Bristol

  • Post exclusive: broadcaster now runs Bristol hospital

    Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Oddities, Tech

    The Bristol Post, the city’s newspaper of warped record, has recently revamped its website, which now uses the standard template for Mirror Group titles.

    In addition, the standard of what passed in recent decades for journalism from the title seems to have taken a dive too. Whether this is related to the change of template cannot be corroborated.

    One thing that has not changed is the inability of the Post’s reporters to concentrate on the most relevant facts of a story.

    An example from today is shown in the screenshot below.

    Heading to article says BBC. Headline reads Bristol Royal Infirmary suffered three cyber attacks last year

    The story itself relates that the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) suffered 3 cyber attacks involving ransomware last year.

    This is only to be expected if major organisations continue to base their IT infrastructure on Microsoft’s insecure operating systems.

    For me, the important point was on the front page as shown in the screenshot, according which the BRI now comes under the aegis of the National Health Service, although for some unfathomable reason, there is no mention whatsoever in the article itself of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

    To echo the purported words of a proper, old-school journalist, the late Bill Deedes, “Shome mishtake shurely?” 🙂

  • Recognition

    Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Oddities, Politics

    On Tuesday March 21st, your correspondent had a special appointment to keep up at the Mansion House in Clifton, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Bristol.

    The occasion was the presentation of Lord Mayor’s Medals to what Jeff Lovell, the current Lord Mayor, described in his opening remarks as “community champions”.

    Only some 20 medals are awarded each year and your ‘umble scribe was a recipient this year.

    Receiving the medal from the Lord Mayor
    Receiving the medal from the Lord Mayor. Picture courtesy of Up Our Street

    According to the citation, I was commended for my work in the voluntary and community sector in East Bristol, including all the Tidy BS5 efforts to make Easton and Lawrence Hill a cleaner, more pleasant environment.

    However, I was not the only recipient with a BS5 postcode. Three other locals received recognition.

    Hannah Crudgington was recognised for her work for Tidy BS5 (particularly her videos. Ed.) and her efforts to show a more positive side to Easton than is generally given by the local media.

    Bruce Yates was commended for his work in turning around local youth organisation Baggator at The Pickle Factory in All Hallows Road, as well as his work for RADE Bristol, which campaigns for inner-city clean air and against efforts to install polluting standby electricity generating plant in the city.

    Last but not least, Amy Harrison received a medal for her work for Up Our Street.

    All four of us are shown in the photograph below.

    BS5 recipients of the Lord Mayor's Medal
    The BS5 recipients of the Lord Mayor’s Medal. Picture courtesy of Up Our Street.

    It was, all told, a lovely afternoon, which was made even more special by a surprise visit by my eldest niece Katherine and boyfriend Martyn, who were subsequently treated to a night on the tiles in Easton.

  • Chronicling allergy

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media, Oddities

    At least once a week, the Bristol Post, the city’s newspaper of warped record, comes up with an exclusive, although this might not be immediately apparent to the casual reader.

    Today is no exception as, buried in this report on the recall of dodgy products is the revelation that some people are allergic to written records of discrete events organised by date, as revealed by the following screenshot.

    text reads this poses a serious risk to anyone with a diary intolerance

    No illiteracy or lack of proof-reading skills should be inferred concerning the alleged “journalist” involved. 🙂

  • GB Spring Clean weekend in Bristol

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    Last weekend was the highlight of the Great British Spring Clean campaign when Brits were exhorted to go out and do their bit to tidy up the UK.

    Bristol did its part, needless to say with the campaign dovetailing neatly into Mayor Marvin Rees’ Bristol Clean Streets campaign, for which he’s has made a pledge that Bristol will be measurably cleaner by 2020.

    Marvin launched the Great British Spring Clean weekend in Bristol by returning to his old school in Easton.

    Marvin Rees on Stapleton Road with children from Hannah More Primary School, plus Tracey Morgan, CEO of Bristol Waste and Kurt James, Bristol Clean Streets lead officer
    Marvin Rees on Stapleton Road with children from Hannah More Primary School, plus Tracey Morgan, CEO of Bristol Waste and Kurt James, Bristol Clean Streets lead officer. Picture credit: Bristol City Council.

    Litter picks were organised all over the city in both (so-called) deprived areas and prosperous communities alike, from Lockleaze to leafy and well-to-do Stockwood. It seems that litter is a problem with no class distinctions.

    Needless to say the Tidy BS5 volunteers were out as well, getting their hands dirty. Two were spotted doing their own impromptu litter pick in Easton’s All Hallows Road, whilst there was a more premeditated litter pick of Owen Square Park organised by Up Our Street as part of the Love Your Community day at next-door Easton Community Centre.

    In addition, Tidy BS5 also organised a stall on Lawrence Hill, near the entrance to Lidl. Leaflets featuring a residents’ pledge (along the lines of “I will do my bit to keep BS5 tidy” Ed.) were handed out to Saturday morning shoppers, mainly as a means to get them giving their views on the general state of the area. The photo below shows Hannah and Anthea on the stall, which also comprised daffodils which were handed out as a thank-you to all who stopped by.

    The Tidy BS5 stall at Lidl

    Finally, there was also some public service grafitti on the footways of Easton for the Great British Spring Clean campaign. Did it survive long enough in the weekend rain to get the message across?

    grafitto reads drop your litter in a bin

  • Struck off and die

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media

    There’s a skill to writing an intriguing headline that invites the reader to engage with an article.

    Besides the above that skill also involves the ability to make the headline make sense.

    It’s an ability that seems to be lacking down at the Temple Way Ministry of Truth, headquarters of the Bristol Post, the city’s newspaper of (warped) record, as shown by the screenshot below of the head of this article.

    headline reads Nurse who forced feeding tube into girl's stomach and died is struck off

    Comments on the piece accuse the Post’s headline of not making sense, but to your correspondent it does make perfect sense… as long as nurses can get struck off posthumously.

    Update 07/03/17: Perhaps prompted by the mocking nature of the comments, the headline has now been amended to reflect the gist of what actually happened.

  • Touting for trade

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    Some time ago in a meeting with Bristol Waste, the council-owned company responsible for cleaning the city’s streets and emptying residents’ bins, it was revealed that the company wanted to try and find commercial customers for its services.

    Evidence has emerged that the company has now started seeking business customers for its collection services.

    Bristol Waste employees have started handing out flyers like the one below to local shops, businesses, voluntary and community sector organisations in the Easton area of the city, all of which are responsible for making their own waste disposal arrangements (and which can be fined by the city council if these are found not be exist or be suitable. Ed.).

    Bristol Waste trade flyer

    My informant from whom I acquired the flyer told me that Bristol Waste is trialling this scheme in Easton. This presumably follows the same line of thinking as that for the Stapleton Road waste trial (posts passim), which is generally along the lines of “if it works in Easton, we can get it to work anywhere in the city“. 🙂

    Update: Bristol Waste was contacted for a comment and replied as follows:

    We are speaking to businesses in a number of locations across the city including Stapleton Road, Bedminster & Avonmouth in this first phase of our commercial roll-out. The service will be available city-wide.

    In addition, the Bristol Waste website has a dedicated commercial page.

  • Stapleton Road waste trial

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    On Wednesday, Bristol Waste held a drop-in session at the Newton Hall for residents to get some (more) feedback on trial removal of communal waste bins along the Stapleton Road corridor.

    Projected onto a wall was a presentation giving some facts, figures and information about the trial removal of the area’s 164 communal bins and their replacement with regular wheelie bins and bag collections (for those with no off-street storage space. Ed.).

    Since the start of the trial at the end of October/beginning of November, it seems the trial has had a drastic effect, as the following figures reveal.

    • Recyling: up 16.7%
    • Refuse: down by 40.9%
    • Street cleansing requirement: down by 35.8%

    In addition, fly-tipping enforcement in the area has been increased, with 62 notices served on individuals on how to present waste and 16 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) served on individuals. Moreover, there are currently 35 active investigations into fly-tipping from domestic properties, whilst 8 local businesses have been served FPNs and another 8 are being investigated.

    The most encouraging news came at the end of the presentation, as follows:

    Due to the success of the scheme in terms of reduced waste, bulky fly-tipping and increased recycling levels we are proposing that we will continue the trial until March in order to gather more data and feedback.

    In March, we anticipate recommending to the Neighbourhood Partnership that the service changes we have introduced remain in place for the area.

    So it looks like scenes like the one below, taken in April 2016, will finally be a thing of the past along the Stapleton Road corridor. 😀

    communal bin in Milsom Street buried under a pile of fly-tipped furniture
    Somewhere under that pile of furniture is a communal bin.

  • Neighbourhood Forum – Bristol Waste update

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    An update has been received via Up our Street to questions raised by residents at the recent Neighbourhood Forum (posts passim).

    The responses from Bristol Waste are reproduced verbatim below.

    1. Litter bins at the Junction 3 development are reported to be too small and rarely emptied – is BWC responsible for these do you know?

    Junction 3 is not yet adopted and therefore not BWC responsibility to cleanse although we did cleanse it this week due to a complaint. It would be the developer who would take up this until the road becomes adopted by BCC. It is very close to becoming adopted, so in light of this we will begin attending to avoid further issues for the community as it would appear the developer has relinquished all responsibility. It’s been added to the crew maps for this week.

    2. Waverley Street communal bin is servicing some Fox Road properties from the back – a resident queried whether the replacement service brought in during the pilot could replicate this.

    We have looked at this in more detail and we intend to keep the service as consistent as possible for residents so as not to cause confusion or inconvenience where a set up suits them in terms of the point of collection. We will therefore be able to empty wheelie bins and boxes from Waverley Street for the houses which back onto there from Fox Road. We have amended the pilot map accordingly.

    Other updates

    Reporting fly-tipping and illegal waste dumping

    Tom Ward, the Streetscene Enforcement Officer for the area attended the meeting asked that local residents help him find and prosecute illegal fly tipping by reporting offences to him, try and take photos and record as much detail as possible if you witness this behaviour. Report online at https://www2.bristol.gov.uk/forms/fly-tipping#step1 or call Tom Ward on 07585307379.

    Reporting issues with drains

    One resident raised an issue with drains across the area – they are often blocked and smell bad. Please report any drain issues to Bristol City Council’s street issue area of the website: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/report-a-street-issue.

    Finally, don’t forget the drop-in session later this week for the Stapleton Road communal bins trial (posts passim).

  • Communal bins to go in local pilot

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    Bristol Waste Company, the wholly-owned council company that’s responsible for cleaning the streets, emptying the bins and collecting residents’ recycling (amongst other things. Ed.) is holding a drop-in session next week in Easton as part of the consultation on the pilot project removing communal bins along the Stapleton Road corridor.

    The event will be held at Muller Hall, 39 Seymour Road, Bristol, BS5 0UW (map) on Thursday 29th September from 5.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m.

    flyer for event

    Bristol Waste would like as many local residents and other interested parties as possible to come and give their views and prospective attendees are asked to confirm they will be coming so sufficient tea, coffee and biscuits can be arranged.

    To confirm your attendance or for further details of the event please contact Jessica Tulit, Bristol Waste’s Community Engagement Officer, by emailing Jessica.Tulit [at] bristolwastecompany.co.uk or telephoning 0117 304 9022.

    Unfortunately, your correspondent’s attendance is doubtful due to a family bereavement, but he will be there in spirit.

    It’s good to see that Bristol Waste is prepared to tackled the problems that communal bins are causing locally after two and a half years of inaction from Bristol City Council, which introduced the 1,280-litre bins some years ago as a response to fly-tipping.

    Despite a communal bin consultation (posts passim) last year revealed that the majority of residents believed fly-tipping had not been improved by the introduction of these monster bins: and my own fly-tipping records support this perception; communal bins are implicated in 60-67% of all the fly-tipping I report to the council.

    However, despite this evidence, Bristol City Council has not had the courage to remove them, but merely tinkered with the details of their deployment.

    In meetings with Bristol Waste, it has been made quite clear to both councillors and local residents that the company is just as fed up as we are with the problems caused by the local communal bins, which don’t just act as a magnet for fly-tipping. Analysis of the contents of the bins has revealed that only one-third is the stuff for which they were intended: the rest is made up of equal parts of recyclable materials and trade waste.

    Those recyclable materials can still be recycled, but will attract a lower price due to the contamination to which they are subject in the communal bins.

    Traders are supposed to have their own waste disposal contracts appropriate to their businesses. However, lots tend to cut corners – and their costs – by abusing the black communal bins earmarked specifically for use by residents (posts passim).

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