Bristol City Council, those champions of preserving the city’s heritage of past centuries (as long as it fits in with their particular view of what constitutes heritage. Ed.), together with Redfield Educate Together (who’ll be running the school to be opened on the site) and the builders, PPP ‘experts’ Skanska, have submitted a planning application proposing the demolition of the old Victorian school buildings and the building of a box-like, bland, modern replacement.
The existing building has apparently been declared unsuitable by the city council’s Children and Young People’s Service, the trendy, modern moniker for what used to be the Local Education Authority.
A petition has been organised to try and avert its demolition and the information below comes from it.
The Victorian school currently occupying the site was designed in 1898 by the acclaimed local architect, Herbert J Jones, and it is a candidate for local listing. It is a local landmark in St. George, an area with a strong character and the building, in excellent condition, was used by the council until recently (isn’t it curious how the same building can be used and then regarded as unsuitable by the same body? Ed.).
The petitioners believe, as recommended by English Heritage advice on reusing Victorian schools, that the building should be saved and adapted for the new school. If not large enough, other school buildings are available, such as the other school in Avonvale Road in Barton Hill.
The advice from English Heritage is strong: “Where re-use for educational purposes has been ruled out, every effort should be made to find a new use. The aim should be to obtain the best return for the taxpayer consistent with government policies for protecting the historic environment.”
The replacement defeats Bristol City Council’s draft policy DM26 which states that, “Development should contribute positively to an area’s character and identity, creating or reinforcing local distinctiveness.”
The petition, which is addressed to Bristol City Council, concludes as follows:
We acknowledge the urgent and strong need for a new school in the area and we very much support the reuse of this building and the search for more suitable sites, and for a school which is truly inspiring for the future generations of Bristolians.
We believe you should reconsider your plan, looking for the advice of English Heritage’s experts independent from the proposal of a single developer.
One of the jewels of Bristol is Castle Park – a reasonably large green space in the middle of the city.
In times gone by this was partly the heart of the medieval city and contains the ruins of Bristol Castle. It also used to be the city’s main shopping area before World War 2. It lost that status when Broadmead (virtually unscathed by bombing) was developed as the city’s central shopping area. The construction of this bland, uninspiring mid-20th century retail development required the demolition of an area of Victorian, Georgian and Tudor buildings.
The west end of Castle Park, Bristol. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
For most of the past week, Castle Park has been closed to the public for a private commercial event, causing great inconvenience to those who use it regularly, such as cyclists and pedestrians making their ways to and from work or the shops, as well as more casual users wanting a bit of respite in pleasant surroundings in their lunch breaks.
To try and prevent Bristol City Council from closing Castle Park in future for its pure commercial gain and allow citizens access to their parks at all times, a petition has now been started on the 38 Degrees website.
The petition reads as follows:
To Bristol City Council
Following the complete closure of Castle Park (Bristol UK) for the 3rd year running, we propose that public parks should never be fenced off in their entirety for commercial events.
Tens of thousands of people attending a music event can negatively affect local residents and will inevitably cause damage to this small park. Damage which takes time and money to repair, and that can ruin the enjoyment of the park for the general public for weeks to come.
A park should be available for general public use at all times and even more so during School or Bank Holidays.
We request that Bristol City Council only license commercial events to be held at more suitable venues and allow people access to public parks.
Keeping parks open and accessible at all times is important because parks and green spaces have been shown to improve the well-being of local people and attract visitors from further afield.
According to Bristol City Council’s Parks and Green Spaces Strategy, central Bristol Bristol is so lacking in green space that temporary park closures would further deplete Castle Park.
Finally, parks are a public service provided by the council on behalf of the people of Bristol; they should not be exploited to the latter’s detriment as a means of generating revenue.
All election materials delivered to my home are recycled and those containing my personal detailed are shredded before recycling.
Each election I keep a tally of the number of communications received from each candidate or party, which has acquired the name of the shredder poll over the years.
One of the features of the variety of English spoken in Bristol is the terminal ‘L’ – a final, intrusive ‘L’ on words ending in a vowel sound. As a consequence, Bristolians live in areals of the city and some of them do their shopping in Asdal.
This terminal L found its earliest expression in the city’s name itself, which has mutated from Brigstowe in Saxon times.
However, the terminal L is now under threat from poor writing and editing at the Bristol Post (or should that be Bristo Post? Ed.), as revealed in this blatant advertisement masquerading as news, complete with obligatory screenshot.
More of this poorly written junk can be expected in future as the Bristol Post – along with the rest of the Local World group to which it belongs – will be making increasing use of user-provided content, presumably to save on employing trained journalists.
The historic Ebenezer Chapel, the last remaining non-conformist chapel in the St Philips area of Bristol, is under threat of demolition from its owners, who seem very unconcerned about its value.
As a non-conformist building, it is very interesting architecturally too, looking more influenced by the Romanesque or Norman style (as it is otherwise known in England. Ed.) than the more usual Gothic Revival.
Ebenezer Chapel in its days as an architectural salvage emporium. Picture courtesy of John M (via Geograph)
However, a petition has been started to try and save (some of) it.
The text of the petition reads as follows:
Ebenezer Chapel, on Midland Road, is under imminent threat of demolition. The landowner wishes to destroy this important and beautiful reminder of the history of St Philips and Old Market, to replace it with a modern block of flats.
The chapel was built in 1849, the first Primitive Methodist chapel built in Bristol. Notwithstanding its beauty for local residents and the thousands of pedestrians and cyclists which pass it each day, it is the last-remaining architectural evidence of the education and spiritual support given to the first residents in the area, who settled in the early nineteenth century.
An attempt has been made to get the building listed by English Heritage, while it is a very strong candidate for the Local List. But because it is not listed and is outside of a conservation area, Bristol City Council says it is powerless to intervene and save this beautiful building.
We would like your support for this petition, which aims to show how many people would like this building saved and, at the very least, incorporated into any new development that takes place.
The more public support we receive, the more we can do to persuade the landowner and council to work to save this important historical landmark for future generations, and in so doing create a better development for all.
As well as signing the petition, please consider writing to your local councillor and local media to express your support for saving the chapel, and calling on them to do all they can in the future to protect the heritage of our great city.
The screenshot below comes from the Bristol Post website early this morning and shows 2 news items in succession about Nick Gargan, the Chief Constable of Avon & Police.
Is being suspended for ‘inappropriate behaviour’ part of a typical light-hearted day for Avon & Somerset’s finest?
Answers in the comments below, Bristol Post hacks and sub-editors. 🙂
On Friday evening the Open Rights Group organised one of a series of nationwide European Digital Rights hustings at St Werburgh’s Community Centre in Bristol. This was a chance for local people to quiz MEP candidates from the South West about their views on digital rights and ask them to sign up to the 10 point Charter of Digital Rights.
Green European Parliament candidate Audaye Elesedy signs the Charter of Digital Rights at St Werburgh’s Community Centre. Picture credit: Brent Longborough
As Chair of St Werburgh’s and having a keen interest in digital rights, I volunteered my services and was surprised to be asked to chair the event.
When I arrived, Ed Paton-Williams from the ORG had already shown up and there was little to organise in the room apart from setting up the wifi, a couple of notices with the wifi details and the last minute provision of water for the top table.
In alphabetical order, the candidates who attended were:
Hadleigh Roberts (Labour) (who, incidentally, is a fellow translator. Ed.).
We were supposed to have been joined by Julia Reed from UKIP, but she pulled out at the last moment. Could this have had something to do with a little Twitter bother?
After a brief introduction from Ed Paton-Williams and a warm welcome to all to the Centre from me, we were off with candidates’ opening statements. All stuck fairly well to the 2 minutes limit for speaking (and many thanks to Hadleigh for the use of his phone with the stopwatch app! Ed.).
As chair I got to ask the first question: has the EU done enough to allow open source software to compete with proprietary products such as Microsoft Office?
Some interesting answers followed: Hadleigh and Jay both raised the cost of licensing for small businesses; Audaye raised the use of open standards such as Open Document Format.
The meeting was then thrown open to questions from the floor. The first concerned data protection and the UK’s government’s desire to make money from selling data provided by citizens. Once again there were some fascinating answers of which I’m reminded of two points in particular: Jay believed people should be compensated financially for the use of their data, whilst Hadleigh stated that companies shouldn’t be buying people’s data. A point made from the floor was that people are very mistrustful of the way the government uses – and loses – data.
The next question from the floor raised the matter of TTIP. Some candidates, particularly those with links to business, favoured TTIP’s implementation; Georgina said it should be given a chance. Other, more wary candidates feared the consequences of TTIP’s proposals to allow corporations to take governments to court for changes to the competitive commercial landscape. TTIP was also seen as a big threat to personal control of data. Snowden’s revelation of US spying on the EU during TTIP negotiations were mentioned by Audaye.
This led neatly into the next matter: surveillance. Georgina thought there was too much scaremongering going on about data collection. It’s there to protect us from paedophiles and terrorism, adding: “States knew perfectly well that surveillance happening… on the internet there’s no such thing as privacy.” Jay responded that we’re struggling with oversight in the UK and that access to communications data shouldn’t be a habitual thing. Hadleigh remarked that the public have to be given a guarantee that they won’t be spied on unless they’ve committed crime. Audaye stressed that Germany has gained a competitive advantage in digital sector because its far stronger privacy culture compared with the UK.
Thangam Debonnaire, Labour’s candidate for the Bristol West parliamentary constituency and a former musician, asked about how the EU should make sure copyright law helps creators protect their income. There was general agreement in the responses that Digital Rights/Restrictions Management (DRM) hadn’t really done anything to stop so-called ‘piracy’, (better known to some of us by its correct definition of ‘copyright infringement’. Ed.). Furthermore, artists deserve better compensation from the likes of iTunes and Spotify. The general impression is that this area still needs attention as the music and film industries are still struggling to come to terms with the internet after a couple of decades.
In one of the final questions, the power of the UK in the EU was raised from the floor. Candidates pointed out that the UK hadn’t really lost any power, but had lost influence due to its attitude. As regards attitude, the behaviour of UKIP in the European Parliament was criticised severely by the candidates. Proceedings in the Parliament were described as generally civilised and polite. However, UKIP’s MEPs were criticised for being rude to their fellow parliamentarians and failing to do any work on the committees on which they are supposed serve.
The hustings concluded with closing statements from all candidates and a vote of thanks to them from the chair.
For me it was a baptism of fire, never having chaired a hustings event before. But the candidates were – apart from a minor bit of mudslinging – models of politeness and made my job in the chair a pleasure. There was none of the two speakers talking at once that I witnessed the previous week at Radio 4’s broadcast from Bristol of Any Questions?
The tenor of the meeting is perhaps summarised by this tweet from local councillor Rob Telford.
Very open debate this evening, lots of audience participation and intelligence, more of a conversation really! #EUDigitalDebate
Earlier today, the news section of the Bristol Post transported the city’s affluent district of Clifton to the countryside, describing it as ‘rural’, as shown in the following screenshot.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary rural has many meanings; the one implied by the Post’s usage is the OED’s definition 1c:
Employed or stationed in country districts.
Are the people of Clifton yokels?
Bristol absorbed Clifton in the 19th century, so any green wellies seen will be very clean and not covered in cow’s muck; they’ll be worn for fashion not for necessity. Although Clifton’s renowned Downs are still common land, the locals don’t seem to graze much livestock upon them. Nevertheless, some activities which may be regarded as animal take place up there.
The word rural has since been removed from the headline.
I always believed press articles supposed to be sub-edited before being posted. Apparently this does not seem to be the usual practice down at the Temple Way Ministry of Truth.
In Bristol’s Barton Hill district, there’s a lovely little pub affectionately known as the Little Russell (its real name is the Russell Arms; the ‘Big’ Russell used to be nearby on Church Road, Lawrence Hill, but has long since closed. Ed.).
It’s a friendly place and is little changed from when it first opened in the 19th century.
One change in recent years, however, is the addition of a fine mural by local artist Andie that covers 2 walls of the yard, which has since the smoking ban become the pub’s smoking area. Part of the mural is shown below.
Rainbow Worrier at the Little Russell. Click on the image for a larger version
The train in the shot is known as Rainbow Worrier because it’s green and has a shady-looking character in a hoodie in the cab. Note the machine gun and the fish-shaped bombs; they’re more reason to worry.
Andie is definitely a man with a sense of humour and I love his punning references; note ‘Royal Male’ on the next locomotive.
Rainbow Worrier itself reminds me of reading about the armoured trains that used to chug up and down the Russian railway network around the time of the Russian revolution. For instance, the Czechoslovak Legion used heavily armed and armoured trains to control large lengths of the Trans-Siberian Railway (and of Russia itself) during the Russian Civil War. One of the Czechoslovak Legion’s armoured trains is shown below.
Czechoslovak Legion armoured train. Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
I wonder if these trains or the later ones used in World War 2 were what inspired Andie; or was he just having fun?
Election leaflets from the Liberal Democrats are renowned amongst followers of politics for their inaccuracies, in particular their dodgy ‘bar chart’ graphs.
With the European Parliament elections later this month, sitting Liberal Democrat MEP for the South West Graham Watson has been getting his leaflets out. Those leaflets feature the picture below.
Here we have a typical picture of smiling Liberal Democrats campaigning for better rail services in Bristol. Keen watchers of politics will notice some familiar local LD faces, such as former Bristol councillor ‘Jolly’ Jon Rogers, sitting Bristol councillor Tim Kent and Bristol West MP Stephen Williams.
Keener eyes will also spot prominent local transport campaigner and Green Party member Julie Boston, as well as sitting Bristol Labour councillor Mark Bradshaw.
On Friday evening the 
