April 2019
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ORMALLY, planning meetings result in split votes over controversial matters. But Gary the application Hopkins for the revamp Lib Dem of Broadwalk Knowle shopping centre, including flats, was unanimously voted through by councillors from all four parties. This is an outline proposal which has approved matters such as the number of flats and the maximum height, but leaves a lot of the details which relate to quality to be decided later before any actual building can occur. There were objections from some residents, while in favour there were residents, shopkeepers, developers and councillors from Filwood and Hengrove as well as Knowle, and a 3,100 signature petition. I concentrated on developer obligations including money for a local parking scheme (if wanted),
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cycle facilities and money for our local park. Negotiations on these spin-offs will continue. Many items will be subject to a detailed further application. We would encourage all residents to send in ideas and suggestions that could contribute to us getting the best possible design. Let us not pretend that all the problems for the shopping centre are now settled but it is now a centre that will survive, and is a viable financial unit. Those that contended that the number of the flats were not needed, or that the percentage of affordable homes should increase, had not read the council’s viability analysis. Obviously, council officers try to maximise the percentage of affordable homes, but they agreed at 13 per cent as the developers are squeezing potential profit way below the norm. More affordable homes may be added but will require a government subsidy. Chris and I will shortly be meeting the West of England mayor Tim Bowles to discuss.
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HE return of secondary education to Knowle has moved a step closer with the passing of a land Chris deal by Bristol’s Davies cabinet. This sees a Lib Dem significant part of Knowle the land occupied by The Park centre, on the old site of Merrywood school, being surrendered for the new secondary school. This will be accessed from Teignmouth Road. The Park will have £4.5 million of government money to build new community facilities on part of the remaining land. Gary made a statement to cabinet welcoming the progress, which is the result of a 20-year campaign. Since the Labour government and Labour council closed the school 20 years ago, Knowle children have suffered, as they have to travel to other areas for secondary education. We have some of the best primary schools in Bristol:
education reports show that Knowle children at the end of primary years outscore the Bristol attainment average by 61 per cent to 54 per cent, but those same children slip back at secondary level. The two nearest primaries to the new school are Knowle Park, which now has the acting head confirmed in post and a very reassuring inspection from Ofsted this month, and Ilminster Avenue, one of the most improved schools in the country. They should benefit greatly. We have requested that we are kept fully informed about the plans so we can help to prevent delays. A few weeks’ hold-up at the wrong stage could cost a year’s delay to the school opening. Therefore we were amazed to hear leading members of Knowle Labour party demanding a delay and expressing disquiet about the arrangements saying they knew nothing about it, despite local publicity. All they had to do was ask us, or their party colleagues running the council, if they did not understand.
April 2019
southbristolvoice
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HE FULL council has voted vote on the budget for the forthcoming financial year. Ultimately we Jon decide how much Wellington council tax we Labour raise (an extra Windmill Hill 3.99 per cent this year), and how the money we get from that, business rates and from the government is spent. This needs to be considered in the context that from 2020, we are on our own: almost all our funding from central government for year-on-year spending will have gone, meaning the city’s services will be almost entirely dependent on council tax, business rates and income we can raise from other sources. By this time, responsibility for funding key services will have effectively shifted from central government to local taxpayers. With this in mind, balancing the books and keeping the council on a sound financial
Windmill Hill
footing is essential. The interesting, more political part of the budget process is considering amendments to the budget from other parties. This year we, as a Labour group and mayor, accepted several of the Green party amendments including some extra cash for environmental issues, investment for adapting a small number of council owned houses and more cash for social care.Despite us accepting these amendments the Green party then declined to vote in favour of the budget, but that’s politics for you, I suppose. Really, for the party setting the budget, the process is a bit of a no-win situation, politically. Opposition parties are allowed to submit amendments and then, essentially, dare the governing party to vote them down. The 37 Labour councillors do not have the same opportunity to propose amendments. One amendment that we did reject was the Green party’s proposal for a congestion charge to drive into the city. It was
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How to contact your councillor: p2
unclear what they wanted – the official council papers suggested that this would be a blanket congestion charge for everyone, whereas they said in their press releases that it would only apply to people living outside of Bristol, which, all other arguments aside, is possibly not legal. In any case, this amendment, which they knew we could not support at such short notice (we receive amendments a week ahead of the meeting), fires the starting gun on the campaign for the mayoral election in 2020. A congestion charge is clearly going to be the Green party’s major manifesto promise and this is something the mayor and Labour party are going to have to face up to. We have already begun considering this as a medium term policy. The recently published Draft Transport Strategy, produced by the city’s congestion group and chaired by the mayor, had hidden away in it a suggestion of a congestion charge as a way of tackling the city’s problems and
for funding the mayor’s ambition for a much-needed mass transit system for the city. The consultation responses are now available, with a decent number of people supportive of a congestion charge, and the amended strategy is expected to go to cabinet in the summer this year, following further work by the newly convened Bristol Transport Board. While I strongly support a Clean Air Zone, preferably one covering Wells Road and St Johns Lane, and am frustrated by the council’s delays in putting together a plan to introduce a charge for polluting vehicles, I am not sold entirely on a blanket congestion charge. This city already has vast inequalities between the central wards, many of which (but certainly not all) are very affluent, and the outer wards, most of which are not. A congestion charge could make this worse. • Cllr Lucy Whittle is on maternity leave
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