Bristol Cable - Issue 28 by Bristol Cable

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Issue No28 - Jan-Mar 2022 Made FREE by members

s l o r t n o c t n e R Could they help fix Bristol’s broken market?

CLIMATE

INTERVIEW

POLICING

CULTURE

Transparency questions over £1bn green energy project

Leading defence lawyer on why protest is under threat

Exclusive interview with Avon and Somerset’s new chief constable

The Bristol record label taking on gender inequality in the industry

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DEAR READER,

Education: Why P.E. isnt just about exercise > p.38

This first edition of the Bristol Cable of 2022 brings you indepth coverage of Bristol’s broken renting system, the fallout of the landmark Colston 4 trial, and hurdles the city must overcome – including tackling the climate crisis, maintaining mental health services and protecting disability rights.

Massive thanks to the 2,800 members who make all this possible! and to all contributors, sources and contacts. If you have a story, or a tip-off please get in touch:

Big political issues are firmly on our agenda, too. How can Bristol get to net zero in eight years with limited resources while maintaining transparency? What is really at play in the upcoming referendum on whether we should scrap the mayoral system 10 years after voting it in? Our journalists are able to really dig into these issues thanks to the support of 2,800 members, each helping to create a better media. As well as the chunkier topics, you’ll also find some lighter reading with culture, local history and interviews with interesting local people. Want to read more? Check out our website for in-depth journalism every week, thought–provoking chat on the Bristol Unpacked podcast, and needto-know summaries of Bristol news with our weekly newsletter. Cheers!

content@thebristolcable.org thebristolcable.org/got-a-story 07533718547 | The Station, Silver Street, Bristol, BS1 2AG Media team Matty Edwards, Hannah Vickers, Aphra Evans, Sean Morrison, Adam Cantwell-Corn Print production coordination Matty Edwards Production team Alex Turner, Arvind Howarth, Emily Williams Design & layout Laurence Ware - laurence-ware.com Print advertising Alison Fraser, Michael York Tech team Mat Alborough, Will Franklin Marcus Valentine - xtreamlab.net Membership team: Lucas Batt, Marianne Brooker, Adam CantwellCorn, Will Franklin, Matty Edwards

The Cable team

Distribution coordination Lucas Batt, Dave Marsden

THEBRISTOLCABLE.ORG/JOIN There’s always more to the story, with your support we can tell it

Distribution team: Scatha Jones, Dave Marsden, Neill Talbot Workplace coordination People: Lucas Batt, Hannah Vickers, Mat Alborough, Sara Szakadat Forums: Will Franklin, Sara Szakadat Development: Adam Cantwell-Corn, Marianne Brooker Resources: Sara Szakadat, Lucas Batt, Adam Cantwell-Corn Front page illustration Sophia Checkley and Laurence Ware

Contents 4-5 What the Cable has been up to 7 Culture The Bristol label fighting for gender equality in the music industry 8 Colston Readers’ view: What next after the Colston 4 acquittal? 10 Interview Leading defence lawyer on why protest needs protecting 13 Housing Bristol’s rental sector is out of control 14 Data The Cable’s simple guide to renting

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16 Solutions Can rent controls help solve Bristol’s hsoung crisis? 20 Photoessay Bristol rugby stars playing at the top of the women’s game 22 Climate Unpicking the an ambitious plan to get to net zero with private investment 24 Climate The Bristol scientists helping track and reduce global emissions 27 Culture Is laughter really the best medicine? 28 Politics What to watch out before we vote on whether to scrap bristol’s mayor

30 Police After a year of headlines about policing, an exclusive interview with the city’s new head of police 33 Investigation Problems revealed at mental health charity Bristol Mind 34 Disability Why it’s so important Disabled people can access green spaces too

Special thanks to… Mike Jempson, Kate Oliver, Abdi Mohamed, Roseanna Dias Elected Directors: Julia Beasley, Ben Harris, Laura Williams, Yuliya Kosharevska, Alain Demontoux, Mandy Rose, Yasha Maccanico,Nick Plant Thanks to the Reva and David Logan Foundation, Luminate and the Centre for Investigative Journalism for their continued support.

36 People’s History Meet the women who founded Barton Hill Settlement 38 Sport Why we should be worried about PE being cut in schools 39 Opinion What Bristol’s needs to be a truly cycling friendly city

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It’s not going to be easy. This year, a large part of our core funding will come to an end just as operating costs rise, so we’ll be relying more on support from members. But it is going to be powerful. Last year, over 800 people joined as Cable members, each chipping in a few quid to support our quality local journalism. Together, we’re working to shape a better media and with it, a better city. We can only keep going with your support. Join us.

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‘Highly Commended’ in British Journalism Awards Cable journalist Matty Edwards was highly commended in the recent British Journalism Awards for his investigation into the closure of private psychiatric children’s wards at The Priory Bristol in 2020. Judges praised the 6-month long investigation, which they said contained “well written, well sourced reports that helped get results.” The investigation uncovered staffing problems, regular incidents of self-harm, and a gap left in services when the wards closed down. Our thanks go out to the workers and families who helped to bring devastating issues to light, and to Cable members whose support enables us to investigate complex, time-consuming stories like these.

Do we need the term ‘BAME’? Priyanka Raval, freelance journalist and former Early Career Journalist at the Cable, and Delroy Hibbert, youth worker and former Cable director

Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic… Does anyone feel represented by the catchall term BAME – and is it in any way useful? These are some of the questions we’re looking to answer in a video co-produced with Freestyle Bristol, a platform for young creators set up by former Cable director Delroy Hibbert, and Priyanka Raval, a graduate of our Early Career Journalist scheme. Together, we’ll be discussing race, identity and labels. Priyanka also speaks to Delroy about how youth clubs like Freestyle can only happen thanks to funding applications that use the term ‘BAME’. The video will be filmed by Freestyle videographer Omar Powell and Cable video journalist Aphra Evans. Keep your eyes peeled online for more:

Organising an event in Bristol? When the pandemic first hit, one big question was how we can all stay connected and keep momentum in our community groups growing. In response, we set up the Cable’s Community Calendar. Event organisers or attendees can add events to the calendar for free, and we’ll help to spread the word. Whether it’s a street party or an online meeting, a sports club or an exhibition, we’re creating a space for grassroots groups in the city to amplify the work they’re doing. Organising an event, or looking for new groups to get involved with? Visit the Community Calendar:

thebristolcable.org/calendar

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Response to complaint regarding photo essay in our last edition

Matty Edwards, Bristol Cable reporter

WHAT THE CABLE HAS BEEN UP TO What will shape the Cable’s eighth year? Just a few weeks into 2022 and we’re hatching big plans – reaching new audiences in the city through events and callouts, and connecting our investigations to the bigger picture beyond Bristol.

2,800 local people own the Cable. Join us, from £1 a month: thebristolcable.org/join

Hannah Vickets, Bristol Cable reporter, speaking with members

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5 Co-op updates

Co-op updates

A complaint was made to the Cable regarding the contents of a photo essay in the previous print edition (Fast and Fusion freestyle dance troupe, #27). The photos documented a girls’ dance troupe in various settings and communities around Bristol wearing costumes typical for that style of dancing. The complaint alleged that the costumes, and the photos, represented an unacceptable over-sexualisation of the subjects. The photos were taken by a professional photographer with the full consent of carers and parents in line with existing Cable procedures. However, we do acknowledge there are general concerns about the hypersexualisation of young people, particularly girls, and will continue to consider this moving forward, including our policies for media regarding individuals that may be vulnerable. The Bristol Cable welcomes all feedback on our content and we strive to maintain journalistic ethics and standards to the highest levels.

What do you want us to cover? We’re making it easier for people in Bristol to have a say in what the Cable covers, and how. Every month we’re asking readers and members: what do you want us to investigate next? This might be a question you want answering, something you want to know more about, or an issue affecting you personally. Each month we’ll select one topic to focus on for an article, and offer readers an opportunity to share their perspective. So far this year, readers have shared their experiences on rogue landlords and opinions on the trial of the Colston Four. Sign up to our newsletter to receive our latest callouts and have your say: thebristolcable.org/newsletter

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Bristol’s Saffron Records continues to break barriers for women and non-binary people in the music industry with a week-long online gathering Eliz Mizon

’m reminiscing with Laura Lewis-Paul about the bygone days of international travel. In 2019, I spent some time in mainland Europe and America, and Laura in Tunisia and Pakistan. For Laura, however, these weren’t just holidays: “When we worked with women in Pakistan, it was so so interesting – here we’ve got 5% women in the music tech industry, but in Pakistan, it’s working out not just the shared barriers we face but also culturally, religiously…” Though advancing the rights of women and non-binary people worldwide is undoubtedly a daunting task, Laura and her team at Bristol-based label Saffron Records, a non-profit dedicated to advancing gender equality in the music tech sector, are still managing to support their members internationally, and locally, despite the ongoing pandemic. Laura is busy preparing for 7 Days of Sound, a week-long online event to give an international community of women and non-binary people better access to music education and the industry. Founded in Bristol in 2015, Saffron not only releases records but also offers training in music production, sound engineering and DJing, and runs an artist development programme supported by the PRS Foundation. Laura explained that, while access for women and non-binary people is slowly improving through diversity and inclusion schemes, the industry is still hugely male-dominated and white. “We offer our artists mentoring and support them with professional development; so that might be training in negotiating contracts or how to market yourself as an emerging artist, how to make contacts, etc.” Currently, less than 5% of the music tech industry is comprised of women, non-binary or trans people, and less than 1% of these are people of colour. The mentorship and training that

Saffron provides allows marginalised people to access prestigious spaces, which is likely to advance their careers. Those spaces can otherwise be so hostile as to form a barrier. “You can’t be your fullest creative self when you’re in a space where you feel intimidated, or in a hostile environment. You also might not understand the tech language if you access a space but you haven’t had the training. “Similarly, once you’ve come up with your own ideas, you’re unlikely to be able to produce your own music – it’s likely to get passed over to a cisgender male to produce your work. And so again, you’ve got that lack of creative control.” The Saffron team hopes not only to help individuals become more confident in their own abilities and stand toe-to-toe with established artists, but as a result, to change the makeup of the industry. Saffron events take class into account as well as race and gender: “Finance is such a big barrier for music tech; equipment wise, it can just be so expensive. So… there’s so often that feeling of ‘do I belong in this space?’” Lewis-Paul says. To help overcome this, there is a donation option for those buying 7 Days of Sound tickets to chip in, and all of Saffron’s courses have bursary and payment plan options: “What we really want to do is to make something that is just so inclusive, and there are so many different people involved, that you don’t have to question whether you belong or not.” A gathering for the community 7 Days of Sound, which Laura says will be a ‘gathering’ for the community rather than a traditional festival or conference, takes place on Zoom in late January. The week-

long programme is led by women, and many of the sessions are supported by music tech behemoths such as Ableton, Moog and Pioneer. There are technical sessions such as mixing and beat matching, creating a radio show, and composition, and broader skills such as listening, versatility and vulnerability as a musician. Saffron’s courses also aim to inspire marginalised people and people from disadvantaged backgrounds to further (FE) and higher education (HE). By partnering with local education institutions, and running courses in those spaces, those opportunities and environments become less daunting. Saffron has begun asking those institutions to track how many graduates of their courses go on to study FE/ HE courses, so they can see their impact directly. The next steps for Laura and her team at Saffron will be their upcoming season of courses, and to continue their work with the international membership. Before the pandemic they launched their membership scheme, supported by the British Council, which funded Saffron’s work in Tunisia and Pakistan. This continues online, where members are able

to share their experiences, skills, and tips with each other, whether they live in Bristol, NYC or Lahore. Laura considers those international connections as much a part of their community as those they teach in Bristol. “It will be great to be able to travel again but we’re lucky that we can still make an impact online – currently, it’s working out how we can support our international contacts to be a community within themselves. It’s about how local community and global community can support one another.” ■

Culture

Taking back control in the male-dominated music industry

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“You can’t be your fullest creative self when you’re in a space where you feel intimidated”

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The statue should be kept as a monument to Bristol’s history of resistance to oppression

Knocking the statue down created more division rather than harmony

Time to heal The future of slave trader Edward Colston’s stuatue and the space it occupied are still contested in Bristol. We asked readers what should happen next following the Colston 4 trial

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There should be a thoughtful and meaningful memorial at a prominent place in the city, a place of contemplation, mourning, and atonement

The council’s lack of action is what caused the statue’s removal. The individuals who did it are not to blame

Voices

Transparency and research about Bristol’s involvement in the slave trade seems like a good place to start

Sean Morrison

he toppling of Edward Colston’s statue was a key moment in Bristol’s modern history. So were the acquittals of those accused of damaging it. They were milestones in an ongoing, deeply polarised debate about how the city should remember the darkest chapters of its past, and the future of controversial monuments, both here and elsewhere. More than 18 months after the bronze figure of the 17th century slaver was torn down, rolled to the harbour and dumped in the water, the plinth on which it stood remains empty. And now that the trial of four people who helped topple the monument has concluded, with all of them being found not guilty of criminal damage, the question is what happens next. Some Cable members and readers say Colston’s statue should be replaced by a memorial dedicated to the victims of the slave trade. “Bristol has never fully and openly acknowledged, nor atoned for, its role in the slave trade,” says Geoff Allan. “There should be a thoughtful and meaningful memorial at a prominent place in the city, a place of contemplation, mourning, and atonement.” Another reader, staying anonymous, says they would like to see the plinth remain empty, “as a poignant reminder of Bristol’s past, the events of summer 2020 [Colston’s toppling] and our city’s role in the slave trade.” John Bryant says: “[The plinth] could be used for temporary installations but it should always be empty on the anniversary of Colston’s removal.” After it was toppled and thrown into 8 | TheBristolCable.org/join | Iss 28 | Jan-Mar 2022

Bristol Harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020, Colston’s statue – red paint daubed on its face and hands – was retrieved and went on display at the M Shed museum. The display included biographical information about Colston, his involvement in the slave trade, the history of the statue and placards that were placed around the plinth during the protest. Some readers believe that the statue should remain in the museum, along with the history. “Keep Colston, bloodied and prone, in the museum. He is an excellent object lesson in interpreting the harsh lessons of the slave rade and Transatlantic racist slavery,” says David Bruce. “I think it’s good that the statue is kept as it is in the museum and that the moment is marked and remembered as a unique time in Bristol’s history,” says Sam. “Bristol’s slave history and the statue toppling moment should all be taught in local schools.” Jane Hopkins says: “I think the statue’s current position should be maintained [in the museum] as a monument to Bristol’s history of resistance to oppression.” But others are calling for the statue to be reinstalled on its plinth. “There is a nuanced point to make about keeping the statue there – albeit radical-

ly altered,” says Jeremy Bristow. “We must acknowledge the amnesia and blindness that we Bristolians and Brits in general had for so long about our contribution to slavery… We need to be continually reminded to be on our guard against acts of inhumanity.” A jury’s decision in January to clear the Colston 4 of criminal damage was welcomed by many, including campaign-

ers who had fought to have the statue removed for years. But there’s been a backlash too, with some people outraged about what this could mean for other statues. “Knocking the statue down created more division rather than harmony. I’ve met numerous Bristolians who feel angry that they weren’t consulted about pulling the statue down,” says Bristow. “It’s toppling was an arrogant decision of a few people. The action unfortunately succeeded in alienating people who could have been won round.” Another anonymous reader acknowledges this perspective but says that the city “needs to heal” and residents reach an understanding.

Far left: The empty plinth which held the Colston statue until summer 2020 Left: A protestor shows support for the Colston 4, who were acquitted in December

“I definitely think more education around Colston and Bristol’s role in the slave trade would help those who see the statue as part of ‘our shared British history’ understand why many people don’t feel that way, and feel less upset about the statue being removed,” she adds. The We Are Bristol History Commission is currently analysing the findings of a city-wide survey on what people think should happen next to the statue. The findings are to be published early this year. The commission was set up by Mayor Marvin Rees in the months after Colston’s statue was torn down. One of its other core aims is to develop a ‘public conversation’ to help people understand the city’s history. Cable readers shared their thoughts on how this should be carried out: “As citizens of Bristol we benefit – as a whole, and to different extents individually – from the profits of the historical slave trade. More and more proactive transparency and research about exactly how seems like a good place to start,” says one anonymous reader. Another says: “I think there should be far more recognition of the way our city has benefited and grown from the exploitation of human lives… There should be plaques and monuments to remind people of what took place especially in the neighbourhoods that profited most e.g. the entirety of Clifton.” Before the statue was toppled, there had been a decades-long campaign challenging Colston’s legacy as a philanthropist. His statue’s plaque described him as a “virtuous and wise son” of Bristol. But a push to add context to the plaque on the reality of Colston’s

actions as a slaver was unsuccessful. The Society of Merchant Venturers, which Colston had himself been a member of, admitted it had been “inappropriate” to get involved in that process. The society, founded in the 13th century, administered much of the £70,000 legacy that Colston left to Bristol following his death, partly used to fund schools in the city. “As a former Colston’s School pupil, on a scholarship funded by the Society of Merchant Venturers, I have been aware of where their money came from for many years,” says Andy, a Cable reader. “The fact that my education was funded by the profits of the slave trade is something I will always remember. I hope that the full story – warts and all…is told in the museums and books and documentaries.” During the Colston 4 trial, the council’s failure to remove it sooner or add context to the plaque was criticised. Some Cable readers say the local authority still has serious questions to answer. “We really should hold the mayor, council and city leaders to account for not listening to the voice of the people before the statue was pulled down,” says Richard. “Years of discussion allowed them to ignore the feelings and take no action on this.” Charles, another reader, says there should be an investigation into why the statue wasn’t removed, and why a plaque that made clear Colston’s involvement in the slave trade was never put up. “This lack of action is what caused the statue’s removal – the individuals who did it are not to blame,” he says. ■ TheBristolCable.org/join | Iss 28 | Jan-Mar 2022 | 9

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‘Protest is the lifeblood of our democracy, and it’s under threat’ Raj Chada, a defence lawyer who represented the Colston 4, says prosecuting demonstrators is becoming a ‘reflex’ in the UK Sean Morrison

irect-action protesters risking arrest have always played an important part in the democratic process. Throughout history, demonstrators have been instrumental in forcing social and political change. “Protest is the lifeblood of our democracy,” says Raj Chada, a lawyer who has been defending demonstrators in the courtroom for more than a decade – most recently the Edward Colston statue topplers in Bristol. But it’s a long-held tradition that’s imperilled by threats of lengthy prison terms and hefty fines under the Conservative government’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, Chada tells the Cable. To prosecute demonstrators is becoming somewhat of a “reflex” in the UK, according to Chada. “And it’s being done,” he argues, “specifically because [government ministers] don’t like their political opponents.” Police and Crime Bill: ‘An attack on the right to free speech’ He says it’s the “chilling effect” of the Bill that’s most dangerous, in that it seeks to stop people from protesting in the first place. Important demonstrations throughout history that affected parliamentary decisions might not

have happened if this kind of legislation existed at the time, he says. “It’s the largest attack on the right to free speech probably since the 1930s... We’re talking about matters that are unbelievable – that we can seek to limit protests that are too noisy, that might cause inconvenience.” Take the Bristol Bus Boycott in the 1960s – a protest against the Bristol Omnibus Company over its racist employment policy. It was the first Black-led demonstration against racial discrimination in post-war Britain, and influenced the passing of the Race Relations Act 1965. “This is a great example of radical history in Bristol and its ability to affect the national debate and national parliament,” says Chada. “And had some of these laws [proposed under the Bill] been in place then, would this protest have happened? Would these legislative changes have happened?” He adds: “If Priti Patel was the homeland secretary in 1960s America, then Martin Luther King would be whispering from a car park outside Washington DC rather than having a dream in front of the Lincoln Memorial.”

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“The Bill is the largest attack on the right to free speech probably since the 1930s”

Join us to hold power to account: thebristolcable.org/join “That’s the gravity of what’s being proposed.” And the proposed laws only highlight the importance of jury trials, Chada says, when members of the public have the final say on the fate of protesters. A recent example of this, he says, is the trial of those who tore down Colston’s statue. Jury trials: ‘A cornerstone of democracy’ Sage Willoughby, Milo Ponsford and Rhian Graham used ropes to help pull down the slave trader’s statue during a Black Lives Matter protest sparked by the death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020. Jake Skuse helped roll the monument to the floating harbour, where it was dumped in the water. The defendants – known as the Colston Four – did not deny playing a part in the removal of the statue. But after being arrested and charged with criminal damage they all plead not guilty, feeling that their actions were proportionate. On 5 January this year, a jury acquitted all four defendants, after hearing the horrors of Colston’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and how Bristol City Council had failed to remove the statue despite years of campaigning. The statue itself was criminal, defence lawyers told jurors, and the protesters’

actions were proportionate. The verdicts were hailed by many as an exemplar of the UK’s jury system in action, but some Conservative MPs raised concerns that they set a “dangerous” precedent and undermine the rule of law. An online petition calling for a retrial has garnered tens of thousands of signatures. Chada, who represented Skuse during the trial at Bristol Crown Court, says it angers him that Tory politicians “deliberately” tried to undermine a jury’s decision. He says ministers recognise jury trials are a “cornerstone of British democracy” – but only when it suits them. It’s “ridiculous” that politicians and some parts of the media have tried to present the verdicts as some kind of “vandals’ charter”, Chada says. “It would be like saying that because you have an acquittal in a murder case, that sudden homicide has become lawful in the UK.” The case was about the Colston statue and those defendants’ actions, he says. “It was nothing more, nothing less.” Colston Four ‘should never have been prosecuted’ Chada says that it was clear to him that the Colston Four should not have been put on trial in the first place. It was the council, he says, that should have been in the dock. “They are the ones who failed to take any action about this statue, which caused such offence and distress.” Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees, asked about the criticism he and the council faced during the trial for not removing the statue sooner, said taking it down would have been a waste of his political capital. Chada, a former council leader of Camden council in London, says he finds it “slightly disturbing” that Rees and other political figures welcomed the statue’s removal yet allowed the Colston Four to be prosecuted.

“They welcome the removal of the statue, say it shouldn’t have been there, say it brought a reckoning with slavery and highlights various issues, yet they were letting four people face trial, face that angst and possibly go to prison. “To me that can’t be right. What would have happened if they were convicted? If I was in their position I couldn’t have lived with that: effectively saying, ‘We’ve got all the positives out of it but [the defendants] – they’re collateral damage.’” Rees denied claims that the council supported the prosecution, saying the local authority had been “asked to give a factual account of what happened and we provided it”.

Interview

‘Callous and calculating prosecutions’ Chada says the case of the Stansted 15 being charged with terrorism offences was another example of a prosecution that should never have happened. The protesters – one of whom is from Bristol – broke into Stansted Airport in 2017 to stop a plane deporting people to Africa. They cut through the perimeter fence and locked themselves to a Boeing 767 jet. They were convicted of a terrorism-related offence before the rulings were quashed in Court of Appeal. The Lord Chief Justice at the time said the defendants should not have been prosecuted for the “extremely serious offence”. Chada, who represented the defendants, says: “They suffered distress after hearing they were being charged with a terrorism-related offence, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. And it was all done in error.” He says that public authorities need to consider how prosecutions in protest cases, particularly when the alleged offence is “minor”, will affect the individuals. They must be sure there is a strong public interest in the prosecution, Chada says, “otherwise it just becomes too callous and too calculating”. ■

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sophia_checkley

Advert Hippodrome Bristol’s rental sector is out of control In recent months, we’ve been investigating what it’s like renting in Bristol: people struggling to even get viewings, facing discrimination, and families on the brink of homelessness. 12 | TheBristolCable.org/join | Iss 28 | Jan-Mar 2022

he housing crisis dominates our political debate. Why aren’t we building more homes? How can we avoid sacrificing green space? Why aren’t more homes genuinely affordable? Meanwhile, Bristol is one of the most expensive places to rent outside London. Demand and costs are rising higher since Covid hit. Of the one in three people who are renters in the city, many are contending with poor living conditions, discrimination and the threat of eviction. We’ve reported on this and how the council has committed to cracking down on discrimation against renters on benefits, expanding landlord licensing to drive up conditions, and route out rogue landlords. These interventions are welcome, but the local authority only has the power to do so much. In this section you’ll find data research exploring trends in Bristol’s rental market: spiralling cost, properties being

snapped up within 24 hours, and the rise of short-term lets to maximise profits. What the data makes clear is that the sector is out of control. In many European cities, rent controls are the norm. While the council doesn’t have the power to make this happen, it has committed to lobbying the Conservative government to make it possible. But how would it actually work? Is this a pipe dream under Tory rule? Read more on page 16. Our digging doesn’t end here: We’ll be investigating rogue landlords and poor conditions. In February, we’re also hosting a public event with council cabinet member for housing Tom Renhard and local campaigners to hold the authority to account on its pledges, discuss what more can be done locally, and what’s needed in the long-awaited Renters Reform Bill this year.

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Data

Whats your

budget? Your budget will help (force) you to decide which areas of Bristol you want to live in. From two month of listings, we found that high rent costs aren’t just in areas you’d expect to break the bank, like the city centre or Clifton. How about £2,600 for a two-bed house in Filton? Or maybe £1,800 for a one-bed flat in Redland? Bills are included, which is nice, but sadly there aren’t any photos on the listing.

Avonmouth

Lawrence Weston

super helpful guide to renting!

...properties were being snapped up. Renters have spoken to the Cable about house hunting becoming like a full-time job, what with having to enquire about hundreds of properties, compete against dozens of others and act fast before listings disappear. This is reflected in the data too.

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Average rent for a 2 bed house

Fishponds

Stapleton

Ashley Down

Sneyd Park

Staple Hill

St Andrews

Eastville

Hillfields

Cotham Clifton

Speedwell

Easton

Broadmead

Whitehall

Redcliffe

Barton Hill

St Annes

Kingswood

Hanham

8 of the top 10 Airbnb hosts in Bristol openly advertise themselves as accommodation providers.

How about Airbnb? Our analysis shows that Airbnb is no longer a platform for people making a few extra quid whilst away on holiday, or making the most of a spare room. Landlords and agencies with multiple properties now account for a disproportionate chunk of the Airbnb market. Looking at just ‘entire property’ lets with at least one review in the last 30 days, hosts with more than one property account for over a third of properties despite being only 11% of the users. Eight of the top 10 hosts openly advertise themselves as accommodation providers.

64% of Airbnb’s listings with at least one re-

view in the last 30 days are entire property lets (as opposed to a spare room or shared space)

36% of those are listed by someone with more than one property

All of this is perfectly legal in Bristol. However in 2016, London banned Airbnb hosts from letting out an entire property for more than 90 nights in the year, citing the need “to protect London’s existing housing supply, for the benefit of permanent residents”. No such rules exist outside of London, and there hasn’t been much talk of introducing regulation in Bristol since Airbnb announced in 2019 that it would be engaging with different UK cities about a possible register for short-term let hosts.

103 the estimated average number of nights

‘entire properties’ were let out for in the last year

44% of properties that would be above the

threshold if London’s 90 night limit was imposed.

Insufficent data Southville Ashton Vale

Bedminster Down

495

Methodology We analysed properties added to Rightmove between 17 November 2021 and 17 January 2022. Airbnb data comes from Inside Airbnb and was compiled on 23 December 2021. The estimated number of nights for a listing was calculated using the number of reviews in a year with a 50% review rate multiplied by an average length of stay of three days or the listing’s minimum length of stay (whichever is greater), capped at 255 days in a year.

Frenchay

Horfield

Stoke Bishop

the number of days within which more than half of properties were let agreed or removed on Rightmove

the number of properties let agreed or removed from Rightmove within 24 hours

According to research by Propertymark, a professional body for property agents, short-term lets are reducing the housing stock for longterm residents, pushing up rents and can lead to an increase in anti-social behaviour and a “loss of social cohesion”. All good news! Worryingly their report says that one in 10 landlords they spoke to are considering switching a long-term let to a shortterm one.

Henleaze

£800 - £1000 £1000 - £1200 £1200 - £1400 £1400 - £1600

Will Franklin and Matty Edwards

Some renters told us they were using short-term lets as a stopgap while trying to find more permanent accommodation. The most commonly mentioned platform for finding short-term lets was Airbnb, but our research showed a rising trend in “short to medium-term” lets on Rightmove too.

Southmead

Westbury on Trym

Sea Mills

The Bristol Cable’s

sleeping...

Henbury

Shirehampton

Finding somewhere to rent in Bristol is tough, so we’ve put together a handy guide to help you navigate the various challenges

shortterm fix?

We’ve got you covered. How about £2,200 for a one-bed apartment on Belle Vue Road in Greenbank? Need another room? Why not rent two apartments? There’s another one in the same block for a steal at just £2,000!

The average monthly rent for a two-bed property

Overall, our research found that over two month period 216 properties (including one-beds) were listed as £1000 or more per bedroom.

While you were

How about a

Money no concern?

£1,257

As an alternative you might consider a shortterm let, giving you the benefit of higher prices and a shorter tenancy. You’ll be back on the market in no time!

Broomhill

Brislington Knowle West

Hengrove

From Cardiff? Croeso! But don’t expect to be anywhere near the centre. Even if you’re moving from Cardiff’s most expensive area, the average rent in most areas in Bristol is greater.

Withywood

A story of Hope?

Totterdown

Whitchurch

Stockwood

If you’re a landlord you could be making 20% more money by letting your property out on a short-term basis, according to Hopewell estate agents. Hopewell, who are one of the self-proclaimed experts in this area, say this is a “very attractive option” and “becoming increasingly popular”. Their services include finding shortterm guests and managing properties so landlords can sit back and relax. After all, “no one wants to be paying a mortgage on an empty property”.

£1,507

the average monthly cost of Hopewell’s short to medium-term one-bed properties on Rightmove, more than 50% above the citywide average for one-beds of £950. Bills are included, so seems reasonable!

9 of Bristol’s top 10

most expensive rental properties per room on Rightmove are advertised by Hopewell, all short- to medium-term lets.

Read more online:

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“We’ve been trying to build our way out of the crisis for years, and we’re still in a situation where rents are getting further out of people’s reach.”

Rent controls won’t be easy to bring in, but will they help fix a broken system? Campaigners are demanding the city’s political leaders lobby the government for local powers to introduce regulation in response to steep rent rises Sean Morrison

ristol’s rents have been rising for years, but the situation appears to have got worse during the pandemic. In the year to September 2021, they increased here more than any other major UK city, by 8.4%. So to the city’s tenants – so used to extortionate and rising rents – it might seem unthinkable that landlords could be forced to cap or negotiate down what they’re able to charge. But rent control policies are the norm in major cities in Europe and, even in other parts of the UK, governments have agreed to bring in stronger regulation. So what’s stopping Bristol from doing the same? Campaigners are demanding the city’s political leaders lobby the government for local power to regulate the rental market. But while they have committed to doing this, turning lobbying into action is not so simple.

Rent control was a key pledge for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party during the 2019 General Election campaign. But with his defeat, the drive for this kind of regulation has been left to regional mayors. London’s Sadiq Khan is probably the most vocal city mayor when it comes to demands for rent control, but his years-long call for regulation in the capital has so far been rejected by the Conservative government. Former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick, responding to Khan’s campaign, said that this kind of policy would have a “particularly negative impact on both the supply and quality of rental accommodation”. So how can Bristol’s mayor Marvin Rees, who like his Labour colleague Khan campaigned on a promise to lobby the government for powers to introduce rent controls locally, expect a successful outcome? Rees has been urged by campaigners and opposition Green party coun-

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“Landlords should be able to generate income, but not to the detriment of their tenants”

cillors to work with other core cities to bring a “unified” fight to Boris Johnson’s Conservative government. Defining rent controls Tom Renhard, Bristol City Council’s cabinet member for housing and communities, says the local authority is keen. “What we need to do is define what rent controls – we talk about it in terms of a living rent – would look like in Bristol,” Renhard says. “We need to have that conversation as a city, and then get core cities to support us.” He says the rent control debate would be on the agenda at the council’s Renter’s Summit that’s being organised for early this year, and acknowledged there seems to be an appetite for stronger regulation of the rental market among tenants in the city. Rent control was “the most common suggestion” made by Bristol residents involved in charity Shelter’s local fair renting campaign, a spokesperson for the charity says. “Landlords should be able to generate income, but not to the detriment of their tenants.” Looking at the bigger picture, polls show overwhelming public support for rent controls across the UK. A 2020 YouGov survey found 74% of people believed there should be caps on what landlords can charge tenants. There has already been movement on the issue in Scotland, where national rent control powers are up for consultation this year. And in Wales the two main political parties have formed an alliance to collaborate on key policies, including rent controls.

But the exact details of these prospective policies remain to be seen, and officials will no doubt be looking for evidence overseas on how best to introduce stricter regulations in the rental market. Rent controls are common in major cities across Europe and North America. They range from simple caps to more complex policies that allow for negotiation and moderation of increases. In Denmark, one of the ways initial rents are set is based on landlord’s running costs, plus a fixed owner’s yield and fixed amount for exterior maintenance. In Sweden and the Netherlands there is a points-based system, where initial rents are set according to a ‘utility’ formula. In Paris, rents can be capped at no more than 20% of average rent for similar dwellings. And in Germany, landlords are allowed to increase rents by no more than 10% above local averages.

Landlord opposition “There are lots of different ways you can design rent control,” says Alex Marsh, professor of public policy at the University of Bristol. “And there are arguments on both sides for whether they work.” While these kinds of policies have their fans, many economists, and of course landlords themselves, believe rent control spells disaster. Opponents argue that regulation would lead to even greater housing shortages and could impact living standards. They

fear landlords may withdraw from the market if they were stripped of their ability to increase rents, and that maintenance would be harder with tighter budgets. “Government intervention through the use of price setting mechanisms risks impeding businesses’ ability to deliver goods and services,” a spokesperson for the National Landlords Association tells the Cable. “Introducing rent controls to the private-rented sector would have a hugely negative impact on the availability of good quality housing.” Asked what he thought of the idea that capping rents would stop landlords from being able to properly maintain their properties, Renhard says: “I don’t buy it… We know there are some good landlords out there, but there are a lot of terrible ones.” He adds: “Some [landlords] aren’t doing the repairs even now, when rents are going up. If you can’t afford to upkeep a home, then why are you renting it out? People deserve to live in a home that’s fit for human habitation.” Marsh says that how landlords respond to rent control measures would ultimately depend on the policy itself, but he suggested that arguments against the idea can sometimes be based on outdated principles that don’t engage with contemporary housing regulation.

How could it actually work? Modern examples of rent control, Marsh says, are not like the “freezes” seen in the UK during the Second World War. They are strategies designed to limit the amount that landlords can boost rents by, he says, and they do so with some flexibility, often allowing increases in line with inflation. It’s important to note, he adds, that rent controls alone are not widely seen as a solution to the housing crisis. Even staunch advocates, he says, agree they should be used as part of a wider approach, along with measures such as providing more social housing. Marsh says a good example of the case for rent controls in the UK is a study from the New Economics Forum, which assesses different types of policies against affordability, security of tenure, feasibility, risk and equity. The 2019 report – designed for London following Khan’s calls for regulation in the capital – sets out what its authors believe are the “building blocks” that should form the basis for rent control policy. One step is creating a database in which all landlords, their properties and associated rents are recorded. Another is setting up an independent private rental sector body to design the rent control system and set desired rent levels and the private rent index. This kind of policy work doesn’t yet exist for Bristol, and Renhard says the authority is looking to work with stakeholders, campaigners and renters themselves to build a viable local framework for rent control before proposals are taken to central government. Asked about the next steps in the authority’s push for rent controls, Renhard says that he hoped proposals would emerge from the Renters Summit. “We are bringing together renters and stakeholders to discuss what a Living Rent for Bristol looks like, so we can outline our plans in detail to the Secretary of State [Michael Gove].” The authority is facing sustained pressure from opposition councillors and campaign groups to get the city’s push for rent controls moving. “The Tories have never been the party of the tenants,” says Tom Hathway, Green councillor for Clifton Down. “But we need to get this off the ground in Bristol. We need to move the conversation forward.” He adds: “I don’t see what the alternative [to rent controls] is. We’ve been trying to build our way out of the crisis for years, and we’re still in a situation where rents are getting further out of people’s reach. There needs to be some action.” ■

17 Investigation

Investigation

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Bristol Bears women tackle the top spot

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21 Photo essay

Photo essay

Photos by Julian Preece julianpreecephotography

In mid-January, the Bristol Bears women’s rugby team was second in the league table behind Saracens in the women’s premiership. This season, they’ve beaten reigning champions Harlequins on their own turf. It’s a meteoric rise for the team who finished eighth last season. It might be new coach Dave Ward or the team’s move to a high performance centre in Abbots Leigh shared with the men’s team, but either way the club is putting their best foot forward. This photo essay shows a recent game against Gloucester-Hartpury in Shaftesbury Park in Frenchay, the Bears’ stomping ground, which ended in a 14-36 loss.

2. Quick thinking from Keira Bevan leads to a score. Keira plays for the Wales women's national team, where she made her debut in 2015. She's earned an impressive 35 caps in her career so far. 3. Rownita Marston earned her first England call up in 2019 but she turned down an England contract the following year because she doesn't have her sights set on being a full-time, professional player. 20 | TheBristolCable.org/join | Iss 28 | Jan-Mar 2022

julianpreecephotography

1. Amber Reed leads the team onto the pitch. Amber co-captains the Bears and is entering her 14th season. She has also played for England no fewer than 58 times.

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Environment oniricalzubieta

A billion pound leap of faith towards net zero? Unpicking Bristol’s City Leap – an ambitious plan for private sector investment in cutting carbon Adam Corner

ast year ended in a flurry of global energy politics. At COP26 in Glasgow, Boris Johnson called on world leaders to make more ambitious national commitments. But these calls were undermined by domestic plans to develop a new oil field in the North Sea and a new open-cast coal mine in Cumbria. As the conference ended, a last-minute push by India and China (backed by the EU and the US) watered down the wording of a new commitment to phase out coal. As 2022 gets underway, the grandstanding of COP26 has already faded. But energy politics continue to dominate, as soaring global gas prices drive sharp increases in household energy bills. For millions of less well-off households, this has already made the cost-of-living crisis even worse. And against this volatile backdrop, cities across the country are grap-

pling with pledges to transform their own energy systems. In Bristol – famously the first major city to declare a climate emergency – the council now has eight short years to make the city carbon neutral by 2030. We already have the ‘One City’ strategy, a vision for sustainability, which includes proposals for decarbonising Bristol, and plans for building England’s tallest wind turbine in Lawrence Weston. Now a big project on the horizon is City Leap, the council’s ambitious plan to stimulate £1bn of private sector investment to help decarbonise our energy systems. What is City Leap? City Leap is an unprecedented public/private partnership for the city, designed to make good on the bold promises contained in Bristol’s climate emergency declaration. From heat pumps, to electric vehicle charging infrastructure,

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“Is it realistic to meet those 2030 targets based on business rates and council tax alone? It is a fallacy to even consider that a council alone could do it”

solar panels, smart metered appliances and household insulation, the City Leap prospectus sets out how potential partners can invest in decarbonising Bristol. There has been a lengthy period of procurement as the council vetts applications, with the final cholce expected to be announced in April - months later than originally planned. The shortlist is down to two contenders (Ameresco Limited with Vattenfall Heat Limited and E.ON UK PLC with Marubeni Corporation – see boxout), and the prize is a contract to work with the council for 20 years to stimulate private sector investment and activity across transport, heat networks, energy efficiency, renewable energy generation, and more. Nicola Beech, the council’s cabinet member for climate policy, describes City Leap as a plan to confront head-on the challenge of decarbonisation: “We’ve got a decade of experience with things like the existing heat network, the solar and wind turbines out in Avonmouth, and the Lawrence Weston turbine is on its way. But as great as they are, they are simply not enough. City Leap is a ramping up of our endeavours, to take seriously our climate emergency declaration.” Beech is also clear that private sector investment is an absolute necessity. “Is it realistic to meet those 2030 targets based on business rates and council tax alone? It is a fallacy to even consider that a council alone could do it.” Green councillor Tony Dyer has a similarly pragmatic view. “This is be-

yond the pocket of any local council. Ideally we would have had the prime minister saying, ‘Here’s the funding to implement a proper green new deal’, 15 years ago, making billions available, but that didn’t happen.” For cash-strapped local councils, reeling from more than a decade of central government austerity policies, it is hard to see how they could raise the funds needed without private sector investment. But the costs incurred by City Leap will reach £7.4m before a corporate partner has even been selected – underscoring the importance of oversight and transparency in the initiative. Transparency, scrutiny and safeguarding the interests of the city But while the Greens and Labour seem largely in agreement on the necessity of leveraging private investment, there have already been some heated exchanges in the chamber around a potential lack of transparency in the City Leap partner selection process, and here the council’s recent experience with Bristol Energy looms large. Created in 2015, Bristol Energy was wholly owned by the council, rather than a public/private partnership. But it quickly encountered problems and struggled to compete with the ‘Big Six’ energy companies. It required an injection of more than £35m of council money, and the company was sold in 2020, ending the council’s ill-conceived foray into the energy supply market. It may be a different type of project to City Leap, but questions raised around the governance arrangements surrounding Bristol Energy are drawing even greater attention to how City Leap is managed. An independent auditors’ report on Bristol Energy focused on ensuring the cabinet has access to all the information it needs and the importance of clear communication with the public.

The lessons from multi-million projects like Bristol Energy should be clear: when budgets are in the millions or even the billions, oversight really matters. Where the profit motive of private companies potentially comes into conflict with the public good, there must be accountability. “Scrutiny is important to the democratic process,” says Councillor Beech. “It is important that people know what City Leap is. But at the same time, it is a partnership with the private sector, and it’s important that we go through this process of procurement in a way that is appropriate.” Engaging the public on a decade of decarbonisation If initiatives like the City Leap succeed, they could underpin a long overdue period of decarbonisation for Bristol. “It is exciting but frustrating as well!” says Councillor Dyer. “A lot of this is the stuff we have been fighting for for ages, as Greens. What’s finally happening now in Bristol is not exactly as we wanted when we called for it originally, and the best time to go carbon neutral was 20 years ago. But the second best time is now.” But at a time of mounting fears about energy bills, is there a risk that seemingly costly schemes for decarbonisation are ‘out of touch’ with ordinary people’s concerns? For Councillor Beech, City Leap is a response to the vulnerability of Bristol households to the volatile global energy market: “We need to stimulate an economy in Bristol where, if my boiler packed-in tomorrow, I could actually afford a heat pump in my own home. At the moment this isn’t feasible for most people. And we need to be clear that decarbonised district heating systems can pull people out of fuel poverty. They’re a win-win.” The scale of the financial challenge can’t be overstated. The £1bn that the City Leap initiative seeks to mobilise is, soberingly, only 10-15% of the projected costs for cutting the carbon out of our home energy, travel and transport systems, buildings (old and new) and elsewhere. But this isn’t only a financial challenge – City Leap will touch on almost every aspect of residents’ lives. If the project is to succeed, it must have the consent of the city’s citizens. Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh, an expert on public engagement with climate change at the University of Bath, puts it this way: “There is a risk that without engaging people and

Who are the companies bidding to be City Leap partners with Bristol City Council? Ameresco is a US-headquartered renewable energy company that has previously partnered with Bristol City Council on a contract to deliver solar PV systems to homes across Bristol and North Somerset. Vattenfall Heat UK works with property developers and local authorities to develop district heating systems.

E.ON is a German energy company and the Marubeni Corporation is a trading company with business divisions across a range of sectors, headquartered in Japan.

imposing change, those changes will be rejected by residents and businesses. It’s vital that the people of Bristol have a say in wide-ranging infrastructure initiatives which will impact on communities in important ways.” Encouragingly, there are signs this is starting to happen through engagement with groups like the community-led Bristol Energy Network. But there will be many in Bristol who instinctively reject the idea of limited companies taking on the challenge of decarbonising our city. In the absence of a time machine or a radical uplift in funding of local authorities from central government, however, the bill for tackling the climate crisis is going to have to be split with the private sector. In this context, what matters is ensuring we don’t hand over the keys to the city to companies who answer to their shareholders, rather than the citizens of Bristol. This means transparency and scrutiny from the elected representatives on the council, but also accountability to the public. Because the transition to a truly sustainable city is not something that should be buried in technocratic procedures or opaque bureaucracy – it is something that should involve and inspire us all. ■

Environment

“City Leap is a ramping up of our endeavours, to take seriously our climate emergency declaration”

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tilllukat

The chemistry detectives tracking down illegal emissions

Five years ago, Bristol scientists discovered illegal ozone-destroying pollution on the other side of the world. Their findings prompted action – but they say the climate crisis demands better atmospheric monitoring Aphra Evans

t was during a routine analysis of atmospheric monitoring data in 2017 that scientists noticed rising emissions of CFC-11. They were shocked. The production of that particular chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) – about 5,000 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (CO2) and particularly damaging to the ozone layer – was banned globally in 2010 under the Montreal Protocol. The 1987 UN treaty, the only one ever to be ratified by every country on Earth, was designed to repair the ozone layer after researchers discovered the dangers of CFCs. Emissions of CFC-11, commonly used for refrigeration and foam production, had been declining since the 1990s. But then they increased by about 25% between 2014 and 2016. This had a direct impact on the climate crisis and threatened to delay ozone recovery by years, leaving life on Earth less protected from the sun’s UV radiation.

“The impact the The discovery meant that somehow, somewhere, production of CFC-11 had team had was restarted. Matt Rigby, an atmospheric the equivalent of chemist at Bristol University, was one of the scientists called on to investigate. “In Korea, we spotted what looked shutting off all of like emissions coming from China,” he says. “We did some analysis and the CO2 emissions found an increase in CFC-11 emissions from eastern China – an extra 7,000 from a city the size to 10,000 tonnes per year since 2013.” Using historic weather data to of London” understand the movement of polFrom Bristol to north-east China

lutants in the air, the team identified a hotspot in the north-eastern provinces of Shandong and Hebei. Rigby and his partners put out a paper detailing their discoveries. The findings prompted an investigation by the New York Times and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), who spoke to Chinese manufacturers – 85% of which confirmed using CFC-11.

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The Montreal Protocol’s lessons for the Paris Agreement Negotiations on the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep global warming under 2ºC, happen at annual COP (Conference of Parties) summits. Last November’s COP26 in Glasgow left many scientists and environmentalists disappointed. This is by contrast with the Montreal Protocol, which has seen resounding success thanks in part to its narrow scope: reversing and preventing ozone depletion by reducing the production of ozone-depleting substances. The group of gases concerned has relatively few applications, while CO2 and other greenhouse gases addressed by the Paris Agreement are created by almost every aspect of human life. Yet despite these differences, the Montreal Protocol offers lessons for the Paris Agreement. Crucially, the original Protocol would not have led to the ozone recovery seen today without the nine amendments that have since been added. “You may not get the best deal on the first go, but with time you can improve it,” says Rigby. “That’s how I hope the Paris Agreement will mirror the Montreal Protocol – but we’ll have to wait and see.”

Rigby’s paper and the EIA report caught the world’s attention. They were discussed at the Meeting of the Parties of the Montreal Protocol in 2018 and 2019 – by which time Chinese delegates were outlining law enforcement actions that had been taken. The authorities had shut down illegal production facilities, seized ozone-depleting substances including CFC-11, and initiated legal proceedings. The episode marked the first major known breach of the Montreal Protocol. In February 2021, the same team looked at more recent data, which showed the ozone-depleting substance declining once more – at the same rate it had been before 2013. Although reported enforcement efforts didn’t match the scale of emissions scientists discovered, lasting delays in ozone recovery have potentially been avoided. “In February last year, we used data to show that emissions from eastern China had plummeted by about 10,000 tonnes per year, and also globally there was a larger drop,” says Rigby. This is despite the fact that the emissions they had spotted in China only accounted for around half the total global rise in CFC-11. The origin of the rest remains a mystery. The team’s work had an impact

on the climate equivalent to shutting off all of the CO2 emissions from a city the size of London. It’s rare scientists catch the attention of policymakers and enforcement agencies so quickly – or so effectively. “To have this acted on at the speed that it was is incredible,” says Rigby. “Then to see an enormous drop in emissions in the space of two years is almost unheard of. “For me it’s encouraging to see we’re not just writing papers so other academics can read them and stroke their chins. Sometimes people listen and take dramatic action.” The urgency of monitoring and enforcement The success of the story was partly down to luck. Globally, there are fewer than 20 stations that can detect CFCs in the atmosphere and be used to estimate emissions in a radius of a few hundred kilometres around them. It was by pure chance that a large part of the CFC-11 detected appeared in the footprint of one of the measurement stations. A little further west, and it would have remained out of sight. Currently, atmospheric monitoring of CFCs and other compounds controlled under climate agree-

Climate

ments is up to individual countries. Higher-income countries like the UK, Australia and South Korea take measurements, but even in Europe there are only four stations measuring CFCs. Lower-income countries rarely have the funding for the infrastructure required. According to Rigby, there is almost no monitoring in India, Africa, or South America. “Year on year, we definitely find more interest in this kind of work – but it needs a step change,” says Rigby. “The technology’s there, the money needed is small compared to the amounts that will be spent on climate

change mitigation and adaptation. We just need upskilling and political will.” For certain gases, other avenues may be available. Rigby’s Bristol University colleague Anita Ganesan is working on monitoring more abundant gases like CO2 and methane from satellites, by analysing how the Earth reflects sunlight and which parts of the light spectrum are absorbed. It means monitoring can take place in countries without any infrastructure. “But with other less abundant gases like CFCs, if there isn’t infrastructure on the ground then we’re going to be in the dark,” warns Rigby. ■

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“Looking at the funniest things that happen in a situation helps that thing not be quite so disturbing”

Laughing it off: how comedy can aid recovery from trauma

Comedian Angie Belcher says the course will help people control their own narrative

A new free art therapy course aims to help people work through mental ill-health through the medium of standup

Hannah Vickers

rauma is no laughing matter. But Bristol comedian Angie Belcher thinks it could help to laugh about it – or to be precise, turn it into something other people can laugh about. Angie has collaborated with the social prescribing team at the Wellspring Settlement in Barton Hill to offer a free course, called Comedy on Referral. It’s a new kind of art therapy that uses comedy, storytelling and psychology to help people work through mental health issues and past traumas. “The hypothesis is: does the process of learning standup comedy help your mental health, your wellbeing and your recovery from trauma?” she explains.

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Angie has been doing comedy courses – teaching people to turn day-to-day experiences into standup material – for a few years, but this her first time teaching comedy as therapy. As it’s accessed through social prescribing, where health professionals refer patients to activities in their communities to support their health and wellbeing, people can participate who might not otherwise get the opportunity. “[Standup is] such an enlightening and inspiring art form,” she continues. “It can really help you think about your life, what’s happened to you, and your mental health.” Angie has spent three and a half years combining coaching and com-

edy, since having to put full-time gigging on hold when she had a baby so her partner, a bass player, could continue his. “Thank you patriarchy,” she says wryly. She looked for ways to turn comedy into a day job and started Aftermirth, a daytime comedy club for parents and babies. Now, she’s a comedian in residence at Bristol University and a standup comedy tutor at Circomedia, as well as running comedy courses for individuals and companies. “Personal development and the arts have always been my two things – I love to mash them together – for me comedy is the perfect art form,” she says. “I’m interested in how people access the arts, and how the arts can help them on many levels.”

Over Comedy on Referral’s six weeks, Angie will teach participants to produce material from difficult experiences, using games, theory and writing exercises to encourage people to share their stories. The course, which Angie likens to the process of creative writing, is based on her ‘inner comedian’ theory. This, she explains, “is about how you take stuff you’ve learned about yourself – by learning standup – into your real life.” The inner comedian is “about creating a sense of joy and playfulness in the real world”. This isn’t meant to replace other therapy or medication, she points out. “This is for people in recovery, at a point where they can handle their mental health and want a new fun way to explore who they are [and] where they’ve come from.” Unlike with Angie’s other courses, there’s no public performance at the end. “It’s the process of learning, it’s not about putting you in front of an audience,” she says. Even so, I ask about stage fright. It must feel incredibly intimidating sharing intimate details of your life with strangers, let alone trying to make it funny. “It’s a process,” Angie tells me. “We play lots of games, and by stealth I get people to perform. “Games start off easy and get more and more exposing, but you don’t realise ’cos you’re just playing a game,” she adds. “By the end of it you’re standing on a stage and performing, you’re doing improv, and you haven’t really noticed because we do it bit by bit.” Angie says the course can help people realise they have something to say – and to become confident enough to say it. “It’s all about that relationship with your participants, you have to get to the stage where they trust you enough to open up and tell you really personal things.” While difficult personal situations can leave people feeling powerless, or victimised, standup “allows you to control the narrative,” Angie argues. “It’s from your point of view – and also looking at the funniest things that happen in a situation helps that thing not be quite so disturbing for us,” she says. “All the horribleness that happens with grief, with war, with all our different traumas, we want to look at it a different way.” The course, ultimately, is not about taking away trauma, but getting some respite from it. “Like all art therapy, the focus is on the art form – and the process is that by concentrating on the art form, the things get worked out,” Angie says. ■

Culture

Finding your ‘inner comedian’

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Power, personalities and PR: Why this year could see the end of the Bristol mayor Bristol faces a referendum on the mayoral system. The debate is as much about personalities as political structures - it’s crucial we cut through the rhetoric Adam Cantwell Corn

here’s a saying that ‘politics makes for strange bedfellows’, when shared interests bring together seemingly diverse groups. On 7 December 2021, Bristol’s Green, Lib Dem and Tory councillors lined up to defeat Labour in a vote on whether to keep or ditch Bristol’s mayoral system. A referendum will now be held in May 2022. The Lib Dems and Tories are no strangers to coalition, but while some leftwingers try to paint the Greens as ‘Tories on bikes’, they are far closer to Labour politically. This referendum move goes beyond party politics and the confines of the council chamber, generating some intriguing dynamics. Also in the ‘anti-mayoral system’ camp are Bristol South’s Labour MP Karin Smyth, leftwing campaigners Momentum and the city’s first mayor. George Ferguson who labelled Marvin Rees’ Labour administration an “unholy alliance with the business community”, who apparently find it “much easier

to manipulate a mayor” to further their corporate interests. It’s a provocative take from the former Lib Dem and Merchant Venturer, who had his fair share of controversy while leading the city as an independent. Meanwhile Business West, the association of businesses in the region, has come out strongly in favour of keeping the mayoral system. An appeal sent to councillors acknowledged the system needs reform but asked them to reject a referendum. Interestingly, representing organised workers, Nigel Costley of the South West Trade Union Congress took the same side, arguing that a referendum is a distraction from bigger issues. Sandy Hore-Ruthven, the 2021 Green mayoral candidate, also favours keeping the system – putting him at odds with the party’s new national co-leader, Bristol councillor Carla Denyer. It’s hard then to cast this as a straight fight between the establishment and radical ideas, as the local Lib Dems who led the charge (and have the most

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“A dictatorship, Squid Game, throwing the ring of Sauron into the flames – have all been invoked by opponents of the mayoral system, and of Rees in particular”

Support our journalism to be free to access for all. Become a member: thebristolcable.org/join George Ferguson (left) was Bristol’s first mayor from 2012 - 2016, standing as an independent Marvin Rees (Right) Bristol’s current Labour Mayor, elected 2016 - present

to gain, along with the Tories) would put it. So what’s it all about? Power and influence to shape and lead the city, who has it and why. But also at play are personalities and characters, always present in political conflict. It’s not about Marvin (it is quite a bit) Rees, who won’t be standing again in 2024, has said all this isn’t about him. It’s true in one sense. But the mayor and system are practically inseparable when it comes to assessing the past 10 years. This vote will be as much a referendum on Rees’ contested legacy – and to a lesser extent Ferguson’s – as on the intricacies of local government structures. A dictatorship; Squid Game; throwing the ring of Sauron into the flames – these comparisons have all been invoked by opponents of the mayoral system, and of Rees in particular. The current mayor rightly called out such self-indulgent exaggeration as offensive to people who have suffered under actual dictatorships. But Rees’ approach to criticism has been thin-skinned, and marked by failure to distinguish between genuine opposition and trolling. Too often we have seen tendencies towards closing ranks with selected allies, avoiding transparency and using mayoral powers for railroading or stalling initiatives – think the arena, One City boards, the Bristol Energy fiasco, the clean air zone and questions over executive pay. This generates hostility – and the negative headlines Rees often complains about. While Rees claims he is focused on getting stuff done, opposition (and, quietly, some Labour) councillors complain of being shut out from helping shape decisions. Labour’s lead councillor Steve Pearce dismissed these concerns – and the referendum – as “belly button fluff ”, claiming the mayoral model helps bring the city together to tackle big issues like adult social care, inward investment and transport. Maybe so. But after Labour lost its majority in last year’s local elections, this antagonistic posture – and not attempting a tactical olive branch, for example a cabinet position to the newly empowered Greens – helped unite the opposition, ushering in the referendum. It’s not clear if a more diplomatic or shrewd approach would have made a difference. Either way, Rees could be the last Bristol mayor.

“This debate needs to be lively and charged, to drive up public participation. And it doesn’t make sense complaining about it all being too political” instead form cross-party committees on all areas of local policy, proportional to their party’s representation in the council. Advocates for the ‘committee system’ say it’s more democratic because power is shared and more closely reflects the election results. People in the ‘mayoral system’ camp say it is in fact less accountable, because barely anyone knows their councillor, whereas everyone knows the mayor – who becomes a focal point for responsibility and visible leadership. They say a committee system will drag Bristol back into a cycle of endless meetings and squabbling between parties, which characterised the pre-mayoral era and helped make Bristol the only city to vote for a mayoral system in 2012. Today’s fractiousness hardly suggests the ability for cross-party collaboration. Stripped of the mayor’s decisive power, who will lobby the central government and drive forward city ambitions, such as bringing Channel 4 to Bristol or implementing a mass transit system? Yet political stability has been drastically improved by 2016’s change to all-out local elections every four years, rather than electing a third of council seats at a time. Critics of the mayoral model will also argue that times have changed since 2012, when just 13% of the city’s total adult population voted for the mayoral system, which limped

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Analysis

in on a total turnout of just 24%. Not least, there is now a mayor for the wider West of England region, Labour’s Dan Norris. Recent public spats between Norris and other local leaders, including Rees, have not exactly put a positive light on the current two-tier setup. But the two mayoral roles have different powers and policy areas. As such, the casting of Bristol’s mayor as the ‘spare mayor’ is not accurate and highlights a lack of quality political argument, deliberately or otherwise. As the referendum looms, taking liberties with facts and rhetoric doesn’t do anyone any favours either. Rees has said: “They’re trying to take away your right to vote for who leads Bristol – and hit the voting rights of 340,000 Bristolians.” To invoke voter disenfranchisement in this context is as ridiculous as calling the mayor a dictator. But this debate needs to be lively and charged, to drive up public participation. And it doesn’t make sense complaining about it all being “too [party] political”. This is what politics is, and anybody saying they are ‘independent’ or above the fray should be treated with scepticism. The referendum will fundamentally boil down to two things: who do people trust, and how much do those outside Bristol’s media-politics bubble really care? ■

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“While absolutely certain that pursuing the Colston topplers was the right thing to do, Crew says “if those events have thrown a light and raised awareness on those endemic problems [of racism and inequality] then that is a good thing”.

There’s a new sheriff in town: Chief Constable Sarah Crew priorities and aspirations as an “anti-sexist and anti-racist” force From sexual violence to policing protests, what are the challenges, priorities and controversies for the force under new leadership?

consequences for trust due to the Met’s continued failure to investigate Boris Johnson and Number 10 staff in the wake of ‘partygate’, Crew insists that “it doesn’t matter who is doing it, no one is above the law”. That might be hard to take for those on the receiving end of police violence while protesting against the draconian Police and Crime Bill, including the sit-down protests that followed the initial riot in March 2021. Justified as enforcing coronavirus rules on public gatherings, Crew stands by the police’s actions, but says there is always learning to be had. “I can under-

This is a short write up of a podcast interview. Listen to the whole thing at thebristolcable.org

ultiple times over recent years Bristol has found itself at the centre of national and even international conversations about policing, protest and criminal justice. At the top of the police chain of command is the Chief Constable for Avon and Somerset (ASP). The force covers approximately 1.7 million people across Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. Until recently this role was held by Andy Marsh, who was thrown into the public spotlight and a vexxed culture war after the decision to not intervene in the toppling of Colston’s statue. Lauded by some as intelligent policing, ASP received harsh criticism from parts of the press and the law and order brigade, including Home Secretary Priti Patel, who reportedly had a ‘firm conversation’ with Marsh. Marsh has since moved onto a national role, and now there is a new sheriff in town. After a selection process led by Mark Shelford, the elected Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner, Sarah Crew was appointed Chief Constable in November 2021. Crew is no stranger to these parts, having joined the force in 1994 being first posted to the station in Knowle West and rising to the rank of Deputy Chief Constable in 2017. So who is Crew and how will she handle this powerful and influential role, and deal with the diversity of policing issues in the region? In an interview on Bristol Un-

packed, the Cable’s podcast, Crew chatted with Neil Maggs about challenges, priorities and controversies for the force. One area was sexual offences, a career-long focus for Crew. In ASP, just 3% of rape and sexual offences reports end in prosecution. Crew says: “With outcomes like that, people don’t have trust and confidence to come forward.” After a long period of research, Crew has led on the recent rolling out of Project Bluestone, described by the force as ‘a new evidence-based approach, which will transform the way police respond to, and investigate, rape and serious sexual offences’. Other forces are taking up the method, such as the Met. London’s force attracted particular criticism in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder by a police officer, including for forcefully arresting women at a vigil and controversial advice placing the onus on women to protect themselves. Crew’s response regarding the Met itself is typically measured of a senior officer, but shows her attitude to the broader issue of victim blaming or shaming. “Anything that in any way places any responsibility or emphasis on the credibility of the actions of the victim – we should step away from that,” she says. On another debate revolving around sexual violence and women’s rights in the city, a potential ban on Sexual Entertainment Venues (SEVs), Crew’s personal views will collide with some feminists who say women should have the right to choose what they do with their bodies and where they work. Crew

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Interview

stand why people will look at some of those images and hear some of those stories and rightfully have questions to ask.” As an experienced public order commander, Crew says of the Bill that is winding its way through parliament: “Just because we have powers doesn’t mean we will immediately rush to use them,” and that good policing is about the least intrusive use of powers. With Bristol likely to continue to be at the forefront of protest as well as other criminal justice issues, time will tell how Crew’s “citizens in uniform” interact with the rest of the city. ■

says that on one hand she finds it hard to reconcile SEVs with a “a very strong commitment to eliminating violence against women and girls”, but on the other hand “the direct correlation of evidence in terms of SEV and violence that may happen outside those venues is very difficult to draw as well”. So what of Crew’s stated ambition of making ASP an “anti-sexist and anti-racist” force? Such a statement might make people bristle, from those who see the police as an inherently oppressive institution, to those who might pull out their hair at the thought of ‘woke policing’ and everyone in between. In any case, it’s a sign of the times that police forces are having to at least rhetorically confront these issues. ASP has a big job of “building trust and confidence” within some communities, including “courageous conversations” about race inside the force, Crew says. From

high profile incidents such as the failures around the racist murder of Bijan Ebrahimi and Tasering of Ras Judah, to the fact that Black people are five times more likely to be stopped and searched. While some in the city certainly think otherwise, Crew is confident there isn’t a systemic problem, saying that “99.9%” of the force are “the best of us” and insists that she is committed to rooting out the few bad apples. While absolutely certain that pursuing the Colston topplers was the right thing to do, Crew says “if those events have thrown a light and raised awareness on those endemic problems [of racism and inequality] then that is a good thing”. Of the verdict itself, Crew says “you respect the results that [the jury system] provides, that’s how our society and country operates, that’s how our democracy operates”. Accountability and trust are also big themes for Crew. Pressed on the TheBristolCable.org/join | Iss 28 | Jan-Mar 2022 | 31

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Revealed: Bristol Mind loses core service amid internal problems Advertisement

Advocacy services offered by the local mental health charity for 25 years will be taken over by new providers, amid dispute over racism and mismanagement allegations Matty Edwards

ristol Mind has given up one of its core services, amid internal problems that led to a Charity Commission investigation, prolonged sick leave and services being unable to fully operate. The local mental health charity decided in 2021 not to bid for advocacy services, retendered by Bristol City Council, which it had provided for nearly 25 years. In January they transferred to new providers POhWER and SWAN Advocacy. Advocacy helps people navigate systems and understand their rights. Mental health advocates operate in community settings, but also support people in care homes and hospitals, including those detained under the Mental Health Act. During a time when both statutory and voluntary mental health services were under strain due to the pandemic, Bristol Mind was undergoing a damaging internal dispute, the Cable has learned. In April 2021, a group of staff

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submitted a whistleblowing report to the Charity Commission alleging that trustees had unreasonably investigated staff, that there had been mistreatment of staff of colour, and that trustees had become inappropriately involved in operational matters. The Charity Commission opened a regulatory compliance investigation. But a spokesperson said the commission was “satisfied with the assurances received in relation to several issues” and had closed the case. It has also said that it cannot get involved in individual employment law issues. Whistleblowers’ complaints stem from a meeting in October 2020 about staff involvement in recruiting for a new CEO, during which an offensive remark was made towards an employee of colour. Some who complained about this were later investigated and suspended, causing prolonged periods of stress-related sickness, staff told the Cable. As a result, advocacy services didn’t work properly “for a year”, affecting service users during a particularly difficult

time for mental health, one former employee said. “There were months where people in hospitals and care homes were not getting the service they were entitled to.” Staff also allege the impact on services was disproportionate for service users of colour, for whom a specialist advocacy service stopped functioning fully. Two external investigations into the original incident and resulting dispute took place. But Bristol Unison told the Cable the first was heavy-handed, contributing to relationship breakdown. The new CEO, Jo Min, was appointed in March 2021 but departed just six months later, shortly after the decision not to bid for advocacy services. Other employees have also left Bristol Mind since the issues emerged, including people of colour. ‘Trustees knew nothing about our work’ “Eventually, we became so concerned about mistakes that were being made, and money that was being spent, by a group of trustees that knew almost

nothing about our work and very little about the organisation, that we decided to write to the Charity Commission – they accepted what they were told and did not even look at the most important problems,” one ex-employee said. On the transfer of advocacy services, they said staff were told it wasn’t financially viable to continue running them, but there was a lack of transparency around this. “It was a shock when the board of trustees decided not to apply for the tender,” they said. Josh Connor, a Bristol Unison organiser, said: “A lot of this has come down to poor decision making and communication,” adding that it was “understandable why trust had been lost” by some staff. Connor noted that even when legislation is followed and employees’ conditions are protected properly, transfers of outsourced services create “turmoil” for staff and service users. Greg Thomas, Bristol Mind’s interim CEO, said the organisation had worked closely with the council and new providers to minimise disruption to service users and staff during the transfer of advocacy services, which remain free to access. “Any change process can be unsettling,” Thomas said. “However, we are confident the new providers, given their extensive experience of providing advocacy services in Bristol and further afield, will be able to provide a high-quality service.” Thomas said he was aware of complaints from former staff members. “We also experienced some absences and staffing issues that affected the advocacy service,” he said. “We secured additional support from within the Mind network to make sure staff and service users continued to have the appropriate level of support.” Bristol Mind had “proactively reached out to the Charity Commission to make them aware of complaints and issues and were informed that they were satisfied with our handling of these complaints,” Thomas said. He said Bristol Mind takes complaints seriously and investigates them “robustly” in line with policies and procedures. “We are committed to being an anti-racist organisation,” he said. “We strive to foster an inclusive culture for staff and volunteers. We are proud that we proactively recruit staff, trustees and volunteers from diverse backgrounds.” He said Bristol Mind had recently reviewed and strengthened its equality, diversity and inclusion processes, providing training for all staff, and had taken advice from Mind’s national equality experts. “We continue to be a supportive, inclusive, mentally healthy workplace for everyone, including staff of colour and disabled employees,” he said. ■

Investigation

b_mure

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Your community newspaper. Become a member: thebristolcable.org/join colour which found that people in deprived areas were less likely to have access to green space. The latest study found Disabled people are even more nature deprived. Emma Green, project coordinator at Bristol Disability Equality Forum (BDEF), says including Disabled people in decision-making around Bristol’s net zero push can create “an opportunity to make things better”. BDEF is working on its own community climate action plan (see box) to involve Disabled people in the conversation and ensure Bristol’s plans are fair.

“It’s very difficult to get back out of that habit of being frightened to go out”

Aphraevans.com

BDEF’s community climate action plan

Locked out of nature

Simple planning oversights can stop people accessing green spaces, says Disabled rambler, Gordon

Being outdoors is vital to our wellbeing, even more so during a pandemic, but for Disabled people, getting out into nature is harder than ever. Hannah Vickers

ordon has been paralysed below the shoulders since contracting polio aged three. As a child he got about in a bath chair with two levers that you pushed forwards and backwards to propel it. It was, he tells me, “jolly heavy, hard work”. Technology has advanced a lot since then and he now has two wheelchairs, one manual and one electric, and a motorised scooter. He likens the different mobility aids to footwear: you use slippers for walking around the house, change into shoes to go outside and wear hiking boots for rougher ground.

Gordon, a keen member of the Disabled Ramblers, is out several times a week. But it’s not cheap. A mobility scooter costs £5,000£8,000, and the freedom of the great outdoors is pretty restricted unless you have your own. Nor is that cost the only barrier to consider when visiting a green space. Take Blaise Castle. You can only access certain bits of the 100-hectare estate in a scooter. “It’s one thing that annoys me in so many places: a walk is possible, apart from the fact you can’t get through the gate at the beginning,” says Gordon. “Or you can’t get up a flight of stairs onto the

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“Confidence and comfort zones shrink together”

level bit.” At Blaise, they also lock the gates at the end of the park, meaning only those on foot can get through. Barriers like this are “all over the place”, Gordon says. Besides gates, people unsteady on their legs need more benches to stop and rest. A lack of accessible transport can stop an outing before it begins. And blind and visually impaired people face different challenges, including a lack of appropriate signage on routes. ‘A justice issue’ “Access to nature is a justice issue,” says Mary Stevens, experiments programme manager for Friends of the Earth. A 2020 study by the Parks Alliance found England’s parks deliver over £6.6bn of health, climate change and environmental benefits every year, including £2.2bn in avoided health costs. Local green spaces have been “a lifeline” for many of us during the pandemic, Mary notes, but less than half (47%) of Bristol residents live within 300m of one that covers at least two hectares. Mary ran a local study into Disabled people’s proximity to nature, building on research they’d done the year before on the links between green space and deprivation, with a focus on people of

Bristol City Council has pledged to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2030. This will bring a lot of changes to the city – which, BDEF says, won’t necessarily all be good for Disabled people. The organisation is making its own community action plan to ensure the city’s climate plans are fair for Disabled people, including specific points it wants to see action on within five years. BDEF’s demands cover changes to transport, housing, energy, food, waste, the economy, jobs, business and education, as well as nature, which it says will reduce inequalities, protect biodiversity, improve air quality and improve health and wellbeing. In terms of access to nature, the plan calls for the following: 1. Enable Disabled people to access green spaces, for wellbeing and climate impact resilience, by: • Getting rid of barriers to parks or letting people access them with key cards held by groups run by Disabled people • When the city says it aims to make parks within a ‘10 minute walk of everyone in the city’, making sure planners think about what this means for people with mobility issues. 2. Enable Disabled people to access nature in spaces that they own and already visit.

‘I want to get to the countryside just as much as you do’ Making green spaces more accessible is one of BDEF’s key asks. “I want to get to the countryside just as much as you do,” says Gordon. But simple planning oversights, like not installing dropped kerbs – on both sides of roads, Gordon emphasises, citing past experience of planners “not thinking things through” – can put entire parks or walking routes out of reach. Gordon and his mobility aids have been carried over stiles by “an army” of friends – and he’s constantly pushing the envelope to experience things he knows he’s capable of. When the SS Great Britain started letting people climb the mast, Gordon wanted to haul himself up on a bosun’s chair using a block and tackle attached to the top. He’d done this before at a mobility show – up an 80-foot high mast, he says – but was told it would be too dangerous. “Why should I not be allowed to make my decision as to whether or not something’s too dangerous?” he asks. “Why do people climb mountains? Because of the danger, because it tests them and that’s what they want to do.” While climbing a mast may be an extreme example, Gordon says he’s seen wheelchair access closed off on routes that are, he says, perfectly safe, and where children are permitted.

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“Why should I not be allowed to make my decision as to whether or not something’s too dangerous?”

enjoy in the first place, meant he was luckier than many. “An awful lot of Disabled people have, perhaps throughout their life, lived on benefits, they do not have money to do things, or own houses with gardens,” Gordon says. “I feel for them, because where did they go?” People’s worlds have shrunk around them during the pandemic – not just because of vulnerabilities, but because of the cognitive load of trying to be outside safely adding to existing worries about access. “This is a vicious circle,” Mary Stevens wrote about her local research. “Confidence

and comfort zones shrink together.” Once you’ve been behaving a certain way for two years, “almost your whole mindset changes”, adds Gordon. “It’s very difficult to get back out of that habit of being frightened to go out.” Tackling the pandemic’s negative impact and pushing for a fairer future will need significantly more investment, Mary says. She adds that the government must make the right to access to green spaces obligatory, ensuring everyone – including Disabled people – can access one within 300m of home. ■

‘Confidence and comfort zones shrink together’ As with so many areas of social inequality, the pandemic has restricted some people’s ability to access green space far more than others. For the first year, Gordon, who is classed as vulnerable due to “poor lung function”, didn’t get beyond his garden more than a dozen times – a situation he says was common among Disabled people. Not until he’d had both his jabs did he start going out. But, Gordon adds, being relatively well-off, with a garden to TheBristolCable.org/join | Iss 28 | Jan-Mar 2022 | 35

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Illustration provided by Bristol Radical History Group

The Barton Hill Settlement is still a thriving community hub a century after it was founded

the Women’s Cooperative movement and local trade unions and giving lectures far and wide about her settlement and its future role. With a group of close friends and colleagues around her, Bristol University Settlement was soon up and running in Barton Hill, and Cashmore set about befriending the neighbourhood. She devised a loose administrative structure for the Settlement in tiers. These consisted of a small group of full-time resident workers, residents of Barton Hill, University Testamur students and a very broad category: members scattered throughout the city. During the First World War, Cashmore’s achievements reached new heights, as she demonstrated her brilliance in responding to emergencies in practical ways. She organised help during the influenza pandemic, fed workers’ families during strikes and personally even used her annual leave to join the Quaker War Victims Relief expedition to France in 1914 and Poland in 1920. After the war she adopted a new challenge: the rapid building of housing estates, both public and private, not always built with concern for the quality of life for new residents. She became committed to the idea

“She demonstrated her brilliance in responding to emergencies, organising help during the influenza pandemic and feeding workers’ families during strikes” of establishing community centres, self-governing, helped by a resident volunteer to address their demands. Her commitment to community building earned her the respect of the national Federation of Residential Settlements. In 1926, she received its greatest accolade, becoming the first woman President of FRS and

the first ever from the provinces. She attempted to re-mould the British Settlement movement along the more modern lines she had used in Bristol but did not succeed. The distrust and political turmoil of the General Strike in 1926 made the male-dominated movement determined to stick to the past. Her last achievement was to fulfil her long-held dream of going to India and offering social services to rural villagers. She established a Settlement and an educational Ashram close to the Gond people in the forests of the United Provinces. In all her Settlements, even in India, she built on the experiences she had acquired in Bristol. The flexibility and efficacy of the structure she had created there proved highly effective in all contexts. In Bristol itself, the University Settlement lasted until 1970 when it was transformed into a Community Association that still lives on successfully today, providing health and wellbeing services, lunch clubs and other events for locals. ■

People’s History

Hilda Cashmore: pioneering community worker and founder of Bristol’s Barton Hill Settlement by Helen Meller is available from the Bristol Radical History Group.

Hilda Cashmore: Pioneering social worker who founded Barton Hill Settlement Cashmore’s vision of a future, where people and communities matter, is even more relevant today amid the coronavirus crisis Helen Meller

ilda Cashmore was a pioneering Bristol woman at the centre of an early 20th century settlement project that envisioned nationally-resourced but locally-managed voluntary health and social services. Cashmore, a quaker, feminist, educator and social worker, was the first warden of the city’s Barton Hill Settlement, which is still thriving as an important community hub 100 years after it was founded. She became the first woman president of the British Association of Residential Settlements and her vision of a future, where people and communities

matter, is even more relevant today as communities rally to plug gaps in provision left by the coronavirus crisis. Who was Hilda Cashmore and what was her inspiration? Cashmore was a young lecturer at the Women’s Day Training College, part of Bristol University College. She studied a degree course in economic history at Somerville College Oxford. There was, at the time, an expanding demand for women students to be trained for jobs in education and social work, which inspired Cashmore to try and found a vol-

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untary centre for social work – possibly a University Settlement. A model for this was established by Canon Samuel Barnett in 1884. His Settlement at Toynbee Hall in the East End of London had a very specific aim: to show male students from Oxford, destined for careers as the governing elite, what it was like to be poor. There were other models though, run by women in the USA and Canada. Jane Addams of Hull House in Chicago, had led the way towards a new kind of Settlement for which she became famous, focusing on the dire social problems of the city

centre, especially housing, unemployment and lack of education and training. Volunteers and professionals worked side-by-side. This was the ‘modern’ agenda that Cashmore saw firsthand during a two-month sabbatical in Canada and the US. She could not emulate their methods exactly in Britain but she did reject the Barnett model of Toynbee Hall. Instead she sought support for a University Settlement where she could find it. Initial support from the University, which had gained its Charter of Independence but was reluctant to take on extra financial burdens, was critical. Fortunately, strong support came from the student body – most belonging to Cashmore’s Guild for Social Service she had set up some years earlier. It swung the issue. The Bristol University Settlement was established in 1911, but the University was cautious in the role it chose to play. The University validated Cashmore’s courses by creating a qualification, the Bristol Testamur, giving them nationwide status and attracting students to Bristol. Cashmore embedded support in the city by working with local government officers and public authorities, gaining places on trade boards, using her close links with TheBristolCable.org/join | Iss 28 | Jan-Mar 2022 | 37

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Why PE isn’t just about exercise – and needs protecting Sports advocates say it’s more than exercise that kids are missing out on when sports are cut from school timetables Joe Skirkowski

“R

Recently we’ve come to understand a lot more about the importance of sport and physical activity to overall health and mental wellbeing – but PE teaches much more than that,” says Andy Blackmore, Senior Project Manager at Wesport, a West Country-based advocacy charity. “It teaches children a lot about life – and as well as the physical there’s also the social and emotional development that comes with it.” Scientific studies have linked physical activity with multiple psychological benefits, including reduced stress and anxiety, and improved self-esteem, confidence, concentration and overall academic performance. But under Covid, children in 56% of primary and 37% of secondary schools nationwide have had time spent on physical activity – along with creative subjects – reduced, according to a recent report by the Department for Education (DfE). The DfE’s School Recovery Strategies report looks at how schools have responded to the extraordinary challenges of the pandemic. It records how some have opted to cut down time spent on PE – as well as creative subjects, such as music and art – as they struggle to catch up on core learning missed over lockdown periods. Over the 2020/21 academic year, students in England who were not children of key workers were forced to learn remotely between January and March. That followed a longer period of home learning for most children from March 2020 until the last couple of weeks of the previous academic year. Altogether, most school children in England have missed nearly two thirds of a school year’s worth of contact time over the pandemic, and that is without taking into account frequent two-week periods of isolation due to positive cases in class bubbles. The report goes on to say that as the year progressed, both categories reported that “disparities in pupil’s

social, emotional and academic progress increased” and that “pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds who did not attend school or engage well with online learning have been more profoundly impacted”. While some schools bucked the trend and increased the time spent on PE, the capacity to do so was largely based on circumstance. Covid guidelines have also exacerbated the situation by making class mixing and sharing of equipment problematic. There is no law stating how much PE a school is required to provide. DfE guidelines strongly suggest a minimum of two hours per week, on top of at least one hour’s playtime each day. While this advice is usually largely followed, schools ultimately have the autonomy to create their own timetables.

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joewatsonprice

“The fact of the matter is that a lot of schools view subjects like PE as an add-on”

Join us to hold power to account: thebristolcable.org/join Despite extra government funding through the Primary PE and Sports premium, primary schools are disproportionately represented when it comes to those cutting down on PE. There are a number of reasons for this but the report goes on to state that primary leaders view the gaps in progress between students, especially in basic literacy and numeracy skills, as the biggest challenge they currently face. The new revelations about reduced PE hours have sparked concerns among advocacy groups such as Blackmore’s, which claims children are missing out on more than just exercise. “Sports can help young people understand what it means to be part of a team and about respecting colleagues and opponents,” says Blackmore, whose charity encourages schools and workplaces to engage in more sports and physical activity. “But mainly it’s about personal development, building resilience and learning how to be a decent person.”

PE isn’t just a ‘nice to have’ “The fact of the matter is that a lot of schools view subjects like PE as an add-on, and I can understand why they would want to focus on core subjects like maths and English because they’re under huge pressure,” says Blackmore. “But there is an increasing understanding that physical and sporting activity leads to higher academic achievement and heightens whole-school performance – I think schools need to take this into consideration when they think about cutting time spent on PE.” Studies have shown that there is a link between physical activity and fitness and improved memory and attention spans. Perhaps ironically, the type of subjects that are thought to benefit most from this trend involve reading and mathematical skills. While schools have tough choices to make, Blackmore was keen to stress that there are cost effective and time efficient options available, such as the daily mile scheme, that can provide children with extra physical activity. “The pandemic has been hard for everyone,” Blackmore goes on, with fewer schools using Wesport’s services than before the pandemic. “However, it’s not just a school’s responsibility to get children exercising, there are plenty of sports clubs out there and building that link between education and community is really important. “Unfortunately, there’s not one quick fix to this problem; it’s partly about the government taking it seriously, but it’s also up to parents to help their kids be physically active outside of school where they can, we all have a responsibility.” ■

Bristol risks becoming a graveyard of cycling ambition

Opinion

Interview

Promoting safety for cyclists has a positive knock-on effect for health, air pollution and the climate crisis – but without enough political will, funding or decent planning, getting people into the saddle will be an uphill battle Ian Pond

ith Bristol’s Clean the roads”, we are not going to see Air Zone coming more people opting for a bike. The soon, this year I’d danger perception is real, with cylike to make more clists – along with motorcyclists and journeys by bike. pedestrians – being far more likely But I know this means I will need to be killed or seriously injured per to spend time planning safe routes mile travelled than car drivers. One for my journeys and secure places of the reasons for the changes to the to leave my bike, which will be a Highway Code this year is to protect disincentive when I can just hop in these groups. the car. Each year, Bristol Cycling carries I joined the Bristol Cycling camout a survey to measure attitudes to paign because I wanted to help try cycling in Bristol. Our most recent to make Bristol a place where anyfrom November 2021 was completed one of any age can feel able to use by more than 1,200 people, a third of their bike. It’s a group of volunteers whom did not cycle regularly. Across who have been working to make all respondents, the primary reasons cycling safer and more accessible for for not cycling more were concerns over 30 years. There is no doubt that about road safety and collisions, bike some progress has been made, but theft and personal safety. our city remains a long way from Conversely, when asked about what where it could be. things would encourage more cycling Even worse, when compared to the the top responses were “protected substantial plans being implemented cycle routes on main roads”, followed in London, Manchester and Birming- by “quiet streets with less traffic”, and ham for walking and cycling, today’s leaders appear to have lost the ambition that existed back in 2008, when Bristol was named as Britain’s first Cycling City. Bristol Cycling believes creating the conditions to give people the confidence to switch to cycling should be a key priority for local and regional government leaders. We see that inactivity is leading to a reduction in health and wellbeing, and reliance on motor vehicles – even for short journeys – is feeding illegal levels of air pollution in inner Bristol, with associated carbon emissions contributing to the climate crisis. But while two-thirds of UK adults express that: “It is too megan_milaart dangerous for me to cycle on

“Infrastructure needs to be continuous and coherent – not the short, disconnected sections we all too commonly see in fading paint on Bristol roads” “suitable cycle parking at my destination(s)”. The resurgence of cycling encouraged by the quiet roads during lockdown appears to have been short lived – just like many of the temporary bike lanes – with the majority (80%) of people telling us they are cycling the same or less than pre-Covid, with only one in five saying they are now cycling more. Going forward, for cycling to become more popular, more people need to be convinced that it is both safe and sensible. Protected bike lanes are an essential component to give people, especially novice or nervous cyclists, the confidence to get on their bike. This infrastructure needs to be continuous and co-

herent to provide protection from heavy and fast traffic for the whole journey, not the short, disconnected sections we all too commonly see in fading paint on Bristol roads. We are encouraged by work completed on Baldwin Street and the plan described in the recent consultation for Park Row. But we feel that these small steps in the centre will not change people’s perceptions of overall road safety and hence their willingness to cycle. And certainly, the No 2 bus route (A37/A4018) consultation demonstrates precious little cycling ambition outside of the city centre. We think it’s particularly disappointing that this lack of ambition means our region is missing out on a greater share of substantial central government funding being pumped into city regions over the next five years to encourage more walking and cycling. It is depressing, because a bigger slice of funds could have helped reduce transport carbon more quickly, contributing towards the city’s goal of net zero emissions by 2030, together with steps to make public transport better and walking safer. However, it is reassuring that future cycling infrastructure design and spend will be overseen by a new statutory body called Active Travel England, which will be responsible for ensuring that only high-quality plans are approved for funding. Huge increases in bike use have been quickly achieved in cities around the world where ambition has been turned into action, notably in Paris (Mayor Hidalgo’s “Plan Vélo”), Barcelona (Urban Mobility Plan), and even car-centric New York (Streets Plan). And the bottom line is that cycling gets safer the more people who do it. Isn’t it time for Bristol to get on its bike? ■ Ian Pond is a member of the Bristol Cycling campaign group.

TheBristolCable.org/join | Iss 28 | Jan-Mar 2022 | 39