Not being a regular reader of the sports pages, particularly not the football coverage, I’m indebted to Redvee once again for the screenshot below of an excerpt from yesterday’s Bristol Post report of the League One (that’s the Third Division in old money. Ed.) match between MK Dons and Bristol City FC.
Isn’t defecating on the pitch a red card offence? 😉 Besides this, his excrement might have hit spectators behind the goal…
The article has since been corrected.
The last TidyBS5 post mentioned that a community litter pick would be taking place (posts passim).
Billed as Tidy BS5 Up, this event will be held on Saturday, 28th March from 11am to 1pm and the initial assembly point will be Lawrence Hill roundabout before volunteers disperse to clean up the grotty bits of BS5 that have been identified.
If there’s a particular grotty bit of BS5 that you believe needs a good litter pick, then send it in as a suggestion to Lorena (email: lorena (at) eastonandlawrencehill.org.uk) at Up Our Street by Friday, 20th February.
In a new move Bristol City Council has started advertising websites for non-existent domains as part of its tenure as European Green Capital 2015.
I’m indebted to Redvee for the photograph below.
Not only does the solar park itself not exist, neither does the domain shown on the sign, as a simple whois search reveals.
I wonder how much money has been wasted on the publicity for a non-existent solar park and its accompanying (and equally non-existent) website.
Would anyone from Bristol City Council care to comment?
Update 02/02/2015: a subsequent whois search today revealed that the domain in question was registered by a PR person working for Bristol City Council this morning and that the registrant contact details are currently awaiting validation.
As we enter another month and a chill northerly wind drives temperatures down, it’s encouraging to know that signs of spring are appearing.
Along with the appearance of snowdrops (posts passim), the swelling of hazel catkins is another early sign of an impending change of season.
The photograph below was taken yesterday at the junction of Stapleton Road, Trinity Road and Lawford’s Gate in Easton.
A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster, with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated (anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated (as in Salix). They contain many, usually unisexual flowers, arranged closely along a central stem which is often drooping.
Hazel catkins are the male flowers of the plant.
The female flowers – as shown in the photo below – are much smaller and harder to spot.
The change from winter to spring was admirably encapsulated by the final couplet of Percy Bysshe Shelley‘s 1819 Ode to the West Wind.
The trumpet of a prophecy! O, wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
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.
Seen in The Galleries, Bristol.
Bristols (noun, plural): English rhyming slang for breasts.
Bristol’s (possessive): from, of or pertaining to Bristol, a city in the west of England.
There’s obviously an apostrophe thief abroad in central Bristol. Could it be a greengrocer looking for fresh supplies (posts passim)? 😉
Spotted in Day’s Road, The Dings, Bristol.
Subvertising (noun), a portmanteau of subvert and advertising.
Definition: The practice of making parodies of corporate and political advertisements in order to make an ironic statement.
Oxymoron (noun), (plural) -mora.
Definition: (rhetoric) an epigrammatic effect, by which contradictory terms are used in conjunction.
There’s been a lot of coverage in the media recently on the falling price of crude oil – and consequently of petroleum products – but it is questionable whether any other coverage has attained the level of religious fervour exhibited by the Bristol Post, an organ not normally renowned for its piety.
Yesterday’s Post featured a report with the headline Unleaded petrol drops below £1 in Swindon – but when will Bristol see the hallowed price?
Yes, that’s right – hallowed.
According to Collins English Dictionary, the adjective hallowed has the following meanings:
1. set apart as sacred
2. consecrated or holy
Nowhere else have I encountered the price of petrol being referred to as being set apart as sacred, let alone consecrated or holy.
Collins also adds helpfully that hallowed is used to describe something that is respected and admired, usually because it is old, important, or has a good reputation.
I hardly think any of the adjectives so helpfully added by Collins could be applied – even in the broadest sense – to the price of petrol in the West Country.
Could it be that the unnamed journalist responsible for the piece is ignorant of the meaning of hallowed?
Quite possibly.
Furthermore, the Bristol Post is well known locally for its unquestioning championing of the motorist and demonisation of cyclists, not to mention its barely concealed opposition to Bristol Mayor George Ferguson’s plans for residents’ parking zones. That being so, perhaps Post “journalists” do worship piously at the pumps every time they fill up. 🙂
Never having had the desire to learn to drive, I’m reliant on the railways for long distance travel and follow all developments on the iron road with great interest.
At present the Great Western line from Paddington to Bristol and South Wales is to be electrified in coming years and preparatory works are already well underway all along the route.
To be able to accommodate the power lines serving the tracks, the redundant Royal Mail conveyor at the west end of Bristol Temple Meads has been removed in recent weeks.
Network Rail has just released the video below which documents these works at Temple Meads.
In the world of the city’s great and good, Bristol is off to a flying start celebrating its year as European Green Capital.
Plans are already well advanced to spend thousands on spurious ‘green‘ arts projects, such as dumping a load of old boats in picturesque Leigh Woods.
According to the blurb on the European Green Capital website, the “European Green Capital Award (EGCA) has been conceived to recognise and reward local efforts to improve the environment, the economy and the quality of life in cities.”
However, it would appear that there’s been little local effort – apart from protests by local residents and councillors – to improve the environment and quality of life in inner city areas such as Easton, Lawrence Hill and St Pauls, judging by the amount of fly-tipping that still goes on daily on our streets with no sign of a slackening or any meaningful enforcement efforts or action by Bristol’s seemingly impotent or uninterested city council.
The photographs below were taken this morning by local resident Hannah Crudgington and are typical of the grottiness we inner city residents have to endure every day. All the photographs were taken within a couple of hundred metres of each other in the BS5 postcode area.
Was Bristol awarded the European Green Capital award on false premises? Some in the city believe that to be the case. Judging the evidence of my own eyes, awarding Bristol with the European Green Capital award would have been more appropriate.
Do you agree? Please feel free to comment.