As part of the campaign to tidy up the Easton and Lawrence Hill areas of Bristol, we residents are attempting to ensure that we can use all the council services for which we pay through our taxes.

These include such things as recycling collections on Stapleton Road and the provision of adequate recycling facilities in the inner city’s council-owned tower blocks (posts passim).

Another bone of contention was the fact that Bristol City Council’s Day’s Road ‘recycling centre’ (better known to locals as ‘the tip’. Ed.) appeared to be off limits to callers on foot. The Kier/May Gurney staff that run the facility for the council had even gone so far as to place a sign at the entrance stating no callers on foot. Furthermore, I’d heard anecdotally that the reason for this prohibition was down to that favourite old ‘excuse’ – health and safety.

In order to find out, the Freedom of Information request below was duly sent to the city council.

Dear Bristol City Council,

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

I have been informed that callers on foot are not allowed to use the facilities at Day’s Road due to “health and safety“.

I would be grateful if you could provide a copy of the relevant risk assessment.

Yours faithfully,

Steve Woods

That’s right, if “health and safety” was the reason, show us the risk assessment.

The relevant risk assessment has now been received in answer to the FoI request.

Curiously enough, non-motorised callers are allowed, as the following extract shows.

Non-motorised customers should be advised to approach from east (SOFA project side) avoiding both queue & need to cross traffic stream.

Choose a quieter time (weekdays, mid-morning) by arrangement with site staff.

ACCESS MUST BE PRE-ARRANGED WITH SITE STAFF.

Site users should be advised to make themselves visible, i.e. visibility clothing or markers, & lights in poor conditions.

The assessment also contains the following advice to pedestrians:

Customers should avoid unnecessarily crossing the traffic stream & exercise extreme caution when leaving site.

I shall therefore be digging out my Dayglo clothing and wheelbarrow and getting on the phone! 😉

Download the city council’s response in proprietary MS Office format (isn’t it disappointing that the city council thinks everyone uses MS Office? Ed.).

It’s been a while since there’s been a Tidy BS5 post on this blog, but that doesn’t mean the campaign has been dormant.

So let’s deal with recent developments in chronological order.

On Thursday 22nd January Bristol Mayor George Ferguson was on a walkabout of the Ashley, Easton & Lawrence Hill Neighbourhood Partnership area.

TidyBS5 campaigners met the Mayor at the junction of Stapleton Road and Milsom Street – a notorious fly-tipping hotspot – to express their concerns about litter and fly-tipping locally, as reported by Bristol 24/7 (bit different from North Street, isn’t it, George? Ed.).

The Bristol Post also reported on George’s visit to Stapleton Road, managing in its own inimitable, cock-eyed way to describe TidyBS as a “street-cleaning community group“.

Although your ‘umble scribe was unable to attend due to other commitments, feedback has been positive. Witnesses report that George seemed genuinely shocked by the stinky bin by which he was confronted/ambushed. In addition, he gave a commitment to bring one of the Make Sunday Special events to Stapleton Road.

Local resident Hannah has posted some more videos of George’s visit on YouTube.

On Tuesday this week, local councillors Marg Hickman and Afzal Shah, together with local residents and Lorena from Up Our Street took Bristol’s Assistant Mayor for Neighbourhoods Daniella Radice on a walk around the Stapleton Road area to acquaint her with our local litter and fly-tipping difficulties.

One thing that shocked Daniella was the way the council’s contractors May Gurney dump the plastic liner bags from litter bins on the pavement for later collection (sometimes the next day. Ed.), which also contributes to making the BS5 area look grotty; this was a practice Daniella undertook to investigate and/or change. We also drew her attention to concerns in reporting street cleansing problems via Twitter, the council’s online reporting system and by telephone (0117 922 2100 if you’d care to give it a go. Ed.).

Daniella was also alerted to the totally inadequate – if any – recycling facilities provided for residents of the city’s tower blocks. For instance, Twinnell House in Easton houses hundreds of people. Their recycling “facilities” are illustrated below.

That’s right, a mere 6 wheelie bins!

Marg Hickman also pointed out that millions of pounds are and have been spent in refurbishing the city’s council-owned high-rise blocks. However, the refurbishment plans include no provision for recycling facilities. This is incredible for a city that allegedly prides itself on its green credentials and is the current European Green Capital!

Another item raised with Daniella was the lack of recycling collections for residents living on the lower part of Stapleton Road above the shops. They’re being charged for recycling collections in their council tax, but these collections are not provided. If I lived on Stapleton Road, I’d report Bristol City Council to the police for fraud and/or obtaining pecuniary advantage! 🙂

On Wednesday evening this week Up Our Street hosted a TidyBS5 task force meeting, which attracted about a dozen local residents from across the BS5 area, as well as councillor Marg Hickman and representatives from the local ACORN branch. Various priorities from the Residents’ Rubbish Summit (posts passim), planned forthcoming activities (e.g. consultations, litter picks, etc.) and discovered what skills attendees could provide to benefit TidyBS5.

Afterwards, we had the compulsory campaign photo taken.

The message about residents wanting BS5 to be kept tidier is spreading. Pictured below are some of the residents of Easton’s Bloy Street calling for cleanliness. The picture is courtesy of Stacy Yelland of Up Our Street.

Last Friday, together with local councillor Marg Hickman, I attended a meeting with Up Our Street and Bristol City Council to discuss litter and fly-tipping in the area. Some very interesting facts came out.

To begin with, the Neighbourhood Partnership area covered by BS5, consisting of Ashley, Easton and Lawrence Hill wards, is the worst in Bristol for fly-tipping, with 560 reports in the last quarter alone.

Our old friends, the communal bins were discussed at length, particularly their role as a magnet for fly-tipping (posts passim).

The opportunities for basing action on Bristol’s forthcoming tenure as European Green Capital 2015 were raised too. (If Bristol cannot clean its act up in places like the inner city, it’s in very grave danger of being Greenwash Capital instead! Ed.)

Street clutter was also on the agenda, something the motorists’ friends, Bristol’s Tories, have noticed, particularly as regards the city’s proliferation of road signs.

Turning to actions, as a result of the meeting, Marg and I will be visiting local schools to discuss litter, recycling and the like with pupils next year, in addition to which I’ve been asked to write a regular piece on rubbish-related matters in the quarterly local news sheet (also called Up Our Street. Ed.) that goes to Easton and Lawrence residents.

As another way of publicising TidyBS5, Hannah Crudgington has suggested a monthly litter champion award for those public-spirited people out there who are prepared put themselves out to deal with what others have failed to put in bins or take home with them.

Finally, other parts of the city, such as St Paul’s and St George, now which to emulate what’s been started in BS5.