Bristol | Steve Woods

TidyBS5: the word is spreading

21/11/2014 Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

Down in untidy BS5, the fly-tipping is still continuing, as shown by this fine example of that environmental crime from Heron Road, Easton reported to the council this very morning.

However, word of this informal campaign by residents is spreading. Just ahead of Monday’s TidyBS5 residents’ summit (posts passim), news reaches my inbox that the litter picket organised in conjunction with the last Easton & Lawrence Hill Neighbourhood Forum (posts passim) has been discovered by CleanupUK.

CleanupUK is a charity whose main focus is on helping those who are most in need, usually in areas of deprivation, to combat the litter problem where they are. Through involvement in this activity, people feel their communities are safer, more welcoming and friendlier.

Read CleanupUK’s post on the TidyBS5 litter picket.
Save Avonmouth station building

20/11/2014 Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

Living as I do near the Severn Beach line, I was pleased to read in the Bristol Post that the Victorian railway station building at Avonmouth has been given a temporary reprieve from demolition after campaigners lobbied the city council.

Network Rail wants to demolish the building, but this seems a daft move given the huge increases in passenger numbers on the Severn Beach line in the last few years. As the building is not currently protected by listing or is in a conservation area, a full planning application would normally not be needed for demolition.

Council officers say Network Rail has failed to give enough detail about their plans and have refused the demolition application, but could very well approve a new application.

A petition has been set up asking both the city council and Network Rail to reconsider the future of the station building.

Until quite recently the building was used as a hairdressers and there is no good reason – apart from the destructive intentions of Network Rail – why it should not be used for commercial purposes again (or even as a station building. Ed.).

Avonmouth’s Victorian station building. Image courtesy of mattbuck/ Wikimedia Commons

Local MP Charlotte Leslie has joined the ranks of campaigners trying to save it, remarking, “Avonmouth railway station is an irreplaceable part of our heritage and planning officers have a duty to ensure that our future generations benefit from its preservation. Indeed, it is my belief that the building should be subject to a Conservation Order or Listed status – owing to its local historical importance and obvious aesthetical [sic] qualities”.

Charlotte has been a passionate campaigner throughout her term of office for local rail, including the reopening of the Henbury Loop (posts passim).
Tidy BS5 residents’ summit

19/11/2014 Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Politics
On Monday 24th November, a Tidy BS5 summit is being held for residents at Felix Road Adventure Playground, Felix Road, Easton, Bristol, BS5 0JW (map) from 6.45 to 8.45 pm.

The aims of this meeting are:
- To bring together residents who are concerned about fly-tipping, littering and rubbish and want to work together to do something about it;
- To identify exactly what the problems are and generate ideas for how to solve them; and
- To officially launch the Tidy BS5 campaign and a year of action to tackle these problems.
The meeting is being organised by residents, councillors and Up Our Street and will be chaired by local resident Liz Jones.

All are welcome and the local media have been invited.
Bristol opens Europe’s first speech lab for non-native English speakers

07/11/2014 Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Tech

Earlier this week Bristol University announced the opening in Bristol of Europe’s first speech laboratory designed to break down communication barriers faced by those who speak English as a second language.

In a linguistically diverse society, with many people speaking English as their second language, researchers at Bristol University are pioneering a new approach to help understand how factors such as accent influence communication.

The speech lab, which is funded by the European Commission through a four-year €100,000 Marie Curie grant, uses state-of-the-art audio technology to capture and analyse second language speech samples and to train people to assess the speech in a purpose-built environment.

The insights gained will then be used to train those who speak English as a second language and also to improve the teaching of English by targeting the elements of speech most likely to achieve successful communication.

Dr. Talia Isaacs, Director of the Second Language Speech Lab, conducts research at the lab as part of a research programme with international collaborators to identify aspects of speech that are most important for engaging in effective communication when English is not the speaker’s primary language.

She said: “Reducing language barriers is a pressing social and educational challenge, especially in countries like the UK where the linguistic palette is very rich.

“Improving oral communication skills for non-native English speakers will help with many aspects of everyday life – from success in the workplace and in education to improving social integration and accessing vital services.

“Although accents are very noticeable to listeners and may lead to social stereotyping, someone who sounds different is not necessarily communicating ineffectively. In fact, a whole host of factors, such as pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, contribute to the successful transmission of a message. So we often need to listen beyond the accent.

“Research conducted at the lab will enable us to study the linguistic factors that contribute to breakdowns in communication in greater depth and identify ways to mitigate these.”

By way of an example, future research could collect data from GP consultations, where either the doctor or the patient is speaking English as a second language. This could help to ensure such consultations are conducted with greater clarity.

Furthermore, there could be instances where engineers from various countries are collaborating on a joint project and there’s a need to ensure that everyone fully understands each another and can communicate their findings effectively.
The pyromaniacs

03/11/2014 Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities

It’s been 10 years since Trinity Community Arts first asked me to help with their then new annual fireworks party, which has taken place ever since. Only once in a decade has the event been badly marred by rain; that was in 2013 when the bonfire had to be lit and the fireworks fired in a steady autumn downpour.

For the first time in those 10 years, Emma from Trinity had the presence of mind to take a photo of the fireworks crew. Onj – the handsome chap in the red boiler suit – is the fireworks half of the crew. Your correspondent is in charge of the bonfire department.

Picture courtesy of Emma Harvey

It was a truly great event this year with a good crowd of some 1,250 people, plus food and fantastic music (you forgot to mention the spectacular fireworks! Ed.). The event also raised £1,100 for Trinity, which will go towards buying new drapes for the main hall. Your ‘umble scribe finally got home feeling very tired but happy at 11.30 pm after extinguishing the remains of the bonfire.
The British pub – undergoing gastration?

02/11/2014 Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Oddities

I’m a great lover of no-frills, working-class pubs. They’re what I grew up with and frequented when I first started drinking. Indeed I still give them my custom and can often be found at the Little Russell in Barton Hill, Bristol (posts passim).

One worrying development in recent years is the rise of the ‘gastropub‘.

The Eagle, Clerkenwell, London, reputed to be the first victim of gastration. Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The term gastropub is a portmanteau of gastronomy and pub, and originated in the United Kingdom in the late 20th century. The establishment itself is defined as ‘a bar and restaurant that serves high-end beer and food‘.

My Bristol Wireless colleague Rich has devised the verb ‘to gastrate‘ to describe the phenomenon of converting boozers to gastropubs. I would define the verb as follows:

gastrate (v.) – to ruin a perfectly good pub by converting it to sell small, overpriced portions of food.

See also: gastration (n).

The process of gastration is also being actively encouraged by the media, as shown in a piece last week on the Bristol Post website.

Will traditional drinkers soon be struggling to find traditional boozers if this trend continues?
Exclusive: Bristol Mayor loses trousers in Easton

01/11/2014 Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Politics

Yesterday, returning from Trinity Community Arts, I came across an unusual sight in Bannerman Road, Easton.

Who could have left them there?

Someone who’s not heard of the local TidyBS5 campaign, to be sure.

The obvious candidate is Bristol’s elected Mayor, George Ferguson, a man not unknown for his penchant for red leg coverings (posts passim).

What could George have been doing in Easton to have fled minus his trousers? Answers in the comments below.

Of course, as a politician George sometimes risks more than the loss of his trousers; he’s wagering the shirt off his back on 2 potentially huge white elephant projects in Bristol both being funded by municipal borrowing – the Bristol Arena and Metrobus/BRT, whose costs keep escalating out of control.
Thank You!

31/10/2014 Steve WoodsBristol, Social Media

A week ago I was honoured to attend the annual Thank You awards organised by Easton & Lawrence Hill Neighbourhood Management to provide coverage of the event via Twitter.

These awards are presented every year to people who make a difference in the part of East Bristol where I live. Nominations all come from the local community, i.e. friends and neighbours.

This year the awards were presented by local MP Stephen Williams, whilst the event was compèred by local broadcasting husband and wife team Pat Hart and Sherie Eugene Hart. Those honoured ranged in age from people still at school to pensioners.

The biggest cheer of the night was for Lil Stiddard, who received a standing ovation. Lili’s citation read:

It was 32 years ago that Lil and her husband became involved in setting up a club for older people in the community. Before Easton Community Centre was built, they met at the Chelsea Road Old Co-op. The floor collapsed with all the dancing the first time they used a temporary venue. At the age of 97, Lil is still active in the club, setting out the tables and chairs, bringing the tea and assisting the treasurer. “We are all human beings,” she says, “and need to learn to pull together.”

All the winners were photographed together at the end of the presentation.

Here’s a short film of vox pops shot at the awards.

I happened to be nominated too…
Skip Bins of Easton – the video

26/10/2014 Steve WoodsBristol, Politics
A couple of years ago, after a less than ideal consultation by Bristol City Council (my own street was omitted from the process! Ed.), communal bins – called skip bins by some – were imposed on residents.

They are not popular with locals since they attract abuse – fly-tipping by traders, dumping of recyclable materials by the uncaring and so on – and are unappealing to have outside one’s front door. They may be a good idea for block of flats if adequately screened, used properly and regularly emptied, but not for residential areas or shopping streets. Even in my own road where the communal bins never suffer the levels of abuse or levels of filling that they do in on busier streets, they are not popular with residents.

A local Stapleton Road resident has now produced a short video to draw attention to the problems they engender and her evident frustration with the council’s attitude to Easton.

As regards abuse of the communal bins, recent analysis of 2 bins on Stapleton Road by the city council revealed that their contents were roughly:
- one-third waste for landfill;
- one-third recyclable materials; and
- one-third illegally dumped trade waste.
That analysis shows there is clearly a lot that needs to be done both as regards educating residents on what materials can be recycled, as well as enforcement, cracking down on traders who are not complying with their obligations in respect of proper disposal of the waste from their businesses.

When it comes to trade waste, the council has 2 options when it comes to enforcement action. It can impose a fixed penalty of £300 or taking offenders to court, where a maximum fine of £50,000 and/or up to five years imprisonment.

As regards the siting of communal bins, the idiocy evident in the video is not an isolated instance. Walton Street in Easton, which is some 300 metres in length, has one communal bin, whilst adjoining Northcote Street – a third of the length of Walton Street – has three!

If having to put out the rubbish on a cold, rainy night, I’d prefer to live in Northcote Street. Wouldn’t you?

Furthermore, it’s not just the major thoroughfares that have problems with fly-tipping, trade waste and the like, as this blog has previously highlighted with Jane Street (posts passim) on the borders of Redfield and Lawrence Hill districts.

Next month a residents’ rubbish summit will be held at Felix Road Adventure Playground as part of the #tidyBS5 initiative. Details will be posted here when they are finalised.
Happy birthday, ECC!

15/10/2014 Steve WoodsBristol

I’ve been using Easton Community Centre almost as long as it’s been open. I’ve also watched the changes to the building and its users over the years with great interest.

Reaching its quarter century is a great achievement for any community project and the Centre will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary later this month with a tea party on Friday, 24th October from 3.30-6.30pm.

There will be free tea and cake, as well as a children’s disco with a £1 entry fee.

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