South Bristol Voice January 2017

southbristolvoice January 2017 No. 20

www.southbristolvoice.co.uk

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FREE EVERY MONTH in Totterdown, Knowle and Windmill Hill Businesses urged to claim on traffic jams BUSINESSES across South Bristol may be able to claim reductions on their business rates if there is prolonged congestion caused by multiple roadworks this year.

Rating specialists at Bruton Knowles are inviting firms to contact them if their business is damaged by the works, which include a one-way Hartcliffe Way, part closure of the Sheene Road junction in Bedminster and major work at Temple Circus.

Bristol team leader Paul Matthews said: “Roadworks on the principal routes into the city centre are due to last anything up to 18 months.

“Trade can be affected by reductions in customer visits, time delays on deliveries and staff movements,” he said.

“Traffic will be diverted onto previously quiet roads through areas like Novers Hill, and businesses either side of Hartcliffe Way are likely to be affected.”

The Hartcliffe Way works will be delayed until the South Bristol Link road is open, expected by mid-January But Mr Matthews said the other works should be postponed too.

• A year of delays: page 5

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Dividing opinion: Artist’s vision for a 4.7m wide cycle and pedestrian route through Victoria Park. A new group, FOG, opposes the plan, while more than 20 people have written to back it.

OBJECTIONS have been rolling in to Bristol city council over a plan to run a 4.7m wide cycleway – dubbed by objectors “more of a road than a path” – through Victoria Park.

The £2.3 million Filwood Quietway – a cycle route from Filwood through Windmill Hill to the city centre – has been in the

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planning for more than two years. But it appears many locals were unaware – despite a consultation exercise which included sessions in the park in February and August.

As the Voice went to press, 61 objections had been made, along with 21 statements in favour.

Continued on page 8

Paul Clark of Lower Knowle is the winner of our Gaines Christmas hamper after a big entry to our December competitions.

Paul was delighted to be presented with his hamper full of goodies by Gaines grocery owner Jason Gaines. “This has come at the right time,” said Paul, who is looking for work.

The winner of a Christmas veg box from Plowright Organics was Charlotte Day of Totterdown, and the winner of a box of Polar Pops was Hannah Oakman of Knowle.

• Primary school’s Ofsted shock Page 3 • Patients told: Find a new GP Pages 6-7 • Rival plans for Beds Green Pages 18-19 • The Witch:

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2 Paul Breeden Editor & publisher 07811 766072 paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk Ruth Drury Sales executive 07590 527664 sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk Editorial team: Beccy Golding, Alex Morss & The Wicked Witch.

Deliveries: Greg Champion

Intro

DO WE KNOW HOW DEEP THE KNIFE WILL CUT? OUR libraries are threatened.

Our lollipop people could lose their jobs. The council wants volunteers to run our parks.

Now we learn that Bristol schools will suffer more from changes in government funding than any other local authority.

At a time when it is alleged that Ofsted is becoming stricter in its demands of teachers, the counci will have even less money to support schools – £28.m less, enough to pay for 770 teachers.

Yet so far, there’s been little reaction – in South Bristol at any rate. A neighbourhood

You can find South Bristol Voice on Facebook and Twitter facebook.com/ southbristolvoice Twitter: @sbristolvoice Co. no. 09522608 | VAT no. 211 0801 76

Next month’s deadline for editorial and advertising is January 15th

partnership meeting in Knowle – a public forum which anyone can attend and put their concerns to councillors, the police and other officials – attracted the same few faces on December 7.

There may be worse to come. The council hasn’t dug its way out of a £16m hole in this year’s budget. It still needs to axe 650 jobs or find other savings.

Only then can the focus shift to slicing £92m off the budget for the next five years.

Our neighbourhood partnership and our three forums – smaller meetings for the wards of Knowle, Windmill Hill and Filwood – are at risk of cuts. Yet they are our most local form of democracy.

One thing’s sure. If we don’t use them, we lose them.

January 2017

n BRIEFLY n HIPSTERS have brought new life to areas of the city previously regarded as dormant, virtual no-go zones. That’s according to Gary Sheppard, chief executive of homebuilder Helm. He said: “The process began with places like Southville – which became known jokingly as Lower Clifton – and has now spread around South Bristol and into the areas east of the city centre.” Helm is building new homes in Winton Lane, Totterdown, and other sites in South Bristol. Even St Paul’s is becoming gentrified, where Helm’s flats built on a former car park off Portland Square were all sold before completion. n SOME areas of South Bristol are failing to attract private investment, however. No major supermarket chain can be found to open a store in Filwood Broadway. That’s the disappointing result of city council efforts to spearhead a revival of Filwood’s shopping area by attracting a major retailer to the former swimming pool. A regeneration plan for Filwood

will be discussed in the new year, involving institutions such as Knowle West Health Park and Knowle West Media Centre, to look at attracting new services. n NEW players are wanted for women’s football at Windmill Hill City Farm. A group of women play football once or twice a week on Saturday from 10-11am and Wednesday from 7-8pm. “Enthusiasm and willingness to enjoy a laugh are important,” said a spokeswoman.

Contact Ann 07747 569629. n ANTI-social behaviour in “spooky week” around Halloween and November 5 is on a downward trend, police believe.

Officers across South Bristol dealt with 95 incidents of anti-social behaviour this year.

This is slightly more than the 80 incidents in 2015 but much lower than the 150 incidents in 2014 or the 166 in 2013. Police are also dealing with less serious crimes, typically involving eggs being thrown, rather than fireworks, Inspector Nigel Colston said.

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My councillor?

Christopher Davies Lib Dem, Knowle Post: Brunel House, St George’s Road, Bristol BS1 5UY Email: Cllr.Christopher.Davies@ bristol.gov.uk

Gary Hopkins Lib Dem, Knowle (Lib Dem leader) Email: Cllr.Gary.Hopkins@bristol.gov.uk Phone: 0117 985 1491 or 07977 512159 Lucy Whittle Labour, Windmill Hill Post: Brunel House, St George’s Road, Bristol BS1 5UY Phone: 07392 108805 Email: Cllr.Lucy.Whittle@bristol.gov.uk Jon Wellington Labour, Windmill Hill Post: Brunel House, St George’s Road, Bristol BS1 5UY Phone: 07392 108804 Email: Cllr.Jon.Wellington@bristol.gov.uk

USEFUL NUMBERS Bristol City Council www.bristol.gov.uk 0117 922 2000 Waste, roads 0117 922 2100 Pest control and dog wardens 0117 922 2500 Council tax 0117 922 2900 Housing benefit 0117 922 2300 Social services 0117 922 2900 Police Inquiries 101 Emergency 999 Fire

Emergency 999 Inquiries 0117 926 2061

NEIGHBOURHOOD FORUMS Windmill Hill Wednesday February 22, 2017, 7-8.30pm, Victoria Park Baptist Church, Sylvia Avenue BS3 5DA Knowle Tuesday February 28 2017, 7-8.30pm, Knowle Community Centre, Crossways Road, Knowle BS4 2SS Neighbourhood partnership Wed Mar 8, 6pm, Victoria Park Baptist Ch, Sylvia Avenue BS3 5DA

EDITOR’S NOTE: South Bristol Voice is independent. We cannot take responsibility for content or accuracy of adverts, and it is advertisers’ responsibility to conform to all relevant legislation.

Feedback is welcomed: call editor Paul Breeden on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk.

All stories and pictures are copyright of South Bristol Voice and may not be reproduced without permission in this or any other plane of the multiverse.

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January 2017

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n NEWS: ST MARY REDCLIFFE PRIMARY

St Mary’s placed in special measures and forced to become an academy A SOUTH Bristol primary school is to become an academy after Ofsted inspectors ordered it into special measures.

St Mary Redcliffe primary, which sits overlooking Victoria Park, was judged to be failing.

Schools inspectors said leadership, the outcomes for pupils, and the quality of teaching were all inadequate.

However, many parents are happy with their children’s progress at the school. Some fear a plot to make Ofsted inspections stricter in order to force schools to become academies.

The Ofsted finding indicates the inspectors do not believe that the school management and governors can turn the school around on their own.

The head teacher, Emma Payne, is absent from the school on sick leave. She brought St Mary’s back from a previous period in special measures in 2010. In 2012 Ofsted said the school was a good one.

But the latest report, issued after an inspection in October, said senior staff are not keeping track of pupils’ progress.

“Consequently, underachievement goes unchecked from year to year. In particular, pupils who are disadvantaged, including the most able disadvantaged … do not make the progress of which they are capable,” said the report.

Ofsted has told the school to improve its leadership, clamp down on absent pupils, and improve teaching and marking, especially in maths.

The school has a mixed intake, from relatively affluent families in Windmill Hill and Totterdown to less privileged homes in Redcliffe.

Many different cultures are represented, and the school is watchful for signs that older girls may be forced into female genital mutilation or FGM. Governors did not want to talk to the Voice. However, it is understood that a meeting for 300 parents was told that the school is the first in Bristol to be assessed under new Ofsted criteria. The meeting heard claims that more Bristol schools

Loved, but failing: St Mary Redcliffe primary school next to Victoria Park

HEADS’ UNION SLAMS ‘CULTURE OF FEAR’ UNDER a recent Government ruling, all schools judged as failing will have to become academies.

Academies are outside council control and funded by the Department for Education. They may be independent or part of a chain of academies.

It comes as Bristol is revealed as the council area which will suffer most from national education cuts – the equivalent of £577 per pupil , or £28.3m by 2020, according to the National Union of teachers (NUT).

NUT regional secretary Andy Woolley warned that becoming an academy was not a magic wand.

“It’s very worrying, where there are about to fail as a result.

The meeting was also told that the school had asked for extra support from the council on 11 occasions but had not received it.

According to one parent, the council spokesperson at the meeting apologised for the lack of help and said the council is forced to focus resources on schools in most need.

One parent asked the meeting why, in the light of cuts, Ofsted is demanding even more of teaching staff when there are no resources to support them until they drop into special measures?

“There was not really an explanation, more an acknowledgment that the situation is a political one and the school cannot do anything but accept the situation,” she said.

The ‘special measures’

seems to be parental satisfaction with the school, that Ofsted are completely changing the nature of the school,” he said.

Academies can be “failing” too – as has just happened at The Ridings, north of Bristol, he said.

The head teachers’ union NAHT told the Voice: ”There is no compelling evidence that academy status results in an improvement in the performance of pupils in primary schools.”

The NAHT also slammed what it said was a negative climate for school leaders – “a culture of fear where you are only as good as your last set of results; where you are trapped into making short term fixes rather than long term investments for pupils.” category brings with it extra money and staff. The meeting was told that until recently the

council considered the school was achieving good outcomes.

The inspectors did praise the school’s rich artistic, musical and physical activities, polite, respectful pupils, close partnerships with the community and celebration of diversity.

Some parents told the Voice they believe the Ofsted report does not reflect the school they know, and thought the inspectors had been unfair. Parents showered the staff with supportive emails, cards, chocolates and flowers.

It is unclear what will happen to the head, Emma Payne, who is off sick. Two head teachers from other schools are assisting the acting head, Lucy Swift.

The Voice asked the council why the school had asked 11 times for help and not received it.

Paul Jacobs, director of education and skills at Bristol city council, said: “Actions have already been taken to support St Mary Redcliffe school. In consultation with the school and its governors we have put in place additional support with strategic leadership and a review looking at ways to improve teaching and learning is already under way. We are also putting in support for the school’s maths subject leader.”

The council is also looking at better help for pupils with special educational needs, at early years provision, and at help for disadvantaged children, he said.

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January 2017

n NEWS Study finds class gap at universities A KNOWLE academic at the University of the West of England is one of the team behind a study of higher education which found universities are “steeped in class”.

Dr Richard Waller, an associate professor of the Sociology of Education, who lives in Norton Road, said a three-year comparison of students at UWE and the University of Bristol found that middle class families find it easier to aid their children into top universities. They use ‘social capital’ to access internships and secure jobs.

Working-class candidates have to work harder to get to university, with less help from schools and parents. They often have to work during term.

But academic results for the two groups are similar. The book is called Higher Education, Social Class and Social Mobility.

Jumper appeal ST PETER’S Hospice is asking people to donate any Christmas presents they’ve realised they don’t really want – and also any used Christmas jumpers which have been put aside after the festive season. The hospice, which runs 50 charity shops across the city, said the presents will be sold throughout the year while the jumpers will be held until a mega sale next November.

All funds raised will go towards the running of Bristol’s only adult hospice facility.

• stpetershospice.org.uk

Amie Prowle of law firm Barcan+ Kirby presents prizes to the young Hillcrest artists

Children urged to think about making roads safer CHILDREN at Hillcrest primary school in Totterdown were challenged to make pictures to show how they and their parents can make Bristol’s roads safer.

Prizes were given to the best illustrators in each class at a special assembly, presented by law firm Barcan+Kirby.

All pupils also received a free reflector to help them stay visible when out walking or cycling.

Barcan+Kirby, which has an office in North Street, Bedminster, is also asking its own staff to make the Brake Pledge – to make their driving Slow, Sober, Secure, Silent, Sharp and Sustainable.

Associate solicitor Amie Prowle, who judged the competition at Hillcrest, said: “I’m really pleased that we’re able to support Road Safety

Week again this year. As a solicitor you soon become all too aware of the kinds of avoidable accidents which occur on Bristol’s roads every day.

“I know colleagues will also be happy to take the Brake Pledge – while most of its points will be second nature to them, being mindful of road safety and encouraging others to do the same is key to reducing accidents.”

Praise for Bristol Waste but there’s still clearing up to do RESIDENTS of South Bristol are mostly happier with their refuse collections since a council-owned contractor, Bristol Waste, started doing the work last year.

But there are still grumbles

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about rubbish being left behind after the bins have been cleared, the Filwood, Knowle and Windmill Hill neighbourhood partnership heard on December 7.

Tracey Morgan, managing director of Bristol Waste, said that the firm wants to work with communities to give a better service. The company has a contract to manage all the city’s waste and recycling until 2026.

Several residents told the meeting that the new firm was dealing well with rubbish collections and fly-tipping.

“Fly-tipping is always a concern but I have found that when I report it, it generally gets dealt with quite quickly,” said Jon Wellington, Labour councillor for Windmill Hill.

Chris Jackson, Labour member for Filwood, said he had been “a big moaner” about Bristol Waste in the past, but they had turned things around.

When someone started dumping large quantities of grass clippings at Inns Court, Bristol Waste came straight in and cleaned it up, he said.

But there seems to be a lack of joined-up thinking after the recycling bins are emptied, he said, because the litter that’s left doesn’t seem to get cleared.

Cllr Chris Davies, Lib Dem member for Knowle, agreed, saying: “We have had a lot of complaints about [recycling] being strewn all over the road.”

One resident, Ken Jones, said he had seen council litter patrols picking up paper off the pavement but failing to clear up dog mess.

Another said many people have been left with broken green bins after waste staff threw them along the pavement.

Tracey Morgan said litter patrols are supposed to clean up dog mess and promised to follow up on residents’ complaints.

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

January 2017

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5

n NEWS

Temple Circus roadworks set to last to spring 2018 as roundabout disappears BUS

ple

BUS

Way

New bus lane

Temple

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No right turn into Victoria Street

New light controlled junction

New shelter

No right turn into Friary

The Friary

New MetroBus stop

Future Line of Bunel Mile accross Plot 6

100 Temple Street New extended shelter

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A YEAR OF ROADWORKS • South Bristol Link Road Now due to open in first two weeks of January. Delayed by heavy rain in November.

• Temple Circus Work starts Link to the January but major works from Bristol-Bath April, after the Centre is Cycle Route reconfigured • Hartcliffe Way Shut southbound for 10 months, from January but only after South Bristol Link opens • Sheene Road Junction at West Street closed southbound January-April More Metrobus roadworks: • travelwest.info/metrobus/ metrobus-build

Redcliffe Street to Victoria Street.

Gary Hopkins, the city’s Lib Dem leader and a Knowle councillor, is worried that the route from South BristolTaxito Temple Meads will meanpick-up driving to St Mary Redcliffe and back.

“When you put thesePassenger schemes drop-off/ together, how are peoplepick-up going to p get from A to B? It’s be able rto am / h ac going ro to be madness,” he said. pp na tio Cllr Bradshaw said Bristol has a t S never seen such a big investment in its transport network. “I don’t deny that it’s going to be difficult but I think once it’s done, the city Enhanced route will look very different cycle in terms New of how people extended are going to move shelter around it,” he said.

For information on roadworks: • Travelwest.info oad tR rke Ma For the Temple Gate scheme: le Catt • bristoltemplequarter.com/gate Cattle Market

Temple Meads Station

BUS

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New one stage crossing New street tree planting

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Engine Shed

Redcliffe Wa y

Brunel Mile extended

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rd Walk

HOW THE TEMPLE CIRCUS JUNCTION WILL LOOK

Off carriageway cycle routes

ia tor Vic

New light controlled junction

BUS

term, traffic will change direction the junction at Victoria Street, Pavement around the Centre. The most allowing the MetroBus stop to be space decluttered disruptive works on Temple closer to the station. There will Circus will not start until April, also be a new northbound bus after the Centre works are lane from the junction with Off carriageway finished, and last to spring 2018. cycle routes Cllr Bradshaw said: “This will transform the Temple Gate area Peugeot and the approach to Temple Garage Meads, which is such an important gateway to the city and Existing crossing which we probably all agree improved doesn’t really do the city justice.”

The Temple Gate scheme aims to provide a more direct route for traffic travelling through the area, with a new York Road crossing plaza, new buildings and safer improved routes for the hundreds of pedestrians and cyclists that use it every day. Changes made after public consultation include improvements to the Bath Bridge Primary Cycle Routes Templeand Gate EMAIL: copingcovers@gmail.com junction more segregated segregated cycle and pedestrian CALL: 0117 2872192 MOB: 07974 242989 Implementation Planroutes. shared There have been changes to

Road east bound only

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Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

©Crown copyright and database right 2016 OS Survey 100023406 2016 ©City Design Group 2016

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SOUTH Bristol is bracing itself for a year of roadworks and traffic jams as more plans were unveiled of one of the major schemes which will change the face of the city’s road network.

The Temple Circus roundabout is to be removed next year and replaced by a traffic light-controlled junction with Redcliffe Way as part of an £11 million project to improve infrastructure around the Temple Quarter enterprise zone.

It comes before the Metrobus route is finished, which involves extensive works from the Centre out to Hartcliffe.

With Bristol roads liable to form a logjam due to any random incident – such as the burst water main on Bath Road, Brislington, which caused chaos in early December – motorists are worried at what the next year will bring.

One Knowle resident who is forced to use his car for business said it can already take him 45 minutes to get to the M32; what impact will next year’s works bring, he asked.

Mark Bradshaw, the council’s cabinet member for transport, promised that lane closures will be planned so that as far as possible they don’t happen at the same time.

“We have been very careful with the timing of this project,” he said. “Most of the more intensive work [for Metrobus] in the Centre is done, the piling is done. We cannot complete everything at once but we are very well aware of the impact of these things.”

Hartcliffe Way will be closed southbound from January while a Metrobus lane is built. But this won’t happen until the South Bristol Link – from Long Ashton to Hengrove Way – is open.

Heavy rain in late November has delayed the Link opening until the first two weeks of January .

During the February half

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BUS

Isamba

And that’s just one of the major road schemes planned for this year

Not to scale

southbristolvoice

6

January 2017

n NEWS: ST MARTIN’S SURGERY CLOSURE

You’ve got five weeks to find youself a THOUSANDS of patients at a Knowle GP surgery were given just a few weeks to find a new one after a sudden announcement that it was to close.

NHS England wrote on November 25 to 5,000 patients at the St Martin’s practice in Wells Road. It told them that the owner, the Crest Family Practice based in Knowle West, is ending its NHS contract on January 4, and GP care at St Martin’s won’t be available after January 7.

However, the letter was wrong. In fact, the practice was set to close on December 30. A helpline will be available until January 7.

The Voice had been aware of the impending closure for some weeks but agreed not to publicise it before patients were informed.

Crest told NHS England it wanted to end its contract at St Martin’s five months ago, on July 4. In September, after discussion about whether another practice could be found to take over the surgery, Crest told NHS England that it thought the only option was for St Martin’s to close and its patients to be dispersed to other practices.

But it took until the end of November for NHS England to reveal its decision, leaving patients a scant few weeks to find a new GP – with Christmas intervening.

The Voice has asked NHS England why it took so long to make the decision public.

As the Voice went to press, 3,000 of the 5,000 St Martin’s patients had not registered with a

WHAT PATIENTS HAVE SAID ON FACEBOOK

QUESTIONS FOR THE NHS

• Why were patients given the wrong date for St Martin’s closure?

• How will the 3,000 patients without a GP be helped?

• Why did it take five months to

reveal the closure decision?

• Why was the mailout delayed?

• Will NHS England apologise to patients for the distress caused by having such a short time to find a GP, and over the Christmas period?

n I’m a patient at Priory Road surgery. What worries me is how on earth my surgery and any other local surgery is going to handle this, as they can barely cope now! To see a GP you have to make an appointment days, and often weeks in advance. n I have a friend who is 91 who has been with St Martin’s surgery since they opened, which is nearly all his life. Hopefully we have found him a new surgery. n I’m at Wells Road surgery and have to wait weeks to see my GP. It can be a month before seeing a nurse for blood tests now so dread to think what the wait will be once the numbers increase. n This surgery [St Martin’s] has been in trouble for a long time!

My nan had health problems and never once saw the same GP. No continuity of care. And as a result I feel my nan was failed.

new doctor. We asked what would be done about this. We also suggested that patients were due an apology.

We also asked about the repeated delays to the closure announcement while the NHS struggled to organise a mailing to patients and arrange a meeting to explain the options open to them.

One event was held to inform patients of their options, on December 1 at The Park centre in Knowle. It attracted 15 people.

NHS England did not directly

answer the Voice’s questions.

Instead it issued a statement from Laila Pennington, head of primary care for NHS England in the South West, who said: “We received an application from Crest in the summer asking to close St Martin’s. We made comprehensive enquiries across other practices about possibly taking over the contract as well as taking some patients on if it were to close. It was during these discussions that we were made aware that five neighbouring

practices could take on patients.

“We will be working closely with Crest Family Practice to support patients registering at other practices, with particular emphasis on identifying vulnerable people who might need special help – perhaps because they have dementia or are on continuous medication.

“We are confident there are good alternatives locally, with most patients having at least five surgeries in a two-mile radius.”

Crest practice manager Marie

St Martin’s surgery: Closure revealed five months after Crest’s request

ASK A VET: Is my pet overweight?

A

CCORDING to research, one in three dogs, one in four cats and one in four rabbits in the UK are overweight.

Weighing your pet is a good place to start when deciding if they are overweight, but the guideline weights for certain breeds cannot always be relied upon: all individuals are different. The best thing to do is to look at your pet’s body shape and amount of body fat.

We generally perform a Body Condition Score, which is based on a points system of 1 to 9. A score of 1-3 is too thin; 4-5 is deemed ideal; 6-7 is overweight; 8-9 is obese.

The ideal body shape of a cat or

dog should be well proportioned, with the ribs not visible but easy to feel. They have an obvious waist when looked down on from above, and an evident abdominal tuck when viewed from the side.

The Blue Cross states that the average “chubby” pet is usually at least 15 per cent overweight. Much like in humans, obesity in pets can lead to many debilitating health issues such as diabetes, heart and kidney disease, arthritis, high blood pressure and even forms of cancer.

It doesn’t have to be difficult to help your pet lose weight. Our tips include: weighing your pet’s food rather than guessing how much to

put in the bowl, avoid giving any human tit-bits (this will also help to avoid upset tummies or accidental poisonings), use a special diet pet food and/or treats that contain less calories. Most importantly, keep up their exercise – even a short walk is better than nothing at all!

If you’re struggling to help your pet lose weight, sign them up to one of our free weight clinics. The nurse will be able to tailor a diet and exercise plan to your pet and can schedule regular weigh-ins to monitor their progress.

Contact Highcroft Veterinary Hospital on 01275 832410 to find out how we can help your pet lose

Nic Walton MRCVS Veterinary Surgeon at Highcroft Veterinary Hospital, Whitchurch weight. Visit our Youtube channel to watch veterinary nurse, Amie, explain how to do a Body Condition Score for your pet.

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January 2017

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7

n NEWS: ST MARTIN’S SURGERY CLOSURE

new doctor: bombshell from the NHS COPING WITH THE INFLUX ONLY ABOUT 2,000 of the 5,000 patients from St Martin’s had registered with other GP practices by the time the Voice went to press on December 16.

The largest contingent – more than 1,000, but expected to rise – went to Priory surgery, 300 yards from St Martin’s on Wells Road.

The Priory faced an avalanche of new patients on the first day after the news broke, giving out over 500 information packs and receiving 300 registrations from new patients. The reception desk has needed up to five staff to cope with demand. The practice had about 8,500 patients before the changes.

“We have put in a lot of extra hours but we have been coping,” said Mary Hunter, practice manager at the Priory. “We have had to tell people that it will take a little longer than usual to register them, but we are maintaining the standard of healthcare service for

patients.” Currently patients can wait one to two weeks to see a GP, but urgent cases are always dealt with the same day. Waiting times are not expected to rise, because a locum GP is being hired, along with extra sessions for nursing, phlebotomy, admin and other staff.

The Priory has just finished a previously-planned expansion that adds several treatment rooms.

At Wells Road surgery, half a mile further down Wells Road,

King told the Voice: “We share everybody’s frustration at the length of time this has taken.”

Crest is focusing, she said, on helping the most vulnerable St Martin’s patients to register with a new GP. She urged all patients who have not yet found a doctor to approach a practice as soon as possible.

Given the confusion created by NHS England over the closure date, there may be another rush of patients looking for a GP early in the New Year.

The Voice has heard several complaints from patients about long waits for appointments and other services at St Martin’s.

The practice has a one-star rating from patients on the NHS Choices website, with several complaints about appointments and too many locum staff.

In contrast, the Priory surgery gets three stars, and Wells Road surgery four stars. Crest’s other practice in Knowle has four stars.

Ms King acknowledged there had been challenges for patients at St Martin’s but said patients waited on average a week to 10 days for an appointment.

She said Crest had begun to make a success of the practice, growing patient numbers, until the senior partner became ill and then resigned. St Martin’s was

previously under threat of closure in 2014 when it made national headlines after two doctors, Holly Hardy and Karen Houghton, resigned their NHS contract, saying the workload was unbearable. It has since had two owners, neither of whom has been able to sustain it.

It is hard to recruit GPs in South Bristol. Many doctors resent NHS reforms of recent years. Those who run their own surgeries in private premises which they have to maintain – such as St Martin’s – say it is hard to make a profit.

St Martin is not attractive for any other practice to take on because the lease on the building expires in September 2017, and the owner is unwilling to renew it.

Bristol South MP Karin Smyth said: “It is deeply regrettable that, once again, St Martins’ patients find themselves facing uncertainties about what they will see as one of the most fundamental healthcare rights: access to a local, trusted GP practice,” she said.

“There will also be concerns about capacity if patients registering elsewhere simply heaps more pressure on other local surgeries.

“I will be discussing all these issues with local NHS managers.”

practice manager Pauline Cole said 350 St Martin’s patients had signed up.

Waits for a GP appointment were about a week when the Voice called, but can vary, said Pauline.

Another 650 could be accommodated, she said. “At the moment we can absorb 350 but in the New Year we will know how many we have to take on,” she said.

The Crest Family practice’s other site, at Knowle West health park in Downton Road, will remain open as normal after St Martin’s closes.

It had taken on 600 St Martin’s patients when the Voice went to press. It would be willing to accept up to 2,000 and is taking on extra staff to cope with demand.

Crest does not expect waiting times to increase – appointments take about a week, with urgent cases seen more quickly.

• Merrywood had accepted 23 patients as of December 16, and Birchwood 33 patients.

WHERE CAN I FIND A GP? THE PRACTICES accepting most patients from St Martin’s are Priory, Wells Road, Knowle; Wells Road, Wells Road, Knowle; Birchwood, in Wick Road, Brislington; Merrywood, in Knowle West health park, Downton Road; and Crest, which has a practice in Knowle West health park.

Others which may accept some patients are Wedmore, in St John’s Lane health centre; Gaywood, off North Street, Bedminster; Malago, in St John’s Road, Bedminster; Southville, in Coronation Road, Southville; Bedminster Family Practice in Regent Road, Bedminster; and Lennard in Lewis Road, Bedminster Down.

St Martin’s will stop seeing patients on December 30, but will staff phones to provide advice about finding a GP until January 7.

Patients who have not registered with a new practice by then will receive a letter from NHS England explaining their options.

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January 2017

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n NEWS

New group set up to oppose Victoria Park cyclepath Continued from Page 1 Objections include: • The 4.7m path is too wide; • Segregating cyclists will encourage them to ride fast; • Children and dogs will be at risk; • Removing barriers will allow in motorbikes; • Pedestrians will be discouraged from using the park.

Other concerns include the effect on wildlife – the path will be widened into the vegetation near Windmill Close – and from lighting along the new route.

Typical of the complainants was a resident of Cotswold Road, who wrote: “The speed of cycling puts children and dogs at risk, who clearly cannot understand the nuances of cycle paths. This area of the park will become a no-go area for the majority of park users, condensing picnickers, dogs and families into a smaller area.”

Members of Victoria Park Action Group were divided over the plans, though most members of the group’s committee wanted the route kept outside the park.

But many VPAG members consulted chose a lower-level route inside the park – the one now proposed.

One supporter of the scheme from Chatsworth Road said: “I currently cannot use any of the cycle routes through Victoria Park, as I have a heavy bike with

Low road: The route includes a 150m new section of path. FOG’s flyer lists the objections.

The scheme is funded through the Cycling Ambition Fund, which has £19m to enhance cycling in Bristol.

Cycle lane with extra 150m stretch ‘will be more of a road than a path’ either a child in a bike seat or a trailer with two children.

“This route will finally allow us a safer cycle route [and] soon [my son] can cycle part of the route home.”

The park used to suffer from youths riding motorbikes until barriers were put in. But the planning application said: “Anecdotal evidence suggests it is actually the police enforcement that has stopped the problem and not access restrictions.”

The plan suggests a 12-month trial to remove the barriers at Nutgrove Avenue, St Luke’s Road and Windmill Close. It says this is supported by police, and can be reversed if there are problems.

A new group, FOG, or Filwood Quietway Objection Group, has been formed by VPAG members.

It questions the need for such an expensive scheme. It called the 4.7m route “more of a road than a path” and cited the experience of the Bristol-Bath cycle route, where fast-moving cyclists vie for space with pedestrians.

Rob Porteous, FOG’s chair,

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criticised the consultation, run for the council by Sustrans, as inadequate. “Most of the people we have met have no idea of the details of the scheme,” he said.

“They didn’t consult on the width of the path or the removal of the barriers.

“They have presented this as an improvement to the park and as what local people want, which is misleading.”

He questioned why the planning application for the park has gone in first, when there are other more hazardous sections of the route that are not yet planned.

Businesses in Whitehouse Street, Bedminster, have objected to a cycle lane there. There are also objections from local activists to the route passing through Northern Slopes.

Windmill Hill councillor Jon Wellington has agreed to a request from VPAG to “call the application in”, which means it will be decided by councillors at a public meeting, possibly in January but more likely later.

“My focus is to see that

everybody has their say. I see the arguments on both sides,” he said.

The council said the proposal includes several improvements to the park, some of which chime with VPAG’s own long-term improvement plan.

It includes intelligent LED lighting, which will dim down after 7pm. It will stop paths flooding by raising their level.

And the historic entrance features at Windmill Close and Park Avenue will be restored.

Cllr Mark Bradshaw, cabinet member for transport, said: “The proposals will deliver some long held community aspirations for enhancing safety, fixing recurrent flooding problems and making it easier to enter and leave the park.

Of course, the wider benefit is to see a better connected local route for people wanting to walk or cycle. We are committed to working with the local councillors and community to ensure that the park retains its strong attraction.”

• vpag.org.uk (links to council planning website) • Letters: Page 21

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9

n NEWS

Spending freeze by mayor

A FREEZE has been imposed on non-essential council spending by mayor Marvin Rees as a desperate measure to balance the books by the end of March.

Bristol city council faces a deficit of more than £16 million – whittled down from £34m earlier this year.

Emergency cuts, including redundancies for 1,000 council workers announced in August, have not worked. Only about 350 staff have so far been accepted for redundancy.

Mr Rees last month put a halt to new contracts and any spending which can be avoided – apart from items which affect safety.

Council staff are still being paid and schools, waste collections and social services are still functioning.

But new works on buildings, roads and parks will stop unless there is a risk to health or safety.

The council will not recruit staff except for legally-required services. The continued shortfall

It’s painful but necessary, says Marvin Rees is said to be partly due to increased need for social care.

A Whitehall move in December to allow town halls to collect more in council tax to fund social care is worth only £400m to Bristol – “ a sticking plaster,” said Mr Rees. “The Government is actually reducing its funding to us and expecting council tax payers to foot the bill,” he said.

The spending freeze is “painful but necessary,” said Mr Rees, adding: “The cost of not balancing our budget would be far higher.”

At a local level, neighbourhood partnerships have put new road schemes on hold, such as making Woodbridge Road one way.

Even money from the sale of land for housing at Salcombe Road has been frozen. A sum of

£157,000 was about to be spent on schemes including gym equipment for Victoria Park, a path and new car park at Redcatch Park, and seats for Zone N at Bushy Park, Totterdown.

Cllr Chris Davies, Lib Dem member for Knowle, said he feared the neighbourhood partnerships risked looking impotent and unable to do anything.

Mr Rees is expected to visit each ward in the city next year to consult the public on the cuts.

Also frozen is the wellbeing fund, of £10,000 a year for each ward, given to small projects in open spaces.

• Bristol has to save an extra £92m from 2017-2022. Proposals to achieve this include slashing spending on the homeless, on libraries and parks, and ending paid school lollipop patrols.

Consultation on the plans is open until January 5 at • bristol.gov.uk/corpstrategy

More openness on social homes DEVELOPERS will have to make their evidence public if they want to argue that they can’t afford to include affordable homes in new schemes. Councillors last month approved a motion by Southville Green councillor Steve Clarke for more openness in planning applications.

Cllr Clarke said: “At the moment it is all too easy for developers to fail to deliver the affordable housing target of 30-40 per cent by saying their scheme won’t make enough profit.”

Pub may reopen ENTERPRISE Inns, owner of the still-closed Shakespeare pub in Totterdown, says it is in talks about reopening it. “We are working on getting the right concept for this much-loved pub.

We are in talks with a number of interested parties and we aim to have the site back open as soon as possible,” said a spokesperson.

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January 2017

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10

n FEATURES

There’s plenty you can do to help our Do you want to see a bellowing of bullfinches or a quarrel of sparrows in your garden this winter? Just follow these seasonal feeding tips, says Alex Morss

W

INTER is a tough time for Bristol’s wildlife animals need more food to keep warm in the cold, but supply is scarce and takes more energy to find, while days are shorter, reducing foraging time.

If you enjoy watching wildlife and need an excuse to get in your garden, here are some winter wildlife ideas to bring pleasures

Puff ball: A long-tailed tit keeps warm by puffing out its feathers for you and your wildlife guests, with some bonus satisfaction for the birders and geeks among us who enjoy seeing how many silly collective nouns we can count.

Offer the right tasty treats and see if you can muster a clattering of choughs, a bellowing of bullfinches, a parliament of owls or a fling of dunlins to your little

green corner. They will reward you with hours of pleasure in return for welcome nibbles.

Recipes your birds will love Make cheap fat snacks – this is great to do with kids – by pressing melted suet into pine cones, coconut shells or logs drilled with holes, and tie them to branches. The sticky fat acts as a nutritious glue, so pack in seeds, chopped bacon, crushed nuts, chopped mild cheddar or chopped fruit.

Test different recipes to lure an amazing array of songbirds and migrating guests. Enjoy a herd of wrens devouring the grated cheese and bacon, a quarrel of sparrows and a trimming of finches descending on your sunflower heads and berry cakes, a charm of goldfinches adoring your niger seeds.

A mutation of thrushes and a flight of blackbirds will love fruit and worms, plus ripe apples. A

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11

n FEATURES

urban wildlife survive the winter cold become too active, too early, with

blitz of tits will appreciate insect mixes such as mealworms, while unsalted brands of peanut butter such as Flutter Butter, may tempt a murmuration of starlings to swarm and whorl in aerial acrobatics.

Put ground feeder trays inside pet or poultry cages, with large-gap wire mesh. This will attract dunnocks, robins, blackbirds, starlings and thrushes. It will deter squirrels and avoid a murder of crows or a mischief of magpies – those are the popular terms for good reason, as they are predators of smaller birds.

The charity Songbird Survival asks people to help birds in particular because this is the toughest time of year for our feathered friends. Their advice is to include lots of fatty foods such as lard or beef suet. Choose seed mixes and crushed nuts, fresh or dried but soaked fruit, raw oats, even left-over Christmas cake or mince pies. However, they advise to avoid chicken, turkey or vegetable fats, and do not feed salty food or bread.

Also avoid plastic net feeders as they tangle around birds’ feet.

Wire feeders are best.

Follow the frosty trails Aside from the rewards of watching your own private nature safari unfold, the footprint trails found on frosty ground offer a great chance to learn animal tracking skills at this time of year, too. Colder

snaps are not the only challenge though – unseasonally milder periods can force animals to

Hideaways Check bonfires, compost heaps and wild corners for hibernating reptiles, hedgehogs and amphibians.

Reptiles and amphibians Frogs, toads, newts and slow-worms are common in South Bristol. Give them shelter by being less tidy with piles of leaves, bricks or pots.

Do not smash or crack pond

ice. Instead, melt it by standing a saucepan of hot water on top, to protect amphibians and to provide a drink to other species.

Fungi and soil fauna Let dead wood lie – the critters that help it decay form the best foundation for a species-rich garden. Rotting wood boosts the number of critters and microbes that keep your soil resilient.

TOP WINTER TIPS TO HELP WILDLIFE Structures Don’t harvest or prune seed heads and plants until spring – a careful mix of climbers, trees and shrubs for all seasons will give winter shelter for many species; nectar and pollen for any active pollinators; berries and nuts for birds plus shelter for insects, which will feed birds and bats.

Bats Several bat species may be hibernating in your home without you knowing. They hide under tiny gaps in roof tiles, walls and loft spaces. Put up a bat box and get advice before doing building works that could disturb them: • bats.org.uk/pages/bats_and_ buildings.html Birds Offer a shallow dish of fresh water for birds to bathe and feed. Float a ball in it to help stop it freezing.

Top up feeders at regular times each day so birds do not waste energy searching.

Protect birds from cats by positioning feeders away from obvious stakeout spots and put bells on cat collars.

Feeding frenzy: It’s amazing how many species of birds a variety of food can attract to even an urban garden. PICTURES: Songbird Survival fatal results, often due to food shortages. Meanwhile, wet spells also make it harder to find enough to eat and stay warm, and increase diseases for many animals. We will look at these problems, linked to some surprising climate change predictions for Bristol’s wildlife, in the next issue of the Voice.

Find more wildlife advice here: • songbird-survival.org.uk Satisfy your collective bird noun curiosity here: • britishbirdlovers.co.uk/articles/ collective-nouns-for-birds

Insects Don’t be so tidy – dead plant skeletons offer seed heads full of goodness. A pile of covered, hollow stems in a dry, sheltered spot, creates an overwintering hotel for garden-friendly insect predators and pollinators such as bugs and beetles, spiders, ladybirds and solitary bees.

Butterflies and moths must stay cool and dry to survive hibernation. Warm snaps can be fatal without food. If you find one, let it stay indoors or offer a dry sheltered spot away from sunlight or heaters, such as a shed, being sure it can escape in spring.

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Grand stand: Knowle racecourse was open for just seven years. Not everyone paid WELLS Road, Knowle, at its junction with Broad Walk is now a bustling shopping area. As our advertisers prove, it can meet most everyday needs, from estate agents to hairdressers, a tailor and a bicycle shop, as well as a post office, banks and library.

But how many of today’s shoppers know that 143 years ago they could have seen the Grand National being run there?

Knowle racecourse opened in 1873. It was built at a cost of £8,000 on land owned by Sir Greville Smyth of Ashton Court.

Huge crowds – some say 100,000 – attended the day of the National Hunt Chase on March 20, 1873, including the Prince of Wales.

Excitement was so great that people milled on to the course as soon as the winner – a horse called Pickles, ridden by Captain A C Tempest – had passed, and some of the horses couldn’t get to the finish.

A three-storey grandstand had been built, big enough for 3,000 race fans, each paying six pence (2.5p) for entry. The trouble was, the rest of the course was unfenced, and anyone could wander in. This made it popular, but probably unprofitable, and it closed in 1880.

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Happily never after: Can you really have a ‘good’ divorce?

Many people would argue a good divorce doesn’t actually exist. But with over a third of UK marriages now ending in divorce, attitudes are changing. Chris Miller, Managing Partner of Barcan+Kirby, looks at alternative ways to end a relationship.

So common is the surge in January divorce enquiries that the first Monday of the year is commonly known as ‘D-Day’ – or ‘Divorce Day’ – amongst family lawyers.

Having limped through the Christmas festivities, the sad reality is that many couples choose January to call time on their relationship. If you’re one of these couples, you might be considering what steps to take next and looking for calmer, more flexible ways to end your relationship than going to court.

Think ahead

When considering separation, it’s useful to understand the legalities involved. As part of your fact-finding mission, speak to a family law solicitor. Some law firms, us included, offer new clients a free 30 minute consultation, during which you’ll get general information about your options and guidance on next steps.

Consider your options

If a co-operative post-divorce relationship is important to you,

consider family mediation. In contrast to the adversarial court system, mediation offers flexibility. It’s often quicker and cheaper than more traditional routes, and enables you to work through your issues constructively, although you’ll need legal advice to ensure any agreement is workable and legally binding.

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It will be easier to work through the various legal processes if you and your former partner can stay on civil terms. A family mediator or collaborative lawyer can help with this, from separating your assets to determining how you communicate in future.

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January 2017

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15

n NEWS

Freddie’s family back trailer campaign THE FAMILY of Bedminster boy Freddie Hussey have allowed their son’s tragic death at the age of three to become the centre of a government road safety campaign.

Young Freddie died in January 2014 as he and his mother walked home along Parson Street after dropping off Freddie’s older brother at school.

A two tonne trailer towed by a Land Rover careered across the pavement, fatally crushing Freddie.

A new road safety campaign, launched nationally, highlights the tragic incident in an attempt to get trailer owners to take more care over safety.

The campaign follows Bristol South MP Karin Smyth’s support for Freddie’s parents, Donna and Scott Hussey, who have been demanding more action on safety standards for trailers.

The driver of the Land Rover, Tony Davies, from Hallen, was ordered to carry out 200 hours of community service for causing death through careless driving. he was also banned from driving for six months.

The Labour MP called a Parliamentary debate earlier in the year and arranged a meeting between Mr and Mrs Hussey and transport minister Andrew Jones.

Govt urges trailer owners to make checks to save lives The Hussey family had asked for an MOT test to be compulsory for trailers. That has not happened, but now the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has produced a simple online guide with a short video to help people check if their trailer is safe. It is targeted at anyone towing small trailers, caravans, horseboxes and boats.

Ms Smyth said: “Freddie’s family have been determined that some good should come of their

Freddie, left, and the scene of the tragedy in Parson Steet son’s tragic death and we welcome this new government campaign as a tribute to Freddie’s memory.

“When I first met Donna and Scott they didn’t realistically believe their efforts could bring about change. That this campaign is now being run also underlines the value of their persistence and their refusal to allow Freddie’s death to be in vain.

“The local Bedminster community which has supported them through incredibly difficult times deserves a great deal of credit too.”

Transport minister Andrew Jones said: “I was shocked and saddened by the death of three year-old Freddie Hussey.

It is absolutely essential that drivers carry out a few quick and simple checks to make sure their trailer is safe, so we do not see a repeat of this awful tragedy. This campaign will help drivers to make sure they are towing safely and will save lives in the process.”

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Monday Knowle Knowle Church of the Nazarene Filwood Community Centre Broad Walk, Knowle BS4 2RD Barnstaple Road, Knowle BS4 1JP 9.30am, 11.30am, 5.30pm, 7.30pm 9.30am, 11.30am, 5.30pm, 7.30pm Tel: Susan 07711 388511 Tel: Kim 07920 023170 Ashton Clifton Ashton Park School St Peter & Paul Cathedral Blackmoors Road, Ashton BS3 2JL Pembroke Road, Clifton BS8 3BX 7.30pm 5.30pm Tel: Emma 07701 030460 Tel: Susan 07711 388511 Tuesday slimmingworld.co.uk 0344 897Wednesday 8000 Bedminster Bedminster Salvation Army St Francis Church Dean Lane, Bedminster BS3 1BS North Street, Bedminster BS3 1JP 9.30am, 6pm 9.30am, 5pm, 7pm Tel: Virginia 07938 567886 Tel: Kelly 07760 623115

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their ideas and concerns, future generations become more personally resilient, can work together and make change happen.

In fact, many of the ideas included in the strategy would benefit the next generation: these include proposals for votes for 16 year olds, free bus travel for under-16s and a vision for a child-friendly city.

The Resilience Strategy has been drawn up with partners across the city and aims to build on existing work to make Bristol socially, environmentally and economically sustainable. Crucially it aims to give everyone more of a say in decisions made in local government. I’m really grateful to everyone who has been involved in this ambitious work. If it’s new to you, why not take a closer look at the Bristol entry at: • 100resilientcities.org There will be more updates in the months ahead as plans take shape.

Together the Corporate and Resilience strategies help us navigate Bristol towards a more secure future. My new city office brings together partners across the city and one of our long term aims is to produce a plan for Bristol building on the foundations of the Resilience strategy that gives us deliberate goals for the next 50 years.

Together they help us ensure that Bristol is a city that works for everyone.

membership

m be ra nd 21st January

We need a plan to keep this city working when our children are grown-ups IRSTLY, I’d like to wish Voice readers a very happy new year and thank everyone in the city who took time to participate in our recent Corporate Strategy consultation. As we embark on 2017 we continue to face an immense financial challenge, but your input, ideas and constructive challenge will undoubtedly help shape our steps for the next five years.

Of course our plans aren’t just about the short or medium term. We recently launched the Bristol Resilience Strategy to help protect the city from potential shocks and pressures over the next 50 years.

Resilience is quite a dry term but projects

17

0344 897 8000

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

January 2017

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18

n NEWS: BEDMINSTER GREEN

Now not one energy centre but two are Notes:

© Origin3 Studio Ltd

THIS DRAWING IS NOT TO BE SCALED. EXCEPT F PURPOSES OF PLANNING APPLICATIONS AND FOR PLANS WHERE THE SCALE BAR MUST BE USED. A REFER TO FIGURED DIMENSIONS.

Now there are three developers coming up with plans for Bedminster Green

CONTRACTORS, SUBCONTRACTORS AND SUPPLI MUST VERIFY ALL DIMENSIONS ON SITE BEFORE COMMENCING ANY WORK OR MAKING ANY SHOP DRAWINGS.

close to each other is an open question.

Meanwhile a new planning application has been fielded by a third company, Acerbic, based in Clifton.

Acerbic owns a narrow strip of land at the bottom of the railway embankment between Sheene Road and where the Malago river cuts through the embankment. This strip used to be owned by British Rail and was used for a gantry crane. It was never part of the Pring & St Hill factory site, which is now Plot 1.

Acerbic wants to place 360 solar panels along the narrow strip, in three rows up to 8m high, to generate electricity.

Whether this would affect the viability of Mr O’Brien’s plan for Plot 1 is unclear.

Mr O’Brien told the Voice that Urbis Development a planning application would be submitted in December (after the Bedminster Green Voice went to press) for 217 flats in buildings ranging from 6-7 Framework Area Plan

THIS DRAWING IS TO BE READ IN CONJUNCTION W STRUCTURAL, MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL EN DRAWINGS AND ALL DISCREPANCIES ARE TO BE REPORTED TO THE ARCHITECT.

PLOT 003 Plot 003 0.60 hectare 1.48 acres

Plot SCP 0.98 hectare 2.42 acres

Plot 004b 0.48 hectare 1.19 acres

Right: Plan showing the plots which make up Bedminster Green, courtesy Urbis. The solar site is shown by the yellow line – not to scale. centre – in the same position originally chosen by Urbis.

There is nothing to stop two developers putting in planning

Plot 002 0.03 hectare 0.09 acres Plot 004a 0.44 hectare 1.10 acres

2 00

THE PROPOSALS for the redevelopment of Bedminster Green – the large area between East Street and Windmill Hill – has been thrown into confusion by the emergence of several potentially competing plans.

First it emerged that Urbis, the company charged by the city council with producing a masterplan for the area, has failed to reach a deal with developer Paul O’Brien, who has bought Plot 1, likely to be the first site to be constructed.

This means Urbis is unable to site its proposed district energy centre where it wanted – at the western end of Plot 1, on Malago Road next to the railway line.

Instead, Urbis is looking to move the energy centre to another plot – so far undisclosed – on Bedminster Green.

Meanwhile Paul O’Brien told the Voice that one of his companies, Rollo Homes, is looking to develop its own energy

Plot 005a 0.38 hectare 0.95 acres

PLOT 004 PLOT 005 Plot 005b 0.32 hectare 0.78 acres

Plot 005c 0.09 hectare 0.22 acres

Plot 001b 0.40 hectare 0.99 acres

PLOT 001 Plot 001a 0.18 hectare 0.46 acres

Proposed solar site

F E D C B A

Updated Framework Area Plan Phase plot naming update Phase plot naming updated land staus added plot naming updated plot 4 added

dr dr dr dr dr dr

Rev

Revision Details

Dr

8 - 10 Whiteladies Road Bristol BS8 1PD

www.origin3studio.co.uk mail@origin3studio.co.uk

applications for energy centres on different sites.

But whether planners would allow two similar developments

Client's Name

Job Title

Drawing Title

Scale

1 : 1250 @ A1 metres

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Drawn

WEA – the friendly place to learn in your local community!

TF Job No

3095

60

80

100

Checked

-

21.

Drawing No

SK(00)106

Status

Stage 1 - Preparation & B

C:\Users\davidrhodes.ORIGIN3STUDIO\Documents\My Local BIM\3095-O3S-XX-XX-AR-M3-BedminsterGreenMasterplan_CENTRAL_david@origin3stud

Venue: Windmill Hill City Farm These courses are FREE for those on a means tested benefit • Exploring Colour and Paint 9 weeks Wednesday 10am-12.30pm starting 18.01.17 • Yoga for Everyone 9 weeks Friday 1.15-2.45pm starting 20.01.17 • Silver & Copper Jewellery Making Beginners 9 weeks Thursday 10-12.30 starting 12.01.17 • Silver & Copper Jewellery Making Improvers 9 weeks Thursday 1-3.30pm starting 12.01.17 • Stained Glass for Beginners 10 weeks Friday 1.00-3.15pm starting 13.01.17 • Stained Glass Intermediate 15 weeks Fri 9.30am-12.30pm starting 24.02.17 • Reading and Writing Poetry 7 weeks Thurs 10-12 pm starting 19.01.17 • Pattern Making and Sewing 7 weeks Tues 10am-12.00pm starting 17.01.17

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In partnership with Bristol Museums Exploring the Museum through Drawing, Creative Writing at M Shed and Keeping an Illustrated Journal

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January 2017

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19

n NEWS: BEDMINSTER GREEN

proposed, and maybe a solar array too storeys on one side, rising to perhaps 10 storeys at one end.

He said the plans for a solar array would not affect his building, which would run the length of the solar site.

He also called into question the viability of the solar scheme, saying the panels would be overshadowed by the 8m railway embankment to the south, and by trees on the bank.

If the plan involved cutting down trees next to the railway, residents would seem certain to oppose it.

The solar plan – submitted by Clifton architects Marshall & Kendon on behalf of Acerbic – gives no details of how much electricity would be generated.

Asked if the panels would produce enough power to be viable, architect Jeremy Johnson-Marshall said: “My client seems to think so.” There was no obligation to include these numbers in the planning application, he said.

The Voice asked to speak to Acerbic but had heard nothing when we went to press.

The application states: “This site is considered eminently

HOW THE PLANS WILL UNFOLD THE NEW year will see proposals unveiled for several areas of Bedminster Green. Richard Clarke, managing director of Urbis, will announce plans in January to move his district energy centre to a new site after failing to agree terms to put it on Plot 1.

The new site is expected to be nearby and the Urbis plan remains to supply heat and electricity to 2,000 homes. The firm is in talks with the council to supply heat to the tower blocks Polden House and Holroyd House on Windmill Hill as well as Northfield House off Catherine Mead Street.

Proposals for public consultation on Plot 5 will follow in January or February, said Mr Clarke. This is the area around Bedminster station, which will be given a new entrance facing a new green. The Malago river will be opened up, providing flood defences for part of Bedminster.

Three buildings, some of which could be more than 10 storeys, will include commercial space and

TreeFest highlights plight of the green RESIDENTS fighting to save the trees on the green in front of Bedminster station hope the council will help them.

Dianne James, chair of WHaM – Windmill Hill and Malago planning group – asked mayor Marvin Rees if he would put preservation orders (TPOs) on the trees at a full council meeting on December 13.

“The suggestion by the developers that they can be replaced by saplings is not good enough,” she told the mayor.

The council does not issue TPOs for trees on council land. But Mr Rees said it might be possible to make saving the trees a condition of any sale by the council to a developer.

About 100 residents attended a WHaM TreeFest on the green on December 4. A samba band played and neighbours helped yarnbomb the trees as campaigners explained their fear that the Urbis plan will halve the size of the green and replace the mature London plane Needle point: Yarn-bombing the trees PICTURE: Nick Townsend trees with saplings. suitable and the appearance is entirely benign, serving only to advertise to rail passengers the presence in Bristol of alternative energy generation.” homes, with the aim of making 30 per cent affordable.

Next to the Green, terms of a sale have been agreed for St Catherine’s Place, which has planning permission for 188 homes in 16 storeys. The sale is expected to be finalised in January to a developer who will build and rent out the flats, said Mr Clarke.

Meanwhile a pre-application plan for Plot 4 – behind East Street – will be submitted in late February. This will include a medical centre with a doctors’ surgery, community pharmacy and dental surgery.

Also on Plot 4 will be about 250 homes, including key worker accommodation for Bristol University, and supported homes for older people.

On Plot 1, rival developer Paul O’Brien said his application for 217 homes will be similar to one shown to Windmill Hill residents and members of the BS3 Planning group in the autumn. Residents believed they had been promised more consultation before the plans went in, though this appears not to be happening.

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Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

January 2017

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20

n YOUR MP

KARIN SMYTH Labour MP for Bristol South

I don’t believe we have no young women who want to be engineers

A

S WE move into 2017, one of my priorities as Bristol South MP remains improving post-16 opportunities for young men and women.

We have large numbers of young people in further education and on apprenticeships, but 80 per cent of South Bristol apprentices are working in just three employment ‘frameworks’: retail; health and social care; and business administration. These apprenticeships tend to lead to careers with lower wages.

We need more in construction, engineering and IT – pathways which offer better salary prospects and more secure employment. We also need more girls and young women getting involved in these apprenticeships which lead to higher-earning

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careers. As a member of the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC), I took part in a recent inquiry with discussions about the gender balance of apprentices, because there are concerns nationally that women are not breaking in to these potentially more lucrative trades and professions.

I followed this up to see how much of an issue this is in Bristol South, and I found that it’s a big one. My research highlighted some stark differences between the opportunities taken by young men and young women locally. I asked government ministers about

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the take-up of apprenticeships in the last five years in Bristol South and was told that whilst 320 males had begun construction skills schemes, not a single female had. It was a similar picture with engineering: 80 men and no women.

This means female apprentices here in South Bristol are likely to end up in jobs with lower wages and less secure employment than their male counterparts.

It’s vital we open up more opportunities.

And it’s very disappointing there seems to be no plan to address the gap. The top education civil servant told PAC that the Government doesn’t have any targets for improving gender diversity in apprenticeships. And when I quizzed ministers about steps being taken to improve the take-up of apprenticeships by women in construction, IT and engineering, the answer made it clearer still there’s no strategy.

It can’t be the case that no young women in Bristol South are capable of taking on these apprenticeships, so I’ll continue challenging the Government.

What do you think? As ever, I very much welcome Voice readers getting in touch with your thoughts, and you can get in touch by email karin.smyth.mp@parliament.uk or by writing to Karin Smyth MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.

Totterdown man who killed with a single punch A TOTTERDOWN man who killed another man with a single punch has been jailed for seven years.

Robert Hines, 52, was attacked

by Matthew Hill in the Quaker Memorial Garden off Redcliff Hill in Bristol on May 24, 2016.

Mr Hines was taken to hospital following the incident, but died two days later.

Hill, 32, of William Street, Totterdown, was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on December 16, having earlier been found guilty of manslaughter.

After serving his sentence Hill will be on licence until 2026.

Senior investigating officer Andy Mott said: “This is a tragic case in which a man has needlessly lost his life due to a random act of violence.

“Hill did not deliberately set out to kill Robert Hines but his actions tragically led to his death.

“During the trial the jury was

told about Hill’s long history of offending and his conviction highlights what a dangerous man he is.

“He has not only taken a life and ruined his own future but he has also ruined the lives of Robert’s family and friends.”

He added: “Robert’s death is yet another example of how striking someone, even just once, can have horrific consequences.”

• A Totterdown woman who was also charged with the manslaughter of Mr Hines later died in prison.

Michaela Sweeting, 38, also of William Street, was arrested alongside Hill and remanded to Eastwood Park prison in Gloucestershire.

She died in prison on June 2.

Police did not treat the incident as suspicious and her death is being considered by the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman.

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

January 2017

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LETTERS

Send letters to paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk or to 18 Lilymead Ave, BS4 2BX

These letters are representative of those received by the Voice on the Victoria Park cycleway proposal. You can read more at • southbristolvoice.co.uk

park ever be considered as green?

Disgusted, Victoria Park

The return of the anti-socials

This path will make us safer WHAT a load of baseless nonsense I’ve seen written several times now in the South Bristol Voice, railing against the idea of providing safer segregated cycling through Victoria Park.

This proposal will create facilities that are designed to make it safer for cycles to pass through the park and not endanger vulnerable park users, like my young children. The idea that has been put forward several times now, that unless there is a shared use path cyclists will instantly become antisocial and disregard all those around them, is frankly perverse. There is no evidence at all that this behaviour will occur.

By forcing children and those with prams to be in the same space as bikes you are, in fact, making absolutely sure that cycles will be a danger to others.

Kids are unpredictable and can suddenly change direction.

With a segregated path, I can easily explain to my kids that the cycle lane is where bikes are, those with reduced vision can easily locate where bikes will be travelling, bikes are encouraged to use specific paths. This reduces risk. This makes my children safer.

Frankly, I think that other weak arguments that have been put forward (that an extra thin sliver of tarmac across a large park will ruin picnics and games for example) expose objectors for what they are: just plain anti-cycling.

Hopefully, the council will see through this thinly-veiled anti-cycling rubbish from VPAG and aren’t swayed into creating shared facilities that will make it more dangerous for my children and I to use our park.

Stefan Lee, Windmill Hill

We don’t know if it’s needed I AM disappointed that the council is trying to pass off this scheme as an improvement to

21

Victoria Park: Splitting opinions the park, claiming that it fulfils many aspirations of the park’s Improvement Plan. I was heavily involved in drawing up the Improvement Plan in 2007 and I know that this proposal clashes entirely with the spirit and the intent of that document.

We have no information about how many cyclists currently use the park and how many more are likely to use the proposed Quietway, so we don’t know that the excessive scale of the new route is necessary. It may turn out to be a white elephant that is permanently and needlessly inflicted on this beautiful park.

The council needs to route the path through as much quiet space as possible to justify the title of the scheme and to boost its green credentials. If the route itself spoils the beauty of the green space, well that’s just a little bit of collateral damage – and it’s only Bedminster after all, not Clifton, so who cares?

I understand the council’s position is that the “shared space” concept does not work well and is dangerous. However, in Victoria Park it causes remarkably few problems.

Consequently, there is no need for this elaborate eyesore of a cycle route that is being foisted upon us merely because Bristol has a traffic problem and council officers think they have spotted a “green” way of solving it. How can paving over the grass of a beautiful, historic and cherished

I DOUBT any member of Bristol city council or Sustrans lives on Victoria Park. Will they have to listen to teenagers whizzing around on mopeds in the park at all hours – previous behaviour that has ceased thanks to the current measures? But if this element of the Quietway goes ahead as planned, we will not only have two handsome pillars, but also a massive opening which mopeds and motorbikes can zip through with ease.

I believe this section of the Quietway will, in fact, become a conduit for noise. Will those championing this white elephant have their evenings ruined by young people hanging around the cycleway, often being abusive, looking through their sitting room windows and generally causing a nuisance? I know for a fact that for years residents of Hill Avenue have had their lives blighted by unsocial behaviour.

This has been resolved only relatively recently.

Name supplied, Victoria Park

Victims of their own success SUSTRANS have described themselves as having been a “victim of their own success” in creating some sustainable transport routes that are now perceived as fast routes for cyclists at the expense of other users. The Bristol to Bath path is an example where Sustrans, and the local authorities, acknowledge there is conflict, even danger, but are unable to ‘police’ the route and reduce the speed of some cyclists.

It is vital that they do not create a route through Victoria Park that is likely to cause conflict and undermine the safety and enjoyment of other park users. Given the aim is for a ’quiet route’, the current situation is preferable in which cyclists are aware that they do not have priority over other park users and must moderate their speed and cycling behaviour.

However, in conversations

with park users the following elements appear to be welcomed: • Lighting along the existing path especially at the stretch by St Mary Redcliffe primary school; • Repairs to existing paths; • Upgrading all access routes to the park including replacing barriers to enable mobility scooters to enter; • Improving all signs at park entrances to show pedestrian priority but cyclists welcome; • A crossing from St Lukes Steps into the park for pedestrians and cyclists.

An alternative route for the Quietway is to take the route from the bottom of Wedmore Vale straight across St John’s Lane to the quieter side-streets and on to Nutgrove Avenue. A link route between Nutgrove Avenue into Somerset Terrace could be constructed. There need not be any barriers for cyclists if a wall or railings separate the link route from the actual park.

Suzanne Audrey, Totterdown

It wasn’t the will of the people Open letter to Karin Smyth MP THANK you for your article in the December issue of South Bristol Voice in which you invite your constituents to send you their views on Brexit negotiations.

I agree with you that “the shape of Brexit is anything but simple”. What I cannot accept is your statement, reflecting the official view of the Parliamentary Labour Party, that “we have a duty to respect the referendum vote ...” because “the result in June 23 was clear.”

On June 23, only 37 per cent of the eligible electorate voted to leave the EU. In no sense can the result of the referendum be fairly described, in the Prime Minister’s phrase, as “the will of the British people”.

The majority of British people have not said they wish to leave the EU, and I feel insulted every time I am told that we did.

Now in my 93rd year, I am more angry than I have been at any other time in my life as I contemplate the damaging consequences for Britain (and for European unity and solidarity) which Brexit would entail.

Eric Jay, Knowle

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

January 2017

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22

n NEWS In witch my security is breached

I

HAVE found that break-ins around Knowle go in spates. We can go months where all is quiet and everyone slips into a surreal sense of security. It does not take much to ruin that feeling. Take the other night – I was sound asleep when ...

My eyes flew open. Something had caused me to wake, a feeling that all was not well in my home. It was dark, not pitch black but a dirty shadowy city dark. I could make

Youth funding A FUND of £5,000 is available to pay for youth work across Fiilwood, Knowle and Windmill Hill over the next year. The area’s neighbourhood partnership is looking for groups which can provide a service to young people across the district.

Who is she?

We don’t know – she has the power to make you forget her name.

THE WICKED WITCH OF KNOWLE

out the familiar shape of my bed and the lump next to me snoring gently. I held my breath straining to hear what had woken me. Then I heard it, a scrabbling sound coming from the hallway. I sat up, hissing at Himself while shaking him hard. “Wake up! Someone’s trying to break in!”

Himself jumped up, twisting out of the tangled bedsheets. “What?

What?” he crouched next to the bed in his boxers, fists raised, hair sticking up crazily. “Somebody is trying to break in!” I whispered urgently. “Listen.” We both looked towards the bedroom door.

A rattle and scraping sound echoed loudly through the hallway.

Himself flew across the room, ripped open the door and hurled himself down the hallway. I scurried after him armed with a large can of Soft & Gentle deodorant. The street light shone through the glazed panels of our Victorian door silhouetting a large sinister figure poking a long stick through our letterbox, trying to open the door.

“Gottcha,” yelled Himself as he

grabbed the hand, bent back the fingers and flung open the door. I dived over his shoulder bashing the villain hard with my weapon.

The prowler yelled and thrashed against the door trying to free himself.

It was at this point that I realised I knew who the intruder was. A flashback to the phone call I had taken earlier from our eldest boy, who was returning from holiday at some ungodly hour, asking me to leave him a key hidden outside.

After assuring him that I would do as he asked, I promptly forgot.

“Hello darling,” I called while making a rapid retreat back down the hallway, “Welcome home!”

Tennis courts are reprieved from scheme to charge fees THE TENNIS courts at Redcatch Park, already upgraded thanks to community efforts, will stay

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free to use, after a petition to save them attracted several hundred signatures. Knowle’s two Lib Dem councillors, Gary Hopkins and Christopher Davies, have been told that the Redcatch courts will be excluded from a council review that could have led to players being charged.

There was uproar when the park’s four courts were included in the consultation over a plan by the Lawn Tennis Association to upgrade tennis courts in several Bristol parks in return for a fee of £20 per month or more.

It would have meant restricting access to the courts for players and for other users such as Carole and Terry Denning, who were seen in the last edition of the Voice

practising their dance steps there.

“It’s game, set and match to Knowle,” Cllr Hopkins told the Voice. “The pressure [to spare the courts] was overwhelming.”

The courts were upgraded a few years ago, thanks to grants obtained through efforts by members of the local community, not the council.

Many residents felt any further upgrade was unnecessary, and any charges would have defeated the object of getting more people playing tennis and leading a healthy lifestyle.

The Friends of Redcatch Park have already worked out a sustainable way to manage the courts for the long term, said Cllr Hopkins.

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January 2017

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RSPCA UPDATE

23 From Bristol Dogs & Cats Home

Find out how we got started 130 years ago

T

HE YEAR 2017 marks a very special occasion for Bristol Dogs and Cats Home. We are celebrating our 130th birthday! We are inviting you all to join us for a year of celebration.

We’re sure you can imagine that, over 130 years, we have collected a lot of stories to tell.

This year we are going to be delving into the archives and will be reporting on stories we uncover from all the decades that we have been here for Bristol’s animals. For January, it seems only appropriate to start at the beginning with our founding story.

It was during a snowstorm in Bristol in December 1886 when Edward T Parker discovered a stray puppy following him along the road. Realising there was

It all began with a single lost puppy

nowhere for this pup to go to get food, shelter from the bitter weather, and the care and love needed, Edward took the initiative and, together with some like-minded local businessmen, purchased a plot of land on Waterloo Road in St Philip’s.

It was here in 1887 that the Bristol Home for Lost and Starving Dogs first opened its doors to look after Bristol’s animals in need. However, with only six kennels it quickly

POLICE REPORT Spare a thought for isolated folk who can be easy targets for criminals

H

APPY New Year! I hope all the readers of the South Bristol Voice enjoyed the festive season. As we welcome in 2017, please spare a thought for elderly neighbours who may be feeling particularly lonely and isolated during January, as the winter stretches ahead. We know that social isolation increases vulnerability to crime – rogue traders and doorstep criminals in particular prey on elderly people who they see as easy targets.

Sometimes all it takes is a simple hello to an elderly neighbour, to make them feel safe, less isolated and part of the community. Keep an eye out for them and please report

became evident that a larger site was needed to accommodate the city’s strays. In 1901 the home moved to its present location on Albert Road.

What started as a shelter just for dogs, now accommodates cats, rabbits, ferrets, birds and other small animals. Stay tuned

With Sgt Caroline Crane Broadbury Road police station

suspicious activity to us, in particular unfamiliar people knocking on doors offering to carry out work, or claiming to be from utility companies. Genuine callers won’t mind making an appointment to come back when other people can be present.

If you are worried about cold callers in your area, please contact us via the Contact Us section of our website (avonandsomerset.police.uk) or by calling 101. If a crime is in progress, always call 999.

A

It was a sight like this which inspired Edward T Parker to open the Bristol Home for Lost and Starving Dogs

t our last Neighbourhood Forum at the end of November, we heard your ongoing concerns about drug dealing and street drinkers in areas of Totterdown and Windmill Hill. We’re listening and continue to carry out extra patrols in these areas, moving people on and removing their alcohol where appropriate.

Perhaps more importantly, we are working hard with our partners in the Streetwise and housing teams at Bristol City Council to make sure the antisocial behaviour which often goes

hand in hand with this problem can be addressed, as well as helping the vulnerable people involved to access the support they need to address their problems long term.

O

n a similar theme, we have listened to the community’s concerns around anti-social behaviour stemming from people camping in Victoria Park. Again, this is not something we, the police, alone can address, which is why we’re working with housing services at the council to try and help the people affected.

We want to know what issues are affecting you, so please get in touch with us via the Your Area pages of our website, or come along to our next Neighbourhood Forum on February 22 at Totterdown Baptist Church at 7pm. Help to shape the way we police your community.

Remember you can also find out what my team are up to by following @ASPBristolSouth on Twitter.

Wishing you a safe 2017, Sergeant Caroline Crane

this year for stories of the animals that we have rescued, rehabilitated and rehomed over the past 130 years. It all started with just one stray pup ...

If you would like to get involved with our 130th birthday celebrations please get in touch.

• fundraising@rspca-bristol.org.uk

Appeal to help support South Bristol’s army of cancer carers VOLUNTEERS are being sought to help the active bunch who raise money for cancer care charity Marie Curie.

Marie Curie’s Greater Bedminster & Knowle fundraising group is seeking new members to help the charity in its work caring for terminally ill people in their own homes.

Bristol’s Marie Curie community fundraiser, Helen Isbell, said: “There are so many benefits to joining a fundraising group.

“You can meet new people in your area, get involved in your community, share new experiences and have fun.”

Volunteers can help with collections or stage their own events, from a dinner party to a lunchtime bake sale.

If you would like to find out more, contact Helen on 0117 924 7275 or email Helen.Isbell@ mariecurie.org.uk • mariecurie.org.uk

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

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Lilymead Avenue KNOWLE £585,000

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Jubilee Road KNOWLE £370,000

Victorian property, 3 double bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 76ft rear garden, Beautifully presented. EPC D

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Somerset Road KNOWLE £350,000

Beautiful Victorian property, three bedrooms, well proportioned rooms, family garden, period features throughout. EPC D

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Victorian period family home arranged over 3 floors, 3 reception rooms, 5 double bedrooms, period features throughout.

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Victorian period home, 3 bed, 3 reception rooms, bay windows, delightful kitchen/ breakfast room, sash windows. In need of modernisation, large garden, EPC E

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Gabriel Hirst was founded by property experts and developers who have evolved a business model based purely on their experience selling their own development and refurbishment projects. As Whitecroft Developments Ltd, the award winning developers spotted gaps in the property selling market and developed their own personal style and approach to successfully sell their properties quicker than any other estate agent.

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In addition to holding the required MNAEA qualifications, Gabriel Hirst brings a passion for property, specifically in this area, backed by a thorough market understanding, through a wide range of transaction experiences at all levels from strategic land purchase in the South West to specific roads in Knowle which we have become fond of, such as Lilymead Avenue, Crowndale Road, Somerset Road, Beaconsfield Road, Jubilee Road and Langham Road.

Gabriel Hirst’s investor and developer experience brings a greater understanding of build methods, warranties and compliance issues which are all relevant when bringing a sale to legal completion.

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southbristolvoice

26

January 2017

n NEWS

New café unveiled at city farm THE MANY fans of Windmill Hill City Farm will find more to enjoy after a new round of improvements during 2017.

The café is to be rebuilt after planning permission was granted late last year. The café as it is currently will close in January and a temporary café will be available just across the farmyard. Building work will commence by the end of January with a target to open the new café around Easter.

Following on from its award as Best Family-Friendly Eatery in the Bristol Good Food Awards for the second year running, the farm’s café had an unannounced inspection by the Environmental Health Officer in late November and retained its 5-star rating. The

How it will look: The new café will be in the new building to the right, with a farm shop in the old cafe area café team have also applied for a Flexitarian Bristol Gold Award, which recognises eateries who use high welfare meat, and offer a good choice of meat- free options.

Windmill Hill City Farm’s new garden, with raised beds and sensory areas, was planted last summer where the car park

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will have a workshop and demonstration room for visitors, including school groups, an exhibition and display area, and a small animal space. At the back, the workshop space will be improved and a garden workroom built for farm produce to be washed, weighed and bagged up for sale in the farm shop which will be part of the café expansion.

Volunteers have been involved in designing the new space, and will be carrying out some of the work required. The main work will commence in the new year.

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previously was. In October it won a Bristol in Bloom Gold award.

In November the city farm was part of the Tesco Bags of Help scheme, with shoppers using tokens in local stores to vote for their preferred charity.

The farm received the most votes and was given the highest award of £12,000. Along with funds from the Cory Environmental Trust in Britain, the money will be used to improve the building along the side of the duck pond, which currently houses an un-used dairy, small-animal pens and storage.

The new Interaction Centre

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PEOPLE are being sought to sponsor trees in South Bristol’s public places now that the freeze on council spending means public funds for planting are almost non-existent.

A map on the city council website shows where there’s a need for new trees to be planted.

Victoria Park, for example, has space for 12 trees, and Redcatch Park for five. Ravenhill Avenue, Knowle, is earmarked for a single pear tree. Kingshill

Road, Knowle, can accommodate a lime tree near Wells Road.

Jim Smith, the volunteer “tree champion” for Filwood, Knowle and Windmill Hill neighbourhood partnership, encouraged residents to look at the map and consider buying a tree, perhaps as a memorial or to celebrate a wedding or birth.

Trees cost £295, which includes upkeep for two years, and £25 buys a plaque.

• bristol.gov.uk search ‘TreeBristol’

Lantern delay

Hansel’s here

THE WINTER lantern parade which is the pride of Bedminster will take place on Saturday January 21, after the original date on December 10, was rained off. Roads including North Street, Cannon Street and British Road will be closed for the event, which involves 1,200 participants and thousands of spectators.

• bwlp.org.uk

REDCATCH community centre hosts Hansel & Gretel, staged by South Bristol’s BraveBoldDrama, at 2pm on Saturday January 7.

Tickets are just £1 from Broadwalk News, subsidised by Entertaining Local Knowle. The show lasts for about 45 minutes with play after. Suitable for 4+.

• Facebook: Entertaining Local Knowle

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

January 2017

southbristolvoice

27

n PLANNING APPLICATIONS 46 Arnos Street BS4 3BS Two storey rear extension to provide living/bedroom space to two flats on lower ground floor and ground floor. Granted subject to conditions 3 St Whytes Road BS4 1RX Two storey side extension and rear extension. Refused 41 Novers Hill BS3 5QU Proposed single storey rear extension. Refused 8 Beckington Road BS3 5EB Single storey extension to the lower ground floor with balcony above and insertion of patio doors to rear elevation. Refused 257 Redcatch Road BS4 2HJ Two storey side extension and single storey rear extension.

Granted subject to conditions 5 Copse Road BS4 2HZ Ash: Fell. TPO 574. Granted ETM Contractors, 81 Hartcliffe Way BS3 5RN Change of use of part of premises to MOT testing centre for heavy goods vehicles. Granted subject to conditions

Knowle, Totterdown, Windmill Hill

storey rear extension. Pending consideration

and rear extension. Pending consideration

11 Harrowdene Road BS4 2JD Application to approved details in relation to conditions 2 (Construction environmental management plan), 3 (Tree survey) and 4 (SUDS) of permission 15/02760/F: Proposed single storey 2 bed dwelling on land to the rear of 9-13 Hampden Road, accessed off Harrowdene Road. Pending consideration

177 Wells Road, Totterdown BS4 2DB Two storey rear extension. Granted subject to conditions

81 Hawthorne Street BS4 3DA Notification of prior approval for the erection of a single storey rear extension that would extend beyond the rear wall of the original house by 4.1 metres, have a maximum height of 3.6 metres and have eaves that are 2.45 metres high. Pending consideration Novers View, 5 Somer Lane BS3 5DL Alterations to roof.

Pending consideration 2 Exmouth Road BS4 1BA Single storey side and rear extension. Pending consideration

14 St Martins Gardens BS4 2NJ Demolition of garage and erection of two bedroom, two storey house. Pending consideration

Knowle West Children’s Centre, Leinster Avenue, Knowle BS4 1NN Extension and refurbishment of existing children’s centre. Pending consideration

126 Cotswold Road BS3 4NS Lawful development certificate for existing use of an external residential balcony and stairs.

Pending consideration

6 Langham Road BS4 2LJ Single storey side extension, rear dormer window roof extension, roof lights in front roof slope.

Pending consideration

53 Novers Park Drive BS4 1RH Two storey side and single

4 Langham Road BS4 2LJ Single storey ground floor side

Malago House, Bedminster Road BS3 5NP Application to approved details in relation to condition 2 (Environmental management), 3 (Contaminated land), 6 (Condition survey), 7 (Approval of road work), 8 (Construction traffic management), 9 (Drainage), 11 (Slow worms), 12 (Protection of hedgehogs), 14 (Bird boxes and bat roosting), 15 (Piling), 16 (Recording historic fabric), 17 (Fire hydrants), 18 (Further details), 21 (Cotoneaster and false creeper parthencoissus), and 22 (Landscaping) of permission 15/01988/F: demolition of industrial buildings and erection of 110 dwellings.

Granted except for Conditions 7 and 9 Refused 5 Marshall Walk BS4 1TR Change of use from use class A2 (financial and professional services) to accommodation associated with nursery use (use class D1). Granted subject to conditions 52 Jubilee Road, Knowle BS4 2LP Single storey rear extension to extend beyond the rear of the house by 6m, of maximum height 3m with eaves 2.7m high. Granted 112 Broad Walk BS4 2RS Change of use/conversion of detached garage to habitable area. Granted subject to conditions

52 Melbury Road BS4 2RP Single storey ground floor extension. Granted subject to conditions 285 St Johns Lane BS3 5AZ Approved details for conditions 2 (SUDS) 3 (Landscaping) 4 (Further details) 5 (Sample panels) 6 (Construction management) and 7 (Contamination) of 16/01787/F: Two storey house. Granted 50 Fitzgerald Road BS3 5DH Variation of condition 8 (Approved plans) of 13/03613/R: Renewal of permission 10/02703/F: three-bed house attached to side of property; to show hipped roof to gable end roof. Pending consideration 56 St Johns Crescent BS3 5ER Outline application for three storey building containing six flats. Pending consideration Townhouse, 13 Alfred Road, Windmill Hill BS3 4LE Porch with balcony to the front.

Additional windows on ground floor. Pending consideration 4 Bantry Road BS4 1JU Part single, part double storey extension to rear. Granted subject to conditions 12 Belluton Road, Knowle BS4 2DW Certificate of proposed development: Loft conversion with rear roof extension. Pending consideration • The status of these applications may have changed since we went to press. Check for updates at planningonline.bristol.gov.uk

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Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

January 2017

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28

n YOUR COUNCILLORS

T

HE Liberal Democrats had the choice of the first motion to be debated by the full council on Gary December 13.

Hopkins We had a choice Lib Dem of important topics Knowle but after internal discussions the group decided to select the motion I put forward on future school funding in Bristol. During the previous coalition government, funding for schools was not overgenerous but the pupil premium – an extra grant which is made for all disadvantaged children – meant that all but the schools in the most affluent areas did OK. The new Conservative government has frozen school grants so inflation was already applying a pressure, but a greater threat to Bristol schools is now looming. More money has, for a long time, gone to city rather than rural schools. This was partly addressed under the

Knowle

coalition government by extra payments given to rural schools.

The rural counties, though, want a lot more, and the present government agrees with them.

My party has no problem with increasing some grants but instead of that the Conservative government wants to continue the freeze and reallocate money from cities like Bristol. The proposal is now in final consultation.

The NUT (National Union of Teachers) website helpfully applies the proposed new formula not only to Bristol but also to all of our local schools.

The figures are frightening and would have a devastating effect and endanger some of the huge progress Bristol schools have made over the last 15 years.

My motion to council highlighted the danger and called upon the mayor to gather allies and fight for our schools budgets.

It is late but not too late. The motion was unanimously supported. We await results.

• NUT website: teachers.org.uk

W

E HAVE had a quite unprecedented spending freeze to local and other projects imposed Chris

by Marvin Rees, the Davies Labour leader and Lib Dem mayor.

Knowle He says that this is in response to the vast discrepancy between the reported and real financial position he inherited from the previous mayor. That there was a discrepancy seems pretty clear, but the size of it and the measures taken to address it are more of a question mark.

Community Infrastructure Levy, or CIL, is imposed on new developments including house extensions and new builds. By law, 15 per cent of this must be devolved by councils for local decision. Some councils devolve more but Bristol stuck to the minimum 15 per cent and said that this should be distributed by local councillor committees in

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At the full council meeting on December 13 I queried the mayor, in public questions, about his right to freeze this CIL money. He refused to give a definite answer, but on December 14 an e-mail arrived to say that this local CIL money had been unfrozen.

I also queried the decision to freeze the local park improvements, funded by the land sale of one third of the Salcombe Road open space for social housing. We have so far not had a climbdown on this ridiculous decision, but we will keep up the pressure and we know that Knowle and Windmill Hill residents would not easily forgive any attempt to make this a long-term fund grab.

Even the last mayor stopped short of raiding local funds, but now, cancelled at a stroke, are local road safety schemes, park improvements and grants to many local groups through wellbeing grants issued by the neighbourhood forums.

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January 2017

southbristolvoice

n YOUR COUNCILLORS

T

HE mayor’s Clean Streets initiative was launched at Parson Street primary school Jon in Bedminster in Wellington November. The Labour campaign asks Windmill Hill communities and individuals to assist in keeping streets clean and tidy, and also reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill, through recycling and reuse. This is a major project and one of the mayor’s manifesto commitments.

I know from speaking to people that there is a feeling that things like street cleanliness, littering, graffiti, fly-tipping and dog fouling are getting worse. A great deal of the correspondence I receive relates to these issues.

While problems that are reported through the council’s website are generally dealt with promptly, it is clear that more needs to be done by us all to improve our streets.

While we are asking people to

Windmill Hill

do their bit for their local streets and the wider community, this does not mean that existing services will get worse. There is only so much that residents can do and Bristol Waste have committed to more frequent street cleaning including the periodic deep cleansing of streets, and to improving their kerbside recycling and greater community engagement.

I receive a lot of complaints about the poor state of streets after collection days and they have made a commitment that this will improve. I recently met representatives from Bristol Waste for a walk around the ward to discuss areas of concern that people have raised with me.

They also attended several public meetings in the ward to listen to people’s views, and are setting up meetings with smaller local groups who are interested in cleaning up their local streets. If you would like to get involved, please get in touch with either me or Bristol Waste directly.

• bristolwastecompany.co.uk

Y

29

How to contact your councillor: p2

OU MAY have heard that in the last month Bristol city council announced a freeze on all nonLucy essential spending Whittle across the city.

Labour This was met with Windmill Hill some alarm as there was confusion as to what it would mean for neighbourhood services.

The move was in response to the incredibly difficult financial situation that the council is in, and the need to find £34m savings in this year’s budget. The freeze is a temporary measure to try to achieve this and identify further areas where costs can be reduced.

To be clear: the freeze does not mean that services stop. All routine maintenance and jobs that are already budgeted will go ahead. Parks, highways and building maintenance jobs that are staffed and scheduled will continue. It does mean, however, that new jobs that need additional expenditure will be put on hold

until after the council budget is agreed in February. Wellbeing grants and highways budgets at the neighbourhood partnership have been halted, though projects funded from the Community Infrastructure Levy can continue.

The savings are something that we as a Labour administration are making because of cuts from central government to local authority grants. This programme of deliberate austerity is affecting local government all over England It seems the Government wants councils to become self-sufficient through retention of business rates and revenue-raising via council tax and commercialisation.

This includes funding for vital statutory services for vulnerable adults and children.

Implementing these measures, as we are forced to, will be painful but we have a legal duty to produce a balanced budget. I urge all readers to feed into the Corporate Strategy consultation which closes on January 5.

• bristol.gov.uk/councilspending-performance

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southbristolvoice

30

January 2017

n HISTORY

He could have led a Bristol church: instead

T

HIS month’s South Bristol subject, Charles Padfield, could have lived his life here but chose not to. But it’s what he did and said about his life’s work in central Africa which means that he is remembered to this day by churchgoers whose predecessors had asked him – twice – to be their minister.

A warning to younger readers and those of a sensitive nature: what he saw in Africa involved acts of extreme violence.

Charles William Padfield was born on May 21, 1875, in the Somerset village of Paulton, near Midsomer Norton. At that time Paulton was far from a rural idyll: it had for centuries been a mining village, and he became a builder.

He was the eldest of six children of Joseph and Hannah Padfield, according to the 1891 census, when Charles was 15.

His family attended Paulton Baptist church, where he was

Charles Padfield’s evidence helped expose one of the worst atrocities of the last century – the tragedy of the Belgian Congo baptised at the age of 13. Later, as an apprentice builder, Charles came to Bristol, where he preached for the Bristol Baptist Itinerant Society, and became secretary of the United Gospel Mission Band.

At some point around the turn of the new century he preached several times to the Victoria Park Baptists. He made a deep impression on the congregation, according to Rod Chapman, a present-day member of the

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Victoria Park church who has researched and written about Charles’s life.

It seems Charles was more than a visiting preacher to the Victoria Park community: he was instrumental in bringing together the Baptist congregation.

Maps of the 1880s show St John’s Lane as just that, a lane.

Both Lower and Upper Totterdown existed much as they do today. But there were no streets beyond Knowle Road on the east side of Wells Road, and none beyond Montgomery Street on St John’s Lane.

Then at some point in the 1890s, as streets beginning with M and N – Merioneth, Marmaduke, Nottingham – spread along St John’s Lane – a new congregation of Baptists began to form. It seems surprising that a new chapel was needed within a few hundred yards of Totterdown Baptist church, not far up Wells Road, but that served Totterdown and much of Knowle.

The Victoria Park Baptist chapel opened between Water Lane and Maidstone Street in 1903. The building is still visible, though it’s been radically altered to become a shop (latterly a tool retailer) and now flats.

The Victoria Park Baptists dearly wanted Charles Padfield to be their first reverend. It is the Baptist tradition that the congregation chooses its minister, so this was certainly a mark of respect.

But Charles felt a calling elsewhere: he wanted to be a missionary. In 1899 he left Bristol for the the East London Training Institute for Home and Foreign Missions.

The college aimed to send Baptists to probably the deadliest destination in the world for Christian missionaries – the Upper Congo. The risks were already clear: 36 missionaries had been sent to the the Congo Balolo Mission. By the turn of the new century, only six survived, the rest victims of accidents or diseases such as malaria and sleeping sickness.

Of course this was part of the attraction: undoubtedly some of the recruits were attracted by the danger and the belief that they were helping bring the benefits of Western civilisation to the most

Fortune hunter: King Leopold II personally owned the Congo remote area of the world.

Whatever his motivation, Charles stuck at it and graduated.

The 1901 census records him living in Harley House, Bow Road, East London, with the Guinness family and more than 40 students, most in their 20s.

It may have been here that he met Hannah, a fellow Baptist who was to be his wife after they arrived in Africa. But as Hannah was from Clutton in Somerset, it may well be that they had known each other previously.

In 1902, Charles applied to the Council of the Congo Balolo Mission for service in Africa.

The principal of Harley College, Forbes Jackson, gave this testimony to the mission council: “I am glad to endorse with great heartiness Mr Padfield’s application for work on the Congo. For a couple of years a church in Bristol (Victoria Park

The Padfields’ house at Ikau PICTURE: Centre for the Study of World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh, ref CSCNWW33/OS10/71

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

January 2017

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31

n HISTORY

he was part of the birth of human rights Baptist Church), which was largely gathered by his instrumentality, has been waiting for him, but he has felt the obligation of a greater need and the honour and opportunity of a larger sphere.”

It appears that, after waiting two years for Charles to graduate, the Baptists of Victoria Park had asked him once again if he would be their minister. But he refused: his heart was set on Africa.

M

any people now look back rather uneasily on the notion of privileged white folk sailing to Africa to redeem the souls of the “savages” who lived there. Certainly the impact of missionaries has been mixed: but the world looked very different at the beginning of the 20th century. The Congo basin and its peoples were almost unknown to the Western world.

The words “Dr Livingstone, I presume?” uttered by Henry Stanley at Lake Tanganyika in 1871 marked one of the most famous events of the century. He had found the missionary and explorer David Livingstone, missing for five years after he set off to find the source of the Nile.

Later Stanley, now worldfamous, later decided to explore the Congo, one of the last major areas that was unknown to white people.

The Congo had a threatening allure to the Victorian mind. It was vast, it was unknown, it was full of dangers from people, wildlife and disease. It was also full of opportunity: to exploit its natural resources, to add to the tally of European colonies, and – to the missionaries – to bring Christianity to new peoples.

There’s no reason to think that Charles Padfield had anything but good intentions for the people he was to meet in the Congo. He was no middle-class intellectual but a man from a working class family – the type the Baptists favoured, with practical as well as spiritual skills to share.

After a short period of medical training at Livingstone College, he sailed for the Congo in September 1903. His first period of mission service was spent at Lolonga, followed by a spell at Bonginda, to the west,

Missionary: Charles Padfield, 1875-1921 PICTURE: Centre for the Study of World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh, ref CSWC33/OS9/65 while he and the other new arrivals learned the language. It was at some point in this period that he and Hannah married; but it wasn’t to be a long union as Hannah became one of the many victims of the harsh climate, dying – probably from disease – aged only 34, on June 6, 1905.

Tragic though this was, it wasn’t the only thing weighing on Charles’s mind. Unknowingly, he and his fellow missionaries had walked in on one of the cruellest episodes in the history of colonialism – one which led him to take part in the first human rights movement.

T

he latter half of the 19th century saw the British empire become the largest the world had ever seen, with colonies from Australia to India and Canada, and including large chunks of Africa from Egypt to South Africa.

The claim was that colonial rule brought railways, education, and the British system of justice.

It also brought the host nation vast resources in minerals, agriculture and labour.

The other nations of Europe competed to have their “place in the sun”. Germany, one of the

latecomers, claimed South West Africa, next to the British colony.

Much of Africa and the Middle East was under French rule. The Dutch had historic holdings in the Far East. Spain had the remnants of its mighty empire which still included Cuba and the Philippines. Italy ruled parts of Libya, Eritrea and Somalia.

Belgium, independent only since 1830, had nothing. And as a young nation with a relatively advanced democracy, it didn’t want foreign dominions. It had seen that colonies could prove a costly drain on the lives and resources of their rulers.

But their king, Leopold II, had been scouting for foreign dominions even before he came to the throne in 1865, starting with a plan to take over the Philippines from the fading Spanish empire. When that failed, he eyed Africa, and in 1878 hired Stanley to explore the vast Congo basin.

Stanley made “treaties” with local chiefs, signing away the rights to their lands in favour of the Belgian king.

Leopold persuaded an international conference in Berlin in 1885 that he had a claim to the area explored by Stanley,

and it became recognised as his personal fiefdom – not part of Belgium but the king’s own possession.

Here lay the seeds of the tragedy. Though the Belgian government lent Leopold money for his venture, it did not control his actions. He ruled the Congo Free State, an area 55 times the size of Belgium, with a private army, the Force Publique.

Leopold had promised the Berlin conference that he would end slavery and bring education and employment to the Congo, and allow free trade. But when his trade in ivory did not meet his needs for profit, his debts began to balloon. He turned to rubber, which in Congo was extracted from trees growing wild in the forest.

After 1890 the value of rubber soared as Europeans started to snap up bicycles with the new rubber tyres developed in Britain

by Dunlop. Soon Leopold was making vast profits from the Congo. But it was at a terrible cost to the Congolese.

It was hard to manage the extortion of rubber from wild trees – elsewhere rubber was taken from managed plantations, which was easier.

In the Congo Free State, the Force Publique set strict targets for rubber production and used force against villages which didn’t meet their quota.

Worse, the Belgian overlords didn’t trust their local militia.

They suspected local forces would waste ammunition on hunting for animals. This meant that the militia would produce a pile of severed human hands – or heads – to show their bullets had been used on people. Often hands were chopped off just to meet the quota. Sometimes the wounded were helped to staunch the bleeding. Many didn’t survive – it didn’t matter to Leopold.

Colonial rule by Britain and other nations was often savage.

But Britain had learned to work with local people in a way Belgium did not. Leopold’s underlings distrusted the Congolese; all power was kept in white hands.

The promised schooling was thinly spread, and only the most basic education was provided.

Belgium’s Roman Catholic Continued on page 32

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

southbristolvoice

32

n HISTORY

‘The white man’s answer was to attack the town, burning it, and looting all the property”

Continued from page 31 missionaries were seen as authoritarian and their teachings as undermining African culture.

Nevertheless, Leopold’s rule did impose a kind of order on this vast new nation of many peoples, and he did end the East African slave trade – though at the cost of imposing a kind of slavery of his own.

As an absolute ruler, he could make laws to protect his own fortune. He decreed that all “unoccupied” land was state property. He imposed heavy taxes on companies that traded in ivory and rubber, but his state company didn’t pay tax.

In some districts he granted profitable rubber concessions to private firms and allowed them to police the area as they wanted.

In other areas local elites were allowed to collect and sell rubber – and were paid in guns.

And even with all these advantages, Leopold took more.

He often paid less than the market price for rubber or foodstuffs. And he simply seized 100,000 sq miles of a free trade area and declared it his own.

Between 1901 and 1906, the royal coffers filled with profits from the rubber trade.

T

he Baptist missionaries were seen as rather more popular with the local people than the Catholics, who were almost employees of the Belgian state. Baptists such as Charles and Hannah Padfield set up schools and tried to educate all who wanted to come.

Charles, being a builder, was typical of the practical men and women who wanted to share their worldly skills as well as spreading the message of Christianity.

And from the time that Charles and Hannah arrived in the Congo, their colleagues were beginning to speak out.

A Congo Reform Association (CRA) was set up, backed by important figures including

A missionary with a victim of the violence, c.1890-1910 PICTURE: Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, ref CSWC33/OS10/19

Sherlock Holmes’s creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, American author Mark Twain, novelist Joseph Conrad (see panel), and philosopher Bertrand Russell.

Britain, the US and much of Europe were outraged by Leopold’s acts and the CRA grew into a mass movement calling for reform. A British consul, Roger Casement, was sent to the Congo in 1904 to host an inquiry.

Charles Padfield was one of those who spoke to him.

What survives of Charles’s evidence is shocking – but the report omits some of his testimony because it described scenes thought too shocking to print.

Charles began with an account of an event in June 1904.

Some sentries found a shortfall in the amount of rubber collected in a village near Boyeka in the west.

In response they seized some

money from a villager, and when he objected, they beat him with a chicotte – a heavy, knotted whip – and hit him with a gun butt.

“When they returned to Boyeka the paddlers reported the outrage to the agent, who replied that they were telling lies,” Charles told Casement’s inquiry.

“Two days after, the paddler who had been thus treated died from the effects. His relatives took the corpse to the agent, who dismissed the matter, asserting that the man had died from ordinary sickness.”

This was bad enough. But Charles knew of much more.

“On Sunday, December 4, 1904, when the Commission of Inquiry was expected, the white agents at Boyeka endeavoured to bribe the surrounding villages to silence in the matter of atrocities committed upon the people. They

THE HEART OF DARKNESS

the white men inflict on the Congo’s black people.

Kurtz’s last words are “The horror … the horror …” but Marlow can’t bring himself to reveal this when he meets Kurtz’s fiancée back in England. Instead, he tells her, “The last word he pronounced was your name.”

In real life, Charles Padfield’s account of the horror he saw was censored. Conrad’s narrator also decided to be sparing with the reality of the Congo.

“THE horror … the horror …”

These words are at the centre of Joseph Conrad’s 1902 novel Heart of Darkness (which also inspired the film Apocalypse Now).

Conrad had served on a riverboat on the Congo, and was a member of the Congo Reform Association. His narrator, Marlow, makes a long journey upriver – into the “heart of darkness” – to find Kurtz, a company agent driven mad by the greed and exploitation

January 2017

sent two sentries to call natives from the village of Ingando to come to the station to be [given] 100 blankets, but the villagers, knowing that the Commission of Inquiry was coming, refused to go or to receive the blankets.

Similar “bribes” were offered to other villages, but they all refused.

Leopold tried to discredit his critics. Where Catholic priests spoke out, he tried to silence them, and the Protestants he accused of religious bias. But the evidence of atrocities was overwhelming.

Charles gave another example: “In September of 1904 the people of Bojinga went to Ekotolongo, the native name for the white agent at Boyeka, to ask him why he did not pay them for [their] rubber. The white man’s answer was to attack the town with his sentries, burning it, and looting all the property he could get hold of.”

Some accounts of Charles’s were censored by ED Morel, the journalist who printed the account of the inquiry.

Charles said: “The town of Bokenyola has to send 10 women on Sunday and 40 on other days to work at the factory. On one occasion, when the 40 women had been working all day, the white agent Lokoka had the women in the evening all lined up, ordered them to strip themselves naked, and then …”

Morel inserted a footnote: “What follows is unprintable.” It was clearly an account of sexual violence.

Another of Charles’s accounts was also edited: “The women at Mampoko had to tread the clay used for brickmaking, and on one occasion the sentries stripped the women, and in the presence of the white man in charge of the work …” The rest can be guessed.

“The women went to M. Spelier, the director, and he told them to go away,” added Charles.

The attention brought by the inquiry, however, meant some of the abuses were investigated.

Charles related that 10 eyewitnesses gave evidence to the inquiry about another incident: “About October of 1904 the white agents at Boyeka sent for the chief of that village, Jongi by name, and told him he must work rubber. He refused, because he was the chief, and because his town already supplied fish, etc.

“He was thereupon seized by

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

January 2017

southbristolvoice

n HISTORY

33

“One of the most appalling slaughters known by human agency” the white agents and furiously thrashed. When they had finished with him, as he did not rise, they kicked him, but found he was dead. One white man was charged with holding the chief, and the other with beating him.”

More witnesses, including the widows of men killed, also testified to the following incident, said Charles: “On the third occasion of their bringing in the rubber after the above murder, the white agents gave the people a small mirror. The people asked for rods [money]. As answer, the white agents seized the man Bokectu, and beat him so severely with the chicotte that he died.”

“In the rubber coils”: A 1906 Punch cartoon shows Leopold as vicious

harles’s efforts for the people of the Congo Free State did not stop there.

He returned to England in 1907 and made a lecture tour with other missionaries, adding great weight to the public outcry against Leopold’s rule.

The next year Leopold sold his private holding to the Belgian government. The worst of the abuses were ended. But Leopold had archives destroyed to obscure his record in the Congo, and in any case he had already made vast profits before the rubber price slumped and his business became unattractive.

His legacy is one of shame: no one knows how many died in the Congo during his rule but it could be between three and 13 million, or up to a quarter of the population. But most historians

say it was not genocide, because there was not a deliberate attempt to wipe out a population.

Nevertheless, said historian Adam Hochschild, the atrocities in the Congo were “one of the most appalling slaughters known to have been brought about by human agency”.

In 1910 Charles was married for a second time, to Norah Toppin in Brighton. The couple sailed together for the Congo on August 18 of that year and were stationed at Ikau until the autumn of 1912, when they moved to Baringa where Charles had been stationed previously.

Charles served in the Congo until 1921, when he made a short visit to the United States.

Following a sudden illness he died of rheumatic fever in Irebo on October 14, 1921, aged only

C

STILL SUFFERING, 100 YEARS LATER CONGO – which has been called the Belgian Congo, Zaire, and now the Democratic Republic of Congo – has still not escaped the legacy of Leopold’s rule.

When the DRC is in the news today, it is usually for acts of mass violence, often sexual, committed by soldiers or warlords. It is supposedly a democracy but president Joseph Kabila failed to surrender power when his term of office ended on December 19.

It is one of the richest countries

in Africa for resources, such as rare earth minerals which are essential for mobile phones.

But it has been ill-served by politicians and riven by violence since independence in 1960. Some observers blame its Belgian heritage. The Belgians placed most power with white officials and educated few Congolese.

As a result there were very few black graduates or managers to run the country after 1960. This was dangerous in a vast country which had been stitched together from many different peoples by the Victorian explorer Stanley.

46. He was survived by his widow Norah and three children, Scott, aged 7, Sheila, 3, and Sophie

Mary, only five months old.

Rod Chapman at Victoria Park Baptist church said: “Charles earned the love and admiration in equal measure of the native population wherever he served, and he brought many of them to know Christ. He travelled extensively in the Congo and was greatly respected.”

Charles was remembered with such affection by his friends in Victoria Park that his photograph was kept in a special collection of present and past ministers – even though he never became their minister.

Rod discovered Charles’s photo while preparing to celebrate the construction of a new hall and social housing at the the Baptist church, now at Sylvia Avenue, in 2015. The new hall bears a mosaic of Charles Padfield, and is named Padfield after him. Said Rod Chapman: “Remembering his selfless service in the Congo we can take pride in his achievements, and the fact we are a small footnote in his remarkable life.”

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January 2017

n FEATURES

It’s not spooky – it’s part of our world Night time is the right time to go exploring at Arnos Vale cemetery, finds Beccy Golding

O

NE dark winter evening, a star-filled sky above us and torch in hand, I joined a dozen or so others for an After Hours Tour of Arnos Vale cemetery. Our tour guide, Charlotte Conway, is a volunteer, and really knows her stuff – she’s been a volunteer at Highgate and

Arnos tour will reveal things you never saw other cemeteries in London, and has recently completed an MA in Victorian studies. She does an excellent job of sharing her

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knowledge and fascination with Bristol’s Necropolis (city of the dead) – and it really is a city – counting burials and cremations, the cemetery is the final resting place for a staggering 300,000plus souls.

Did you know the cemetery was originally lawned? All the beautiful trees that we see there now are self-seeded and grew up in the years of neglect. Did you know there is a symbolic language of gravestones and memorials? We learnt the meaning of draped urns, three-tiered plinths, butterflies and more. We learnt why Victorian funeral etiquette was so important, and why it went out of favour. And we stopped at individual gravesides, where Charlotte told us the stories of some of those who were interred.

Like George Muller, the famous Bristolian who established an orphanage, and who Muller Road is named after; like a policeman, killed while on duty in Old Market, whose grave, once overgrown, has been repaired and is now maintained by the police force, as are all graves of those “fallen in action”.

Some areas of the cemetery were consecrated; the area for non-conformist Anglicans was not – we visited the ostentatious grave of a city dignitary, on the very border of the consecrated ground, with his wife buried next to him, on the un-consecrated side. And we saw a beautiful but unusual statue, an actual

life-sized portrait of the toddler who had died.

We even went down into the crypt below the Anglican chapel.

And Charlotte explained why the open-to-the-air coffins there were lined with elm, then lead, then another layer of solid wood.

Like many South Bristolians, I have wandered the paths of Arnos Vale cemetery before, but the tour showed me things I had never noticed, and helped me understand the meaning of what I saw.

There’s something special about being at a place ‘after hours’, and this is no exception.

It felt like we were in a dark oasis with the city around us. Once the magpies had stopped their bedtime squawking, the air was still and calm and you could hear the hoot of owls somewhere near.

Apparently there is only one ghost at Arnos, a female figure seen near the military graves to the right of the entrance. But the tour doesn’t feel spooky at all – much more a fascinating exploration of a location which is full of social history, and part of the human experience.

The tours are run every month – with enough demand there will be one in January.

During the summer the tour, which starts at 7.30pm, is all in daylight – but the atmosphere you get when exploring in the dark, not quite sure where you’ll go next, made it even more special for me.

• arnosvale.org.uk

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n COMPETITION

WIN a free grooming session for your dog

stress,” said Sumari. “I have quite a passion for dogs and I feel strongly about wanting to show the dog that it’s a positive experience to come here, and not just a quick thing,” she said.

Sumari trained full-time for two months to gain both City & Guilds and NVQ qualifications in dog grooming. She was taught by award-winning groomers Natasha Anderson and Carol Parcheeni Hutchins at The Grooming School in Gloucester, where she was also taught about dog behaviour. This included how to put nervous dogs at ease, especially those that may have been rehomed.

A

SOUTH Bristol mum who loves dogs has found the ideal way to start a new career and to spend time at home with her young son – she has started a dog grooming business.

Called Groomingtons, it’s run by Sumari Lennon and caters for all sizes and breeds of dog.

Sumari is offering a free grooming service to a lucky Voice reader – or rather their dog! So we thought we’d better send along one of the junior members of the Voice team, Stanley the boxer, to check Groomingtons out for you.

Some breeds, like boxers, don’t need a lot of clipping so for them Sumari offers a service called Bubble No Trouble, which consists

Rub down: Stanley the boxer checks out the Groomingtons facilities of a wash, dry, comb, a check on the nails and an ear clean.

Those that need grooming too get the full treatment, known as The Works, which is booked in two-hour time slots. The Works costs from £27 for small breeds to £47 for large ones; dogs that are heavily matted or need a lot of combing out may cost more.

Stanley took to Sumari’s custom-made walk-in bathing

facilities at her Whitchurch home without a fuss. In fact he was so relaxed that by the end of the session he was falling asleep.

It’s important to Sumari that each dog is relaxed, so they are given the chance to play in the garden first – on artificial grass, so they don’t get dirty. They can also take a break during the session.

“I only have one dog in here at a time – that helps eliminate the

How your dog can win ONE lucky reader can win a full grooming session from Groomingtons: The Works consists of a wash, dry, comb, nail trim, ear clean and finish. It normally costs up to £47 but you can win it free if you can tell us: How long does a Groomingtons session last? Email your answer to paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

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36

January 2017

n WHAT’S ON Saturday December 31 n New Year’s Eve Bash at the SouthBank Club, Dean Lane, Southville, with seven-piece ceilidh band Fitty Gomash.

With bonfire, cabaret, midnight feast, dance class and circus acts. Tickets £25, under 16s £10.

Group discount for more than 10.

• southbankclub.webs.com n New Year’s Eve: Escape the Metropolis Tobacco Factory. Cirque Bijou, Tobacco Factory theatres and the Thali Cafe create an enticing escape for the year’s end by turning the clock back to 1927 and resurrecting the spirit of Metropolis – Fritz Lang’s iconic depiction of a dystopian future where the workers toil day after day. “We’ll have amazing aerial acts, fire dancing, juggling, burlesque, stilt walking, slack line, hula hooping and interactive walkabout performance.” Live music from the Carny Villans, plus DJs aplenty. From 7.30pm, £35.

• tobaccofactorytheatres.com n New Year’s Eve with The 45s The Thunderbolt, Bath Road, Totterdown. The 45s are “A world-class power pop trio who mix the best in Motown, soul, rock and blues with an edge.” Featuring the music of Elvis, Otis Redding and James Brown. A sellout last year. With DJ Kev Regz. £12 • thethunderbolt.net n New Years Eve Party The Tunnels, Temple Meads.

With DJ and covers band.

7.30pm-1am, £12.

• thetunnelsbristol.co.uk n New Year’s Eve at Zion Three live bands at Zion Bristol, Bishopsworth Road BS13 7LW. Music from The Baskervilles, upcoming South West Indie band, Bristol tribute act Any Winehouse and Dire, a rock/pop covers band. 8pm-1am.

Monday January 2 n Rocky: A Horror Show Wardrobe Theatre, 25 West Street, Old Market BS2 0DF. A madcap merging of Sylvester Stallone’s boxing blockbusters with Richard O’Brien’s cult musical. “A scary-sexy, knockout comedy that always punches below the belt, Rocky: A Horror Show is a Christmas show you won’t forget… however hard you try…” Until january 21. Tickets £10 and £8, 7.30pm. n Mistletoes & Whiney Countdown To Christmas Wardrobe Theatre, 25 West

There’s more to wonder at than the average panto

Boot on the other foot: This Cinderella has some surprises, with one involving a handful of toes ...

REVIEW: Cinderella: A Fairy Tale, Tobacco Factory KURT, 7, Noah, 6, and Noah’s mum Hannah joined me for this delightful performance at the Tobacco Factory. The boys were giggly and rambunctious before the show started – messing about with the flip-up seats – all of a fidget. But once it started they were very quickly transfixed, other than the odd loud whisper to ask questions.

The whole thing is beautiful, starting with the colourchanging paper lanterns, the haze in the air and the muted colours of the costumes, which make everything feel rather gentle and nostalgic. Music is from a live two-piece who play all sorts of instruments, sing and do the sound effects – one

of them even dons a frock and dances at the ball. Lots of the music is skiffle-style with a little skat-jazz thrown in for fun.

The rest of the action comes from a cast of only five, who brilliantly move through the different characters, from a flock of birds, each with their own call, to the main protagonists. Isabella Marshall, who plays Ella, captures a wonderful child-like but unsentimental innocence and quite rightly, as the heroine, both boys declare she is their favourite. Every member of the cast is excellent so it seems churlish to choose, but Lucy Tuck as the sister, amongst other parts, was mine – her face and

movements incredibly watchable and able to deliver funny, evil and more.

This is a charming piece of story-telling, not a traditional panto as such. And parts of it are very much in the older Brothers Grimm tradition, like when, in a desperate bid to make the boot fit, the sister’s toes are cut off with a meat cleaver and thrown across the floor (that one made Kurt jump, but a reassurance that it wasn’t real seemed to help). This is a non-celeb Christmas show whose direction, stage craft and performances deliver a spoonful of child-like wonder. It’s on until January 22.

Beccy Golding

Street, Old Market BS2 0DF. “A mischievously fun new festive show for ages 3-8 years and their families. Mistletoes and Whiney are two of Christmas’ unseen helpers, but cantankerous Whiney is fixed on making Christmas different… really different!” Until January 8, 11am & 2pm. Tickets £7 (£5 for group bookings of 20+) • thewardrobetheatre.com Tuesday January 3 n 20:20 Visions: Re-Valuing Photography, People And Place Exhibition at Knowle West Media Centre, Leinster Avenue, until February 28. Open 9am6pm Monday-Friday. As part of the centre’s 20th anniversary celebrations, 20 photographers were invited to create new work, reflecting on how photography has changed over the past two decades. The works focus on people and place and mix technologies both new and old, from pin hole cameras and Polaroids, to laser-cutters and CNC machines.

• kwmc.org.uk n Cinderella: A Fairytale Tobacco Factory theatre. This new take on the classic fairytale has been seen by 60,000 people since it was first staged at the

Tobacco Factory in 2011. Now its run has ben extended until January 22. Tickets from £11 (concessions): family tickets for four £45 or £60 depending on date. Also a relaxed performance on January 18 for those with special needs.

• tobaccofactorytheatres.com Friday January 6 n Sombrero Society headline a presentation of the best of the Chew Valley music scene.

The Thunderbolt, Bath Road, Totterdown. Sombrero Society are young rock ’n’ roll upstarts with heavy riffs and metal ambitions. Supported by The Meantime, grunge band Skin and “the smallest little pop stars around”: Runaway. Barbecue 7-8.30pm. free entry.

• thethunderbolt.net n Live bands in aid of Raleigh International The Tunnels, Temple Meads. Funeral For Bird, Jericho, Faolan Alley and My Style play to support an expedition with development charity Raleigh International to Nicaragua. £5, 7.30pm.

• thetunnelsbristol.co.uk Saturday January 7 n Singaround, Saltcellar Folk Club Totterdown Baptist Church, Wells Road (entrance

off Cemetery Road). Folk music evenings at 7.30pm, held on the first Saturday of each month in the basement (or salt cellar) of the church. Admission £1 for Singaround; usually £5 when named acts are booked.

• saltcellar folk.org.uk Thursday January 12 n Silver and copper jewellery making Windmill Hill City Farm. Beginners 10am12.30pm, improvers 1-3.30pm.

Learn skills required for making jewellery from metal sheet and wire, including piercing out, shaping, texturing and soldering.

Nine sessions. Cost: £83 (may be reduced for those on a benefit).

This course is run by the WEA: 0845 458 2758.

• wea.org.uk/southwest Friday January 13 n Control “Hooligan rock ’n’ roll” at the Thunderbolt, Bath Road, Totterdown. Hard-working punk band, with support and ticket prices tbc. Age: 16+. 7.30pm.

• thethunderbolt.net Sunday January 15 n Jazz night with Mark Randall Six Windmill Hill community centre, Vivian Street; third Sunday of every month, 8.30-10.30pm.

• whca.org.uk

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January 2017

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37

n WHAT’S ON Torvill and Dean don’t fail to delight REVIEW: Cinderella with Torvill & Dean, Hippodrome MERRYN and Hetty, both nearly 6, and Merryn’s mum Vicky, joined me at this much more traditional pantomime. But it is modern traditional. As we find our seats a giant screen lowers in front of the stage with live footage of the audience waving back at itself. Very post-modern.

The sets are great – like being inside a giant cartoon Christmas card, with sparkles to the max, as are the costumes, especially the Ugly Sisters’ – classic cartoon drag, each change more OTT than before.

This production is, as it should be, extremely cheesey – the puns make you groan, the Saturday January 15 Big Jeff’s Mosh Pit & The Future History 7.30pm-1am.

The Thunderbolt, Bath Road, Totterdown. After the success of Jeff’s first Mosh Pit in November, this Saturday night gig sandwich features low-key DJ sets from Jeff & Cactus County, followed by live music from loud-guitar-pop local boys Future History at 9pm, rounded off by alternative floor fillers from Jeff and friends.

• thethunderbolt.net n Pierre Novelie plus guests Comedy Box at the Hen & Chicken, North Street, Southville.

“Following on from a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, award-winning comedian Pierre Novellie brings his unique brand of comedy to the Hen & Chicken. ““The dawn of a major talent”, said the Guardian. 8.45pm, tickets £11 in advance, £13 on the door.

• thecomedybox.co.uk Monday January 16 n Young Theatre Makers 11:13 Tobacco Factory theatre.

“If you’re aged 11-13 years, excited by theatre, keen to learn new skills and ready for a new challenge – join us!” Ten weekly sessions from 6.30-7.30pm until March 27, except for February 13. £50 per term (If the fee is a barrier, email bryony@ tobaccofactorytheatres.com) • tobaccofactorytheatres.com

cast are all floor-to-ceiling smiles, with plenty of song and dance, and every opportunity for trad panto is pursued – from a fun set-piece for the ‘He’s behind you!” bit (the kids were totally embroiled) and plenty of “Oh no she isn’t,” “Oh yes she is!”

The girls’ favourite character

was, as it should be, Cinderella.

Their favourite moment was when she climbs into her carriage (complete with Shetland ponies) on her way to the ball.

Highlights for me include a short, oddly out-of-place scene where Cinderella falls asleep in the forest and a beautiful cast of

woodland animals perform a sweet little ballet, and a show-stopping rendition of Feeling Good, belted out by Dandini (Samuel Holmes).

Not forgetting, of course, that the fairy god-parents are the ice-skating Olympians Torvill and Dean. Not on ice, on inline skates, gliding about marvellously. Christopher Dean is a total ham (in a good way), trying out his bad Bristol accent at every opportunity (Cheers Drive… proper job) with a nice style of self-mockery. Jane Torvill is a little more regal but you love her for it. After tantalising us all evening, there is a rather beautiful rendition of the classic Bolero that won them gold, incorporating some brave high-up silk acrobatics.

At the beginning I was a cynic, feeling like I’d landed in Butlins; by the end I was a convert, dancing in the stalls. It’s on until January 7. Beccy Golding

Tuesday January 17 n Pattern making and sewing Windmill Hill City Farm, 10am-12noon. Learn to create your own dressmaking or craft items from pattern to sewing completion. The tutor will aim to create a supportive community environment where everyone is equal and can learn at their own pace. Seven sessions. Cost: £52 (may be reduced for those on a means-tested benefit.) This course is run by the WEA: 0845 458 2758.

• wea.org.uk/southwest Wednesday January 18 n Exploring colour and paint Windmill Hill City Farm, 10am-12.30pm. Explore the vibrant world of colour and paint through colour-mixing exercises. Experiment with painting techniques and colour relationships, and apply the discoveries to your own work.

Nine sessions. Cost: £83 (may be reduced for those on a means tested benefit.) This course is run by the WEA: 0845 458 2758.

• wea.org.uk/southwest Thursday January 19 Young Theatre Makers 14:19 Join the youth theatre team at the Tobacco Factory as they spend 10 weeks developing theatre skills and creating a piece of drama. Each Thursday 6-7.45pm until March 30 excluding February 16. £50 per

term (If the fee is a barrier, email bryony@tobaccofactorytheatres. com).

• tobaccofactorytheatres.com Friday January 20 n Yoga for everyone Windmill Hill City Farm, 1.15-2.45pm.

This safe and effective yoga class will include easy movement, stretching and breathing.

Suitable for everyone, including complete beginners. Students are encouraged to come along and experience how yoga can bring a sense of wellbeing. Nine sessions.

Cost: £83 (may be reduced for those on a means-tested benefit.)

This course is run by the WEA: 0845 458 2758.

• wea.org.uk/southwest Saturday January 21 n Paul Sinha plus guests Stand up for the weekend at Comedy Box at the Hen & Chicken, North Street, Southville. “Smart, articulate and provocative, Paul Sinha is one of the funniest social commentators in the UK today. Hilariously funny, passionate and articulate stand up of the highest order.”

“Highly original,” said Metro.

8.45pm, tickets £11 in advance, £13 on the door.

• thecomedybox.co.uk n The BritPop Boys + The West Indies A tribute to 90s indie music at The Tunnels, Temple Meads. 7.30pm, £10.00 • thetunnelsbristol.co.uk

Wednesday January 25 n The Depraved Appetite of Tarrare the Freak The Tobacco Factory welcomes back this “chamber opera” for over 20 puppets by Tom & Tobi Poster after sell-out performances at Bristol Festival of Puppetry and Suspense 2015. Based on the true story of Tarrare the Freak, an 18th century French revolutionary spy with an appetite for live cats, snakes, and the occasional amputated limb.

“Macabre, witty and oddly beautiful, The Depraved Appetite of Tarrare the Freak is a unique and affecting show from one of the country’s most distinctive and talented puppetry companies.”

Until January 28. Ages 12+.

Tickets £13 and £9, 7.30pm.

• tobaccofactorytheatres.com Saturday January 28 n Trip The Switch The Tunnels, Temple Meads, welcomes Bristol-based soulpop troupe Trip The Switch, “a modern blend of funk and soul, full of energy, heart and stellar vocals”. 7.30pm, £6.

• thetunnelsbristol.co.uk Sunday January 29 n 5x15 Tobacco Factory theatre.

After five sellout shows, 5x15 returns with five engaging speakers each given 15 minutes.

Kate Dimbleby talks about a life singing other people’s songs Continued on page 39

What a finale: Torvill and Dean perform their ice routine on roller skates

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

Bristol’s Largest Indoor Window and Door Showroom is Open at Crystal Clear

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View the extensive range of stunning designer and traditional doors, windows and rooflights at Crystal Clear’s showroom or online at www.crystalclearbristol.co.uk ✓ Extensive Showroom ✓ Striking Designs, offering Low Upkeep, Energy Efficiency, Ease of Use and High Security ✓ PVCu, Aluminium, Sliding Sash and Casement Windows ✓ Composite, Bi-fold, Sliding, French, Stable and Patio Doors ✓ Exclusive Supplier of the MODO Collection from Apeer ✓ Established Local Company with an Excellent Reputation

✓ Secondary Glazing ✓ Experienced Team ✓ Free Quotations ✓ DGCOS Founder Member ✓ GGF and Trustmark Member ✓ Registered with BM Trada and BFRC ✓ Swish Authorised Installer

To find out more, please call us on:

0117 911 2130 or visit www.crystalclearbristol.co.uk www.facebook.com/crystalclearbristol

24 Emery Road, Brislington, Bristol BS4 5PF

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

January 2017

southbristolvoice

39

n WHAT’S ON Continued from page 37 and finding her own voice. Dr Matthew Green traces the how cravings for French wine, South American chocolate and coffee have shaped English history.

Filmmaker James Jones recounts his experience charting America’s race wars for a film about a white policeman accused of shooting an unarmed black teenager. Novelist Cathy Rentzenbrink talks about her gradual realisation that there

Kerry Mendoza: Bristol’s founder of The Canary

are many fates worse than death, and how it would have been better for everyone, including her brother, if he had died on the night he was knocked down by a

n LOCAL SERVICES Explore your beauty with us at • Eyebrow threading

• Manicure

• Shellac

• Fake tans

• Waxing • Facials • Bridal hair & make-up

CYCLE SHOP

• Pedicure

OAPS 15% OFF 463 Wells Road Bristol BS14 9AG

07479 287604

Advertising on this page is very cost-effective. Call Ruth on 07590 527664

OPEN 7 DAYS

Do you work on the move?

Then you need a magic5 app ...

• Eliminate paperwork • Instant invoicing & reports

• Hands & feet spa

BASED IN SOUTH BRISTOL

Sully CYCLES

• Traditional bike shop with over 21 years of experience!

• We fix all types of bikes, we do bike maintenance classes and we have a savings club!

306 Wells Road, Knowle BS4 2QG 0117 980 3337

CARPET CLEANING

• PLUMBER • BUILDER • SURVEYOR • AUDITOR

• Tinting

• Individual eyelashes

TRY IT FREE!

• Keep track, stay in control 07817 390942 | 0117 971 2050 magic5software magic5software.co.uk

LOCAL PLUMBER

• REPAIRS/BURSTS • STOPTAPS • TANKS, TOILETS • TAPS, WASHERS • BALL VALVES • LEAD-PIPES

0117 9564912 **NO VAT** **O.A.P. DISCOUNTS**

Carpet/Upholstery Cleaning Carpets dry in 30 minutes!

Current Offer

CARPETS

1 Room 3 Rooms Whole House

£35* £60* £80*

UPHOLSTERY

1 Armchair £20* 1 Sofa £30* Rugs £5 to £20*

Call Nick / Alison at A.Cleaning Service on:

07812 730346

www.a-cleaningservice.com

*PRICES ARE EXCLUDING VAT

FLOORING

ELECTRICIAN

Griffin Electrical Established 1984

YOUR TRUSTED LOCAL ELECTRICIAN

www.griffin-electrical.co.uk john@griffin-electrical.co.uk • Rewiring • Minor alterations • Security Lighting & Alarms 01275 832830 07831 534766 NICEIC Approved Contractor Member of Checkatrade.com

PEST CONTROL

PLUMBING

underpinned by fabulous harmonies. 7.30pm, £15.

• thetunnelsbristol.co.uk Tuesday January 31 n James McMurtry The Tunnels, Temple Meads. Hailed as one of America’s finest songwriters, tributes include: “He has that rare gift of being able to make a listener laugh out loud at one line and choke up at the next. 7.30pm, £15.

• thetunnelsbristol.co.uk

BUSINESS SOFTWARE

BEAUTY SALON

• Nails

car. And Kerry Mendoza, founder and editor of groundbreaking Bristol-based leftwing news website The Canary asks: “How do we build a world that works for everyone?”

• tobaccofactorytheatres.com Monday January 30 n Darlingside The Tunnels, Temple Meads. A return trip for the Massachusetts quartet who combine pop, bluegrass, indie and chamber music,

RECORDS WANTED

Advance Pest Control Commercial & domestic

• Pigeons • Mice • Moles• Rats • Squirrels • Gulls •Bed-bugs • Ants • Fleas • Flies • Moths • Wasps

07771 503107 YOUR LOCAL PEST CONTROL EXPERTS www.advancepestcontrolbristol.com info@advancepestcontrolbristol.com

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

southbristolvoice

T: 07811 766072

January 2017

www.southbristolvoice.co.uk

Find

NEW

66 Raymend Rd, Bristol BS3 4QW

PIZZA KITCHEN now open from

or online @

5pm to 10pm 7 days a week

email

9.30pm for delivery

order via our app www.THEVictoriapark.co.uk

NEW

last orders

hello@thevictoriapark.co.uk

Proof of age will required for alcohol

The Victoria Park craft beer and pizza take away Serving craft beers and freshly made to order pizzas, which can be ordered for delivery or enjoyed whilst whiling away your day in our beautiful garden.

Download our new App and get

your first order

or order

on the web @

thevictoriapark.co.uk

www.

available BETWEEN 5.00pm & 10.00pm Free delivery within a 2 mile radius

CHECK OUT OUR

Pizzas Add extra toppings each Mozzarella Parmesan Chorizo Smoked bacon Tandoori chicken Roast chicken Napoli salami Tiger prawns Egg Roasted peppers

One

£8.00

Six

Two

£11.00

Tandoori chicken, red onion, peppers, tomato & mango sauce, mozzarella & riata

£12.00

Seven

£10.00

Mushroom, aubergine, mozzarella, parmesan, tomato sauce

£10.00

Eight

£10.00

Roasted chicken, chilli, red onion, mozzarella, BBQ sauce

£12.00

Artichoke, roasted peppers, sun-blushed tomato, red onions, mozzarella, chilli, tomato sauce

Nine

£11.00

Roasted peppers, courgette, artichoke, olives, pesto, mozzarella, parmesan

Ten

Tiger prawns, chilli, red onion, mozzarella, tomato sauce

£12.00

Mozzarella, tomato sauce, basil

£1.00

Sun-blushed tomato Fresh pineapple Courgette Mushroom Olives Aubergine Artichoke Red onion Chilli

Chorizo, roasted peppers, sun-blushed tomato, mozzarella, tomato sauce

Three

Smoked bacon, fresh pineapple, mozzarella, tomato sauce

Four Five

£10.00

Artichoke, Napoli salami, olives, egg, mozzarella, tomato sauce