talking pets and a midnight market where all
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n THE CITY PAGE
wider world. The Southville Players’ faithful adaptation of April de Angelis’s 1993 drama took us back to 1670, when, after 17 years of Puritan suppression, King Charles II reopened the theatres and allowed women to act for the first time. It’s an energetic production, directed by Martin Booth, with five strong female performances. The storyline is sometimes confusing, but the thread of ribald humour makes up for the stop-start of sometimes patchy scene-changes. The characters of the infamous Nell Gwyn, played by Becky
n Review Playhouse Creatures Hen & Chicken Studio
April 2019
Homegrown story by the people of BS13 currency is accepted are all part of Southside, a mystical neighbourhood between Hartcliffe, Withywood and Bishopsworth. Inspired by the experiences of the local community, BS13 Theatre presents a tale of overcoming adversity and oppression and waiting for buses that never arrive. Tickets £5 for BS13 residents, £8 others; age 14+. Shows 3pm, 8pm. zionbristol.co.uk
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29
BRISTOL CITY ROUND-UP
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All to play for in the last weeks – but oh, that Ipswich draw
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All hail City, who are aiming for the top of the table, not the drop zone. But a home draw to the bottom side isn’t a good omen for MARTIN POWELL
VERY year, with about 10 games to go to the end of the football season, I get hold of the remaining fixtures and try to predict where Bristol City will finish. All too often this has involved studying the form of the bottom teams to see if City can scrape together the necessary 50 points and avoid the drop. This year the exercise has involved studying the form of the top teams. Defeats against Norwich and Leeds since the turn of the year have pretty much determined that the top two is beyond reach
MARTIN’S SHORTS n BRISTOL City have moved a fan in the South Stand after complaints from those around him about his bad language. He says it is because his Scottish accent makes him sound aggressive. Older fans will remember the halcyon days of the First Division with Gerry Gow, Tom Ritchie and Gerry Sweeney, who would always react to some robust Scottish encouragement or criticism!
– but there are likely to be plenty of twists and turns yet as the four play-off spots are determined. Now of course you might want a prediction that is based on algorithms, computer analysis of data, spreadsheet information on the form of all players in the Championship, and some kind of scientific criteria. What I did was sit down with a pencil and paper and give my best guess how every game left to be played might end – for instance how might Leeds get on away to Birmingham in April. After much head scratching, I can officially declare that City are heading for seventh spot, missing out on the play-offs by one point! It makes the home draw with rock-bottom Ipswich on March 12 (when most people were expecting a City win) seem pretty crucial – although manager Lee Johnson says maybe that was the vital point that will get them in to the play-offs, and maybe he has a sharper pencil than me. In truth, nobody knows what will happen. The form of Derby County will also determine whether the season is extended by a few games. To clinch a play-off place will be a great
In the action: Famara Diedhiou at the Ipswich game PHOTO: JMPUK/BCFC achievement. It is still all to play for. What we have learned this season is how big and tough a squad you need to flourish at the top end of the Championship. City went on a magnificent run but, like last year, the lack of strength in depth of the squad is starting to show. Marlon Pack and Josh Brownhill must be savouring the break between games. They have had to get through so many hours of football, as in truth there is nobody to replace them who isn’t injured, inexperienced or playing out of position. The draw against Ipswich at
home saw Stefan Marinovic in goal, playing his first game at this level, and showing it is a big step up from Vancouver Whitecaps reserves. The squad City take into the final 10 games also includes Lloyd Kelly, Kasey Palmer, Max O’Leary and Antoine Semenyo, all great prospects but still learning the game. They will find it tough away to Middlesbrough! Up front, Famara Diedhiou is a lone figure tussling with some of the best defenders in Europe twice a week for a share of the ball. It’s still all to play for but it looks like a tough run in to the end of the season.
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n YOUR MP
KARIN SMYTH Labour MP for Bristol South
All of us deserve the freedom to live normal lives, Brexit or no
A
S YOUR MP, I want to help people in Bristol South access opportunities to live fulfilling lives; my focus is on health and post-16 education and apprenticeships. This is also a focal point for me in my front bench role as shadow minister for Northern Ireland. It’s not just about the challenge of Brexit, but it is about helping people in Northern Ireland to lead equally fulfilling lives. As the British-born child of Irish immigrants, with family in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, it’s an area of politics that’s always been of interest to me. In fact, it was the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that stopped me being a political cynic and ultimately led to me becoming an MP. Setting aside the differences in
communities allowed people to come together in what they share and allowed normal life to ensue. I was pleased to join the hugely important symbolic protest calling for the decriminalisation of abortion in Northern Ireland. As a feminist, I’m a long-time supporter of a woman’s right to choose. I was pleased to see change in the Republic of Ireland last year and, along with my Labour Party colleagues, will continue pressing for change in Northern Ireland. The question of the Irish border was one
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of the first concerns I raised with the then Prime Minister David Cameron during a post-referendum House of Commons debate. It’s something I’ve continued to speak about, as the Government attempts (and fails) to navigate Brexit – both in my shadow cabinet role and as vice-chair of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. During a recent visit to Northern Ireland with Labour colleagues, I met with victims and survivors of the Troubles, visited a local hospital and regeneration projects, and spoke with education campaigners. The uncertainty surrounding Brexit is of great concern for people who just want to carry on living normal and peaceful lives. It isn’t just about a physical border, although that would be disastrous; it’s the wider impact on the normal, free-flowing life people currently enjoy. In the same way that some people in Bristol South work or send their children to school in North Somerset and vice versa, people living in Northern Ireland and those living in the Republic of Ireland currently do that unhindered. We cannot have a situation where people suddenly find themselves living under very different rules and regulations with barriers – physical or otherwise. Like most of us, people in Northern Ireland simply want the freedom to live normal lives.
April 2019
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April 2019
INVITATION
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. If you have instructed another agent on a sole agency and/or sole selling rights basis, the terms of those instructions must be considered to avoid a possible liability to pay two commissions.
MEDIUM SOUTH WEST
268 North Street, Southville, Bristol BS3 1JA
t: 0117 963 4373 southville@cjhole.co.uk With 17 offices covering Bristol, Gloucester and Somerset
OPENING HOURS Monday - Friday 9am - 7pm Saturday 9am - 5pm
SOUTH WEST
MEDIUM AGENCY ESTATE AGENCY YEAR 2011
The Multi Award Winning Agent