The Bristol Cable - Edition 18

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Issue No18 - Jan-Mar 2019 FREE! (To Access)

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How these women were failed.

And how they fought back.

INVESTIGATION

VOICE

SOLUTIONS

FEATURE

PICTURES

An exclusive unmasking of one of the country’s most elusive gangsters Page 8

If the hijab oppresses Muslim women, why do I feel so empowered?

Page 17

Clearing needles off our streets: Bristol can open the UK’s first safe consumption room Page 30

The other housing crisis: Why Gypsies and Travellers are running out of places to live Page 14

It’s been a long hard winter. Lighten up with these pics of people luvvin’ it up in Bristol Page 20

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DEAR READER,

CREDITS

Fancy a break from reading about the UK’s exit from the EU? Featured inside are some of the issues that have been overshadowed by the political calamity that is Brexit. We highlight the hidden housing crisis facing Travellers, speak to the people struggling on universal credit, and explore solutions for tackling the drug use on our streets and the dirty air filling our lungs.

The 2,000+ members who make all of this possible! - and all contributors, sources and contacts

However, we have taken on feedback from Cable members who are searching for light in what can feel like dark times. So there’s the story of the domestic abuse survivors who refused to be victimised, powerful voices from community members and a warming photo essay of luvvin it up in Bristol. And more!

All this is made possible by the 2,000+ people in Bristol who own and support us as members. Together we create truly independent journalism that strives for transparency, accountability and justice in our city.

One way we do this is through campaigning journalism – relentlessly reporting on an issue until we see change. Over the past few months we’ve asked members the issue they want us to campaign on, and whittled it down to two viable options. So turn to page 3 to check them out and choose the issue you most want us to campaign on.

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We’re also launching a four-part investigation into organised crime networks that profited from violence and intimidation for years – at the expense of people all over the city. Local court reporting is on the decline and limited to isolated, often sensationalised accounts of crimes, but we’ve managed to join the dots after spending months in court, analysing records, interviewing gangsters, former detectives, business associates and victims. The first of four episodes is featured in this edition, and you can read the others online: thebristolcable.org/cornerman This kind of investigation is only possible because of the support of members. We believe journalism is a public good, so as members we collectively fund it, and collectively own it.

So if you’re a Cable reader and value our journalism, consider becoming a Cable member. → thebristolcable.org/join

The Cable team

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Media coordination: Lorna Stephenson, Matty Edwards, Hannah Vickers, Alon Aviram, Adam Cantwell-Corn Production coordination: Lorna Stephenson Sub-editors: Arvind Howarth, Lorna Stephenson, Alex Turner, Peter Beech Proofreaders: Emily Williams Community media coordination: Mark Sennett Social media Hannah Vickers, Matty Edwards Design & Layout: Laurence Ware - laurence-ware.com WD graphics - wdgraphics.com Print advertising: Kerry Mead Web team: Mat Alborough, Lucas Batt, Will Franklin, Marcus Valentine - xtreamlab.net Projects, partnerships and fundraising coordination: Alon Aviram, Adam Cantwell-Corn Membership co-ordination: Cait Crosse, Lucas Batt

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Distribution coordination: Lucas Batt Distribution team: Dave Marsden, Jenny Stringer, David Roberts, Scatha Jones, Neill Talbot Front page illustration: Jazz Thompson jsthompson.wixsite.com/jasminethompson Special thanks to...

Cable members: Samar Khan, Georgia Edwards, Maria da Silva

Contents 4–5 News in Brief: News, briefly 7 Interview: Ken Macharia on getting out of immigration detention 8–10 Investigation: Unmasking one of Britain’s most notorious crime bosses 12–13 Strength in Numbers: When the figures don’t add up 14–16 Feature: Bristol’s hidden housing crisis 17 Voices: My hijab, my choice

18–19 Feature: Is universal credit ‘the worst benefit ever’?

20–21 Photos: Luvvers in Bristol

30–32 Solutions: A new fix for Bristol’s drug users?

34–35 Feature: Tackling the silent killer hitting deprived areas hardest

22–24 Cover story: How two women were failed.

And how they fought back.

36 Opinion: Wood burning stoves are deadly, not fashionable

26–27 History: What can we learn from the Feminist Archive South

37 Voices: Reflections on Bristol’s cultural scene at the start of 2019

28 Opinion: Bristol’s nursery schools are on a knife edge

38–39 Celebrate the city: People standing up for their communities

Directors: Kate Whittle, Abdi Mohamed, Robert Triggs, Noelle Rumball, Roseanna Dias, Drew Rose, Kate Oliver, Yuliya Kosharevska, Nathan Fitzpatrick, Phil Chamberlain, Alain Demontoux Thanks to the Reva and David Logan Foundation, Luminate and the Centre for Investigative Journalism for their continued support.

The Cable is printed on 100% recycled paper fibre produced in King’s Lynn.

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VOTE FOR THE CABLE’S NEXT CAMPAIGN!

We believe journalism isn’t just about information. It’s about empowering our communities and making a difference.In 2017 Bristol Cable members voted to create lasting change through dogged, creative and impactful campaigning journalism. Since then we have chalked up several wins. Over the past months, Cable members have contributed to planning our next campaign, and it’s now time to vote!

Campaign 2:

PREVENT DRUG DEATHS AND CLEAN UP OUR STREETS!

WE WANT CLEAN AIR. LET’S FIGHT FOR IT.

Every day, people who use drugs risk infection and overdose. Many residents feel unsafe and find thousands of needles in our parks. Police time is wasted fighting a public health crisis. And the NHS picks up the pieces. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

At a busy junction or in your neighbourhood, the very air we breathe is doing us harm.

Safe drug consumption rooms are medical facilities where people take illegal drugs and receive support to get clean. These services improve rehab rates, reduce drug deaths, crime, infections, public injecting and needle litter.

They are pioneered in more than 10 countries, but the government remains opposed. Now a growing number of charities, politicians, senior police and local authorities are backing them.

This campaign would drum up support and call on the council to work with the police, community groups and public bodies to set up a safe consumption room in Bristol immediately.

Read the full story on page 30.

A day spent on the streets of Bristol does as much damage as smoking between 1–2 cigarettes.

Approximately 300 deaths every year are attributable to air pollution. Countless others suffer, with children and people in working class neighbourhoods hit hardest.

From industry to fuel, transport to research, the problems – and solutions – are wide-ranging, but the solutions will only be implemented if we push for it.

Through a series of coverage and working with allies and community groups the Cable will investigate the sources of Bristol’s dirty air and push for action, from companies, the authorities and the public.

It’s time we all breathed a little easier.

Read about air pollution, and possible solutions, on page 34

HOW TO CABLE MEMBERS: THEBRISTOLCABLE.ORG/CAMPAIGN2019 VOTE: NON MEMBERS: THEBRISTOLCABLE.ORG/JOIN

VOTE BY: 27TH FEBRUARY 2019 5PM

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Campaign 1:

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NEWS IN BRIEF

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A few things going on in your city that you may have missed

MoD: Nearly £1m to fund places at Bristol’s private schools

Development: Sims Hill community farm under threat

University: Students again campaign to cut extortionate rents

While schools are in crisis across Bristol and South Gloucestershire, the city’s private schools are doing well out of Ministry of Defence (MoD) funding.

The poor folk at the Sims Hill farm received some bad news for Christmas – that the co-operative food growing project is under threat of being concreted over for a new park-and-ride.

Students sick of high rents for Bristol University accommodation, which, at an average £161 per week, they say is unaffordable have reinvigorated a campaign asking the university to Cut the Rent.

According to figures released via a Freedom of Information inquiry, six independent schools in the Bristol area received £995,000 in fees from the MoD in the 17/18 academic year.

The MoD funds the ‘continuing education allowance’ scheme, purportedly to enable children of officers serving in the military with stable schooling, boarding if necessary.

But in the figures, which spanned the academic years 2013/14-2017/18, not one recipient was based overseas.

Clifton College cashed in the most, receiving £722,000 from the MoD in the 17/18 school year alone. In total, the college received over £3.5m in the five year period.

In planning documents from the West of England Combined Authority (consisting of the councils of Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Bristol and North Somerset), the site is listed as an option for a parkand-ride linking to the M32.

Overall 17 potential sites are listed, many of which are farms. However, all but Sims Hill have been discounted for a variety of reasons. In the case of the Stapleton allotments, the documents note ‘public preference for alternative uses’ – a reason that could surely apply equally to Sims Hill.

Sims Hill runs a food share scheme for members and runs projects for disadvantaged groups and local schools. Friends and supporters have been encouraged to contact Bristol council and the West of England mayor, Conservative Tim Bowles, and respond to a consultation, which closed as the Cable was going to press.

Second year student Ruth Hall tells the Cable that students learned in the summer that rents were about to shoot up 4.5%, alongside a change in staffing that would remove support staff from halls.

Raids: Figures reveal extent of activities of South West immigration enforcement With immigration enforcement frequently in the headlines, the Cable received figures on how much activity the South West office of Immigration Enforcement really gets up to.

Over five years, the Portishead-based IE team conducted over 3,000 raids, arresting nearly 1,900 people in the process.

“With those things combined, we have to do something this year. Rent is becoming ridiculously unaffordable.” she says. Students have also been reporting problems with the conditions of their accommodation, she adds.

The data shows that a large majority of the workplace raids that took place were in restaurants and takeaways, proving somewhat right the stereotype of border agents busting Asian restaurants.

The new action follows in the footsteps of a previous Cut the Rent campaign, which in 2017 resulted in a small rent strike against another proposed 4.5% increase in rents. The university increased it instead by 3%.

The other notable figure is the number of the raids which were undertaken without going through the judicial processes to obtain a warrant: from the end of 2016 onwards, over half of raids in every month were done under the controversial ‘informed consent’ model.

The university has repeatedly deflected questions or requests for information in recent years regarding the profits it makes from student accomodation.

Last October, hundreds of people in Easton protested and tried to block the arrest of a man by immigration officials. Workshops on knowing your rights in a raid situation are taking place in Bristol (see page 38-39)

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Nightlife: Thousands object to new development threatening Trinity Centre More than 2,000 people have objected to flats being built near Trinity Centre in Old Market, amid worries that noise complaints could put the popular music venue under threat.

Concerns were raised by Trinity when they found out about an application for 12 flats, including a noise impact assessment from 2016 that makes no reference to the venue. As of 10 January, there were 2,274 objections submitted by members of the public on the planning application – in less than a month.

complaints. Others worried about their future because of proposed developments include Thekla and Fiddlers in Bedminster.

Relentless campaigning by venues and industry groups led to the addition last year into national planning policy of the ‘agent of change’ principle, which is designed to protect pre-existing music venues by making developers responsible for adequate sound-proofing.

Keep up to date on the critical stories behind the headlines.

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It will take years for medical cannabis to be widely available, experts have said, despite landmark reforms in November, which legalised cannabis-derived medicinal products.

This will mean that people suffering from chronic pain, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis (MS), will have to wait even longer to get prescriptions on the NHS. Until new guidelines are published in October this year, many doctors remain reluctant to prescribe the medicine because of prejudice against cannabis, as well as complex bureaucracy and the financial cost of importing it, experts have told the Cable.

The all-party parliamentary

group for medical cannabis condemned the current situation, which is forcing some people to go private to get the medicines they need.

On of these people desperate for medical cannabis in Bristol is Gareth Dines, 37, whose leg was crushed by a forklift truck in an industrial accident in 2012.

He was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) – a condition that could mean you are in pain for the rest of your life.

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ONLINE

Bristolians struggling to access medical cannabis

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Bristol City Council has previously committed to writing the agent of change Many stalwarts of Bristol’s vibrant principle into the next Local nightlife and music scenes have Plan for the city, and a new already closed their doors in panel has been set up the ‘agent recent years - the most recent of change’ but is unclear if the announced closures being Blue council will use it in Trinity Mountain and Lakota in Stokes case.

Croft.

In November, a panel was set up Lots of venues have come under to tackle the challenges facing threat after being subject to Bristol’s night-time economy. noise complaints from newly The @ Night advisory panel, developed residences close by. which includes people from all The Fleece has so far managed to areas of the night-time economy, coexist alongside new flats built will meet every quarter and across the road, but the Surrey advise the council.

Vaults closed in 2017 after noise

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Our jo ur nal i sm i s b ac ked by more than 2, 000 m em bers w h o wa nt go o d repor ti ng that makes a d i fference. Th at’s w h at we try to do .

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INTERVIEW

Ken Macharia Bristol Bison rugby player Ken Macharia speaks about his experience of detention, as the system comes under the spotlight WORDS LORNA STEPHENSON

“B

ecause of my qualifications and having work experience in the UK, going back to Kenya, financially I would have been really well off. But my personal life would have been terrible,” says Ken Macharia, the gay Bristol Bisons rugby player who was detained and set to be deported when his request for asylum was rejected.

“I would have had to go back into hiding, go back into the closet.”

Macharia first came to the UK, and Bristol, in 2009 to study engineering and stayed for several years on poststudy and work visas after graduation.

With family in Bristol and working, volunteering and becoming a keen member of the Bristol Bisons rugby club, he became a settled and popular member of his community.

It was only in 2016, after visa eligibility rules changed, that he realised he was at risk of being forced back to his home country of Kenya. After lodging the asylum application in 2016, Macharia had two interviews over the following months with the Home Office. In late 2016, he learned the Home Office had rejected his application.

“It was a big surprise. The reason they gave was that they claimed that they don’t believe I’m gay, which was absurd,” he says.

When Macharia appealed the decision, the judge agreed he was gay… but said that he would be safe if he returned, claiming gay men can live openly and freely in Kenya with no risk of persecution. His

Moving to the UK allowed Macharia to live openly as a gay man for the first time in his life.

“I used to call myself a perpetual failure, because I was always failing to bond or get into relationships, because I was hiding who I am,” Macharia remembers.

He recalls his first nervous attempts to connect with the gay community and establishments: “I was still in the closet at the time. Over time I’ve become more confident about who I am, more open, realising it’s OK and normal to be gay.”

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights reported in April 2012 that “LGBTs are discriminated, stigmatised and subjected to violence because of their sexual orientation”.

Not being able to live openly and freely as a sexual minority is a basis for claiming asylum, but in reality LGBT asylum seekers face significant barriers to claiming this human right.

Macharia is one of the many people who’ve been refused asylum because immigration judges say their sexuality is not proven - or think that the threat is less than it is if they return to their home countries.

“Basically, they wanted to remove me… They didn’t tell me the decision, when I went to the police station, I was presented with the documents,” says Macharia.

They asked if he was going to leave voluntarily, and when Macharia requested to talk to his lawyer they put him in the cells. A van came and took him to Harmondsworth

THE REALITIES OF DETENTION At any one time, up to 3,500 people are in immigration detention in the UK’s nine detention centres – or ‘immigration removal centres’ - as the government prefers to call them.

It’s a system that has come under fire recently locally and nationally. The council late last year voted in support of a motion slamming the detention system as inhumane and ineffective and ready to be scrapped.

A dire report into the system was published by a parliamentary group in 2015 which outlined the same problems. Nationally, a network of campaigns organising as These Walls Must Fall have thrust the issue further into the spotlight.

detention centre near Heathrow.

He arrived at the centre on Friday morning. The Home Office said he was eligible for removal from 5pm the following Monday.

Ken’s community fights back “I was extremely traumatised the first few days. I was really nervous, really worried, thinking ‘Monday’s coming and I could be forcibly removed’,” he says. He’d managed to inform teammates at his rugby club, Bristol Refugee Rights, where he volunteers, and a group he was part of, Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants.

His friends and supporters launched into action with incredible success.

Macharia’s plight became national news, he was backed by MPs, and a petition for his release has (at the time of print) garnered more than 100,000 signatories.

Without regular access to the internet, Macharia only became

aware of the extent of the campaign for his release through reports from his mum of the media attention, first regional and then hitting national headlines.

Macharia’s now on immigration bail.

He now signs on at the police station

“Over time I’ve become more confident about who I am, more open, realising it’s OK and normal to be gay” every month, and is continuing to fight for his right to remain in the UK. He is eager to point out how fortunate he was to have so much support from his community, and how important that was to achieving bai - and how it’s important to highlight that so many people are not as lucky.

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He faced persecution and discrimination in a country where same-sex intimacy can get you up to 14 years in prison and you are vulnerable to be beaten up by members of the public - they call it ‘mob justice’.

appeal was rejected. “That was the beginning of this long process,” says Macharia - one that ended up with him being imprisoned in detention, and to this day still fearing that he may be deported.

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INVESTIGATION

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EPISODE 1 – CATCH THE REST AT THEBRISTOLCABLE.ORG/CORNERMAN

UNMASKING The Cornerman

WORDS MICHAEL GILLARD & ALON AVIRAM ILLUSTRATION MATT WOODMAN mdwoodman.co.uk

In the first of a four-part true crime investigation, the Cable exposes one of Britain’s most elusive organised crime bosses after two decades in the shadows

A

ndy Baker was just 13 in 1979 when the Clash released I Fought the Law. Forty years later, the crime boss sang the chorus as he was sent down for 11 years and six months – his first proper prison sentence in a career spanning more than two decades.

Whether his race is run is another matter, and one the Cable explores in this exclusive fourpart series about the Cornerman – so-called because Baker took a piece, or corner, from the many opportunities that came his way.

Alternatively, he was waiting around the corner if his victims didn’t pay up.

In December 2018, local papers ran the police press release when Baker and nine men from his

organised crime group were sent down at Bristol crown court. But we knew there was a far bigger untold story, because of the months spent investigating the Cornerman’s rise and fall.

No longer untouchable?

Efforts by the Metropolitan police between 1998 and 2009 to put Baker behind bars – for forcing at gunpoint a director of Queen’s Park Rangers football club to sign over his shares and resign, for the kidnap of a printer and for the killing of an off-duty prison guard – all resulted in acquittals.

The Teflon gangster appeared untouchable until 2017, when Avon & Somerset police began secretly targeting his crime group, which operates along the

M4 corridor between London and Bristol.

A bug in Baker’s car secured vital evidence of his involvement in the supply of cocaine from London, where he grew up, and a conspiracy to blackmail businessmen in Bristol, where he lives.

The plums and the gangster Little about 52-year-old Andy Baker’s past emerged during the recent two trials except for his role as a ‘security consultant’ to highsociety nightclubs.

During the 2018 trial, one terrified witness gave evidence from behind a screen, and officers were stationed outside the court to prevent Baker escaping.

Tim Grattan-Kane, a now-retired senior Met murder squad detective who chased Baker for years, said: “He managed to slip through lawful justice on so many occasions. He controls so many things. He’s a nasty influence behind nightclubs.”

Police sources hope that, now he has been convicted, new witnesses will come forward. But for others, prison will not hinder the Cornerman’s reach. Reputations travel, and Baker has long traded on his links to one of the UK’s most significant organised crime groups to keep people in line.

Baker started off as a bouncer in the Epsom, Surrey area where he was born. Before long he was working the doors in a variety of west London pubs and clubs. The young thug caught his big break when he started working for a group of wellheeled entrepreneurs he called

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A club insider close to the plums said many enjoyed the frisson of having Baker around. “They are almost Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels-type characters – public schoolboys running clubs – and someone’s said, ‘You need a gangster looking after you, sunshine,’ and they’ve sucked it all up and thought it was rather glamorous.”

Baker told the jury in his recent trial that his big break came after a conviction in 1991 for assaulting a clubber.

Arden was chairman of the Moroccan-themed Po Na Na bars and Fez club group, which in the mid-90s embarked on a rapid expansion in top university cities, especially along the M4 corridor.

Baker built a network by putting together security teams for the venues in Reading, Cheltenham, Oxford, Swindon, Marlborough, Bath, Bristol and then further south-west into Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.

But the nightclub kingpin whom he has stayed most loyal to over the years is Howard Spooner, a former student of Gordonstoun, the top public school where Prince Charles was educated.

Spooner, now 48, has had a troubled association with Baker for over 20 years. The pair were arrested and released without charge in 1999 over an alleged shooting at a garage in west London. A few years later, Spooner financially helped Baker when he was tried and acquitted of kidnapping a printer involved in the club business.

But it was while minding the doors of Spooner’s first nightclub that Baker became close to one of the biggest gangster names in the UK: London’s notorious Adams crime family. In fact, the Met suspected Baker of involvement in the murder of two of the Adams’ key associates as he rose through the ranks of the underworld.

‘You don’t kill the golden goose’ Spooner became friendly with Princes William and Harry when they and the Middleton sisters started coming to his Chelsea nightclub, Public, in 2010. Spooner first took over the club in 1994, when it was called Embargo. Almost immediately, the Adams’ main enforcer, Gilbert “the Stick” Wynter, tried to muscle in, with Baker at his side.

Wynter had been recently acquitted of killing Claude Moseley, a former high-jump champion turned drug dealer, with a samurai sword. “You may not believe in God but you’ll have met the Devil when you meet Gilbert,” said the club insider.

Baker and Wynter worked from offices at Linford Studios in Battersea, and had a plan to set up a training company for doormen. The owner of the studios was a struck off solicitor, David Duff, who used Baker to run security for his drum and bass club nights.

In 1997, when Wynter went to see his mother in Jamaica, Baker

stepped up. “Andy was the brightest of a bunch of goons [working] for Gilbert. He’s got a natural cunning when it comes to making money,” the club insider explained.

While Wynter was overseas, Spooner sold Embargo and bought a new club, Leopard Lounge, in Fulham, whose investors included Lord Edward Spencer Churchill.

Wynter saw himself as a silent investor in Embargo, and when he returned from Jamaica started demanding his cut from the Leopard Lounge.

The demand, it is said, forced Baker to intercede on Spooner’s behalf.

But Wynter remained resolute, and told Baker he wanted his share of the takings from the Leopard Lounge or Spooner was going for a long walk.

Then, one morning in March 1998, Wynter failed to show up.

His body has never been found.

The disappearance was a blow to the Adams family – and the turmoil continued. Six months later, two men on a motorbike

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killed Solly Nahome, their chief money launderer, outside his north London home.

Police bugs and phone taps on Terry Adams, the head of the family, showed disarray but no evidence he had ordered the hits.

Initially, it was suspected that both deaths could be part of a power play within the family. However, police sources confirm that almost immediately Baker’s name came into the frame.

That suspicion hardened when Duff, the struck off solicitor, became a protected police witness.

He had fallen out with Baker over a number of issues, including Baker’s demand for £50,000 to pay for his legal defence against the kidnapping charges.

Howard Spooner was already helping Baker, by supplying him with a surety or guarantee to the court that he wouldn’t jump bail.

“Me [and] Christian [Arden] made it plain we weren’t standing surety because we were supporting him but because we knew he

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“I got in trouble with the law and I was fortunate enough to meet a gentleman called Christian Arden, [who] gave me a chance to work with a public company, earn a good living and live a very nice lifestyle…

I used to work on the licensing and things like that, and the hiring and firing of security firms,” he said.

The Wiltshire-based racehorse owner says he did not see Baker as a gangster until his recent conviction. “I had no idea. I thought he was a bit of a geezer who liked to drop loads of names.

He didn’t drop gangster names on me. He dropped the names of posh, rich, influential people who he claimed to do business with. It was all lords and ladies.”

Andrew Baker

‘the plums’, who in the 90s and 00s provided nightlife for A-list celebrities, young aristocrats and posh west London socialites, or ‘Sloane Rangers’.

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Check out thebristolcable.org for free events & member benefits. thebristolcable.org/join wouldn’t slip the country … At the time, Po Na Na had security from [Baker] all over the country. He was running their security and [Po Na Na] were buying my business – they didn’t in the end – and that was what I was told had to be done.”

The Met was also investigating Baker over the December 2002 murder of Aaron Chapman, an offduty prison guard moonlighting as a nightclub bouncer.

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Detectives received what they regarded as good intelligence that Baker had put out a contract to have Duff killed. In June 2003, the former solicitor was taken into the witness protection scheme and remains there to this day.

Documents seen by the Cable show that, over many months of debriefings, Duff told police what he claimed to know about Baker’s involvement in the murders of prison guard Chapman, former gangland security partner Wynter and Adams family money man Nahome.

Duff claimed Baker had admitted killing Wynter at a flat in Chelsea, then had the body crushed and dumped. Duff explained to his debriefers that Wynter was going to kill Spooner. Instead, Baker murdered Wynter, took over the door security business and justified his actions by saying, “You don’t kill the golden goose.”

The club insider, who knew Baker for over 10 years, told the Cable that the security consultant bragged about murdering Wynter. “He would say, ‘He’s in the O2, I put him there.

[Wynter] ain’t never coming back.’”

Spooner said he was unaware how close he had apparently come to being killed. The nightclub entrepreneur only realised there was a threat to his life when the police mentioned it years later while inquiring about the Chapman murder.

Baker was feeling the heat in London and moved to Bideford, north Devon, with his wife, the daughter of a London policeman, and their son.

He continued to earn money helping new club entrepreneurs pick over the bones of the Po Na Na group, which went into

administration in 2002 with more than 35 venues across the UK to offload.

Spooner, meanwhile, went on to strike gold with a return to the troubled venue on King’s Road that used to be Embargo. He cleverly teamed up with Guy Pelly, a childhood friend of the princes, to launch Public in December 2010.

Pelly was the pied piper of young royals and the Sloane Rangers. The palace had once wrongly blamed him for introducing the two princes to marijuana, and he was present at the now infamous fancy dress party where Harry came as a Nazi.

Soon, Public was the place to be for A-list celebrities, as well as princesses Eugenie and Beatrice and the Middleton sisters. Harry celebrated his 27th birthday there.

However, complaints from neighbours eventually closed down Public in 2012, which Spooner blamed on “anti-royals who hate toffs”.

The club entrepreneur continued to do well with another venue, the Clapham Grand, in south London.

Last year, it caught the eye of Avon & Somerset detectives who were following Baker up and down the M4. The crime boss’s driver was seen emerging from the Grand with an envelope stuffed with cash.

Spooner gave a statement to the police about his long association with Baker. He told the Cable that he was surprised about Baker’s involvement in drugs and denied the gangster had ever blackmailed him. “Baker earns £300 a week from us as a security consultant. He’s been paid in a variety of ways depending on how he wants it,” he said.

All this cash was interesting for another reason: the taxman had recently made Baker bankrupt for non-payment of taxes, yet detectives saw him renovating his large house – located, appropriately enough, in Baker’s Ground, on the outskirts of Bristol in Stoke Gifford.

The Bristol connection Between mid-2017 and early 2018, police surveillance on Baker showed

him frequently meeting in Bristol with Matt Sellars, a former British lightweight champion cage fighter, and Adam Hoddinott, a convicted drug trafficker from Bath.

Sellars, 40, had got into financial trouble as the owner of Chasers nightclub and was desperate for cash. Hoddinott wanted to buy a kilo of high-purity cocaine but didn’t have the £36,000 to pay up front.

Baker agreed to act as a “guarantor” to close friend John “the Barber” Gordon, who agreed to supply the drugs from London.

Gordon and Baker went back 20 years to their days working doors as young bouncers, and shared a passion for Crystal Palace football club. It was Baker’s modus operandi to recruit members of his organised crime group from the security industry.

Detectives watched Gordon and Baker meeting in January 2018 at a lorry park in a service station on the M25 and garnered vital intelligence. Weeks later, they swooped on the conspirators and took out the drug parcel on route to Bristol.

Baker was later recorded in his cell making a revealing admission to the police. “Listen,” he said, “in my circle of people I stand quite high and I won’t give up anyone around me. Do you know what I’m saying? There’s things that I know, that I do know and you know I know because I’m a cunt. I

ain’t going to bullshit you. I could put on the table what I can put on the table.”

Baker never did trade. Hoddinott, however, who had just come out of prison for a similar offence, immediately pleaded guilty to get a lighter sentence.

In his defence, Baker painted a picture of himself as a man whom the police “hated” and “harassed” because of his work in nightclub security. He needed to explain away the many incriminating comments made in his bugged car. “I can be arrogant, obnoxious. It’s me having fun with the police,” he told the jury, who didn’t buy it and found him, Gordon and Sellars guilty of the cocaine conspiracy.

Baker declined to answer the Cable’s questions about his association with the Adams crime family and alleged involvement in the deaths of Gilbert Wynter and Solly Nahome in 1998.

Both cases are still open and under review by the Met. A spokesman for the force said: “Detectives investigating the murder and missing person inquiry would appeal for any witnesses or anyone with any information to contact the police.”

Tim Grattan-Kane, the retired Met murder detective, said of Baker: “People will be a lot safer with him behind bars. Hopefully it might now encourage others to talk.”

A spate of unusual crimes caught our attention.

Sources passed us sensitive information. Local people and businesses confided their fears and suspicions. A painstaking dot-to-dot began to reveal the driving force behind protection rackets and violent crime scourging local communities. That force was the Cornerman.

Thank you to all those who helped. This type of publicinterest journalism would not be possible without your support.

WHY WE WROTE THIS

MICHAEL GILLARD & ALON AVIRAM

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11

E N I L N ME O

I

T T X E N

Bangers and mash from football to boxing

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the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

The Cable reveals how the Cornerman made his mark in the worlds of Premier League football and heavyweight boxing.

Go online for the full series: thebristolcable.org/cornerman

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STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

WHEN THE FIGURES DONT ADD UP

the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

CASHING IN ON THE HOUSING CRISIS £20 million

£24 million

The amount provided

by Bristol city council to emergency and temporary accommodation profiteers and owners of Hamilton House Connolly & Callaghan since 2013.

Projected costs for a council-led housing development of 53 council houses and 80 private homes at Alderman Moore allotments in Ashton Vale.

MORE BANG FOR YOUR BOARD

For the cost of: Renting a five-bed house in Manchester, a second home in Sheffield and enough money to travel by train between the two...

Now you can:

Rent a FIVE-BED HOUSE IN BRISTOL! (average monthly rent of a five-bed property in Bristol is £2,875 vs. £1,612 in Manchester and £1,086 in Sheffield) Source: Housing crisis scrutiny report 2018

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SOCIAL HOUSING STRUGGLE 78 11,700

Housing units for social rent were completed in 2017/18.

People on the social housing waiting list as of April 2018.

Source: Housing crisis scrutiny report 2018

FIRST BUS? THIRD RATE. £22,000

Annual income of a full time bus driver in Bristol.

5,300%

The difference in annual income between drivers and the recently departed CEO of FirstGroup, operator of Bristol’s First Bus, on a salary of £1.2million.

2,000+

The owners of the Bristol Cable, who each own a share on a democratic basis to power investigations, amplify local voices and provide community media training. Trudging up and down the streets of Bristol to deliver the paper: optional.

16

Business people, a club and Ocean Estate Agents

The owners of Bristol 24/7, now rudely encroaching on the Cable’s membership model turf. Marketing themselves as “owned by people across Bristol”, 24/7’s latest ‘key partner’ is Wapping Wharf, the unaffordable development owned

by Midlands-based company Umberside Securities Ltd. VERY GRASSROOTS.

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the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

Marvin rees administration is building more affordable homes, with 800 projected by 2020, but THE SCALE OF THE PROBLEM IS COLOSSAL.

BLAGGERS 24/7

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FEATURE

the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

“They shove us miles away from anything.” says Danny

Road to nowhere: The hidden housing crisis

Faced with a unique housing crisis and deep-seated prejudice, where are Bristol’s Gypsy and Traveller population supposed to go?

WORDS HANNAH VICKERS PHOTOS PHILLIPA KLAIBER

“Y

phillipaklaiber.com

ou know where they’re shoving us? Into bricks and mortar. The simple reason is they want the Travelling and the Gypsy community off the streets, out of their caravans.”

Lynne (not her real name) moved into a house because none of the 12 pitches on Bristol’s only permanent site were available. She hates living in a house. Nobody talks to her and she and her children have had to move three times because of abuse from neighbours.

“My boys are older now but when they were younger they were getting bullied… One of them had a knife up to his neck over being a Gypsy.”

Lynne has had her name down for a pitch for the past nine years; she

is one of the many Travellers living unhappily in a house because she can’t find anywhere to live in a caravan.

Marc Willers QC, a barrister specialising in Gypsy, Traveller and Roma law, says forcing Gypsies and Travellers into housing “has dramatic effects on many and causes some of them to suffer mental health problems [such as] depression and anxiety”.

“They often find it difficult to get on with neighbours who can be quite racist towards them, and many end up leaving bricks and mortar accommodation and going back on the road, so it’s a kind of cycle of despair for them.”

“You’re getting a lot of people who are getting depressed,” says Lynne.

“I’ve heard of a lot of people dying and getting sick… We live in caravans, we’re used to getting a lot of fresh air.”

According to a 2013 Accommodation Assessment report, living in a caravan near family is an ‘essential part of Gypsy and Traveller culture and wellbeing’.

Despite this, councils are reluctant to build sites and the majority of Gypsies and Travellers live in houses.

For Lynne, moving into a house has destroyed her sense of community.

“I don’t bother with them, I just go in and lock my door… If I was in a Travelling community, or where my Travelling family is, I’d be out chatting and talking to them.”

The unseen housing crisis Bristol’s Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) population consists of Romany English Gypsies, Irish Travellers, Roma, Showpeople and New Travellers. In Bristol, as well as the historic ethnic and cultural Gypsy and Traveller population, a considerable number of people from

other backgrounds have also started living in vehicles in recent years.

“Bristol has something larger than just a specific Gypsy and Traveller population to provide for,” says Dr Simon Ruston, a planning consultant working on behalf of Gypsies and Travellers. “There’s also this other large undefined group of people. I would suggest that the council are in a bit of a tricky position trying to meet the needs of all of those groups.”

Around 63,000 identified as Gypsy or Traveller in the 2011 census, the first time the ethnicities were included as options, but there are expected to be many more. The numbers aren’t accurate, as many don’t declare their identity because of fear of discrimination. While 359 stated their ethnic group as Gypsy or Traveller in Bristol, it’s estimated that there are 300,000 GRT living in the UK and that 25% of the South West population live in Bristol.

15

Only 5% are in caravans, the rest live mainly in conventional housing, and poor accommodation services - including welfare rights advice, tenancy support and site provision - are a key concern for these groups.

Gypsies and Travellers are facing a housing crisis that’s going mostly unnoticed by the settled population - apart from when an unauthorised encampment turns up in their local park.

They put us on the land where non-Romanies will not live

When a site does get built, it tends to be “in the middle of bleeding nowhere,” says Danny Davies-andSmith. He lives on a council site in Weston-super-Mare, which is close to a motorway and surrounded by a cement works, train tracks and a scrapyard. “They shove us miles away from anything.

The site in Weston-super-Mare is flanked on three sides by a cement works, train tracks and scrapyard

“They put us on the land where non-Romanies will not live.

“Why did they put this site here?

‘Cos that’s as far as they want to build houses… they wouldn’t have sold ‘em. Who would walk in here and buy a house next to JCB machinery?

Bristol’s 32 pitches, across one permanent and one transit site, do not meet the need of the local Gypsy and Traveller population. There has only been a 2% increase nationally in socially-rented pitches between 2010 and 2017, which the charity Friends, Families and Travellers says does not account for the natural growth of communities. Lynne agrees, “There need to be more sites in the UK for Travelling people.”

“When they’re driving along, all them machines, this complete site rattles,” he says. “Now who else would put up with that? But if you complain, it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference. Nah, they’re Travellers, they can put up with anything.”

Gypsy and Traveller rights have been steadily stripped away under successive Conservative governments. The Caravan Sites Act 1968, which forced councils to provide sites, was repealed in 1994. The Housing Act 2004 requires councils to assess need and identify potential land for sites, but they aren’t held to actual provision of sites. When each site is so energetically resisted by locals, it’s hard to allocate the much-needed land. New eviction powers were brought in with the Anti-Social Behaviour Act in 2003.

And last year, the government

Pitch provision has not kept up with population growth, say charities

You can’t move onto the side of the road, you can’t move onto a site and you can’t move onto your own land. Where do you live? re-defined Travellers for planning purposes to exclude those who have permanently settled. “If you stop temporarily you’re ok, if you stop permanently you’re screwed,” explains Ruston.

The definition change has outraged campaigners, who say the

Number of caravans on public, private and unauthorised sites (England)

MORE ENFORCEMENT, LESS PROVISION 14000 12000 10000

1994

2003

Councils no longer obliged to provide sites, new eviction powers introduced

2017

Anti-Social Behaviour Act brings in further eviction powers

Gov’t redefines ‘Traveller’ to exclude those who no longer travel & councils across UK start to apply for anti-Traveller injunctions

8000

Private Public

6000 4000 2000 0

Unauthorised 1979

1984

1989

1994

1999

2004

2009

Source reference: Gypsies and Travellers, Commons Library Briefing Paper no. 08083, 8 May 2018

2014

2017

government is trying to legislate the race out of existence. Also, it officially reduces the number of Gypsies and Travellers in a local authority and therefore the stated need. Councils across the country are reassessing need so they can reduce the number of sites they have to plan for.

“Generally speaking, councils have used it as an excuse to cut, cut, cut,” says Ruston. Bristol hasn’t redone its needs assessment since 2013-14, so it remains to be seen whether it will use actual or official numbers.

The crackdown The government has responded to the rise in unauthorised encampments by launching a consultation into increasing enforcement powers - with calls to make trespass a criminal offence - while local authorities across the country are applying for High Court injunctions to ban Travellers from whole areas.

So far, 21 local authorities have got anti-Traveller camp injunctions. In local authorities with an injunction order, anyone staying on council land could be fined, imprisoned or have their property seized if they don’t leave. An injunction makes it easier and faster for a council to evict because it takes away their obligation to conduct welfare checks. It also skews the figures and reduces the accommodation

the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

Nationally, 16% of caravans are on unauthorised sites - still a tiny percentage of the Gypsy and Traveller population - and unauthorised encampments appear to be on the rise in Bristol and South Gloucestershire. It leads to inevitable tensions with local residents.

Charities say it’s because there aren’t enough council sites and getting planning permission for private sites is difficult.

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needs of Gypsies and Travellers in a local authority simply by reducing the numbers, allowing a council to avoid making further provision.

Conservative Councillor for Stoke Bishop, John Goulandris, wants Bristol to follow suit. In September last year he failed to persuade the council to get its own injunction and to join the campaign to criminalise ‘deliberate trespass’.

“Technically there is nowhere for anybody to go now is there?” says Davies-and-Smith. “You can’t move onto the side of the road, you can’t move onto a site and you can’t move onto your own land. Where do you live?”

Not in my backyard While councils have difficulties finding and getting approval for new sites, Gypsies and Travellers who buy land also struggle to get planning permission granted.

There are obvious logistical barriers: land is too expensive in Bristol and outside of the city it may

be greenbelt, an area of outstanding beauty, or a flood risk.

The real battle begins once a suitable site is found. “It’s a surprise if a local authority grants planning permission without a fight,” says Willers. Locals invariably mount protests. Objections can be aggressive and are often effective, “particularly at the first instance level, where councillors can be quite concerned about their future as councillors and want to ensure that they don’t upset the voters”.

“It’s hard, for the simple reason that they do not want Travellers around them,” says Lynne.

Larry Harvey, a prison chaplain and Romany Gypsy who lives on his own land in Yate, has experienced this prejudice first-hand. He bought land in 1999. “I went and did it all legally, properly, didn’t move on it, did the planning permission.”

they didn’t want Travellers in the area and several came to his gateway with placards to protest his planning application.

“It was kind of personal.

Somebody… said, ‘set them out, move them on’ and I thought, ‘well you don’t even know who I am, you don’t know my circumstances.’”

Most of his neighbours don’t have anything to do with him now.

Harvey says he’s used to it.

“I’ve always had it. How I feel sometimes is that when I’m working in the prison, I’m respected as being a prison chaplain but when I leave there and I come home I’m classed as something else”.

There’s another housing crisis going on, and you probably won’t have heard of it because it’s one that only affects Gypsies and Travellers, and they don’t tend to get reported on, unless it’s to complain about an unauthorised encampment. And then the talk is about enforcement and doesn’t touch upon any of the underlying issues. It’s just another case of GRT issues being pushed further and further down the agenda - unless it affects settled people.

The main problems came when he applied to put an extra caravan on the land for his daughter. His neighbours put up posters saying

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17

VOICES

My scarf, my choice In a world where the hijab is seen as an ‘oppressive tool’ against Muslim women, why do I feel so empowered?

WORDS MAHEERA ZUBAIR ILLUSTRATION MARISSA MALIK marissa-malik.com

I

The term ‘hijab’ literally means ‘partition’ or ‘curtain’. However, for countless hijabis across the globe, the hijab represents a deeper meaning. The hijab is not a symbol of oppression, rather a symbol of modesty and a statement that my outward appearance is not everything. The hijab challenges me to become the truest, the most raw form of myself. Many think we cover to protect ourselves, but in reality we cover to empower ourselves. Some women feel liberated nude, and others when they’re covered. In short, the hijab is my tool of liberation from this world’s harsh beauty standards and the oversexualisation of women.

When I wear the hijab, it forces people to go beyond my looks and see me for who I truly am. It acts as a filter for people who will judge me based on the fact that I do wear the hijab. It sparks conversations about my faith. That’s when I can act as an ambassador of my faith and show people that, no, I am in fact NOT a crazy terrorist but I’m just like you, waiting for the next episode of Grey’s Anatomy! At times, it can be hard to

your side! I’m against these attacks!”

You’re forced to condemn the attack multiple times—as if you’re responsible—and apologise for ‘your peoples’ actions. Funny, because I don’t associate these ‘terrorists’ with my people, who are forbidden to hurt spiders even!

navigate this personally as a women of faith, especially when the media demonises Islam 24/7.

Debunking misconceptions — am I oppressed?

I am not oppressed, I choose to wear my hijab everyday! The choice was mine alone—my family did not pressure me, neither did society. If anything they were quite worried about my decision due to all the Islamophobic attacks they’d seen reported and circulated on social media. During times of attacks carried out by ‘Muslims’ they would tell me to wear a beanie or a hoodie, rather than clothes that would distinguish me as a Muslim, in fear of the backlash. I am also the first person to study abroad in my extended family. My father gave me full liberty to choose where to pursue my education and encouraged me to attend a world-

I had to unlearn my internalised racism, rather than avoiding it class university.

Real oppression begins when you deprive someone of choice. So yes, forcing someone to wear the hijab is oppression. But then again, forcing them to take it off is also oppression.

I don’t, however, want to take away the fact that some women are oppressed, and are at times forced to wear the hijab.

Does my hijab inhibit integration?

At times, wearing the hijab can be alienating, especially during attacks attributed to ‘Muslims’. You’re filled with sorrow and empathy. But then something crazy happens: your community gets blamed for the attack. Inside you scream, “I’m on

As I slowly realised, the only thing that prevented me from integrating with everyone was my preset prejudice against myself: I had set limits on myself. I had to change my mindset, starting with regaining my self-confidence. I ended up taking a lot of leadership roles, including seven roles at the university, two of which were the secretary for the BME Network and International Student Ambassador. I even managed to push myself by running for Students’ Union elections. From my experience, I had to unlearn my internalised racism, rather than avoiding it.

In a world of mad consumer trends, where we are constantly worried about keeping up with the latest fashion trends, I find it powerful that women can let go a part of their ‘beauty’ and find trust and happiness in their timeless statement piece, the hijab. My Muslim identity combined with my hijab enriched my university experience, it did not restrict me but encouraged me to break glass ceilings, empower my peers and form meaningful friendships.

Maheera is a final year Accounting & Finance student at the University of Bristol where she is deeply involved in the student community. She was also featured on the BME Powerlist 2018, which celebrates the 100 most influential BME people of Bristol.

the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

t’s Wednesday, 9.45am, and I’m walking to my lecture. As I pass the Triangle I see another hijabi. We smile at each other.

The next Wednesday, 9.45am, I see the same woman. We exchange smiles and salams (meaning ‘may peace and blessings be upon you’).

At that moment, our similarity, the hijab, united us and established such a pure connection between us. And so, I wonder, in a world where the hijab is seen as an ‘oppressive tool’ against Muslim women, why do I feel so empowered? Why do I wear it?

What does the hijab mean to me?

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FEATURE

‘The worst benefit ever’: universal credit and the people on the sharp end the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

The government says its flagship welfare reform has been working well for most, but people we spoke to told a very different story WORDS ALEX TURNER ILLUSTRATION FRAN HOOPER francescahooper.net

O

n a Wednesday morning shortly before Christmas, customers at East Street’s Refresh cafe include an apprentice carpenter, a mother caring for two disabled adult children, a self-employed engineer and a chef, off work recovering from serious injury.

Nothing unusual there for a Bedminster coffee shop, you’d probably be right in thinking.

But on this dull December day, these people are not here to relax over breakfast but to restock bare cupboards via the small food bank the Christian charity running Refresh operates from a door at the back.

Most say they have been referred here because of money problems relating to universal credit.

As the Cable went to press, an MPs’ vote on plans to move three million benefit claimants onto the controversial new system, which rolls a series of traditional benefits into one monthly payment, was put on hold.

The move by work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd followed years of mounting evidence pointing to extreme hardship suffered by universal credit claimants, who must wait five weeks for their first payout. MPs and campaigners had also warned of a “catastrophic” impact on claimants with severe disabilities, who stand to lose hundreds of pounds a month due to premiums axed under the new system.

it has been the default option for most people making a new claim in south and central parts of the city – and has since been expanding to other areas.

‘Real impact’ on people’s lives

In recent months critical reports have continued to pile up, including a BBC investigation that found council tenants on universal credit typically have double the rent arrears of those still on ‘legacy’ housing benefit.

Several advice agencies and food banks contacted by the Cable in late 2018 say it’s still too early to draw definitive conclusions on how universal credit is affecting people in the city. It’s a cautious stance mirrored by the council despite some worrying figures (see box) – though another major landlord, housing association United Communities, tells us some tenants have been waiting months for payments.

In Bristol, universal credit was introduced during 2015 but restricted to single people with simple claims. From June 2018,

But at Refresh, cafe manager Vera Hill, who dishes out cups of tea to those waiting for a food parcel, says universal credit is having a

“real impact” on people’s lives in south Bristol. Her friend’s son, she adds, waited 14 weeks for his first payment.

“It’s a sad state of affairs when a cook doesn’t have food in his kitchen” “It’s the worst benefit ever,” is the verdict of Nathan, a 40-year-old chef recovering from a serious injury. “It’s a sad state of affairs when a cook doesn’t have food in his kitchen.”

Like several people we speak to, Nathan says universal credit – which he’s been on for two years – is one among many sources of financial stress.

19

He says a stop put on his claim because of IT problems set him off on the wrong foot in the wake of his accident. More recently, he adds, he has been sanctioned by the jobcentre after missing an appointment due to the effects of prescription medication – and he now owes £700 to his private landlord.

IT system has been ‘a nightmare’ Others at the food bank say they’ve struggled with universal credit’s digital-first nature.

Claimants must communicate with Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) staff via an online system called the ‘journal’.

“The IT system has been a nightmare, I’m dyslexic and not all of us have got access to a computer – it’s a running joke,” adds 50-year-old Angela.

“I’ve had to sell my stuff and have no heating or electric” For engineer Nanak, 46, who is in arrears with the council that have already landed him in court, and is not currently working because of health problems, the home situation is grimmer. He says the unexpected arrival of a sick payment messed up his universal credit claim. “I’ve had to sell my stuff and have no heating or electric,” he says, worried about what may come next.

Since the summer, she adds, the time spent by Talking Money’s benefits team dealing with universal credit issues has been rising. One common problem is people not being told they need to claim council tax reductions from the council separately from their universal credit, meaning they fall into debt. The journal also continues to trip up people who are less IT-savvy or can’t get online. “[Within the journal] are all these different places you’re supposed to click through, so if you miss a button that says, for instance, ‘accept commitment’, your payment won’t be released until you do so,” Ioannou says. “If you don’t know how to manage your claim online, you’re in trouble.”

Talking Money has routes where people can raise issues with the DWP, Ioannou goes on. But she says patchy or inconsistent advice is still being given too often.

One example she mentions relates to DWP staff not knowing that claimants can give consent to advice workers to discuss their situations – potentially blocking vital conversations. Another is around jobcentre workers being insufficiently aware of claimants’ health conditions – which Ioannou says has led her to accompany clients to appointments to ensure they get an adequate service.

Meanwhile deductions from people’s payments of up to 40% – which can relate to advances given to cover the initial waiting period, as well as to previous debts – leave some with “not enough to survive on”, she adds.

‘Big adjustments’

‘Miss a button, you’re in trouble’

Visiting Temple Street a few days later, the Cable meets Lucy Martin, the DWP’s partnership manager for Bristol and North Somerset. What does a DWP employee think of these concerns?

Across town at Old Market’s Talking Money advice agency, financial inclusion officer Michelle Ioannou says she’s unsurprised by the experiences of

Martin acknowledges that getting to grips with complex claims and new processes has been a “big adjustment” for staff whose remits previously focused on job

seeking advice. She also concedes that at times when “the pressure is on”, staff may not be looking at claimants’ journals as often as they might – though she says all customers should be getting a response within 24 hours.

But Martin insists universal credit has been a success in Bristol and “in the main works well for people”.

Digital skills are “lacking in some communities, so that presents problems around accessing and maintaining accounts,” she says. But Martin adds that support provided at Temple Street by Bristol council (soon to transfer to the Citizens Advice Bureau), and by housing associations to their tenants, coupled with internet availability

at libraries and job centres, mean people should be able to manage their claims.

“This is a massive change to the welfare system – we have new staff in service centres, and have only just completed rolling out universal credit [for new claimants] nationally,” Martin says. “The next 12 months will be a time for us to continue working with our partners, picking up issues so we have the best system we can have.”

Time will tell whether that is enough to stop universal credit driving more people to use Bristol’s food banks during 2019.

Reporting on universal credit continues on thebristolcable.org

ARREARS FEARS Many people on universal credit who the Cable interviewed at Bedminster’s Refresh food bank were worried about rent arrears.

Between December 2017 and December 2018, Bristol City Council, the city’s biggest landlord, saw its overall arrears bill drop by over £400,000. But the amount owed by people on universal credit grew by £138,137 in the same period.

More strikingly, data from the council revealed that, as of December 2018, the average level of arrears for tenants claiming universal credit was £944.15 – getting on for double the £525.33 of tenants in arrears but not on universal credit.

A council spokesperson said that because many tenants will have had rent arrears before being transferred to the new benefit, these worrying figures do not necessarily tell the whole story.

Since summer 2018 the Cable has been tracking universal credit’s impact in Bristol. This article marks six months since it became the standard option for people making benefit claims across much of the city. With many large agencies cautious of calling the effect it’s having, we interviewed people at the sharp end of food poverty – many of whom were already being hit hard by the controversial benefit.

WHY I WROTE THIS ALEX TURNER

the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

She’s a mum to two adults with severe autism whose support packages have been cut – forcing her to use food banks previously.

Cracking a wry smile, she says her sons “eat a lot” and that she’s hoping the food bank will tide them all over until her first payment.

people visiting Refresh.

the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

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Mouth to mouth resuscitation // Pride 2018

Love in leathers // Weston-super-Mare

Denim = ÂŁ5, Love = Priceless // Weston-super-Mare

Aye aye, sailor // Spike Island

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LUVVERS IN BRISTOL Some snaps of beauty amid the bullshit WORDS AND PHOTOS COLIN MOODY

S

o here we are. It’s 2019. Let’s take our minds off the looming B-word, the Donald and everything else for just a minute as we look at love among this wintry political wilderness.

the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

Here are six snapshots of what life is really all about. It’s not all the talk of separation, division or broken union – it’s about the connections we form. The ways we care for one another really matter, right here, right now.

I’ve been documenting events for the Cable and other magazines in this city for a good while now, and what I have noticed is that when the time is right, when the mood is good, even in some of these trying times, we come together.

And we share.

Love. It’s more than a four-letter word. It might not be a lot in this vast empty universe. But it’s a lot of what we’ve got, so lets make it happen.

Whatever that is. Together.

Captain Jamaica blesses this wedding // St Pauls

A bit of jazz and company to warm the soul // The Old Duke, Welshback

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22

INVESTIGATION

How two women were failed.

And how they fought back.

Meet Jen and Sarah, who took on failings and adversity with the help of strangers

WORDS ADAM CANTWELL-CORN ILLUSTRATION JAZZ THOMPSON jsthompson.wixsite.com/jasminethompson

the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

T

he chanting crowd outside the council offices on Temple Street fell silent. All attention turned to a man who had walked out of the hulking building followed by two security officers. It was Paul Sylvester, the council’s head of Housing Options. He had come to face two survivors of domestic abuse and demonstrators organised by ACORN, the community union.

A brief exchange ensued and the women and union representatives walked back into the building to begin negotiations.

This was the first display of a hidden but public failing that had left two survivors facing the streets. And the first action in a campaign for justice and accountability.

A private company, a public failing The matter at hand was the dire failures in the provision of domestic violence safe houses and the women whose lives were affected.

The council had been made aware of complaints about the quality of service

by Within Safe Hands, a private company running safe houses in the city, since at least November 2017.

In fact, a gap in procedures and regulations had meant that Within Safe Hands was able to receive women fleeing abusive relationships without any oversight.

accreditation scheme. After the takeover, Women’s Aid conducted no checks on the standards of service or assessments of Within Safe Hands’ ability to support vulnerable women.

Having taken over properties from a previous safe house provider, Within Safe Hands had inherited membership status with Women’s Aid, through their voluntary

Jen and Sarah (names have been changed), and other women in the safe houses, soon found themselves in a nightmare of incompetence and lack of support.

The company was simply featured on Women’s Aid’s site as a reputable provider of services. It was on this basis alone that Sarah referred herself into their care, and Jen was referred on by the local charity commissioned by the council, Next Link.

“I knew this was going to hit the papers sooner or later” While things had appeared a bit iffy and chaotic as soon as Sarah arrived in December 2017, the level of poor practice became clear in February 2018. Having not had any support for the first six weeks, one day she was abruptly told by Laura Brace, Within Safe Hands manager, sole employee and company director, that she would be meeting her support worker.

Although delayed, Sarah was happy.

She was soon met with disappointment.

“Laura opened the door and she and the support worker introduced

themselves on the doorstep. I’m sat there thinking, ‘this is my new support worker and you haven’t actually met her?’”.

No interview, nothing. Sarah even found out later that the support worker’s DBS had yet to be returned.

The support worker didn’t last long.

Three months in, Sarah had no support and felt cut adrift.

Stories like this matched a pattern of mismanagement and poor practice. An enthusiastic prospective volunteer told the Cable she was quickly deflated when after a 20 minute meeting with Brace in Eastville Tesco, her emails went ignored for weeks.

A real and direct alternative - Join the Cable! thebristolcable.org/join Then she was sent the name and address of a survivor and asked to go visit. The volunteer hadn’t been inducted into any policies, given any training or had her DBS processed but had now been given personal information on a vulnerable young woman.

Jane, a third woman who spoke to the Cable for this investigation, also stayed at a Within Safe Hands safe house at a different period to Sarah or Jen, but the situation was the same. In an emotional interview, Jane described the “systematic cancellation of appointments” and a total lack of support. In many ways, Jane said, her stay at Within Safe Hands was “more abusive than what I was fleeing from, as I’m being let down by someone I’m meant to be getting support from”.

“Every day you wake up in this environment, and it’s a waste. You just want to get on with your life, work and be back in the community.”

“I did feel almost coerced into signing the letter” While Jane had gratefully moved on, Jen and her five year-old child were still there. They had been at the safe house for a year by that point. And things were about to take a turn for the worse.

Due to mounting complaints and allegations of bullying from women, a multi-agency investigation under the Care Act 2014 was conducted, which was completed in February 2018.

“I was furious.

Such a shocking disregard for these women’s safety.”

The Cable is currently fighting the council to disclose the investigation report. So far the public have been denied transparency. However, the council have confirmed “the outcome identified a need for help with rehousing and the continued involvement from appropriate support agencies”. At the same time, the council had determined that Within Safe Hands did not qualify

The money supply was cut and a need for support and rehousing was identified but no further action was taken.

In a letter seen by the Cable, two days after the council completed their report, Laura Brace notified the women that the rent was increasing.

Simultaneously, Brace presented the women with a pre-written letter to be signed and sent to the council appealing the decision to not award extra funds.

The letter detailed the extensive support and care provided to the women by Within Safe Hands. All of which is patently untrue, according to Jen and Sarah. Having already had a guts full for many months, Jen refused to sign the letter. Sarah had recently arrived and was just trying to keep her head down. Hopeful for a turnaround, she signed the letter.

“I did feel almost coerced into signing the letter,” she tells me now with regret.

Soon after, with the situation unlikely to improve, increasingly worried, stressed and pissed off, Sarah and Jen decided to do something about it.

They secured a meeting with council officers via Kerry McCarthy, MP for Bristol East. The council asked for their complaints to be written up so they could be forwarded to Women’s Aid. The council, facing down devastating austerity, a raging housing crisis and the south-west’s huge shortage of safe house spaces, found a way to shirk yet another responsibility; as Within Safe Hands was not a commissioned service funded by the council, it was treated as merely a house-share between private tenants.

In May, the council received a series of serious complaints to be forwarded on to Women’s Aid. For reasons unknown this didn’t happen for a further two weeks.

In a letter to all resident women, a Women’s Aid senior employee informed them that Within Safe Hands’ membership had been revoked and said, “I am so sorry to hear about the lack of support and the bullying you have experienced

while living at Within Safe Hands”.

Unfortunately for Sarah, Jen, her child and the other women at the house, they had been served with an eviction notice by Within Safe Hands.

The safe house was closing and they had 28 days to find somewhere else to live.

“So why the hell was I put in there?”

The council declared the eviction notice legally invalid and advised the women to stay put. However, the decision to close the safe house marked yet another downturn. By mid-July, they had received a second eviction notice and any remnant of organisation had evaporated.

Unknown men were in and out of the house. Sarah and Jen felt increasingly unsafe.

“48 hours after the meeting, a crowd had gathered outside the council offices on Temple Street” “I contacted every person, to say ‘We’re meant to be in a women’s refuge, we’ve got random men inside and right outside the house,” says Sarah, who keeps a meticulous diary and record of all correspondence and documentation. “So I emailed Laura Brace, just to cover my back really, I knew she’s probably not gonna do anything as it’s closing and she didn’t care.”

At this point, Sarah requested a crisis worker from Next Link, the councilcommissioned provider of domestic violence services. She also told the council about the situation.

No reply was received from Brace or Next Link. The council reiterated that her residence at the safe house was in fact a private tenancy and therefore was not a matter in their control or concern.

“I thought OK, so I’ve come in on the premise that this is a safe house, it’s been crap anyway. And now it’s closing, and council say it’s a tenancy,

not really a safe house, so why the hell was I put in there?”

The instability was beginning to take its toll on Jen and her child, too. “This is meant to be my recovery phase, but I’ve gotten worse in the 18 months I’ve been there,” she said at the time.

“I was on 20mg of antidepressants, now it’s gone up to 150mg plus other medication.”

“Suddenly you’ve got all these people listening” Sarah was detailing her woes to a friend, when they suggested getting in touch with ACORN. The community union had helped her out in a dispute with her landlord.

Sarah and Jen met the Bristol organiser for ACORN, Anny Cullum. After an energetic meeting, a campaign was underway, and for the first time Sarah felt supported.

“Suddenly you’ve got all these people listening, I’ve got all these people saying, ‘Oh my god, this is really crap, what you’re going through is really crap and we’re going to try and do something.’”

48 hours after the meeting, a crowd had gathered outside the council offices on Temple Street and the women and several appointed members were inside.

“That was quite extraordinary actually,” says Anny, of being invited to the table at this point. “Normally the whole point of doing any action is to bring the target to negotiating table through public pressure. That worked immediately.”

Inside the conference room, the women and the ACORN members reiterated the main campaign demands: 1) Permanent and safe rehousing immediately, 2) Place Sarah at the appropriate band for domestic violence survivors on Home Choice, the council house waiting list, 3) Remove the £8,000 debt that was being charged to Jen for alleged housing benefit overpayment, 4) As a result, reinstate Jen on Home Choice, and 5) Finally commit to investigate how policies in the city had led to the use of unvetted and unregulated services like Within Safe Hands.

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Leaving our conversation, Jane said “I knew this was going to hit the papers sooner or later”.

as a supported housing provider and was not eligible for funding.

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The council replied in the next few days agreeing to all their demands, except rehousing the women and putting Jen on the council house waiting list – because she owned a dilapidated property, even though her abuser knew the address.

From this point, a flurry of campaign activity got underway. Weekly meetings, back channel lobbying of councillors and research into domestic violence and housing policy.

An email chain quickly grew to over 200 emails of discussion. A second demonstration was organised outside City Hall and questions were raised

by Green councillor Carla Denyer at a meeting of all councillors.

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Labour councillor and cabinet member Paul Smith then committed to chasing up the issue. Several further letters were exchanged to try to get a resolution.

A few weeks into the campaign things felt like they were beginning to move, after months of no progress. This presented mixed feelings for Sarah.

“At first I was like, yeah that’s really good, then I was like, why the hell didn’t you do that before?”

“We just refused to leave” In a letter on 13 September, Sylvester, the council’s head of Housing Options told ACORN and the women that “There is no immediate threat of homelessness” due to the eviction notice from Within Safe Hands.

Fifteen days later the women received court papers from Within Safe Hands that the eviction was proceeding. The campaign kicked up a gear. The council were informed but could not make contact with Laura Brace of Within Safe Hands to determine their intentions.

At court in October, with a lowkey presence of ACORN members in solidarity, something shocking was discovered. The women’s full names were displayed on the public listings board. Within Safe Hands should have notified the court about the sensitivity of the case, and the women should have been offered a separate entrance.

“I was furious,” says Anny. “Such

a shocking disregard for these women’s safety.”

The women and ACORN members decided to march to and occupy the council’s Temple Street offices.

Immediate safety was now a key concern. “We just refused to leave, until Paul Sylvester came to speak to us,” Anny said.

“As a result of this case” The council found temporary housing for Sarah that afternoon. It took a further campaign of 200 emails from supporters to Paul Sylvester’s inbox for Jen and her child to be placed in appropriate family accommodation that wasn’t a hostel. With ACORN members providing transport and security Jen and Sarah left the safe house for good that evening, which Anny says, “Seemed like quite a harrowing experience, because it would be like having to flee again”.

Anny is frustrated that it had to take all of this to get it sorted; a year after the council first knew that Within Safe Hands was not a safe or appropriate provider. “It really shows that direct action works... but it has been pretty full on.”

Along with a huge amount of frustration, distress and dead ends, a campaign that put survivors at the forefront had eventually forced what could be called a positive outcome.

In mid-December the council eventually told the Cable the investigation had just begun.

Although denying responsibility for such services a spokesperson said, “As a result of this case we will be carrying out a review that will look at what can be done” to ensure non-commissioned services are safe and appropriate.

The review, which is set to take about three months, will also extend to places like Wick House, the homeless hostel where multiple failings have been identified amid a string of deaths.

Following this case, Women’s Aid have since changed their accreditation processes but recognise a wider change is needed to close the gaps in policy that allow organisations like Within Safe Hands to operate. A spokesperson for

Photo: Jon Hardy

the charity said, “We are currently campaigning for the proposed domestic abuse commissioner to have statutory powers to provide national oversight and monitoring of domestic abuse services.”

Now sitting in her freshly painted council house, Sarah is relieved and happy. But also angry that this all happened. “I had all these plans, to get back to work, to do training, but with all this stuff on…” she trails off.

The Cable tried to contact Laura Brace several times but didn’t receive a response.

“I think someone from outside needs to come in and look into this properly.

Who’s regulating these places?”

“Marching along as a team and making a difference”

“I will never get a full explanation into why our abusers treated us the way they did. I will just have to learn to live with that. But the professionals and services have a duty of care. We deserve an explanation and answers into how we have been failed by multiple services.”

Jen and her child are still battling to get permanent housing but appreciate how far they have come, and have a message for those who stood by her, “I truly believe that we wouldn’t have got this far without your help. So thank you very much and let’s still keep marching along as a team and making a difference.”

When she’s ready, Sarah intends to work in a support role in women’s safe houses.

I followed this story from as soon as I was initially tipped off. It became clear that this was not just a story of the immediate failures, or the real life consequences of austerity, but also one of hope.

A story of how two women refused to be victimised and fought back with the committed help of strangers, to better their own situation and that for others.

WHY I WROTE THIS ADAM CANTWELL-CORN

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WE DON’T JUST REPORT BIG ISSUES Ever y mont h we h os t pu b lic eve nt s w h i c h l o o k behind t h e h e ad lin e s . We t alk toget h e r to get to gr ips w it h t h e re al is s u e s b e h in d s to r i e s , how we s h ou ld re port on t h e m , an d w h at we c an d o ab ou t it .

That’s ju s t on e way t h at ou r re port ing i s mo re t ran s pare nt an d collab orat ive .

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FEATURE

Inside a Bristol warehouse is a vast history of women’s fight for rights The Cable explores the present day relevance of the Feminist Archive South WORDS LORNA STEPHENSON PHOTOS FEMINIST ARCHIVE SOUTH

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n a Bristol warehouse, there’s an archive of feminist activism dating from 1960 to 2000 which takes up nearly 200 metres of shelf space.

Established 40 years ago when no other institution was collecting feminist materials, Feminist Archive South (FAS) is one of the most extensive and significant archives of feminist resources in the country.

Based for the last 10 years at Bristol University, the archive is pored over by activists from around the world, along with researchers, journalists and students. The range and depth of the material collated is vast, containing everything from posters and banners to magazines, personal papers and meeting minutes to oral histories.

It provides key insights into

the explosion of what’s known as the second wave of feminist organising during the 1970s and 1980s, when local groups sprung up to support the Women’s Liberation Movement, and direct action was widespread. Women radically organised on issues such as violence against women, reproductive rights and unpaid labour, rights for sexual minorities and for peace. For many, women’s liberation was a whole lifestyle.

For example, women in the early 70s in Bristol set up the first women’s centre from the basement of the house of activist Ellen Malos. From the centre they held meetings and provided pregnancy testing and it functioned as an ad-hoc domestic violence refuge.

After two years of campaigning, the group had established three

houses and Bristol Women’s Aid was born.

Speaking to trustees, the Cable found that the archive is still very much a living, breathing resource.

It has immense value to feminist political organising today, as we continue to grapple with many of the same issues: male violence in the wake of #MeToo, the gender pay gap, the preservation of the essential services now threatened by austerity set up by the women’s movement, such as refuges... The list goes on.

Learning from past informs the future of feminism Dr Finn Mackay, a lecturer at UWE, who has extensively researched feminist activism from the 1970s on, has made much use of the archive. Now

a trustee, her connection began many years ago when volunteering with the sister archive, the Feminist Archive North.

She’s eager to point out that the archive deals with very recent events.

“It’s very important we don’t forget that the second wave [of feminism]

“I’m much more of a feminist than I was before” is not history – a lot of women who were activists and organisers in the second wave are in their 50s and 60s and very much active in politics and activism today,” she says.

Mackay is herself a life-long feminist activist, founding the London Women’s Network and re-starting the Reclaim the Night marches

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in the 90s. She says one of the most interesting aspects of earlier organising, illuminated in the archive, was the commitment to non-violent direct action and the revolutionary nature of the movement.

“Returning to sources directly counteracts some of the stereotypes of that period of activism” Returning to sources directly also counteracts some of the stereotypes of that period of activism – that is was largely done by white, middle class and heterosexual women who lacked awareness of the impact of other oppressions such as class and race. That just “wasn’t the case”, says Mackay.

“That’s where the archive comes in, they too were having very visceral and lively conversations about inclusion and difference and power relationships between women.”

“We certainly need some of that information today and it would be foolish to throw away our history of political organising, we can’t afford to do that,” says Mackay.

On the road This theme of cross-generational learning was central to last year’s project Hatpins to Hashtags, which coincided with the archive’s 40th anniversary as well as the centenary of some women getting the vote.

For the project, FAS took the archive on the road, to south west towns Glastonbury, Weston-superMare, Taunton, Bridport and Plymouth. Alongside an exhibition of posters, FAS ran workshops for young women, digital democracy training, talks, events, and launched collaborations.

“It’s been amazing, we’ve involved something like 2,600 people,” says Dr Sue Tate, a researcher at UWE and a trustee of the archive who was involved in Hatpins to Hashtags.

“The feedback has been great, people saying ‘I didn’t know about this, I’m going to be more active’... ‘I’m much more feminist than I was before’.”

She also points out that there was “a very healthy sense of crossgenerational connection” with older participants working with young women for workshops on digital democracy, for example.

It seems the dynamic posters that form the hallmark of the archive are as provocative today as they were when women first took them to the streets.

Much more than boxes in a warehouse, the Feminist Archive South provides a portal back in time from which feminists can learn, reflect and inform future organising.

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The lessons from the archive are therefore crucial for today’s movement: “We can return to the original sources - we can also reach those women who are still active and learn from them and ask them directly about what worked for them and what they learned while they were doing it through that so very volatile period.”

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OPINION

Our children’s future must not be built on sand If funding cuts continue nursery schools might not make it past next year WORDS MATT CALDWELL, Acting Headteacher, Ilminster Avenue Nursery School

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on’t you just play in the sand all day?” It’s a question people who work in nursery schools often get asked.

The reason it’s hard to rebuff such a question is because the work we do is so varied and subtle that it’s often hard for those on the outside to see.

We don’t just provide learning environments and a place in which to emotionally nurture very young people. Nurseries are social hubs and beacons in communities that have nothing else left in their locality, as service after service has been gutted by years of austerity.

We work with vulnerable families in vulnerable areas, we have expertise for children with special needs, and we give thousands of children in Bristol the best possible start in life.

But all this could be lost. In 2004, there were 800 local authority maintained nursery schools across England. Now there are fewer than 400.

“Our current underfunded position is only guaranteed to 2020 – and after that we drive off a cliff edge. Every single nursery school in Bristol could close” The current early years funding formula, years of central government underinvestment, and increasing cuts to local authority education budgets have put nurseries’ financial security – and their very existence – at risk.

In Bristol, just 12 local authority maintained nursery schools remain (Filton Avenue, Redcliffe, Hartcliffe, Rosemary, Ilminster Avenue, St Paul’s, Knowle West, St Philip’s Marsh, The Limes, St Werburgh’s Park, Little Hayes and Speedwell).

All are under threat.

The bare minimum Staffing structures have already been cut back to the bare minimum, safety and statutory staff-to-child ratios are maintained by the narrowest of margins, services offered to children and families have diminished, and staff are increasingly feeling the effects of stress.

This current, underfunded position is only guaranteed to 2020 – after which we drive off a cliff edge (a bit like another political scenario I can think of). The loss of our existing £59m supplementary funding would represent a 31% cut. Every single nursery school in Bristol could be forced to close.

This is why we’re launching a campaign headed up by the All Party Parliamentary Group on nursery schools and asking families, governors, local councillors and the wider Bristol community to sign a petition, which will be delivered to Parliament.

Every single nursery school in Bristol is rated as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, an achievement that’s unmatched in the city’s primary or secondary sector. Yet nursery education doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.

Detractors might say that there are plenty of other

private nurseries and childminders around – so what if a few old nurseries close down? I would agree that there’s a lot of quality childcare in Bristol, and I work closely and have positive relationships with many childminders and private, voluntary and independent nurseries.

Different class But nursery schools are different.

First, we’re judged by the same Ofsted criteria as primary schools and must hire qualified teachers and a head teacher, which provides a focus on learning, which in turn helps children do as well as they possibly can.

Second, we offer huge special needs expertise that supports growing numbers of children – it is common for 20% to 30% of children at Bristol nursery schools to have some form of special need.

This is another area of education where funding has been slashed, at least until last year when Bristol parents forced the council to reverse the cuts. We have developed a strong commitment to meeting these needs and have experienced practitioners, teachers and special educational needs coordinators.

A few weeks ago in my school, a family facing crisis was going to have the social care support they were receiving stopped. We put forward a good case that things were not going well, and argued that they still needed help. Two days later, the child didn’t turn up for school, so a member of my staff went round to the house and was let in by the three-year-old child. His mother was difficult to rouse, while a sibling was hiding in a bedroom.

What would have happened had my member of my staff not visited? Or if the child was no longer being looked over by social care? In the past year we have also seen two children moved into foster care, and have put the child at the centre of this process and advocated for them.

Empowering families We have also seen many cases of domestic abuse, but have signposted survivors to other services and run our own courses at school to empower the women who have been through this. We provide emotional nurturing for families who are mentally and emotionally exhausted and catch them before they slip further into dark places. No one else will replace this if we close.

So don’t just support your local nursery school – support all of them. Mine has been in existence since 1936 – when the staff could only be unmarried women, and the school inspector was a man in a black trilby and long greatcoat.

Their core purpose and ideal was the same back then though – social justice can only be achieved if you provide hope and empowerment.

I often wonder whether my school will see its 100th birthday. in fact, I wonder whether any nursery school will survive past 2020.

And by the way, we do still play in the sand. We just also happen to be trying to build the foundations of a future Bristol.

For more information: https://bit.ly/2BhQz7C or sign a petition at your nearest nursery school.

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SOLUTIONS

A safe fix for drug users and the city Saving lives and clearing needles off the streets: Bristol has the power to become the first UK city to set up a safe consumption room WORDS MATTY EDWARDS ILLUSTRATION ROSIE CARMICHAEL rosiecarmichael.com PHOTO NORBERTO FERNÁNDEZ SORIANO

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commissioners in North Wales, Durham and the West Midlands and MPs who have written to the home secretary, as well as the government’s official advisors, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), and Glasgow council, which has been pushing for one since 2016.

eagan Smith stops off at Greggs on her way to work in the city centre. Inside, she notices a middleaged woman with her belongings at her feet. After fiddling with something for a few minutes, she puts a needle in the bin, pats her arm and paces around, eyes rolled back.

alleyway. Instead they do it in a clean, safe environment. Drug consumption rooms (DCRs) are legal medical facilities where drug users safely take their illegal substances – particularly heroin and crack – with staff on hand if they overdose. They have been found to reduce deaths, make drug use safer, and clean up the streets of public injecting and used needles.

Teagan assumes this woman has just injected herself with drugs. Her reaction is shock, but also sadness for the woman, who needs support for her habit. She is just one of the many people who inject in public places because they have an addiction and nowhere safe to go, and Teagan is just one of a number of Bristolians I’ve spoken to who regularly witness the effects.

When I tell Teagan, 24, about the idea, she replies: “I completely agree with that. I think it’s a really positive solution.” She sometimes sees people sat on benches by the Harbourside injecting during her lunch break. “It’s really eye-opening. Half the reason people are homeless is they have this addiction and have nowhere else to go, so I think there needs to be a legal safe place.”

The government now accepts the public health arguments but remains opposed, saying the Misuse of Drugs Act needs to be changed. However, Cable research has found it would be legal to set up a DCR in Bristol if there was agreement between local stakeholders, including the council and police – in a similar way that allowed Bristol to become the first city to pilot drug safety testing outside a music festival.

Unlike in Bristol, in 66 cities around the world, drug users don’t have to take their drugs in public or down an

There aren’t any DCRs in the UK, but support for them is growing, including from police and crime

The council has done a feasibility study into whether Bristol could also become the first UK city to set up

a DCR, but has delayed its review.

The city’s main treatment provider, Bristol Drugs Project (BDP), has indicated to me that a DCR would reduce harm and they would support a pilot if it were funded by the city’s different stakeholders, instead of drug treatment budgets.

Making drugs safer Martin Powell is head of campaigns at Transform, the Bristol-based drug policy think tank. “Across the UK there are thousands of people injecting in the street – hundreds of them in Bristol,” he tells me.

“Most are homeless or live alone, lead chaotic lives, and we have not been able to get them into treatment because they are too hard to reach.

They are at great risk of dying from overdoses or catching infections like HIV and hepatitis C, or getting wounds from rushed injections in dirty environments.

Get involved in the Cable - events, media, membership! thebristolcable.org/join “Street injecting also creates problems for local communities – it is unpleasant to see, bad for businesses, can be off-putting to tourists, and leaves discarded needles with the risk of injuries for children,” he adds. “Safe consumption rooms are proven to help with all these issues.”

substitution therapy (OST), where users are prescribed medical heroin alternatives instead of facing the dangers of injecting. This option reaches around 2,000 people a year, but BDP estimates up to 4,000 injecting drug users need their services, meaning there are lots of vulnerable people not getting help.

“Half the reason people are homeless is that they have this addiction and have nowhere else to go, so I think there needs to be a legal safe place”

DCRs can tackle this by improving access to treatment, particularly for homeless people, who are less likely to be registered with a GP. DCRs are widely accessible so that people who aren’t able to engage with the current system can be connected with treatment.

One of many cities to have a DCR is Copenhagen, which opened a facility called Skyen in 2012. It has almost 6,000 registered users and offers eight seats for injecting drug users and six for smokers of hard drugs such as crack cocaine.

400 users come every day and are allowed 30-45 minutes.

At Skyen, there have been 800 overdoses but not a single death. In fact, despite millions of injections taking place in DCRs around the world, no-one has died from a heroin overdose. In Denmark, where there are five facilities in total, drug deaths fell by a third between 2011 and 2015.

Apart from overdose, another major health risk of injecting drugs is sharing needles and getting bloodborne viruses such as hepatitis C and HIV. There are an estimated 2,650 injecting drug users in Bristol, Gloucestershire and Somerset with hep C. BDP already offers various harm reduction initiatives, including a needle exchange, which handed out 635,000 clean syringes in 2018, so users can inject safely and not have to share. The main treatment for heroin users is opiate

For example, Skyen in Copenhagen costs about £1 million a year to run, but this is roughly how much it cost to treat drug users at the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) in 2015, according to council estimates.

Glasgow’s business case for a DCR found that a small group of 350 injecting drug users cost local hospitals and emergency services £1.7 million over a two-year period.

This is before you consider costs for the criminal justice system, other health services and social care.

Powell thinks the feasibility study done by Bristol council would show similar cost effectiveness, which is why any pilot should not be funded from existing drug treatment budgets, but by the different services set to save money from the DCR. Maggie Telfer, BDP’s chief executive, tells me: “A safe consumption room would provide an alternative which would undoubtedly reduce harm to individuals and communities.”

“With 25% funding reductions for drug and alcohol treatment services in the last three years, funding would need to come from a wide range of sources – health, police, business, all affected by people injecting in public settings – and

BDP would be keen to work with all others on a business case for a pilot project,” she says.

Another concern is that a DCR would bring drug use and dealing to the area. Powell says: “To be effective, DCRs have to be located where there’s an existing street injecting problem, and the street dealing that goes with it – so they do not create a problem, they reduce an existing one.”

In Bristol, this could be in Stokes Croft or St Pauls, where drug treatment services are already located and hard drug use is common. But it’s sometimes not easy to get everyone on-side. In the Republic of Ireland, DCRs were legalised in 2017 and a location has been found in Dublin, but the pilot has been delayed due to concerns from local businesses about antisocial behaviour and policing.

However, Powell says that DCRs are supported by the communities they are in once people see the benefits.

This means it is crucial to consult with the public – especially the Bristolians, like Teagan, who see the effects of drug use on a regular basis.

Even those who might not have a liberal view towards drugs may prefer it didn’t happen near where they live or work.

Cleaning up our streets In December, a sign appeared outside a block of flats on Dove Street near Stokes Croft, where needles are sometimes found. It read: “Don’t do drugs, it’s disgusting.

By a child who lives here.”

A resident of one of these blocks is Mike Stuart, 53, who has lived on the estate for10 years. Last winter, he stumbled upon a man lying on the floor at the top entrance to the

£1 MILLION The estimated cost of treating drug users at the BRI in 2015. Equal to the running costs of a large safe consumption room in Copenhagen.

the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

A central aim of DCRs is to prevent drug-related deaths, which have been at worryingly high levels in the UK for the last five years. In Bristol, there were 113 between 2015 and 2017.

After years of cuts to drug budgets, extra money is scarce. A DCR requires set up and running costs but research shows they save money in the long run by easing the burden on the criminal justice system and health services, who have to treat overdoses, blood-borne viruses, and injection-related harms.

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the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

estate. “This guy was not moving, and mumbling. I tried talking to him,” he tells me.

“It was bitterly cold and it wasn’t good to see someone lying on the floor. He wasn’t properly dressed. I tried to hold his hand, but it was like a block of ice. The ambulance people said it was happening all the time and it was taking up their time.”

In the past, Mike has heard of people shooting up in the stairs of another block, Armada House, and selling crack out of flats. Now things are a bit quieter but people still congregate down by the garages.

“You get people drinking and taking stuff. There’s a lot of homeless hostels around here, so people try and find a quiet spot.”

He supports current harm reduction initiatives, such as giving out clean needles, and thinks a DCR would be a helpful solution. “That’s a good idea, rather than treating people like they’re less than human and trying to make their life bearable.

The argument against is that you’re facilitating drug use, but it doesn’t go away, just like with criminalising it.”

The day before meeting Mike, I had been walking through Montpellier when I stumbled across a used needle in an alleyway. Reports of discarded needles are common in Bristol, and have been found in McDonalds toilets, children’s playgrounds and by Bristol Bridge.

Local poet Lawrence Hoo made

“Despite the millions of injections taking place in SCRs around the world, no-one has died from a heroin overdose” national news in 2017 after taking it upon himself to pick up needles in St Agnes Park. In the same year, four-year-old Tamara Lee-Smith pricked herself with a discarded needle on the Bristol to Bath cycle path and her mum Caroline had to wait for months checking for symptoms of HIV or hepatitis C. Last summer, volunteers had to sweep away needles from St Pauls Adventure Playground.

A few months ago, meanwhile, the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft installed a sharps bin for needles outside its building on Jamaica Street – also home to the Cable – because they were so often finding discarded needles.

According to data acquired through a Freedom of Information request by the Cable, there were 4,200 reports of sex and drugs litter - which includes needles, other drug refuse such as nitrous oxide canisters and condoms reported to Bristol Waste between April 2015 and 2018. That’s an average of four every day.

DCRs have proven to tackle this problem. For example, in Barcelona, a fourfold reduction was reported in the number of disposed syringes being collected from a monthly average of over 13,000 in 2004 to around 3,000 in 2012.

from the council and police. I know there are people in both who see the flaws in the current legal system.

They have been willing to go out on a limb when it comes to drug safety testing at music festivals, which may well have saved lives in Bristol.”

The power to save lives Bristol council has produced a feasibility study into whether a DCR would benefit Bristol, but the study is yet to be reviewed, even though Marvin Rees said this would happen in September 2018.

Niamh Eastwood, from drug information charity Release, tells me a DCR could operate following an agreement between local police and other stakeholders expressed by a ‘comfort letter’ – assurance that service users and staff will not be arrested or prosecuted.

I’ve been trying to find out for months about when the study will be published, but have got no concrete answers. A council spokesperson said: “Further investigation is taking place into the use of drug consumption rooms, to see if they could support the partnership’s wider substance misuse strategy.”

However, Sue Mountstevens, Avon and Somerset police and crime commissioner told me: “I believe that the use of drug consumption rooms is part of a wider national debate on the legalisation of drugs and I have always been clear it is up to the government to change the law regarding drugs and drugs policy.”

Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire has long been a supporter of DCRs, which she says would reduce the harm of injecting drugs and save money for the council, police and local NHS.

Powell says: “Some of the most marginalised, and voiceless people in Bristol are desperately in need of local political leadership on this issue.” He urged Marvin Rees and deputy mayor Asher Craig to join others in calling on the government to devolve powers to open a DCR to local areas, and to bring together all the stakeholders needed to deliver and fund a DCR pilot. This would ”save Bristol as a whole money, and people’s lives”.

“Bristol’s drug treatment room already exists – it is currently people’s stairwells, doorways and parks. Constituents often complain to me about this situation, especially when people leave needles and other litter where people may be harmed.

A drug treatment room would change this.”

“A DCR will have to have support

With early signs of support in the city, it’s now up to the council to publish its feasibility study and take the lead.

I have been covering drugs in the city for 18 months now, and I’ve seen how drugs affect vulnerable people at the margins of our society, but also what it does to the city as a whole. When a number of Bristol Cable members said at our October members’ meeting that we should be campaigning for safe consumption rooms, I set about finding out if we have the power in Bristol to do it – and we do. You can vote now on the next Cable campaign (page 3)

WHY I WROTE THIS MATTY EDWARDS

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34

FEATURE

How the air we breathe is a matter of equality

In Bristol’s inner city areas, residents produce less air pollution than wealthier suburbs – but suffer the worst effects.

What can be done to tackle the crisis?

WORDS ALEX DIGGINS ILLUSTRATION JOE WATSON-PRICE

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ristol’s air kills. Each year, nearly 300 premature deaths in the city are attributable to air pollution, according to a report commissioned by council and carried out by the independent organisation Air Quality Consultants in 2017. Traffic accidents, by contrast, claim just 12 lives a year. On average, a day spent on the streets of Bristol does as much damage as smoking between 1–2 cigarettes, and the same goes for babies, children and the elderly.

Air pollution does not affect the city’s citizens equally, though.

Instead, in Bristol, as with other parts of the country, it is the inner city neighbourhoods who pay the highest price.

Research by the University of the West of England, published in 2017, examined the link between poverty and exposure to air pollution.

It shows that Bristol’s wealthier commuter residents experience less air pollution than people in the inner city. Residents in central wards are, in effect, paying the price for commuters’ pollution.

Damning mortality rates This injustice can be clearly seen in Bristol’s mortality data. While air pollution accounts on average for 8.5% of all premature deaths in the city, according to the council’s report, in some poorer central wards that figure is nearly 11%. In Lawrence Hill, for instance, which is surrounded by busy throughroads, the mortality rate from air pollution-related illnesses stands

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at 10.8%. The ward also has the highest levels of childhood asthma in the city. By contrast, in the more affluent Westbury-on-Trym and Henleaze, the rate is 7.9%.

As may be expected, the central, more deprived wards have lower levels of car ownership. Households are less likely to own multiple cars, drive less, and typically have lower household emissions overall than wealthier areas.

Dr Jo Barnes, who led the study at UWE, said: “The differential between those who are generating the emissions, and those who are suffering from them is something we need to tackle very keenly.”

Solutions on the horizon?

So how can air pollution be effectively tackled? One idea that looks set to be adopted in Bristol is a Clean Air Zone (CAZ). This would lead to highly polluting vehicles (such as older diesels) being charged to enter the city centre. Through these charges, the council hopes to deter drivers and prevent illegal breaches of air quality limits.

Jerome Thomas, Green Party councillor for Clifton, is wary of pinning too much hope on a CAZ. “We’ve got to be much more ambitious about getting people out of cars. Currently, the city is excessively congested, and if we grow and car usage stays the same, it will be total gridlock. We need action on [public] transport now.”

CAZ’s are in some ways haphazard, imperfect solutions, but go some

A day spent on the streets of Bristol does as much damage as smoking between 1–2 cigarettes way in dealing with an urgent public health crisis. Some critics have pointed out that CAZ’s rely on widely-criticised emissions data. Under the council’s proposed plans, less polluting ‘Euro 6’ diesel engines and ‘Euro 4’ petrol engines will be exempt from charges. But as the infamous ‘dieselgate’ scandal showed, under real-world conditions car engines are far more polluting than manufacturers promise.

Indeed, some Euro 6 engines have been found to release up to eleven times more pollutants when on the streets than in laboratory conditions.

Bristol council is also considering other, more localised options to tackle air pollution from traffic. One proposal would see anti-idling zones introduced across the city, to prevent motorists from running their engines near especially vulnerable locations like schools and hospitals.

It is already illegal to idle, and motorists face a £20 fine if caught.

But councils have historically found it difficult to enforce. It is hoped the four pilot anti-idling schemes to be introduced by autumn 2019 – with a view to rolling them out across the city – will help to curb the practice, though.

Lib Dem Councillor Mark Wright celebrated the proposed zones as a victory against “those irresponsible

individuals who pollute our air and damage our health with their horrible, selfish laziness.” But Green Councillor Eleanor Combley warned that the proposals did not go far enough. “We need walking and cycling infrastructure and investment in public transport,” she said. “Give Bristolians a real alternative and free them from the stranglehold of the private car.”

Further inequalities A CAZ, however, might end up exacerbating inequalities. “Charging people [to enter the city centre] is all well and good,” said Simon Holmes, headteacher of St Philips Marsh Nursery School. “But unless you put in alternatives, it’s just going to create resentment. It will be a punitive measure for people who don’t have a choice.”

St Philips Marsh Nursery School is at the epicentre of the air pollution debate. It lies in an Air Quality Management zone, which means the council closely monitors pollutant levels in the area. St Philips Causeway roars close by and, Holmes admits, “People don’t even realise we’re here, they think it’s just an industrial estate.”

“Parents are very aware of air pollution,” Holmes says. “But we don’t see a plan to address these issues.” School policies do their part: car-sharing, staggered dropoff and pick-up times to reduce congestion, and walking and cycling are encouraged. But, Holmes points out, these initiatives are a drop in the ocean in comparison with what needs to be done.

The St Philips Marsh area is the site of frenzied property speculation.

Reams of planning applications, including for the much-touted Bristol Temple Enterprise Quarter, have been submitted. This regeneration is, Holmes notes, “the perfect opportunity to do something different. To provide a joined-up plan that looks at affordable housing, jobs, transport, education and green spaces.” But, he warns, “we need an integrated solution, and there’s little evidence of that currently.”

Rhetoric into reality Stuart Phelps, a core member of RADE, a local campaign group,

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74% 8.5% 300

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The percentage of nitrogen dioxide that is from local, man-made sources, over half of which being from local road traffic

The percentage of deaths in Bristol attributed to air pollution each year

The approximate number of deaths attributed to air pollution each year in Bristol the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

ZERO

The safe level of exposure to particulate matter - there is no safe level of exposure

agrees that bold, comprehensive plans are needed to tackle air pollution—including addressing inadequate public transport and poverty.

“There’s no use going to an area like Easton, and saying you’ve got to stop using cars. Because there’s no viable alternative,” he said. “Around here, we’ve got massive amounts of housing need. It’s impossible to think that’s going to be met without huge increases in traffic, unless something radical is done in terms of transport.”

Bristol’s better-off residents should be more conscious of their impact in the city, says

Phelps. He points to the example of wood burning stoves, which had virtually disappeared until becoming evermore fashionable in recent years (see page 36 for more on woodburners).

There’s room for optimism though.

Asked about the council’s pledge to make Bristol carbon neutral by 2030, Phelps is cautiously hopeful that this rhetoric might translate into more radical action against air pollution—and into solving the economic inequalities that underpin it. “It begins to start a conversation,” he said. “It’s very early days, but you can begin to link up people’s aspirations and their desire to see change.”

Nothing is more important than the air we breathe.

And it is no secret that Bristol’s air is filthy, and getting filthier. What is hidden, though, is the extent to which air pollution does not affect our fellow citizens equally. Simply put, the poorest suffer the most. I thought this injustice couldn’t – and shouldn’t – be allowed to continue to be unexamined and unheard. I sincerely hope it helps open the eyes and ears of those in power.

WHY I WROTE THIS ALEX DIGGINS

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36

OPINION

Wood burning stoves are deadly, not trendy Stuart Phelps argues that “poverty is the only excuse for burning wood in the city”

WORDS STUART PHELPS GRAPHIC BREATHE CLEAN AIR

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L

ast March we had a clean white blanket of snow, no traffic—but no fresh air because woodsmoke was way over World Health Organisation guidelines.

Technically, the 24-hour average of ultrafine particles (PM2.5) exceeded the 25 micrograms per cubic metre of air that the WHO sets as the maximum—by a large margin.

The finer the particles, the more damaging they are for human health, as they are able to pass from lungs into the rest of the body.

A small but growing group lit wood burning stoves and fires, adding to the pollution from the continent, and pushing us over a limit the WHO reckons we should only exceed three times a year. In March we were over for three consecutive days.

But Bristol had already exceeded the three day ‘target’ by the end of January.

So how many stoves caused this? No one really knows. The government estimates 7.5% of homes nationally are heated by

breathecleanair.ca

wood; locally the number may be higher. The effects are dramatic: the Air Quality Expert Group (a Defra Committee) has shown that the best, cleanest and most modern single stove, burning the best wood in laboratory conditions, produces the same amount of PM2.5 every hour as 18 new diesel cars or six new diesel lorries.

So next time someone wealthy enough to afford and install the latest and best eco-stove lights up, it’s like six HGVs driving up and down their street an hour every hour. That’s what the neighbours get. What about inside the house where everything is warm and cosy? In Copenhagen, they’ve measured their very best (least polluting) stoves: after one hour the pollution in the house is 3.5 times the most polluted street in the country.

If wood stoves were a new invention, they’d be banned. If mobile, they’d fail their MOT. And that’s the best stoves. Most homes with stoves, or burning wood in open fires, have

perfectly good central heating.

Look at house sale ads showing a ‘Defra’ approved stove—often there’s a radiator next to it. RADE (the campaign group of which I am a core member) suggests that if your home ‘benefits’ from a stove; paint it bright colours and grow a pot plant in it (an Aspidistra is a Victorian traditional).

“If wood stoves were a new invention, they’d be banned” Oh and by the way, burning wood in an open fire anywhere in Bristol is illegal (1993 Clean Air Act) and subject to a £1,000 fine every time you light up.

True, some of our friends and neighbours are poor and getting poorer every day, and no one (surely) expects them to freeze in winter. As RADE members Women of Smoke say, “Poverty is the only excuse for burning wood in the city”. But, seriously, everyone else can stop burning solid fuel, and immediately improve air quality. Thirty-eight percent of PM2.5 comes from domestic sources; only 13% comes from vehicles.

So why are PM2.5 particles so bad for us? They are one 30th the size of a human hair. Small enough to get from our lungs into our bodies.

Hannelore Bové (University of Hasselt) has found particles in the cells of most organs of the human body, including brains.

Young vulnerable children’s lungs, once damaged, stay damaged.

Medical studies are linking PM2.5 to Alzheimer’s, diabetes and heart disease as well as chronic breathing conditions like COPD. Wood smoke (PM2.5 soot) contains carcinogens also found in cigarette smoke. In

the ‘smokeless’ fumes of a modern ‘eco-friendly’ wood burner, Kåre Press-Kristensen (Danish Ecological Council) found 500,000 microscopic particles per cm3. The same equipment found fewer than 1000 particles per cm3 in modern trucks’ exhaust fumes.

We mustn’t overlook the links between wealth, aspiration, and desirable items like wood burning stoves. There isn’t space here to do justice to the issues of class, race and air quality or explore their connection to gentrification in areas like Easton and Lawrence Hill.

However, a few years ago you never smelt woodsmoke on the streets in winter, now you do all the time.

So, what can you do? Take RADE’s Bristol Pledge. It applies to organisations as well as people—and should help turn the tide of fashion.

Our MEP and three MPs were early adopters; many local councillors are taking the pledge, and local people and organisations are too.

So when you get home on a cold, wet miserable Friday night after a long week at work, think again before lighting up. Treating yourself to a pizza? Choose one that’s not cooked in a wood oven. Why? If a commercial pizza oven is equivalent to three of the best stoves (an underestimation), your order will set the equivalent of 18 HGVs running, probably outside the windows of a renter’s home (luxury flats tend not to have takeaways beneath them).

Those 18 HGVs run for about 50 hours a week over six nights, 52 weeks a year. The neighbours are forced to sleep in the air pollution produced cooking that pizza, and once inside it takes a lot longer to disperse than outside.

To find out more about the Bristol Pledge, see radebristol.com

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VOICES

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My hopes for Bristol’s scene in 2019 The writer, historian and curator on challenges and opportunities for the city’s arts WORDS EDSON BURTON

N

ecessity is the mother of invention, according to the famous phrase. One might say so is lust, greed, boredom, and paranoia, but let’s just take that phrase at face value and suggest as regards to Bristol it has a ring of truth. 2018 was a year of enforced reflection and reinvention for some of our major institutions.

Over the past few years the Arnolfini has quietly supported a number of organisations and collectives, such as Thorny, Creative Youth Network, Mandem and Don’t Tell Your Mother, to experiment, create and celebrate.

“Bristol is a whole made splendid by its parts. When those parts work together sparks fly,” The Architecture Centre has also been hit by cuts but last September’s Late Night Blues marks a possible move into live events that may bring in new audiences. Held in the former Marlon Thomas building in St Pauls, it was my attempt to recreate the blues parties popular among Britain’s Black population.

As sites disappear, as populations disperse—or are dispersed—from centres of generational settlement, celebrating how spaces were used will become an even more important part of remembering Bristol’s hidden histories. Art as reenactment and collective memory may also provide an accessible route into the complex discussions around urban space, place making and the social role of architecture. ​ Capital projects have also been the spur for an identity rethink with some surprising results. Colston Hall is taking its period of rebuilding to rethink its role. It is already a public space—under-utilised as such outside gig times. The name change is then just part of a much more thorough examination of mission and purpose.

The breathtaking new foyer of Bristol Old Vic has been part of a considered reimagining. The theatre has been at the forefront of driving new conversations. A number of original funders made their wealth from the transatlantic slave trade.

In trying to reconcile this fact, and the ongoing support from historic institutions with links to the slave trade, while making a commitment to inclusion and diversity, the theatre has undergone significant soul-searching.

The result of which has been the ambitiously titled Year of Change programme which has consisted of productions and initiatives signalling a new approach.

The City Conversations have been part of this, bringing together a broad cross section of Bristol to discuss inequality and its relationship to the transatlantic slave trade. Lively, rambunctious and occasionally

entertaining—if public hanging is your thing—they exposed the fault lines in the city.

‘Not another talking shop’ cried the naysayers, but each has been followed up with meetings bringing, for the first time, influential voices around the same table.

“I hope that 2019 brings some soul searching across the city about what we want to become,” New levels of connectivity Underlying these projects is a new level of connectivity between organisations and communities.

A practical demonstration of such connectivity was Frederick Douglass: An abolitionist returns.

A long-time admirer of the African American slave-cum-statesmen, I pitched the idea of dramatising his life as part of the Year of Change.

The promenade performance consisted of six public addresses based on extracts from speeches, letters and biographical writing by Frederick Douglass supplemented by my writing to drive home points of contemporary relevance.

The addresses were delivered at partnering venues with a link to the transatlantic slave trade—the Wesleyan Chapel, the Cathedral, Bristol University, the Seven Stars. On the walk between each venue, Bristol slavery historians and activists told Bristol’s transatlantic story.

Frederick Douglass: An Abolitionist Returns exemplified my conviction that the challenges of joint working,

inclusivity and power sharing are met through practice. A joint project of some risk energersies a process for sharing, modifying and adapting practices. This is how we discover what does and doesn’t work.

Last year gave me some reasons to be optimistic. If we can take forward the new connectivity into 2019, this city could begin to fulfil its extraordinary potential.

Culture can’t force government policy, create jobs or reduce reliance on benefits but it can help a city, a nation, to reimagine itself. Bristol is a whole made splendid by its parts.

When those parts work together, sparks fly.

But this optimism is tinged with sadness and concern for the precarious fate of artist-led organisations. Artists do not live on dreams, it’s hard to make work and to connect artists with communities without a base. The struggles of Hamilton House are a warning to the culture sector and beyond.

I remember when that artist-led initiative transformed the derelict building, and in doing so the entire area, into a sassy, strutting, funksoaked boulevard of dreams. I struggle to understand why, given its importance, more could not be done to support this and other organisations faced with closure.

I hope this year brings some soul searching across the city about what we want to become. Let us not absently allow what is among the best in us to wither and die. We require investment to build on and maintain our cultural ecology.

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The withdrawal of Arts Council funds has been a hammer blow for Bristol’s Arnolfini. Whilst its new director, the indefatigable Claire Doherty, has sought a new long-term deal for the organisation, it has also remodelled its offer to the public. The most profound experiment has seen the Arnolfini transformed into a vibrant hub where the public, creative and academic realms happily meet— simply by moving the library into the ground floor.

Creating spaces

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38

CELEBRATING THE CITY

FIXING NOT FAFFING

Bristolians are fighting loneliness and immigration raids, teaching kids to stand up to bullies and helping rough sleepers stay warm and fed WORDS HANNAH VICKERS PHOTO MARMALADE TRUST / SKEMER WINTERS OPENING BRISTOL’S BORDERS / FEED THE HOMELESS BRISTOL

‘Social prescribing’ to end loneliness // Bedminster

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“It’s all about getting to know what people do at the moment, it’s not just getting to know them,” explains Jenny Hill, one of Marmalade’s buddies. “You talk about things that they might have used to do in the past that they might have lost.”

Pat, 85, a retired nurse, has lived alone since her husband died 17 years ago. Hill has helped her get involved in a weekly social club, which she says has made things “all the better”.

Two Bristol charities are going the extra mile to tackle loneliness, thought to affect 11,000 over-50s in the city, via ‘community navigators’.

A growing body of research shows that loneliness represents a health as well as a social crisis. Loneliness has been linked to shorter life expectancy and increased recovery times from illness.

Befriending is one of the common solutions, where a volunteer visits or calls you once a week and you spend time chatting. But Bristol charities the Marmalade Trust and Community Navigators Bristol are taking things one step further. Their volunteer friends don’t just visit, but work with clients to establish ongoing links with activities and community – a process known as ‘social prescribing’ because of the wellbeing benefits associated with it.

“I enjoy every minute of it,” says Pat. “Being sat in the house on your own all day when nobody comes to see you, only carers, it’s nice to be able to get out.”

“Being sat in the house on your own all day when nobody comes to see you, only carers, it’s nice to be able to get out” If you want to self-refer for the free service or volunteer to be a social prescriber, both Marmalade Trust and Community Navigators Bristol run the scheme. marmaladetrust.org/buddy-scheme communitynavigators.org.uk

Knowle West boxing gym saved // Knowle West “It gives these kids a structure, puts belief into them,” says Skemer Winters. “When they’re older they’ve got the confidence to go to job interviews; keep away from the gangs on the street.”

“They’re behind me all the way because there ain’t nothing else in Knowle West for the kids to do”

The new premises cost a lot more and the community asset transfer has taken a lot of paperwork, but Winters, who runs the gym for free, says it’s all worth it.

“I thought, well, I’m a fighter and I ain’t going to give up till the end. And knew I had the whole community behind me,” he says.

“They’re behind me all the way because there ain’t nothing else in Knowle West for the kids to do.

In my club they know where their kids are, they know they’re safe.”

Winters’ boxing gym is a fixture in Knowle West, but its future was looking uncertain after the building’s owners decided to flatten it to make way for a housing development.

He’s now managed to find new premises and is due to move into the Jubilee Centre, Wedmore Vale, in January, after getting it through the council community asset transfer scheme.

The rehomed gym, which he’s renaming Skemer’s Boxing Gym, will continue to give free training at the weekend for bullied children.

“Anybody that’s getting bullied in any situation, I open the gym on a Sunday and that’s it, they come in and train for nothing,” Winters says. “I teach them how to box, I teach them how to defend themselves and I put a bit of confidence in them.”

Find out more about Skemer’s Boxing Gym on his Facebook page.

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Helping homeless // Broadmead You can’t go into the city centre without seeing people huddling in the doorways of shops, cardboard stuffed around them to try to keep the weather at bay. Homelessness in Bristol has risen by 128% over the last three years, and while a lot of it is unseen – people sofa-surfing or staying in temporary, insecure accommodation – rough sleeping has been growing since 2010.

Bristolians stand up to the hostile environment // Easton Bristol communities are coming together in the wake of recent immigration raids and running ‘know your rights’ workshops.

“Immigration are basically intimidating and bullying people in communities, racially profiling people and detaining people and breaking up the fabric of communities,” says Emma, who helps run the workshops.

She says they’re about ensuring people know what Immigration Enforcement can and can’t do – and what you can do to resist.

“It was great to see people in Bristol coming together to defend and try and stop people from their own communities being taken by immigration,” Emma says.

Campaign group Opening Bristol’s Borders has held workshops to make people aware of their rights. When someone in a uniform turns up unannounced at your home or business, you may not know that you don’t have to answer any questions.

“Increasingly there’s a hostile, hard environment towards people who aren’t from the UK, people who don’t have the right status – and increasingly it’s becoming more acceptable,” Emma says.

“It was great to see people in Bristol coming together to defend and try and stop people from their own communities being taken by immigration” British Sudanese journalist Nesrine Malik spent a year fighting a residency renewal rejection. In a system she describes as being designed to “exhaust you into illegality so it can kick you out”, it’s good to know your neighbours have got your back.

Keep up with the latest developments of Opening Bristol’s Borders on its Facebook page: facebook.com/pg/ Opening-BristolsBorders-670829756635208

Gavyn Emery founded another grassroots project, Keeping Bristol Warm, because he was shocked by the number of people “who live and sleep on our streets and the lack of general care and sympathy that the general public give”. As well as handing out warm clothes, volunteers tie scarves and coats to lampposts and leave hats and gloves on benches labelled for people who need an extra layer – and also to raise awareness.

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As Talukdar points out, any wider solution to Bristol’s (and the UK’s) homelessness crisis will be complex and go a long way beyond what grassroots organisations can deliver.

“It involves the government, the policies, the night shelters,” he says. “But we wanted to do our part and we wanted to make [people] feel like they’re wanted, they’re part of a society and that they’re going to survive, they’re going to get out.”

Sign up to volunteer with Feed The Homeless Bristol at: neighbourly.com/ FeedTheHomelessBristol facebook.com/fthBRISTOL Keep Bristol Warm: facebook.com/keepbristolwarm

the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 18

It comes after more than 100 locals spontaneously self-organised in Easton in November to try to prevent immigration enforcement officers arresting a man.

“The government and Home Office are taking quite a hard line on what are essentially racist immigration policies, and for people in the community to be saying that’s not OK and standing up is an important, powerful thing, because if not they’ll be able to continue doing this.”

“Initially we fed between 40 and 50 people. Now we feed 100 to 120 people on each night out,” says Naseem Talukdar, founder of grassroots charity Feed The Homeless Bristol. It started up in 2016, with volunteers working in teams to cook and distribute meals around the city centre.

“Bristol has many great community initiatives that do their utmost to help,” he says. “There are also some great charities that provide advice, support and guidance to get people into accommodation.”

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