South Bristol Voice Bedminster January 2018

southbristolvoice January 2018 No. 27

www.southbristolvoice.co.uk

We Sell and Let Property Like Yours

Slow news is good news

FREE EVERY MONTH in Bedminster, Southville and Ashton WIN WIN FREE • Wildlife at risk from

All lit up!

IT WAS another spectacular Bedminster Lantern Parade on December 9 with £1,500 raised – half of it going to Bedminster charity Help Bristol’s Homeless.

PHOTO: courtesy Barcan+Kirby/ Stephen Lewis More photos: page 17

Tickets to Madama Butterfly

Plants to bring winter colour

Tea or coffee at Kate’s new café in Southville

Page 17

Page 14

Page 16

Hope for a unified plan by Bedminster Green developers MOST of the developers proposing major high-rise housing developments around Bedminster Green are working towards a plan that fits together as a whole.

Four of the five developers involved are talking to each other and co-operating, says Richard Clarke, managing director of Urbis, the firm originally charged by the council with drawing up a masterplan for the site.

Meanwhile the fifth developer, Rollo Homes, has reduced the size of its housing blocks on Malago Road in response to feedback from the council and the public (see page 12).

Bedminster Green is one of the largest brownfield sites in

Bristol, capable of holding more than 1,000 homes, but has been wracked with controversy.

Neighbours, the Windmill Hill planning group WHaM, and BS3 Planning have all complained that there is no-one coordinating the competing plans, which could mean community facilities get left out. WHaM also objects to the tall buildings being proposed, as well as the removal of mature trees and the existing green space.

However, the council has now appointed a senior planning officer to over see the Green.

Now, says Mr Clarke, there is hope that the framework Urbis drew up for Bedminster Green back in 2015 is back on track, Continued on page 3

parks cuts Pages 4-5 • Campaign to save the Fiddlers Pages 8-9

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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, Martin Powell & The Wicked Witch. Deliveries: Greg Champion

Intro

A CITY TRANSFORMED ARE WE ready for the scale of transformation that could hit Bristol in the next 10-20 years?

And do we have the right political structures in place to make sure Bristol grows in a way that enjoys public support?

The Voice has published many stories about the major plans for Temple Quarter and at Bedminster Green. But it seems that every time you look away, the proposals have grown.

Bedminster Green began with a plan for a landmark building of 16 storeys. Now new ones of 18 and 21 floors are proposed. At Temple Meads, we were promised 17,000 jobs by the 2040s. Now it’s 22,000.

You can find South Bristol Voice on Facebook and Twitter facebook.com/ southbristolvoice Twitter: @sbristolvoice Next month’s deadline for editorial and advertising is January 24th The Temple Meads area is now expected to provide 11,000 homes – five times as many as was expected only last year.

On top of that, mayor Marvin Rees wants to transform the Western Harbour, and build a £4 billion tube network.

An admirable ambition, or pie in the sky? It depends where you sit. Either way, Mr Rees has his work cut out to bring the city’s residents with him on this heroic trek.

Mr Rees has just decided he doesn’t want to work with other parties, and the all-powerful cabinet is now Labour-only.

Is this the right way to win widespread support at a time of great change? And is giving so much power to a mayor and cabinet the best way to govern? Time will tell. But these questions need to be asked.

How do I get in touch with ...

My councillor?

By post: (all councillors) Brunel House, St George’s Road, Bristol BS1 5UY

Celia Phipps Labour, Bedminster By phone: 07469 413312 By email: Cllr.celia.phipps@bristol.gov.uk Mark Bradshaw Labour, Bedminster. By email: Cllr.mark. bradshaw@bristol.gov.uk By phone: 0117 353 3160 Stephen Clarke Green, Southville By email: Cllr.stephen.clarke@ bristol.gov.uk Charlie Bolton Green, Southville By phone: 07884 736111 By email: Cllr.charlie.bolton@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 Housing benefit 0117 922 2300 Social services 0117 922 2900 Police Inquiries 101 Emergency 999

Fire Inquiries 0117 926 2061 Emergency 999 Action Greater Bedminster New name for the local forum for the public, councillors, police, council officials and other groups.

Next meeting Parks sub-group, Monday January 22, Windmill Hill City Farm. See page 5.

My MP? Karin Smyth MP By email: karin.smyth.mp@ parliament.uk By post: Karin Smyth MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA By phone: 0117 953 3575 In person: Surgeries will be held on Friday January 5 and 19. Call 0117 953 3575 for an appointment.

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. We strive to conform to the NUJ Code of Conduct for journalists: • nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-code 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.

South Bristol Voice Ltd | 18 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BX Co. no. 09522608 | VAT no. 211 0801 76

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n NEWS

No more gifts, but money is still welcome for homeless BEDMINSTER’S groundbreaking charity for the homeless has been so successful it has reined it its some of its appeals for donations.

Don’t get the wrong idea, Help Bristol’s Homeless still wants your support – but via cash instead of goods.

Jasper Thompson, the owner of a Caribbean restaurant on North Street, who founded the appeal, said: “We have had to close the wishlist we were running on Amazon because people have been so generous.

“We have tons of sleeping bags, and the other day a guy rang me up and said he had 400 rucksacks he could give us!”

The charity is no longer asking for clothing, gloves or other items, or for things to be bought via the wishlist – but money is still needed to support its work making temporary homes out of shipping containers.

Even though many trades people are donating time and materials, it can still cost £10,000 to convert a container.

Jasper hopes that the coming spring will see progress on moving from the charity’s current

HOW TO HELP Give money online via the website: • helpbristolshomeless.co.uk Goods aren’t needed at the moment.

If you see a homeless person you think needs help, contact Streetlink. They can offer a range of services.

• Streetlink.org.uk site at Malago Road – given by Bedminster builder Paul O’Brien, whose firm Rollo Homes wants to build flats there.

The charity hopes to set up a small container village on an empty council-owned site behind York Road, off Spring Street.

The site could hold 11 container homes, including one as a communal dining area, and one large, 38ft container for families.

“There are families out on the streets, unbelieveable as it may seem,” said Jasper. If any residents living near York Road have any concerns about the project, Jasper is ready to have a

Homely: a converted container consultation meeting, with the help of planning experts at Origin 3, who are offering their services free to help plan the new site.

A charity auction by Origin 3 raised £4,000 for Help Bristol’s Homeless. Former mayor George Ferguson, who compered the auction, is matching the donation with one of his own.

Law firm Burges Salmon is helping negotiate a legal deal for the York Road site with the council – an offer which Jasper says could save thousands.

New year clean IF YOU live in Ashton Vale, why not lend a hand looking out for litter and other blights on the neighbourhood with the friendly folk from Ashton Vale Together on Saturday January 13? Meet at the bench by the Community Garden on Ashton Drive at 10am.

The group also has a meeting from 7-8.30pm on Tuesday January 9 at the community centre, Risdale Road. Details on 07840 680516 or ashtonvaletogether@gmail.com.

• Facebook: Ashton Vale Together

Berry good idea MORE opportunities for lending a hand, when BS3 Helping Others meet on Tuesday January 16 to hear from the Malago Greenway Berry Maze project, the unique community garden.

On Tuesday January 23 the talk is from Community Navigators Bristol, who visit, befriend and help older people in their own homes. The meetings are at the Tobacco Factory café at 10.15am.

• Facebook: BS3 Helping Others

Developers ‘working together’

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December 2017

Continued from page 1 even if it’s been delayed. Building was expected to have started in 2016. But planning applications are now expected for every part of the Green in the spring of 2018.

Before that, it’s hoped that the four co-operating developers will present proposals for consultation in a way that lets the public consider the plans as a whole.

Howard Purse, chair of WHaM, said he welcomed moves to co-ordinate the plans – if that can be achieved. “I think the community’s involvement is clearly having an impact,” he said, pointing to the reduced size of Rollo’s plan and the council’s new role overseeing the framework.

Urbis is still refining its plans for a district energy centre able to provide about 2,000 homes around the Green with heat and

BEDMINSTER GREEN proposals so far Urbis is drawing up a plan for a tower of up to 18 storeys for Plot 5 of the Green, near the station, including hundreds of student homes.

Consortia One proposes building two floors on top of Plot 2, St Catherine’s Place, an empty office block, to provide 54 flats in eight storeys.

Deeley Freed has yet to publicly reveal plans for Plot 3, on the NCP car park at Dalby Avenue.

Dandara wants Plot 3, around Little Paradise, to include a 21-storey tower for one- and two-bed homes for private rent. power. A promised public consultation event will be held before a planning application is made, Urbis has said.

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

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n NEWS

Litter wardens go on patrol WARDENS with the power to hand out on-the-spot fines are already patrolling South Bristol parks. The council has employed a private contractor, Kingdom, to issue £75 penalties for people dropping litter, including cigarette butts.

The fine is reduced to £50 if paid within 10 days. The Bristol Post has reported that fines totalling £30,000 were handed out in the wardens’ first week of operations in the city centre.

The wardens also have power to fine dog owners whose animals are not under control or if they fail to clean up after them. The penalty for either offence is £100, reduced to £60 if paid quickly.

In future the wardens may also target people drinking alcohol in no-street-drinking zones. These include large parts of central Bedminster.

The Kingdom staff wear body cameras. They do not earn a bonus for each ticket they issue.

Jack’s back up the beanstalk IF IT’S traditional pantomime you are after, head to the Zion centre in Bishopsworth Road for Jack and the Beanstalk. Daydreamer Jack Trott decides to climb the beanstalk to challenge the Giant Blunderbore up in Cloudland.

Can he save his friend Daisy the cow and his mum Dame Trott?

Shows are at 12 noon and 3pm on January 8. Tickets £4 children, £6 adults, or £20 for a family.

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southbristolvoice

January 2018

Risk to wildlife if parks cuts Wildlife in parks and green spaces is falling victim to council cuts, argues Voice naturalist Alex Morss

n NEWS

southbristolvoice

Hedgehogs: At risk as grass is left to grow and is cut later in the year mowers in Victoria Park accidentally carved up two hedgehogs. The remains were found strewn across a wildlife meadow by horrified dog walkers and children, on their way to school. Ironically, many residents had recently joined a campaign to improve the Windmill Hill neighbourhood to support more hedgehogs.

They are legally protected – in fact a Bristol city council priority species, with their own special species action plan in place, with a promise to manage parks in a hedgehog-friendly way. Although hedgehogs are often caught in garden mowing accidents, careful checking and timing minimises the risk.

Members of Victoria Park Action Group, including myself, complained to the council about the hedgehog deaths. Surely it is reasonable to ask them to be more careful with a legallyprotected, priority species? I know the staff care, and are

trying hard, involving community groups in difficult parks management decisions, but they are thwarted by impossible policies. The council was three months behind with parks hay cutting. It was meant to be done around August, not midNovember, by which time the grass was long and dense, and hogs were hiding in it. They are short of mowers, and the department recently laid off lots of staff among 1,000 council redundancies. More savage cuts are coming – a consultation is open until January 29 on how to slash another £2.9 million from the parks budget.

Several community groups have seen their volunteer-created wildflower pollinator areas mown off by mistake too, including some I have been involved in. It is a symptom of the same problem of over-stretched staff.

Now many cities, including Bristol, Newcastle, Liverpool, Stockport and London, are

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continue, say campaigners THE FUTURE OF PARKS

M

UCH of our valuable urban wildlife is under threat unless we start to properly fund our public parks, warn campaigners.

Some conservationists claim species and habitats are already suffering, with councils forced to pull the money out of parks, green spaces and local nature reserves. I have witnessed examples of the accidental, illegal and avoidable carving up of our local hedgehogs by overstretched grounds staff, the loss of grasslands to save cash, and the loss of other wildlife habitat.

Conservation groups say we are at a critical time and need to safeguard and invest more in our public green spaces.

Our nation’s favourite wild animal, the hedgehog, is just one of many species now in the firing line, as cash-starved councils rev up their efforts to dump the burden of managing parks and green spaces onto someone else.

Some bat species, other mammals, birds, reptiles and many pollinators that depend upon grassland habitats also stand to lose out if parks continue to be neglected in funding.

In mid-November, council

January 2018

Bristol city council’s parks consultation on plans to reduce annual spending by £2.86m is open until January 29 at • bristol.gov.uk/parksconsultation The proposals include: • More income from cafes; • Advertising in parks; • Charge anyone running businesses in parks, eg dog walkers, fitness trainers, hot air balloon operators; • Let private businesses run leisure activities, eg boot sales, camping, golf, bouncy castles; • Host more big events in parks;

• Cut grounds maintenance by £300,000, eg less grass cutting; • Let some grass turn to woodland; • Remove shrubs and hedges or reduce maintenance; • Review fees for sports facilities; • Reduce changing rooms in parks.

Ask clubs to manage facilities; • Shut Hengrove Play Park two days a week; • Remove hanging baskets. Wild flower meadows instead of floral beds; • Reduce public toilet hours; • Remove broken play equipment; • Invite groups and businesses to manage green spaces.

devising ways to offload the burden of running parks, in all sorts of ways – to businesses, developers, golf clubs, volunteers or charities. This will bring crucial questions for wildlife.

Many wildlife trusts and other conservation charities have hundreds of acres of grassland to manage and cut every year, but try to do it in wildlife-friendly ways. They use volunteers with scythes, or bar mowers specially designed for long grass meadows.

One conservation worker said: “I would not be surprised if there were occasional animal casualties during hay cuts, even in a hay cut done with scythes, but I have never heard of any.

Many casualties can be avoided or very much reduced by ensuring staff have proper training, check first and do the cutting at the correct time, so that species such as hedgehogs are less likely to find very long autumn grass to settle down in

for hibernation. Obviously that comes with a cost.”

Rob Acton-Campbell of Bristol Parks Forum has just presented a 4,400-name petition to Bristol city council asking them to protect our parks, prompted by a £4.5m parks budget cut proposal put forward earlier in the year, to help meet the council’s £108m deficit.

He said: “The council has responded by reducing its proposed budget cuts to ‘only’ £2.9m and aims to raise more income to fill some of the gap, but this still represents a huge reduction in spending. The impacts of reduced management of areas for wildlife take longer to become apparent.

“We are very concerned with reduced funding and the push towards commercialisation.

Many of Bristol’s nature reserves and smaller wildlife areas will suffer to the point where their value for wildlife will be lost.”

A Bristol city council spokesperson said: “We don’t believe that funding decisions so far have had an impact on biodiversity. In some cases, where grass is left to grow without maintenance, this can encourage more wildlife to our parks.” Deputy Mayor Asher Craig said during a council meeting on November 14 that the council “will not be selling off any parks or green spaces”. But it is looking into long term leases, private management and commercialising parks.

My view is we need to be vigilant of the change that is coming, speak up, and fight for funding. We need to take part in public consultation.

Perhaps we need parks to become a statutory service, defined in law and safeguarded for future generations? That’s what the National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces has called for.

• A longer version of this article is online.

THE FUTURE of parks in BS3 will be discussed when Action Greater Bedminster (AGB) calls the first meeting of its parks subgroup on January 22.

A council parks officer will be present to explain proposals for open spaces.

AGB says the big question the meeting will address is: with major cuts to Bristol’s parks budget expected, can or should our local parks generate income?

“We’re anticipating a lively meeting, with members of local parks’ groups making valuable contributions to the debate,” said an AGB spokesperson.

The meeting has been timed to allow people to contribute to the council consultation on parks, which closes on January 29.

• Facebook: Action Greater Bedminster • Twitter:@greaterbedmin • bedminster.org.uk/com • greaterbedminster@gmail.com

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

n NEWS

A QUICK lesson in first aid that entrance is beside Mezzaluna Social event could save a life is on offer at a and the speaker will be Kathryn meeting of Greater Bedminster Clements, Bristol adult education Older People’s Forum. Open to all co-ordinator for the Red Cross. that could over-55s, it’s on Wednesday To find out more, call 0117 305 January 17 at Monica Wills House, 2365 or email gtrbedminster be a lifesaver West Street, 10am-12 noon. The olderpeoplesforum@gmail.com.

Town Team appeals for BS3 traders to keep up support

Tiina Wastie collects her prize from head brewer Colin Paige

Winners all HERE are more lucky winners of Voice competitions. Britt Andreasen Ryan won a free journey for her family to Bristol Airport with Club Cars in last month’s Voice, while winner of the Bemmie Advent calendar was Roger Herbert of Ashton.

Pictured is Tiina Wastie of Ashton collecting her prize awarded in the November issue – her own weight in beer from the Butcombe brewery in Wrington.

Forage for food WANT to walk to find out how to search for your own food? A Forest of Avon Trust Foraging Walk takes place on Sunday February 25 from 11.30am-2pm at Ashton Court estate. Look for food plants such as wood avens and dandelions, and later sample wild soup and homemade herbal tea. Tickets are £35. To find out more call 0117 963 3383 or email admin@forestofavontrust.org

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January 2018

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THE high street traders of Bedminster will get the chance to vote in the New Year on whether they should continue supporting a scheme that has pumped hundreds of thousands of pounds into the local economy over the past five years.

The BID – which stands for Business Improvement District – takes a levy off the rates paid by retailers and uses the money to promote the town centre.

Recent events include Christmas lights, late-night shopping on North Street, and the Bedminster Christmas Elves.

Children were thrilled to see North Pole Postboxes set up on East Street, West Street, North Street Green and Bedminster Parade, allowing them to send letters to Santa and get a reply.

Simon Dicken is chair of the BID’s Town Team and believes it has done a power of good for the town centre. It was set up five years ago after the televised visit of shopping guru Mary Portas.

Portas found a Bedminster shopping centre that was seen as drab and uninviting with as many as one in five shops empty.

Now many new businesses

Santa’s Post Boxes were one of the new ideas to help local traders and attract people to visit the shopping streets of Bedminster have moved in, from homeware and art shops like Mon Pote and Casper, to eateries like vegan café VX and burger joint Oowee Diner.

Not all the changes are down to the BID team, but Mr Dicken is sure it’s made a real difference.

East Street is now much smarter with bollards, street art and streetscaping. And the BID team has given traders a voice.

The team helped persuade the council to route Metrobus – due to start services by Easter 2018 – through the shopping area.

“Metrobus was in danger of taking a lot of people around Bedminster instead of through

take long walks at the weekend, and play with your cat or rabbit to keep their minds and bodies active.

• Weigh out your pet’s food – try not to guess how much food to give. Weigh it instead, so you can monitor how much they’re eating.

• Use a weight loss food – there are many pet food diets that are proven to help your pet lose weight without them going hungry. Speak to a vet or nurse to find out which foods are most suitable for your pet.

• Avoid tit-bits – human food is not for pets. Did you know that one biscuit for a medium-size dog is the

equivalent to us eating a chocolate bar? Keep food out of reach so they can’t be tempted to snatch it. Many high fat foods, like butter and cheese, can lead to painful pancreatitis. Some human foods cannot be digested by animals.

• Pet treats – there are plenty of treats that are good for pets – low fat, low sugar and good for the teeth. Speak to a member of the team to see which we recommend.

Book a free weight loss clinic with one of our veterinary nurses at Whitchurch Veterinary Hospital and Surgery. The nurse will be able to

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Mr Dicken is manager of Bedminster’s Wilko store and he thinks one of the strengths of the BID process is that it makes the national retailers like Asda pay their share into the local economy.

If a majority of traders vote to renew the BID team, each of them will pay an extra 1.5 per cent on their business rates. “For every £1 that a local business pays to BID, we get £3 from a national chain,” he said. “That’s money that would otherwise have gone out of the area.”

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WHAT IF MY PET ENJOYED CHRISTMAS A BIT TOO MUCH?

F YOUR pet has over-indulged this Christmas and is looking a little podgy, please remember that, like us, obesity in pets can lead to health issues such as heart and kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis and even some forms of cancer.

As daunting as it can seem, weight loss doesn’t have to be difficult – here are some of our top tips to help your pet lose weight: • Regular exercise – don’t let the dark nights put you off. Even a quick walk around the block is better than nothing. If you can,

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January 2018

n NEWS Name for new Fancy a TV career? Join the boot camp Benedict Yard Studios – home studio theatre BOTTLE Cumberbatch to Sherlock, Poldark and dozens as Sherlock of TV and film productions – is follows gift Holmes at hosting a free two-day boot camp THE NEW studio theatre at the Tobacco Factory is to be called the Spielman theatre following a major gift from the Spielman Charitable Trust. The theatre is now only £20,000 short of its target as building work begins on the 84-seat studio performance space.

The Spielman theatre will be a multi-purpose flexible studio theatre that also has potential for increased children’s workshops, artist development and community activity.

The £1.5 million building project will transform the first floor of the building but leave the existing Factory theatre untouched.

Backstage areas and dressing rooms will be refurbished and front of house and bar spaces will be improved and extended.

• tobaccofactorytheatres.com

on January 18 and 19 to highlight the range of jobs available.

The Hengrove studios, owned by the city council, has attracted worldwide attention for the quality of its productions. Now it is opening its doors to 50 jobseekers to give an insight into roles for over-21s in areas such as computing, transport, sewing, construction, hair and beauty.

the Bottle Yard, the biggest film studios in the West of England

Anyone wanting to attend must have developed skills in one of the shortage areas.

The event is run by Calling

The Shots, a Spike Island-based film and TV production and training company, using a grant from the High End TV Levy

Campaign launched to save Fiddlers under threat if student flats are built next door, say owners

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Tucked away: Fiddlers is in a historic backstreet building with no homes nearby A TIDE of support is building behind South Bristol’s biggest music venue after it became the latest of several late-night premises to fall under threat.

Fiddlers club in Willway Street has been open since 1994, run by Daniel Cleary and his father Peter.

Now they fear it could close if a plan to install 24 student apartments in a next-door building by developer Zam Prop Two is allowed to go ahead.

The plans were revealed in last month’s Bedminster edition of the Voice – although at the time no details were available due to a problem with the council’s planning website.

If the flats are allowed, and the residents complain about noise, the club’s licence could be taken away, the Clearys fear.

“Fiddlers has been part of the live music scene in South Bristol for 23 years, supporting artists that would not be given the chance to perform in some commercial venues because they are about profit, not live music,” Daniel Cleary told a full council meeting on December 12.

He called on councillors “to protect Bristol’s grassroots venues who contribute to the reputation of Bristol, and are one

of the reasons why people have moved to and love living in this great city. Without them this city will be destroyed.”

It is not a remote threat – recent weeks have seen the Surrey Vaults venue in the city centre forced to close after complaints from residents of newly built flats nearby.

The team running the Thekla, the shipborne nightclub in the harbour, believe it could be at risk of complaints when 36 flats are built at nearby Redcliffe Wharf next year.

Yet, despite the long-standing use of places like the Thekla and Fiddlers for late-night music, with inevitable noise when punters leave the premises, they have no protection from complaints if new residents move in nearby.

The planning application for student flats is for the end of the historic block that houses Fiddlers. The building is called the Old Gaol, though it is disputed whether it was ever a prison. It is thought to have been a malthouse for brewing beer and a rope works, built either in 1740 (according to some) or 1790.

The Clearys own most of the building and say they have turned down three offers in the last 18 months from developers

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

January 2018

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at South Bristol’s world-class studios Fund, managed by industry skills body Creative Skillset.

Calling The Shots’s co-founder and Knowle resident Jeremy Routledge said: “It takes a great variety of skills to make a top quality television drama.

“While many want to act in them, direct, operate cameras, write scripts or scores and so on, Creative Skillset identifies a widening skills shortage when it comes to equally vital and interesting roles, such as set construction, hair and make-up,

costume-making, transport, logistics, electrics and computing.

“The idea of our two-day event is to let attendees who have developed skills in other areas of work explore how their knowhow might transfer to TV drama and how to make the most of the opportunities this presents.”

The boot camp will show the process of making a TV drama and the roles within a crew.

Guidance and insight from professionals who are working in

the industry will show what it takes to develop a successful career in TV drama.

The agenda will include a tour of the studios, including a working production set, set-building and costume workshops, and talks by on- and off-camera personnel, plus have-a-go sessions.

All places are free: deadline for applications is Monday January 8. Applications must be made using the form available at: • callingtheshots.co.uk/skillset/

acclaimed live music venue WHO’S PLAYED FIDDLERS? Robert Plant Ex-Led Zepp singer Feeder Welsh rockers Lee Scratch Perry reggae hero Ruben Gonzalez father of salsa AND WHO DIDN’T? The Fall took to the Fiddlers stage on November 29 to say frontman Mark E Smith was too ill to sing. Get well, MES. who want to turn it into housing.

The Zam Prop Two plan says there is a “storage unit” between Fiddlers and the potential flats. It carried out a noise survey when the club was open, which found that soundproofing measures would be enough to protect the students, it said.

Mr Cleary disputed the claims. There is no empty space between the club and the end building, he said, just an area used by Fiddlers for dressing rooms and toilets. He added that the council had taken three weeks to tell him about the application, and hadn’t put notices on lampposts as it should. No notification had gone to the White Hart pub, which backs on to nearby Stillhouse Lane, or Park Furnishers, which is opposite the flats site, he said.

A total of 33 objections to the planning application had been

Robert Plant

Lee Scratch Perry

lodged by the time the Voice went to press, while there were more than 3,300 signatures on a petition. Closure would cost up to 30 jobs, said Mr Cleary.

Among the objectors was a woman from Raleigh Road, Ashton, who wrote: “We cannot have yet another live music venue closing due to developer greed. I don’t understand how people can buy flats near a music venue then complain about noise.”

The London-based Music Venue Trust (MVT) also objected, pointing out that the application states Fiddlers is open until 2am, when in fact it sometimes opens till 6am.

The noise test was done only once, with no attempt to find out from Fiddlers if it was a typically loud performance, said the MVT. Mayor Marvin Rees has said he wants to protect the city’s music venues. The council is

Mark E Smith

being asked to adopt a policy to protect venues from complaints made by residents of new homes.

• change.org/p/bristol-citycouncil-save-fiddlers-bristolfrom-closure

FREE fitness and health sessions are on offer when three of South Bristol’s wellbeing businesses get together for a day of activities on Saturday January 13.

There are 13 activities in all over three locations – all are free, but must be booked in advance.

The Flow Yoga studio at 16 Whitehouse Street offers taster sessions in five forms of yoga.

At 10.30 am it’s hatha yoga, at 11.45am yoga for beginners, followed by kundalina yoga at 1pm, iyengar yoga at 2.15pm and yin yoga at 3.30pm.

Empowered Fitness studio at Duckmoor Road in Ashton, is offering semi-private personal training sessions for up to four people, as well as a nutrition workshop, Eating For Fat Loss.

Sessions are at 10am, 11am, 12 noon and 1pm.

Bristol Pilates Studio at 1-7 Smyth Road, Ashton, is offering Pilates mat work classes in groups of up to eight at 10am, 11am, 12 noon and 1pm.

All events must be booked by email: bristolopenday@gmail.com.

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January 2018

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A chat can make all the difference PEOPLE who live at the Amerind Grove care home complex in Raleigh Road are having their lives brightened by a stream of visitors from the BS3 Helping Others group. The visitors hold crossword sessions, quizzes and games, as well as just popping in at odd times for a chat or a walk.

Requests from residents for films to watch have resulted in donations of DVDs including The Crown. More showings are planned. Regular visits take place every Wednesday and Saturday.

If you’d like to find out more, call Sophia on 07579 221 715.

Facebook: BS3 Helping Others

Gym is staying THE Crossfit Fort gym is not affected by the proposals for the Old Brewery site off Durnford Road in Ashton, as stated in the November issue of the Voice.

Apologies for any confusion caused.

School is back on track, says Ofsted HOLY Cross, the Roman Catholic primary school in Dean Lane, Southville, has been judged Good in all areas by Ofsted.

It is a remarkable turnaround in two years, since the school was put in special measures after being judged Inadequate by the school inspectors.

An inspection in November 2015 found that leadership was inadequate and pupils were bored and restless in class because the lessons did not inspire them.

Now, says Ofsted, the school has improved significantly and is in the top one per cent for progress in reading nationally, and the top 10 per cent for maths.

Ofsted said the key driver has been the new headteacher, Jo Kingston, who “has demonstrated an unswerving determination to provide the best

possible education for all pupils.”

The Ofsted report notes: “Senior leaders have developed a culture of high expectations in relation to pupils’ conduct and learning. This is having a positive impact on pupils’ progress across all aspects of their education.”

The inspectors also praised an atmosphere of tolerance in the school: “Pupils show respect for each other and people’s differing views, beliefs and cultures. Pupils are well prepared to take on their role as citizens in modern Britain.”

The chair of governors, Chris Fayers, said “Governors are very proud of the leadership, teachers, support staff and children at the school. The latest judgement from Ofsted is confirmation that we have adopted strong practices to ensure the school continues to improve.”

Look forward to the summer IN THE depths of winter, why not look forward to the height of summer, and Bedminster’s Secret Gardens event?

Scores of gardens in BS3 will be open to visitors on the weekend of June 2 and 3. This year the money raised will support groups that help reduce isolation for older people.

Secret Garden organisers are meeting on January 17 at 8pm at the Southville Centre. If you’re thinking of opening your garden, email matthewsymonds@me.

Windows alight WINDOWS will be lit up all over Ashton, Bedminster and Southville when Window Wanderland returns on February 23, 24 and 25 between 6-9pm.

Hundreds of windows will be decorated – if you’d like to register, or find out more, see: • windowwanderland.com

Holy Cross RC Primary School

If you are still deciding on the best school for your family, please visit Holy Cross RC Primary • Rated Good by OFSTED November 2017

• Open for visits every day • A place for everyone Be a part of our small, diverse, nurturing school with lots of outdoor space.

0117 377 2199 www.holycross.bristol.sch.uk

Please contact the school office for more information on Or to find out more visit

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SOUTH BRISTOL’S HOMES & TRANSPORT REVOLUTION

Are we ready for what the future could bring to South Bristol?

TUBE MAP: The council’s first vision of where an underground network might go.

It shows a tube line running from the Centre to stations in Southville and Bedminster. The line continues under Knowle West and then follows the A38, presumably above ground

• 11,000 homes in St Philip’s, Temple Meads – and Arena Island?

• Tube line under Southville and Knowle, to link to airport • Probability of many high-rise blocks to meet housing need • Western Harbour to provide 3,500 homes in £1bn scheme OVERLEAF: What it means for • New villages on city fringe near Ashton Vale • The arena • Bedminster Green • More homes at Hengrove and Whitchurch • Cumberland Basin • Hengrove, Ashton Vale and the A4 corridor • ... and we haven’t even mentioned Bedminster Green ... yet ...

Mayor’s China trip shows scale of his building ambition

U

NNOTICED when Marvin Rees went to China in mid-December to seek investment in his ambitious building plans was a crucial change in a single number.

While the city’s press and TV focused on the mayor’s insistence that an underground line is feasible, his figures for home building went unchallenged.

Yet the number of homes the council now wants to build in the

area around Temple Meads has shot up more than fivefold to 11,000 homes – equivalent to a town the size of Thornbury.

When former mayor George Ferguson issued a spatial framework for the Temple Quarter enterprise zone in March 2016, the target for housing in the area was 2,200.

Mr Rees wants to build 11,000 homes in an area called Continued overleaf

‘NEW HOMES WILL TURN WELLS ROAD INTO A CAR PARK’

plan foresees a park and ride at Whitchurch to siphon off cars. But Cllr Gary Hopkins does not believe it will be built.

“It’s so far down the pecking order it will never happen,” he said.

A park and ride would be outside the Bristol boundary, outside Whitchurch village, which is controlled by Bath & North East Somerset council.

KNOWLE’S Lib-Dem councillors claim building thousands of new homes to the south of the city, at Whitchurch and Hengrove, will mean turn the A37 “into one of the biggest car parks in Bristol”.

The West of England spatial

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

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January 2018

SOUTH BRISTOL’S HOMES & TRANSPORT REVOLUTION

TOWER BLOCK PETITION A FORMER chair of Totterdown community group Tresa has started a petition against the use of high-rise blocks.

Suzanne Audrey, who is not speaking on behalf of Tresa, said: “High-rise accommodation is associated with problems for mental health and wellbeing, higher levels of anti-social behaviour and vandalism, poor maintenance, and less community cohesion.”

• epetitions.bristol.gov.uk/ epetition_core/community/ petition/3955City Council

BRISTOL METRO THIS is the name for the proposed Bristol tube network.

Mr Rees is seeking £1.5bn to £2bn in private investment. He says the total cost will be £2.5bn to £4.5bn, and there could be 30m-50m journeys each year.

He wants to build 40-45km of line (not all underground) and told investors there is potential for income to cover more than operating costs – in other words, it could make them a profit.

Continued from page 7 the Temple Meads City District. Surprisingly, the council couldn’t tell the Voice where the City District begins and ends.

But it certainly includes St Philip’s Marsh – and this is where much of the extra housing appears likely to go.

It’s also clear that the number has increased because Mr Rees is much keener than his predecessor on high-rise blocks.

Cllr Paul Smith, the cabinet member for housing, told the Voice: “The spatial framework [Mr Ferguson’s 2016 plan] was not much above five to eight storeys. Marvin is much more ambitious in what can be achieved in terms of height, especially east of Temple Meads.”

Already Bristol university has proposed a 25-storey tower on Arena Island, and developer Hadley wants a 16-storey block next to Totterdown bridge.

Several sources have told the Voice that the council is actively encouraging developers to propose tall buildings to maximise the housing that can be built. Mr Rees has vowed to build 2,000

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Western Harbour: A £1bn+ scheme of 3,500 homes on 15-20 hectares with flood defences for the city homes a year by 2020 and the city region is said to need more than 120,000 new homes by 2028.

St Philips is a largely industrial area but Cllr Smith said many of the activities there, including the railway yards, could function with less land.

The council’s waste transfer station could move from Albert Road, he suggested – something many would welcome.

“We are committed to protecting business activities on St Philip’s Marsh but do businesses need as much space as they have at the moment?” said Cllr Smith.

“Some of the activities there are really good at creating work.

Others, like car showrooms, use up quite a lot of land but don’t provide many jobs.”

IMPACT ON COMMUNITY SIMON Hobeck, chair of Totterdown community group Tresa, said new homes in St

BEDMINSTER GREEN: ROLLO CUTS HEIGHT SEVERAL towers are proposed among the plans yet to be published for more than 1,000 homes and a district energy centre at Bedminster Green.

But one developer, Rollo Homes has lopped one storey off its proposed blocks of flats on Malago Road, from 10 floors to a maximum nine. It says the blocks will be mainly seven storeys with two storey extensions, meaning that “residents’ views from Windmill Hill across the Bristol skyline to Clifton will be retained”.

The number of flats has been cut from 206 to 183. It has also dropped plans for its own rival energy centre to heat the flats.

Instead, this part of the plot, at the Sheene Road end, would be used for 30 social housing flats. It means 14 per cent of the homes would be “affordable” – less then the council’s 40 per cent target, but much more the four per cent

targets for housing have mushroomed in Totterdown as they have in Temple Quarter. The Hadley site was earmarked for 54 homes; now the plan is for 159.

Similarly the council-owned plot on Bath Road near Three Lamps was earmarked for 30 homes; recently Cllr Smith has spoken of 200 homes there, said Mr Hobeck.

previously allowed for the site.

Rollo Homes director Paul O’Brien said, “It’s not been an easy scheme, but we have worked with the planning authority to try and deliver a viable scheme that also goes a significant way to answering local concerns.”

WHaM, the Windmill Hill and Malago planning group, said: “WHaM looks forward to seeing a revised planning application in order to fully understand the implications of these changes, both for Plot 1 and for the proposed Urbis energy centre near Windmill Hill City Farm.”

WHaM opposes new plans by Bilfinger GVA for a 21-storey block as part of a “collection of towers”, with studio, one and two-bed flats for private rent, on another part of the Green at Little Paradise.

It also opposes an 18-floor tower proposed by developer Urbis. A new consultation meeting at Windmill Hill City Farm on Urbis’s energy centre is awaited.

Letters, page 25

THE ARENA

ARENA ISLAND NO MORE IF AN arena is not built on Arena Island it could be used for housing, said housing chief Paul Smith. “I don’t know any more than you do about whether an arena will be built there,” he told the Voice, “but you wouldn’t leave that land empty, and you can see it as a housing site.”

The Arena Island site has an £11m bridge, built by the Homes and Communities Agency, and plan are advanced to link it to a community heat network.

The cabinet will debate the arena issue in January.

TWO reviews into a Bristol arena will be considered by the council cabinet in January. But the signs are not pointing towards the venue being built at Temple Meads.

The mayor’s brochure for Far East investors did not mention an arena. A picture of the proposed Bristol university campus was cropped to show student blocks on Arena Island, but not the arena.

Filton has been mentioned as an alternative site but Windmill Hill Labour Cllr Jon Wellington and Bristol’s Green councillors said the city centre is a better location.

HENGROVE RESIDENTS object to council plans to build 1,700-2,000 homes on green space. Hengrove and Whitchurch neighbourhood planning forum says roads will not cope, even with Metrobus.

PARKING ALL the proposed developments would add to traffic and parking on South Bristol streets. Already

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SOUTH BRISTOL’S HOMES & TRANSPORT REVOLUTION University campus: A view of the main building to replace the derelict sorting office at Temple Meads

Philips could benefit residents on the south side of the Avon.

“A large area like that has a lot of possibility and the chance to really build for the future. It could benefit Totterdown as well because you would need a new school and a doctors surgery and so on,” he said.

He urged planners not to allow huge, soulless tower blocks but to look at other ways of providing high density housing.

Paintworks on Bath Road – where there is a mix of houses and flats, with shared piazzas and no skyscrapers – is a possible model, he said.

“We don’t have a problem with development as long as it’s done sensitively and sustainably and that new services are put in first,” said Mr Hobeck.

St Philip’s could even be designed as Bristol’s first car-free community, he said, like those in the Netherlands and Germany.

He pointed out that council

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FLOOD DEFENCES ESSENTIAL to any plans for housing in St Philip’s Marsh are new flood defences. As its name suggests, the area is low-lying.

Plans are already being laid to protect the city from rising sea levels and the increased chance of flooding, said Cllr Smith.

Much of the centre of Bristol and Southville could be under water if the worst happened and a one-in-100-year event brought high tides and heavy rain.

Flood defences do not have to be ugly barrages, sad Cllr Smith.

A Thames Barrier-style barrage in the Avon is likely to be too expensive and more subtle measures, such as raising ground levels and landscaping, are more likely, he said.

south. That is why it makes sense for new developments in places such as Whitchurch, Hicks Gate and near Long Ashton, said Cllr Smith.

“It’s really important for South Bristol to see significant development outside the city boundary,” he said. Adding new housing to the south of the city means it will be nearer the city centre, he said. But he accepted that these developments should go hand in hand with improvements in transport.

The leadership of North Somerset council is opposed to plans by Taylor Wimpey for 4,500 homes in three villages between Ashton Vale and Long Ashton, in the Green Belt.

But many politicians think the plan makes sense. It would put new homes next to the South Bristol Link road and Metrobus, and close to any new mass transit link to Bristol Airport.

• Meanwhile, a much more modest Bedminster housing plan has emerged which shows not all housing has to be high-rise: turn to page 20 to read more.

THE A4 CORRIDOR IT’S THOUGHT the council is about to unveil ideas to ease future pressure on Bath Road. A Metrobus route and new cycle lanes seem likely. Totterdown’s Tresa and Arnos Vale residents have put the council under pressure to recognise the severe impact on local services, including roads and parking, of plans for homes which could bring 3,000 new residents.

In Brislington, a campaign is building to turn an old railway line near Callington Road into a cycle and footway. But the West of England spatial plan earmarks the line as a relief road between the A4 and the A4174 ring road.

TOTTERDOWN’S FUTURE Community group Tresa is holding a meeting on January 17 at 7.30pm to hear residents’ concerns for the year ahead – whether they are most worried about parking, new developments, air quality or anything else. The venue has yet to be announced.

• tresa.org.uk

WITHOUT THE CITY WALL

BRISTOL has grown in an unbalanced way, with more postwar housing outside the city boundary to the north than the residents are starting to ask whether a resident parking zone (RPZ) would make life easier – particularly in Totterdown.

Mayor Marvin Rees has given responsibility for gauging local support for RPZs to councillors, saying he will not impose an RPZ where it is not wanted.

But there is no budget for councillors to carry out surveys of opinion. It’s expected that the University of Bristol will be asked to help fund a report. The university has already offered to pay to set up a parking zone if its £300m campus opens in 2021.

BROWNFIELD LAND BRISTOL developer Helm says every brownfield site should be used to its full potential for housing, to minimise the use of greenfield areas. A pledge by the Chancellor in the November Budget to subsidise expensive groundworks will help, said Helm, which built 26 flats in St Luke’s Hall in Bedminster, formerly a derelict commercial property.

BS3 Community: Job Vacancies

Early Years Practitioners BS3 Community Development is a forward thinking, progressive charity & company limited by guarantee. We have recently opened a brand new nursery and community centre on Chessel Street, Bedminster and as a result we have number of opportunities to join our Early Education & Childcare team (these posts may be based at the Chessel Centre Nursery and/or the existing Southville Centre Nursery).

Working as part of a positive and professional team, you will promote the provision of the highest standard of care and education in a stimulating, secure and friendly environment. You will have previous experience in an early years setting, an understanding of the EYFS and hold (or be working towards) a recognised qualification at Level 3 or above.

The annual salary for this role is £17,331. We are undertaking rolling recruitment as we build our new team, and will review applications on the 15th of Jan, Feb & Mar. Please contact family.services@bs3community.org.uk for application packs.

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

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January 2018

New nursery opens in Chessels

Artist Nila and the nursery mural A PAIR of South Bristol mums want to brighten up the city by making it easy for busy people to plant up neglected borders, window boxes, planters and gardens at home and at work.

Alice Evans and Susy Feltham have launched Bloominster, the city’s first delivery service for easy care, outdoor plants.

They says it’s like a veggie box service, but with a bigger box that’s full of plants, put together in their Bedminster homes. The pair met at St Mary Redcliffe primary school, where their children are in the same class.

“The idea is to inject much more colour into urban environments,” said Susy, a landscape architect and gardener who has spent her working life designing planting schemes.

“The plants are all locally and ethically sourced, and they are easy to care for, so they can be used to plant up window boxes, hanging baskets or urban borders.”

They are taking orders for subscriptions now for the first boxes to be delivered to the door in March, but are offering a one-off winter plant box to those that want to get started sooner.

They are hoping that the service will appeal to busy

BEDMINSTER’s much-needed new nursery for 54 children has opened on the corner of Chessel Street and Garnet Street on the site of an old scout hut.

Artist Nila Murali unveiled the artwork she’s completed with the aid of local schoolchildren to brighten up one of the entrances.

Nila asked children from St Mary Redcliffe, Parson Street

and Compass Point primary schools what they wanted from a community nursery, and used their ideas in a colourful mural.

It was the Southville centre’s charity owner, the SCDA, that saw the need for more nursery spaces – it has hundreds on its waiting list. The SCDA has now renamed itself BS3 Community.

• More at the Voice website

January 2018

n NEWS

southbristolvoice

Upfest 2018 is set to be the best yet Work in progress: Jody midway through his 2017 work Reverie in The Nursery.

Jody will be the named artist of the 2018 festival

Play time: Courtyard is for fun

Alice and Susy aim to make Bristol’s borders brighter WIN PLANTS TO BRIGHTEN UP JANUARY! THE FIRST offer from Bloominster is a January Sparkle Box – a box full of winter bedding plants and evergreens to provide colour in the darkest months of the year.

The Sparkle Box is on sale at an introductory rate of £25 delivered in Bristol. But we have one to give away to a lucky South Bristol Voice reader. Just tell us: Bloominster is based in which part of Bristol?

Answers, with your name, address and phone number, to paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk or 18 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BX by January 16. residents and business people who would otherwise let their borders go unplanted.

They will deliver large boxes of about 10 plants in pots, ready for planting out, to provide colour

Alice and Susy: Offering to deliver plants to budding gardeners throughout the seasons, with new boxes every three months. “It’s aimed at people who haven’t got the experience or even the time to go to a garden centre and pick the right plants for themselves,”

said Alice, a former support worker for homeless people.

Bloominster will be holding a launch event with gardening craft activities at Windmill City Farm café on January 26 at 12.30pm.

They are offering an introductory rate of 50 per cent off, meaning a sixth month subscription (two deliveries for spring and summer) costs £60, or £10 a month. Four seasonal deliveries over a year costs £120, also £10 a month. A starter box costs £30.

From the summer, they also hope to offer pots and baskets pre-planted and ready to display.

This service is the first of its kind in Bristol. The idea for Bloominster came to Alice after her mother started giving her plants for her own garden.

For those who don’t know much about gardening, they will give customers advice via their website, Facebook and on care cards given with every delivery.

• Facebook: Bloominster

UPFEST celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2018, with another record-breaking year expected.

From small beginnings in Bedminster, Upfest has grown into Europe’s biggest street art festival.

In 2008 40 artists took part, attracting a few hundred visitors.

In 2017 a record-breaking 700 artists drew almost 50,000 visitors, many of them from abroad. Upfest is now one of the biggest tourist attractions on the Bristol calendar. Registration for the 2018 event starts in January.

The 2018 festival artist will be Bristol favourite Jody, who has been active in the city since starting his craft in Barton Hill in the 1980s. His photo-realistic portraits include one called Reverie, painted in 2017 in The

Nursery, and still there to be admired.

Upfest founder and gallery owner Stephen Hayles said: “From 2008 to now, it’s been an incredible journey to see the festival go from strength to strength. We never imagined it would become what it is today and it’s with thanks to all the incredible artists we’ve worked with over the years, our volunteers, sponsors, supporters, team and the city of Bristol that we’ll now celebrate the 10th anniversary in 2018.

“We can’t wait to share what 2018 has in store as plans develop.

We’re looking forward to opening artist registration in January to really get things started.”

• upfest.co.uk

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

15

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South Bristol still last on uni list SOUTH Bristol sends fewer students into higher education than anywhere else in England – just 16 per cent, much lower than the UK average of 42 per cent.

“While progress has been made, with Bristol South seeing the biggest rise in the number of young people going into higher education compared with a

decade ago, there is still a long way to go,” said Labour MP Karin Smyth.

She said the news of the latest figures from university clearing body UCAS was disappointing.

But, she said, “university isn’t for everyone and I have been working to improve quality apprenticeship opportunities.”

Taking toys to No 10 to show our enterprise THE OWNER of South Bristol’s only community toy shop never thought she would be showing her company’s wares on a table in No 10 Downing Street.

But that’s what happened to Lindsay Nicholas, co-owner with her husband Joel of Toyville on North Street, Bedminster.

Toyville opened in October 2016, offering activity toys and traditional games rather than a mass of plastic and electronics.

It’s gone down well – in the first 13 days of December, the shop did more business than in the first three months of the year combined.

Lindsay and Joel roped in the 11-year old son of a customer to help make a video to show why Toyville should join a delegation to show ministers the best of Britain’s small enterprises as part of Small Business Saturday.

They were surprised and delighted when they were picked as one of 100 firms to go to Downing Street – and one of only

Lindsay arrives at Downing Street 20 to display their goods in the State Room at No 10.

“It was really exciting and an opportunity I never thought I would have,” Lindsay said.

“It was quite surreal – a policeman let me through the gates into Downing Street and then I had to ring the bell at No 10 to be let in!”

Toyville’s video showed off the business as a toy shop for the community, “a place people can come and chat, rather than a soulless commercial enterprise,” said Lindsay.

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

January 2018

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16

Free tea or coffee for readers to celebrate Southville’s new café ONE of South Bristol’s most successful caterers has opened its second café in Southville – and to celebrate there’s a special offer for Voice readers.

Kate’s Kitchen has taken over the café at the Southville Centre in Beauley Road.

The menu changes weekly serving seasonal hot pots, frittata, sandwiches, toasties, jacket potatoes and more.

Readers of South Bristol Voice can enjoy a special treat – a free tea or coffee when they buy one of Kate’s delicious home made cakes.

This offer is only available until January 31, and you have to produce the Kate’s Kitchen advert on this page – no photocopies will be accepted.

Kate’s Kitchen prides itself on making healthy food from quality suppliers as close to home as

SENIO

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ENTR SCHOOL A EXAMNCE S SA

Quite a reaction

At QEH we have a national reputation for success based on an understanding of how our students learn best.

For more information or to arrange a visit, call 0117 930 3068 or visit www.qehbristol.co.uk

Help us celebrate the opening of our second café with a special offer FREE COFFEE or TEA to Voice readers when you buy one of our delicious HOME-MADE CAKES!* Everything made with high quality, seasonal ingredients, produced as locally as possible

southvillecentre@kateskitchenbristol.co.uk kateskitchensouthvillecentre

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

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17

n NEWS Bedminster Lantern Parade

The Ambling Band, adding colour and music

Dancers from Bristol Samba lead the way on North Street PHOTO: Barcan+Kirby/Stephen Lewis • More pictures online at southbristolvoice.co.uk

Sailing by: Windmill Hill City Farm

A dragonfly was one of the most popular lights

Pre-parade entertainment

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possible. All the milk, for example, is organic and from Bruton Farm, while fruit juices come from Bradley’s Juice in Somerset.

Salad leaves are grown in Bristol by the Severn Project while coffee is ethically sourced and roasted in Bristol by Bristol Extract.

All the cakes are made by a sister company, Kate’s Kitchen Catering, in Bedminster using organic flour and sugar.

A sister café at the Arnos Vale cemetery grounds in Bath Road has been nominated for Supporter of Best Local Produce in the Bristol Good Food awards.

• For more South Bristol food establishments shortlisted in the Bristol Good Food awards, see the Voice website.

• bristolgoodfood.co.uk • kateskitchenbristol.co.uk

January 2018

PHOTO: Roger Turner

Spectacular: The longship from Holy Cross primary

Luckwell school’s gingerbread man

Two world-class operas on stage in Bristol FIRST class opera performances are returning to Bristol Hippodrome for 2018 – and South Bristol Voice has a pair of tickets to give to a lucky reader.

Acclaimed producer Ellen Kent is bringing two of the world’s most popular operas – Verdi’s Rigoletto, and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly to the city.

Thursday January 18 Rigoletto THIS was the opera they tried to ban – partly for its daring sexual content, but also because it exposed the depraved behaviour of those in power.

Verdi turned a story by Victor Hugo, about a corrupt French king, into a tragedy set in the decadent court of the Duke of

Mantua. Verdi’s opera was banned after one performance, until he agreed to cut a scene of rape, intended to show the depravity of the ruling class.

Producer Ellen Kent has decided to reintroduce the controversial scene – and Verdi’s naked courtesans – in a sensitive way.

Rigoletto in one minute: • youtube.com/ watch?v=BRWGz8h3Tsw Friday January 19 Madama Butterfly PUCCINI’S magnificent opera Madama Butterfly was the inspiration for the West End musical Miss Saigon.

It tells the heart-breaking story of the beautiful young Japanese girl who falls in love with an American naval

lieutenant, with heart-wrenching consequences. Highlights include the melodic Humming Chorus, the moving aria One Fine Day and the unforgettable Love Duet.

International Korean soprano Maria HeeJung Kim from the National Opera House of Seoul makes her UK debut singing the role of the tragic Cio Cio San. Spanish tenor Giorgi Meladze will sing the part of Pinkerton as well as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto. Both operas will be conducted by Vasyl Vasylenko, artistic director and conductor at the National President’s Orchestra of Ukraine, leading the National Ukrainian Orchestra.

Madama Butterfly in one minute: • youtube.com/ watch?v=GayrtvwLSV0

WIN TICKETS TO MADAMA BUTTERFLY WE have two tickets to give away to Madama Butterfly at the Bristol Hippodrome on Friday January 19.

Just tell us: What is the name of the orchestra playing Rigoletto and Madama Butterfly at the Hippodrome in January?

Answers, with your name, address and phone number, to paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk or 18 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BX by January 15.

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

Aerial view: The homes will occupy land next to the allotments which has been left untended for years. Some trees will be retained

Council homes unveiled PLANS for 133 new homes at Alderman Moores in Ashton Vale, next to the allotments, have been revealed – the biggest council house building project in Bristol since the 1980s.

More than 40 per cent, or 52, will be council homes, with the other 81 built for private sale by

Willmott Dixon. Profits will help fund more council homes.

The homes range from one-bed flats to four-bed houses and the estate could house up to 449 people. There will be three open spaces, including a pond, which will fill during the wetter seasons, and a green with an oak tree.

January 2018

January 2018

southbristolvoice

18

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be snuffed out later by cuts to the parks budget. Cllr Clarke said: “There is no alternative toilet close to the park available for use. The nearest possibility is at the bowls club, but this is unavailable for much of the time.

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CLOSING the toilets in Greville Smyth park are “taking the pee”, according to Southville’s two Green councillors.

Charlie Bolton and Stephen Clarke have pleaded with the council to think again after the cabinet voted to save £400,000 by closing 18 public toilets, including those in Greville Smyth park, East Street, and Bedminster Common at Bridgwater Road.

The council says eventually Bristolians will have more toilets they can use because it intends to sign up at least 36 shops, pubs and other businesses to offer their WCs to everyone.

Bedminster already has a map of 22 businesses which open their toilets to the public. A new edition may be on the way.

Some public toilets in parks are staying open – at Ashton Vale playing fields and Victoria Park, for example, though these could

19

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20

n NEWS

January 2018

n FEATURES

January 2018

southbristolvoice

Co-op’s modest homes

room and visitor’s bedroom.

Bristol city council is providing the land on a low cost lease.

The new homes will be built to Passive House standard – a stringent environmental rating which means they will need very little energy. Solar panels will provide both electricity and heat.

Somewhere is a tenant-run housing co-op which has nine houses in Southville, Bedminster and Knowle, providing homes for more than 20 members.

Co-op member Trevor Houghton is happy to answer any queries on 07501 614256.

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SINCE the spring, the Voice has been encouraging readers in Bedminster, especially in schools, to think about how wildlife habitats can be improved.

We received lots of marvellous photos of wildlife, from foxes to slow worms and even a newt.

The winners of the schools section of the competition want to look after smaller creatures.

Ashton Park primary school’s After School Club, along with other pupils, worked hard to make a pond and other wildlife habitats in their grounds.

In January we’ll be presenting them with their prize – the children have asked for something they can make into a home for insects. More next month.

The small blue butterfly was seen once in Victoria Park in 2017, and rarely elsewhere in the south of the city.

PHOTO: Iain H Leach/Buglife

We all need to look Why do we have so few of Britain’s insects present in South Bristol?

It’s a real concern, says Voice wildlife expert Alex Morss

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OUR WILD WINNERS WILL HELP!

Low rise: how the new homes in Philip Street, Bedminster, could look IN SHARP contrast to the many plans for high-rise developments in South Bristol, a housing cooperative run by local people has come up with a plan for new homes just two storeys high.

The Somewhere Co-op Housing Association has made a planning application to build three one-bedroom homes for rent to its older members.

It wants to extend the small terrace in Philip Street, where it already owns four of the five houses opposite Windmill Hill City Farm. Shared facilities will include a bike store, laundry

21

HE HUM of apple blossom in spring, a flutter of colour, fly-splattered windscreens, a wasp furiously orbiting your beer… are we missing some of the small wonders here in South Bristol?

Insect charity Buglife thinks so, and amid new fears about insect populations collapsing, it is on a mission to help turn things around with big new plans just launched across the city – and they would love your help.

The conservation charity’s new Bristol Urban Buzz officer, Hayley Herridge, is appealing for community groups, schools and users of green spaces to team up with her and transform sites for bugs and beasties.

Buglife says this is the largestscale urban project in the UK for bees, but it will also tackle other insect groups. It has raised more than £1 million in grants to pay for intensive seed sowing and

planting of vibrant flower-rich swards across 100 sites in Bristol and other cities over 18 months.

Buglife knows that urban areas like South Bristol have become a vital lifeline for many invertebrates, while intensive farming and pesticides are being blamed for decimating rural insect populations. Urban brownfield sites, such as old rubble areas, waste ground and derelict industrial corners, often throw up real hotspots of rare and exciting finds.

Buglife’s spokesman Paul Hetherington said many of these interesting populations are concentrated in isolated pockets of such habitat, but they can be found in city parks too.

“There is more species diversity in urban areas than the rural environment now, though the urban populations suffer from isolation,” he said. “In general, there are fewer and less toxic chemicals used in the urban environment. Honey yield from honeybees is higher in the urban than the rural setting.”

But he added: “With the ever-increasing drive to concrete over gardens for parking, decking and so on, habitats are becoming disconnected.”

Paul said it’s very easy to encourage a diverse range of species by making a few simple changes, such as adding the right food plants, making ponds and

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

None left: The carrot mining bee, above, might return to South Bristol if there was more wild carrot, right, in our hedgerows.

PHOTOS: Above, Steven Falk/Buglife; right, Alex Morss

after our creepy crawlies, even in the city HOW MANY BUGS IN SOUTH BRISTOL? Species Total species Total species Our area’s

recorded in the in the UK % of the

South Bristol Voice UK total

reader area no. of species Flies and hoverflies 66 7,000 0.9% Beetles 50 4,072 1.2% Moths and butterflies 233 2,559+ 9.1% Bugs 42 2,000 2.1% Bees, ants & wasps 33 590 5.6% Spiders, mites & harvestmen 63 700+ 9% Springtails 5 371 1.3% Caddisflies 1 199 0.5% Woodlice & millipedes 13 123 10.6% Dragonflies 11 57 19.3% Grasshoppers and crickets 11 27 40.7% Earwigs 2 7 28.6%

building ‘bee hotels’. “We would like to work with any groups who are interested in enhancing sites for pollinators,” he said.

In South Bristol, Buglife also hopes to bring back the locallyextinct carrot mining bee and to reverse the decline of the small blue butterfly. “One of the last records for the carrot mining bee, Andrena nitidiuscula, in the Bristol area was recorded nearby at Hengrove,” said Paul. “The area is soon to be developed. I am keen to target parks and nature reserves in the area to

ensure there is more suitable habitat for this species.

“The small blue butterfly has also been recorded in your area and again the loss of suitable habitat will impact this species.” It’s hoped planting pea-family wildflowers, such as bird’s-foot-trefoil, will help encourage them back.

Buglife’s new project arrives amid recent warnings that we are on a collision course for an insect armaggedon unless we turn things around. Similar concerns were raised by Butterfly Conservation,

which announced huge crashes in butterfly numbers this year, including in Bristol.

Far wider population crashes in insect abundance – the actual volume of insects measured as biomass – were revealed last month from a 27-year European study by scientists, which prompted warnings the world is on the brink of an ecological collapse if we keep losing insects.

WINNERS AND LOSERS Buglife knows it is not always easy to work out which species are the winners or losers in an area – until the change becomes drastic – but its plan should support a wide range of little critters, from among the many that have suffered declines.

I searched public databases via the government’s NBN Atlas for insect and other arthropod records for the South Bristol Voice area, shown in the table.

The records cover roughly 14 x 1km map squares and reveal that we are home to at least 530 different types of invertebrate!

However, many of these records are rather old, and some of those creatures have since been lost locally or have suffered severe population declines. And look at how many species have not been recorded in our local patch in recent times, from the potential entire UK range, shown in the table. There are more than

17,700 different types of invertebrate from these groups across the UK, so we only support a very small fraction here at present.

And records do not always reliably tell us about abundance, so we can miss big changes in population size until it’s too late, and a species disappears from an area. Most of this UK wildlife monitoring is done by volunteers, and this can lead to bias. For example, some species and locations are far more popular with wildlife recorders than others, as well as some tiny creatures being more tricky to find or identify.

Yet all these small wonders are vital for wildlife food webs.

They prop up entire ecosystems, drive evolution and help pollinate around 90 per cent of the world’s plant species, including around a third of our food plants.

The Buglife work follows on from a big drive by other conservation groups to create new habitat areas in Bristol, as reported in South Bristol Voice.

These have included Butterfly Conservation, thousands of school children, park and community groups, the Berry Maze, Avon Wildlife Trust and Get Bristol Buzzing campaign.

• If you’d like to help create habitats with Buglife in South Bristol, contact Hayley: Hayley.

Herridge@buglife.org.uk

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

January 2018

southbristolvoice

22 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

Family

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

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.

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southbristolvoice

n FEATURES

23

CRAFTY VICKY THINKS BIG

Who brought Bristol’s mythical crocodile to life?

Vicky Harrison did. Beccy Golding meets her

CONNECTING PATTERNS, CONNECTING THE DOCKSIDE

V

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.

January 2018

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ICKY Harrison has a degree in fine art, and has always been interested in installations, “I’ve made stuff since I was a kid,” she says. She loves painting, drawing and embroidery, and in 2010 set up her shop, Paper Village, on North Street. “It was the right time to pull it all together,” she says. The first project for the shop was a knitted and crocheted garden, followed by a coral reef in the window, “it was the first big tester – whether people would get involved and, measured by the levels of engagement, it was hugely successful.”

Engaging people is important to Vicky. Before the shop she “always worked in the voluntary sector - 30 years counselling and support work, in mental health services in Hull, Weston and Bristol. I also worked in community radio – I had my own show on BCFM for two years – with four guests, bonkers chat and music.”

Originally from Hull, Vicky has lived in South Bristol for 30 years. First on Beauley Road near the Southville Centre, then on North Street.

“I’ve seen a lot of changes [in the area] – going downhill then coming back up. I like to think I played a part – my shop opened in 2010, it was one of the new breed. Sadly it closed in July last year – the parking zones killed it.

But the community engagement work I am involved in was doing really well, so I set up the CIC (Community Interest Company).”

The CIC is Crafting the City, and its first community project is called Connecting Patterns, Connecting the Dockside. Not one to do things by halves, it is actually six projects (see panel).

It’s a huge task involving “lots of bits of paper and panicking! For each project I do, I don’t know what I’m doing until I’ve done it!

I like a challenge,” she finishes, understatedly.

For example, the Ashton Gatehouse, “I didn’t know how it would work until it was finished.”

Vicky Harrison, top, and the giant Christmas ‘buoyble’ with fellow crafters Alex, Shauna, Sue, Kathy, Collette and Helen. Inset, Briscroc

Six projects exploring the dockside through patterns 1. Bristol Crocodile Allegedly sighted by a bus driver in the river Avon in 2014, this intricatelycrocheted life-size creature was hanging out in the Underfall Yard.

He’ll be returning in the new year.

2. Buoyble A giant woollen Christmas bauble.

3. Gulls A huge flock of herring gulls, black headed gulls and lesser black backed gulls.

4. Netted A giant net full of knitted, crocheted and embroidered fish and coral.

5. Pattern 3D felted and embroidered cobbles to create a cobble stone road.

6. Tapestry A 6m tapestry weaving together the stories and people of the dockside.

Vicky, full of woolly wonderful ideas to knit the city together What it became was a six-month project of workshops and events and people working at home to create a community-embroidered map celebrating the newlyrenovated historic landmark at the lower entrance to Ashton Court estate.

Other previous woollen wonders that Vicky has instigated include the Pompom Parade – 10,000 pompoms in shops all down North Street, and created in care homes – “all the local schools took part” – made into mobiles, hyacinths, waterfalls, “we decorated the whole street on a very rainy day in spring 2015.”

And then, of course, there’s Briswool, the woolly map of the city’s landmarks. “It was first exhibited in the shop and 4,000 people came to see it in a few days.” It was redeveloped over a

Gull friend: Watch out for several breeds of woolly gulls in 2018

couple of years then exhibited in the M-shed. In seven weeks “it had 40,000 visitors – one of the biggest ever local exhibitions.”

The whole woollen city is now in storage. It may be exhibited again in 2018, with the crocodile.

An ongoing project that is clearly very close to Vicky’s heart is Maisie Cats for Dementia.

After a creative life, Vicky’s mum Maisie died from dementia in 2015. She created a pattern for a toy cat when Vicky was little.

Now anyone can make one of these lovely little knitted, crocheted or sewn cats, which are then sold to “raise money for nice treats for people with dementia.”

More than £1,000 has already been raised. You can read more about Vicky’s mum and the cats on the Crafting the City website.

Although all this creativity brings colour and inspiration to the people of South Bristol and beyond, unsurprisingly, “it doesn’t make me a living.” So, as well as one-off workshops connected to the big projects, Vicky runs regular courses – crochet in Margot May on North Street; Thread – an experimental embroidery group that meets at the Hen and Chicken, and she’s hoping to do

courses in libraries in 2018.

Other plans for 2018 include getting sponsorship for a woolly flock of 70 seagulls to appear around the harbour – expect to see them on the ferry boats.

There will be a postcard trail for people to find them – businesses around the dockside can get involved by sponsoring a gull for £50 and having it in their location, or sponsor the postcard.

Or anyone can support the crowd-funder campaign which starts in February – you can name a seagull for £25.

When asked how she would describe herself, Vicky first says “Tall!” After a little reflection she adds “I love process, I love experimentation, I like a bit of risk. I am very creative in everything I do.” And, “I am extremely hard-working. I have never missed a deadline in my life.” I have no doubt about that.

What’s the best thing about living in South Bristol? “Me,” she laughs. Then: “there’s quite a lot of community involvement, lots going on. It’s a busy area, I like being close to the shops. If I need a bun I can just pop out and buy a bun. Yes, put that.”

• craftingthecity.org • Facebook: CraftingTheCity

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

24

southbristolvoice

New year, new start

January 2018

Stoke Gifford Retirement Village An ExtraCare Charitable Trust Village

Opening this year, Stoke Gifford Retirement Village will provide 261 comfortable new one and two bedroom homes for people over 55, with options for rental, shared ownership and outright purchase.

The Village is built around a superb range of social, leisure and well-being facilities including: Fitness Suite and Well-being Suite Bistro and Bar Shop Hair and Beauty Salon Village Hall Hobby and Games Room IT suite and Library Greenhouse and Landscaped Piazza

If we are to influence these plans, we need your support IT HAS been a busy year for the members of WHaM (Windmill Hill & Malago Planning Group), with meetings with cabinet members, developers, coverage in the press, appearances on local TV, a website, events on the green and meetings at Windmill Hill community centre.

Around Bedminster Green the ever-shifting sands have made it hard to focus on specific targets.

Hundreds of people commented on the only firm application to date, for the 10-storey blocks next to Malago Road, and the council and planning department heard our concerns.

This year is likely to be crucial in the process, with applications expected on all five plots on Bedminster Green for tower blocks between 18 and 22 storeys, the sale and removal of the green, and a district heating and power station. This is a major development and although the council, after pressure from WHaM, has got some of the

developers around the table, there is no cohesive plan for the area except WHaM’s site brief.

An uncoordinated development of this size could be a disaster, leading to loneliness and alienation, gentrification, overcrowding, a proliferation of one and two bedroom flats and fast profits for developers and private landlords. Where is the social housing? Where are the amenities, schools, doctors and facilities that will encourage cohesion and connection?

WHaM is a credible part of the planning system and is pushing for all of these things but needs more people to get involved.

There is a core group of a dozen or so members who have worked hard over the last couple of years and achieved great things but they need your help. Our AGM is at 8.30pm on January 9 in the community centre in Vivian Street. If you can stand for any position on the committee please email whamalago@gmail.com.

Howard Purse Chair, WHaM

Turn litter police on waste staff I’VE JUST read the article in the December issue of South Bristol Voice from mayor Marvin Rees.

If you think a property is being illegally sub-let, tell us

The Village is a vision of The ExtraCare Charitable Trust, a registered charity pioneering the UK’s most innovative and exciting new retirement villages.

O StokeGiffordVillage

0117 321 5138

or email stokegifford@extracare.org.uk

or online at www.stokegiffordvillage.co.uk Charges will apply. Details of any costs associated with your home, care and village services will be provided as part of your application. The ExtraCare Charitable Trust, registered charity number 327816, is a company limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales as company number 2205136. Its registered office is at 7 Harry Weston Road, Binley Business Park, Binley, Coventry, CV3 2SN. Copyright © 2017 - The ExtraCare Charitable Trust

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

UR WORK to reduce the harm caused by drugs in our community continues.

We have been working with housing organisation Places for People to resolve on-going issues around a problem property on York Road, which is being used as a drugs den, and I’m pleased to report that this property will soon be closed down.

We are developing intelligence on houses and flats which may be being illegally sub-let. This is a particular concern with social housing. If you have suspicions that any of your neighbours may be doing

this, then we would really like to hear from you. Please contact us by calling 101 or via our website • avonandsomerset.police.uk/ contact-us/report-a-crime-orincident You can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111. Please give as much detail as possible. What cars do the people living there drive?

Registration numbers, descriptions, times of day they go out and so on will all help us to build up a picture and ultimately crack down on illegal sub-letting.

I

hope you had a wonderful Christmas and would like to start by wishing you a very happy new year.

There has recently been an increase in vehicle crime on our patch, with cars being broken into or stolen – 24 in Southville over the past month. We have arrested a man for a number of

25 Write to paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk or to 18 Lilymead Avenue, BS4 2BX

He goes on about the success of the litter ‘stasi’ in the city centre robbing people for dropping litter. Perhaps they will patrol our residential streets after the recycle wagon has been through – the city will make a fortune within a very short time.

Name supplied, Knowle

‘Old Gaol’ was something else LIKE Neil Sellers of BS3 Planning, quoted in your last issue, I was surprised to see the building in Willway Street described as an Old Gaol. I don’t know who first decided this, but the Fiddlers website must bear some responsibility, claiming that they are housed in “a converted stone building that started life as a jail as long ago as the 1740s”.

It’s true it looks a bit like a jail, but it also looks like a maltings. But fewer people are aware of what these look like compared to the number who know what a jail looks like, so the confusion is understandable.

Quite by chance I was walking the back streets of Oxford the other day and came across a building (converted into flats) that looked exactly the same, and was situated round the corner from an old brewery. The maps

POLICE REPORT

Here you can relax in the knowledge that if you or your partner need care, now or in the future, it can be provided by a dedicated 24/7 on-site team.

For more information please call

southbristolvoice

LETTERS

Retirement living for the not-so-retiring

Stoke Gifford Retirement Village, Off Coldharbour Lane, Stoke Gifford, Bristol BS16 1EJ

January 2018

on the Know Your Place website confirm this. The 1828 Ashmead map shows there to be a ropewalk as Mr Sellers suggested, and the 1844–1888 OS map clearly shows a maltings.

Michael Woodgate West Street, Bedminster • I CAN remember the building you refer to as the Old Gaol in Willway Street. I worked there in late 1955 or early 1956 when I was on my first job after school, working for William Elm & Sons, demolition contractors based in Windmill Hill.

We were called in to strip the interior and it had been used as a malthouse for making beer. We found shovels made of aluminium used there – the malt was quite light in weight. The malt had to dry out, hence the bars on the windows.

I remember the floor was wonderful two-inch maple boards, which we tried to save.

Almost opposite is the Apple Tree pub, which I remember was then known as the Maltsters.

Name supplied, Bedminster • Editor’s note: A malthouse was used in making beer (or whisky) and was a large store where the grain was spread out and turned into malt by sprinkling it with water, allowing it to sprout and then dry out.

With PCSO Charlotte Tait Broadbury Road police station these offences and incidents have reduced. However, please remember to always lock your vehicle and to take all your belongings with you. Never leave bags on display and, to be extra security conscious, empty your boot and put the back seats down, so it’s clear there is nothing inside worth taking.

We’re also seeing an increase in number plates stolen from vehicles in our area. You can deter thieves by fitting tamper proof screws to your number plates.

P

reparations are under way for this year’s Be Proud Awards, organised by Avon and Somerset Constabulary and the Police and Crime Commissioner. The awards aim to highlight the very best of our police force, acknowledging and rewarding our dedicated officers, staff and volunteers for all their hard work in ensuring

the communities of Avon and Somerset are safe and feel safe.

The closing date for submissions is January 27, 2018 so you still have time to nominate an officer, volunteer or member of staff who you feel has gone above and beyond their duties.

The winners will be announced in May 2018. To nominate visit • beproudawards.com

O

ur new police office will be opening in Asda Bedminster this month, and will replace the existing police ‘pod’. Details of opening times will be in next month’s column. You can also get in touch with us by email at GreaterBedminsterNPT@ avonandsomerset.police.uk You can also follow what the team get up to on Twitter: @ASPBristolSouth Until next time, PCSO Charlotte Tait

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

26

n PLANNING APPLICATIONS 60 Bower Road BS3 2LU Demolition of detached garage and single storey rear and side extension. Pending consideration

southbristolvoice

crown by up to 30 per cent.

Pending consideration

22A Islington Road BS3 1QB Demolition of buildings and erection of a single dwelling.

Pending consideration Land next to 101 Philip Street, Bedminster BS3 4DR Construction of three onebedroom flats with communal areas. Pending consideration 5 Southville Place BS3 1AW Conversion of house into three apartments. Pending consideration 15 Ashton Drive, Ashton BS3 2PN Roof dormer and window to front elevation of roof. Refused Regent House and Consort House, East Street, Bedminster BS3 4HH Variation of condition 32 (List of approved plans) attached to permission 15/04731/F for redevelopment of the site, making amendments to Consort House and construction of new Building 1 (including an additional nine residential units).

Withdrawn 16 Parson Street, Bedminster BS3 5PT Conversion of basement area into a 1-bedroom flat. Withdrawn 81 Highbury Road, Bedminster BS3 5NS Single storey rear extension. Pending consideration 2 Acramans Road, Southville BS3 1DQ Beech tree: reduce

4 West End, Southville BS3 1AU T1 Lime: Crown reduce x 3m. T2 Walnut: Crown reduce x 2.5m. T3 Ash: Fell. Pending consideration The Cigar Factory, 127-131 Raleigh Road BS3 1QU Details in relation to condition 10 (further details) of permission 16/00013/F: Conversion of second floor from Use class B1c (industrial) to nine flats (Use class C3) with third floor roof extension, external alterations, refuse and cycle storage.

Pending consideration The Cigar Factory 127-131 Raleigh Road BS3 1QU Details in relation to conditions 5 (Further large scale details), 10 (Details drawings) and 12 (External lighting) of permission 16/00013/F Conversion of second floor from Use Class B1c to form 9 apartments (Use class C3) with associated third floor roof extension, external alterations, refuse and cycle storage. Granted 56 Elmdale Road, Bedminster BS3 3JE Single storey rear extension. Pending consideration 62 Winterstoke Road BS3 2NW Demolition of conservatory and construction of single storey rear extension.

Pending consideration Beauley Motor Services, Beauley Road BS3 1PY Details in relation to condition 5 (samples) of permission 16/00681/F: Proposed

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January 2018

January 2018

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Recycling and waste collection calendar Recycling and waste collection calendar Recycling and waste collection calendar Recycling and waste collection calendar 2017-2018 Bedminster, Southville and Ashton

2017-2018 2017-2018

2017-2018

Your collection day is Monday

Christmas tree kerbside collections

27 reference code:

MON/A

demolition of former Beauley conditions 2 (Contamination), Please put bins and Motor Services and construction 3 (Remediation), 4 reference boxes out by 7am on December ‘17 4th 11th 18th 27th of two dwellings. Granted (Implementation of remediation), reference code: code: reference code: your collection day and remember to bring them in retrospectively 6 (Noise sensitive premises Your collection day is Monday Christmas tree kerbside collections January ‘18 3rd 9th 15th 22nd 29th as soon as possible after they Your collection dayassessment), is Monday Your collection day is Monday kerbside collections Christmas tree kerbside collections 7 (Construction Christmas tree have been collected.

6 Longmoor Road BS3 2NZ environmental management Any waste outside your February ‘18 5th 12th 19th 26th Rear, front, and side extension. plan), 9 (SUDS) and 11 (Artificial wheelie reference bin and open code: Please put bins and wheelie bins will not be Pending consideration lighting) of permission Bristol Waste is not delivering collection calendars Please put bins and Please put bins and Your collection day is Monday collections collected.

March ‘18 5th 12th Christmas 19th 26th tree kerbside Your collection day isboxes Mondayby 7am on reference Christmascode: tree kerbside collections Demolition of December ‘17 16/05399/F: 4th 11th 18th 27th We can recycle all of your this year. Your waste collection and recycling boxes out out by 7am on 18th boxes out by 7am on December 4thand erection 11th 18th 27th December ‘17 4th 11th 27th 8-18 Brook Gate BS3 2UN ‘17 workshop of three Christmas cards – please put April ‘18 2nd 9th 16th 23rd 30th your collection day and them in your green box with Grass verge to Robbins 3-storey and 3-storey YourTimber collection dayhouses is Monday Christmas tree kerbside collections calendar is on the next your threecollection pages, forday youand to cut your collection day and any cardboard. building developed into a car block of four flats. Granted Please put bins and remember May ‘18 7th 14th 21st 28th Cardboard needs to be out and keep. remember to to bring bring them them in in remember to bring them in park with 11 spaces. Pending subject to conditions flattened and folded to the December ‘17 4th 11th 18th 27th boxes out by 7am January ‘18 3rd 9th 15th 22nd 29th size of your greenon box. as soon as possible after they December ‘17 4th 11th 18th 27th consideration June ‘18 4th 11th 18th 25th January ‘18 3rd 9th 15th 22nd January ‘18 29th 3rd 9th 15th 22nd 29th as soon as possible after as soon as possible after they Please put bins andthey Unfortunately we cannot Blockbuster Video, your collection have been collected. recycle yourday wrappingand paper Which calendar is mine? have been collected. have been collected.

135 Swiss Drive BS3 December 2RR Winterstoke Road BS3 2NS boxes out by 7am on because most of it has either ‘17 4th 11th 18th 27th July ‘18 2nd 9th 16th 23rd 30th remember bring them in ato plastic or foil coating.

Two storey rear extension.

Externally illuminated fascias, It’s easy to tell. your collection day and Any waste outside your January ‘18 3rd 9th 15th 22nd Please use your brown29th caddy Pending consideration one internally illuminated February ‘18 5th 12th 19th 26th August ‘18 6th 29th 13th 20th 27th Any waste outside your Any waste outside your January ‘18 3rd 9th 15th 22nd as soon as possible after they for any food leftovers.

February ‘18 5thand various12th 19th February ‘18 was collected 5th 12th 19th 26th post sign, window If26th your rubbish during the week of remember to bring them in wheelie wheelie bin bin and and open open wheelie bin and open 24 Gladstone Street, manifestations. Granted have been collected.

Household Waste youwheelie are on an Awill week.

3rd 9th 15th18 December 22nd 2017, 29th asbins soon asnot possible after theySeptember ‘18 3rd 10th 17th 24th Recycling Centres are be Bedminster BS3 3AYJanuary ‘18 subject to conditions wheelie bins will not be wheelie bins will closed notonbe 25th and Single storey rear extension 26th December 2017 If your rubbish was collected during the week of October ‘18 1st 8th 15th 22nd 29th have been collected.

Any waste outside your February ‘18 5th 12th 19th 26th collected.

March ‘18 5th 12th 19th 26th and 1st January 2018.

February ‘18 5th 12th 19th 26th collected. 12th collected. to extend beyond the rear by 1 Stillhouse 4EB March ‘18 5th Lane BS3 12th 19th 26th March ‘18 2017, you5th 19th 26th Bristol ID required 11 December are on a B week. wheelie bin and open 3.5m, of maximum height 3m Replacement dwelling and November ‘18 5th 12th 19th 26th Any waste outside your We To find out more about with eaves 3m high. Pending change of use from February ‘18 5thcommercial12th 19th 26th We can can recycle recycle all all of of your your Wewheelie can recycle your bins will be whatall goesof in not each of your consideration workshop. Granted subject to December ‘18 3rd 10th 17th wheelie bin and open recycling boxes please visit Christmas cards – please put Once you have March ‘18 5th 12th 19th 26th Christmas cards – please put Christmas cards – please put conditions collected. bristolwastecompany.co.uk April ‘18 2nd 9th 16th 23rd March ‘18 5thinwheelie 12th 19th 26th 30th bins box will16th not be 23rd AprilBS3 ‘182AJ 2nd 9th 16th 23rd April ‘18 30th 30th 2nd 9th them your green with 160 Raleigh Road your week, them identified in your green box with them in your Recycling only green box with Recycling and waste Rear dormer roof extension 60 Hamilton Road, collected.

We can recycle all of your any cardboard.

March ‘18 5th 12th 19th 26th • Green box, • Green box, you can find the any cardboard. any cardboard. and second floor roof extension Southville BS3 1PB Single Black box Black box Christmas cards – please over outrigger (rear addition) in storey ground floor side and rear • Brown food • Brown food April ‘18 all 16th 9th 16th 23rd 30thput calendar waste bin waste bin We can recycle of your •2nd May ‘18 7th 28th Cardboard needs to April 2ndcorrect 9th 23rd 30th connection with loft conversion. extension. subject Black wheelie bin May ‘18 7thGranted 14th 14th to 21st 21st 28th May ‘18 ‘18 7th 14th 28th Cardboard needs to be be21st Cardboard needs to bebox with them in your green Insertion of front roof lights. conditions based on the weekday Christmas cards – please put flattened and and folded folded to to the the flattened folded to the bristol.gov.uk/recycle 0117 922 2100 (8.30am 6pmand Mon – Fri) Granted any–cardboard.

April ‘18 2nd 9th 16th 23rd 30th flattened your collections them in your green box with size of your green box.

66 Foxcote Road BS3 2BZ size of your green box. size of your green May ‘18 7th 14th 21st 28th box.

20 Ruby Street BS3‘18 3DY Loft Front 4th and rear roof dormer roof June 11th 18th 25th (or you can May 7thhappen 14th 21st 28th any cardboard.

Cardboard needs to be ‘18 of 4thand two storey 11thside 18th 25th June ‘18‘18 4th 11th 18th 25th Recycling and waste collection calendar conversion andJune installation extensions Unfortunately we download from our Unfortunately weitcannot cannot Unfortunately wefolded cannot flattened and to the dormer window to rear roof slope extension. Withdrawn 2017-2018 May ‘18 7th 14th 21st 28th Cardboard needs to be recycle your wrapping paper reference code: and Velux roof windows on front website).

Make sure recycle your wrapping paper recycle your wrapping paper size of your green box. tree kerbside collections collection day is Monday MON/B roof. Granted 4 Stackpool Road BS3 1NQ flattened and folded to the Your June ‘18 4th 11th Christmas18th 25th because most of itit has either July ‘18 2nd 9th 16th 23rd 30th June ‘18 4th 11th 18th 25th you are referring to because most of has either because mostPlease of put it bins has either Conversion of house into a July ‘18 2nd 9th 16th 23rd July ‘18 30th 2nd 9th 16th 23rd 30th and size of your green box.

Unfortunately we cannot aa plastic foil coating. boxes out by 7am on Former filling station, ground floor flat and a first and December ‘17 4th 11th 18th 27th theor right calendar by plastic or foil coating. a plastic or foil coating. your collection day and June ‘18 second floor flat,4th 11th 18th 25th Coronation Road Details with two storey remember to bring them inpaper recycle your wrapping checking the code in as soon as possible after they in relation to condition 4 side extension, roof extensions January ‘18 3rd 9th 15th 22nd 29th Unfortunately wecaddy cannot Please use your brown July ‘18 2nd 9th 16th 23rd 30th have brown been Please use your brown caddy Please use your caddy because most ofcollected. it has either (Remediation August strategy – vapour and extensive repairs.13th Pending ‘18 6th 20th 27th July ‘18 2ndthe 9th 16thpaper 23rd 30th upper right-hand August ‘18 6th 13th 20th 27th August ‘18 6th 13th 20th 27th recycle your wrapping Any waste outside your for any food leftovers.

February ‘18 5th 12th 19th 26th membrane) of permission consideration for any food leftovers. for aany food leftovers. wheelie bin and open plastic or foil coating.

15/03837/X: four 4-storey town corner. wheelie bins will not be because most of it has either July ‘18 2nd 9th 16th 23rd 30th collected.

March ‘18 5th 12th 19th 26th houses and seven flats. Granted • The status of these applications a plastic or foil coating.

Please use your brown We can recycle all of your caddy may have changed since we went August ‘18 6th 13th 20th 27th Waste September ‘18 3rd 10th 17th 24th Christmas cards – please put August ‘18 6th Household 13th 20th 24th 27th Household Waste Waste April ‘18 2nd 9th 16th 23rd Household 30th 54 West Street, Bedminster‘18 to press.

September 3rd 10that 17th 24th September ‘18 3rd 17th Check for updates The Monday calendars are onRecycling this10th page; the other them in your green box with for any food leftovers. are any cardboard.

BS3 3LH Details in relation to planningonline.bristol.gov.uk Please useCentres your brown Recycling Centres are caddy Recycling Centres are

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days are on the following two closed pages.on 25th and 20th 27th for anyon food leftovers. closed 25th and September ‘18 26th December 2017 15th 22nd 29th September ‘18 3rd 10th 17th 26th December 2017 15th October ‘18 29th 1st 8th 15th If22nd you are on a weekly collection, unsure whether

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8th 8th

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3rd June ‘18 24th 22nd

and and 1st 1st January January 2018.

2018.

July ‘18 Waste 3rd 10th 17thyour collection 24th is on an A or BBristol week,Household or required if you need ID BristolRecycling ID required Centres are 1st August ‘18 help identifying the right calendar for you, please October ‘18 12th 19th 26th October ‘18 1st 8th 15th 22nd 12th 19th 26th November ‘18 5th 12th 19th 26th closed on 25th and contact us: September ‘18 To find out more about 26th December 2017 about 1st 8th 15th 22nd 29th To find out more what goes in each of your October ‘18 and 1stof January what goes inNovember each your ‘182018. 5th Call 0117 922 2100 10th 17th November ‘18 5th 12th 19th 26th recycling boxes please visit 10th 17th December ‘18 3rd 10th Bristol ID17th required November ‘18 recycling boxes please visit Email hello@bristolwastecompany.co.uk bristolwastecompany.co.uk

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bristolwastecompany.co.uk December ‘18 3rd 10th To find out more about December ‘18 3rd 10th If you would like‘18 a printed3rd calendar sent December 10thto you or 17th Recycling and waste what goes in each of your Recycling only someone else, contact us.

Recycling only Recycling only Recycling and waste 17th recycling boxes please visit ••Green Green box, bristolwastecompany.co.uk •You Green box,all this information • Green box, canbox, find and download 19th

26th

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin • Black wheelie bin

21st

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flattened and folded to the closed on 25th and size of your green box.

24th Household Waste 18th 17th 25th 26th December 2017 Unfortunately we cannot recycle your wrapping paper Recycling Centres are because most of it has either 2018.

16th 23rd and 30th1st January a plastic or foil coating. closed on 25th and Bristol ID Pleaserequired use your brown caddy 20th 27th 15th 22nd for any food leftovers. 29th 26th December 2017 Household Waste 2018.

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To find out more about Bristol ID required 22nd 29th what each of your 19thgoes in26th Bristol ID required 19th 26th recycling boxes please visit find out more about To find outTowhat more about goes in each of your bristolwastecompany.co.uk 17th recycling boxes please visit what goes bristolwastecompany.co.uk in each of your 17th recycling boxes please visit Recycling only bristolwastecompany.co.uk closed on 25th and 26th December 2017 and 1st January 2018.

15th

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin

Black box Recycling only Recycling and waste Black box Black box Black box Recycling only Recycling and waste bristol.gov.uk/recycle 0117 922 2100 (8.30am – 6pm Mon – Fri) calendars at www.bristolwastecompany.co.uk • Brown food Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811•766072 email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk • •Brown food Brown food Brownor food bin • Green box, • Green box, Recycling only waste bin •waste Green box, waste bin waste bin box, • Green Black box Black box Black box bin Black box • Black wheelie

Recycling and waste collection calendar

Recycling and waste collection calendar

Recycling and waste collection calendar

2017-2018

2017-2018

2017-2018

reference code:

Your collection day is Tuesday

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Please put bins and boxes out by 7am on your collection day and remember to bring them in as soon as possible after they have been collected.

Any waste outside your wheelie bin and open wheelie bins will not be collected.

We can recycle all of your Christmas cards – please put them in your green box with any cardboard.

29th

31st

Cardboard needs to be flattened and folded to the size of your green box.

Unfortunately we cannot recycle your wrapping paper because most of it has either a plastic or foil coating.

Please use your brown caddy for any food leftovers.

Household Waste Recycling Centres are closed on 25th and 26th December 2017 and 1st January 2018.

Bristol ID required

30th

To find out more about what goes in each of your recycling boxes please visit bristolwastecompany.co.uk

18th

Recycling and waste collection calendar

2017-2018

reference code:

Your collection day is Wednesday

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Please put bins and boxes out by 7am on your collection day and remember to bring them in as soon as possible after they have been collected.

Any waste outside your wheelie bin and open wheelie bins will not be collected.

We can recycle all of your Christmas cards – please put them in your green box with any cardboard.

30th

Cardboard needs to be flattened and folded to the size of your green box.

Unfortunately we cannot recycle your wrapping paper because most of it has either a plastic or foil coating.

29th

Please use your brown caddy for any food leftovers.

Household Waste Recycling Centres are closed on 25th and 26th December 2017 and 1st January 2018.

Bristol ID required

31st

To find out more about what goes in each of your recycling boxes please visit bristolwastecompany.co.uk

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reference code:

Your collection day is Thursday

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Please put bins and boxes out by 7am on your collection day and remember to bring them in as soon as possible after they have been collected.

29th

Any waste outside your wheelie bin and open wheelie bins will not be collected.

We can recycle all of your Christmas cards – please put them in your green box with any cardboard.

31st

Cardboard needs to be flattened and folded to the size of your green box.

Unfortunately we cannot recycle your wrapping paper because most of it has either a plastic or foil coating.

30th

Please use your brown caddy for any food leftovers.

Household Waste Recycling Centres are closed on 25th and 26th December 2017 and 1st January 2018.

Bristol ID required

29th To find out more about what goes in each of your recycling boxes please visit bristolwastecompany.co.uk

20th

reference code:

Your collection day is Friday

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Recycling only

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Recycling only

Recycling and waste

Recycling only

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin • Black wheelie bin

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin • Black wheelie bin

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin • Black wheelie bin

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin

bristol.gov.uk/recycle

0117 922 2100 (8.30am – 6pm Mon – Fri)

Recycling and waste collection calendar

Recycling and waste collection calendar

Recycling and waste collection calendar

2017-2018

2017-2018

2017-2018

reference code:

Your collection day is Tuesday

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Christmas tree kerbside collections

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30th

Please put bins and boxes out by 7am on your collection day and remember to bring them in as soon as possible after they have been collected.

Any waste outside your wheelie bin and open wheelie bins will not be collected.

We can recycle all of your Christmas cards – please put them in your green box with any cardboard.

29th

31st

Cardboard needs to be flattened and folded to the size of your green box.

Unfortunately we cannot recycle your wrapping paper because most of it has either a plastic or foil coating.

Please use your brown caddy for any food leftovers.

Household Waste Recycling Centres are closed on 25th and 26th December 2017 and 1st January 2018.

Bristol ID required

30th

To find out more about what goes in each of your recycling boxes please visit bristolwastecompany.co.uk

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Christmas tree kerbside collections

31st

Please put bins and boxes out by 7am on your collection day and remember to bring them in as soon as possible after they have been collected.

Any waste outside your wheelie bin and open wheelie bins will not be collected.

We can recycle all of your Christmas cards – please put them in your green box with any cardboard.

30th

Cardboard needs to be flattened and folded to the size of your green box.

Unfortunately we cannot recycle your wrapping paper because most of it has either a plastic or foil coating.

29th

Please use your brown caddy for any food leftovers.

Household Waste Recycling Centres are closed on 25th and 26th December 2017 and 1st January 2018.

Bristol ID required

31st

To find out more about what goes in each of your recycling boxes please visit bristolwastecompany.co.uk

19th

0117 922 2100 (8.30am – 6pm Mon – Fri)

2017-2018 reference code:

Your collection day is Thursday

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Christmas tree kerbside collections

13th

Please put bins and boxes out by 7am on your collection day and remember to bring them in as soon as possible after they have been collected.

29th

Any waste outside your wheelie bin and open wheelie bins will not be collected.

We can recycle all of your Christmas cards – please put them in your green box with any cardboard.

31st

Cardboard needs to be flattened and folded to the size of your green box.

Unfortunately we cannot recycle your wrapping paper because most of it has either a plastic or foil coating.

30th

Please use your brown caddy for any food leftovers.

Household Waste Recycling Centres are closed on 25th and 26th December 2017 and 1st January 2018.

Bristol ID required

29th To find out more about what goes in each of your recycling boxes please visit bristolwastecompany.co.uk

20th

reference code:

Your collection day is Friday

December ‘17

1st

8th

15th

22nd

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2nd

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Recycling and waste

Recycling only

Recycling and waste

Recycling only

Recycling and waste

Recycling only

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin • Black wheelie bin

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin • Black wheelie bin

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin

0117 922 2100 (8.30am – 6pm Mon – Fri)

bristol.gov.uk/recycle

Unfortunately we cannot recycle your wrapping paper because most of it has either a plastic or foil coating.

Please use your brown caddy for any food leftovers.

To find out more about what goes in each of your recycling boxes please visit bristolwastecompany.co.uk

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin • Black wheelie bin

bristol.gov.uk/recycle

Cardboard needs to be flattened and folded to the size of your green box.

30th

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin

0117 922 2100 (8.30am – 6pm Mon – Fri)

Any waste outside your wheelie bin and open wheelie bins will not be collected.

Household Waste Recycling Centres are closed on 25th and 26th December 2017 and 1st January 2018.

Bristol ID required

Recycling only

bristol.gov.uk/recycle

Please put bins and boxes out by 7am on your collection day and remember to bring them in as soon as possible after they have been collected.

We can recycle all of your Christmas cards – please put them in your green box with any cardboard.

Recycling and waste

0117 922 2100 (8.30am – 6pm Mon – Fri)

FRI/B

Christmas tree kerbside collections

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin • Black wheelie bin

bristol.gov.uk/recycle

Please use your brown caddy for any food leftovers.

Recycling and waste collection calendar

reference code:

Your collection day is Wednesday

bristol.gov.uk/recycle

Unfortunately we cannot recycle your wrapping paper because most of it has either a plastic or foil coating.

To find out more about what goes in each of your recycling boxes please visit bristolwastecompany.co.uk

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin

0117 922 2100 (8.30am – 6pm Mon – Fri)

Cardboard needs to be flattened and folded to the size of your green box.

30th

Recycling only

bristol.gov.uk/recycle

Any waste outside your wheelie bin and open wheelie bins will not be collected.

Household Waste Recycling Centres are closed on 25th and 26th December 2017 and 1st January 2018.

Bristol ID required

Recycling and waste

0117 922 2100 (8.30am – 6pm Mon – Fri)

Please put bins and boxes out by 7am on your collection day and remember to bring them in as soon as possible after they have been collected.

We can recycle all of your Christmas cards – please put them in your green box with any cardboard.

• Green box, Black box • Brown food waste bin • Black wheelie bin

bristol.gov.uk/recycle

FRI/A

Christmas tree kerbside collections

0117 922 2100 (8.30am – 6pm Mon – Fri)

January 2018

southbristolvoice

30

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January 2018

31

n THE MAYOR

MARVIN REES Mayor of Bristol

At the coldest time of year, let’s not forget those without a roof above them

A

For Stunning Contemporary Windows and Doors Visit Crystal Clear

southbristolvoice

HAPPY New Year to you all, and I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas.

I’d like to wish everyone in the city the best of luck for the year ahead and hope you are looking forward to the challenges and accomplishments that it might hold as much as I am.

While many people will have been out celebrating this festive season, it’s important we spare some time to remember those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

This year we are seeing a rise in homelessness rates across the country and while we are working towards our long term goal of being able to deliver 800 affordable

homes a year by 2020, we also have to consider a range of solutions to solve the immediate problems vulnerable people are facing during these cold winter months.

I am proud to say that Bristol will again be ensuring that 100 extra beds are available for people sleeping rough in the city when the cold weather hits, as part of the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol.

The Bristol Churches Winter Night Shelter project, which was started as part of the work

carried out by the City Office, is back again for an extended run and is due to open for three months from Friday January 5.

I am really grateful to the 12 churches that have once again answered the call from the City Office and will be opening their doors in people’s time of need. When I visited the project last year I was overwhelmed by the positivity and dedication of everyone involved and it is great to see it continued and expanded this year.

We are also continuing to work with other organisations across the city to make sure we can address our severe homelessness problem as quickly as possible and get help out to those who need it most.

Our city’s night shelters are run by some great organisations who work throughout the year to make sure the homeless in our city have a support network to rely on.

These groups have now come together to make one appeal called Safer Off the Streets (#SOSBristol) which can help people to fund the great work that our night shelters do. For just £17, you could fund a new bed for the night for someone who really needs it. These night shelters are free for the people who use them. For more information and to offer a donation, head to: • fundsurfer.com/project/bristol-roughsleeping-partnership

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January 2018

southbristolvoice

32

ADVICE FROM A PHARMACIST Make your New • engaged; Giving up some of your time to help a neighbour; • Reducing salt and sugar in Year resolution your diet; • Increasing the amount of fruit one that will and vegetables you consume; • Taking your medications regularly. give you a I’m sure you have already noted trend. We are suggesting that healthier 2018 the you make changes that will be

I

T’S VERY common at the beginning of a new year to make a resolution – a commitment to make a lifestyle or behavioural change, or learn a new skill.

For those short of ideas here are a few we suggest : • Increasing physical activity and exercise; • Reducing alcohol intake; • Giving up smoking; • Becoming more socially

good for your health and wellbeing. Importantly, we want to help you do so.

In other words, we want you to #THINKPHARMACY this year. The NHS continues to face massive challenges, we are now even seeing community pharmacies closing across the country as a result of the pharmacy funding cuts. Some are no longer able to provide free deliveries of

prescriptions. We, however, have no plans to charge for this service. We believe the need for us to be a local health and wellbeing hub is now greater than ever. Communities need the expertise and timely easy access to trained NHS professionals like the Bedminster Pharmacy team. The wide range of services, many at no cost, and our dedication to patient care is unmatched.

This January at Bedminster Pharmacy, we are launching a new travel health service for advice, vaccination and medicines. We will also have a range of new natural and organic supplements in partnership with Pukka herbs.

We are also offering a vaccination against meningitis B privately, at an affordable price.

This service is in response to patient concerns following recent cases and fatalities due to

meningitis B infection among young people in the Bristol area.

Bedminster pharmacy has always done more than just offer a prescription-dispensing service. We pride ourselves that no one does more to improve health and wellbeing in their community.

Whether it’s helping with cold homes in the winter or working with the St Monica Trust to reduce social isolation, we are signed up.

Our ambition this year is that you think of your local pharmacy whatever your health need or question is. We need your support more than ever as together we can make 2018 your healthiest yet.

• This article by Ade Williams of Bedminster Pharmacy aims to show how all pharmacies can help people with a variety of health conditions and ease pressure on GPs and the rest of the NHS.

• windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk

Fund Fair

Well I’ll be ...

ROUND 800 local people attended the farm Christmas fair, despite the cold snap, making it a great success. People really enjoyed the homemade focus, with wreaths, jams, chutneys and gifts made by farm volunteers, and workshops to teach children how to make their own Christmas pressies.

The slippy pole challenge was tried out by lots of children, as was mining for crystals in the grotto and cooking at the campfire – proving that you don’t need a screen to have fun!

As well as providing entertainment and inspiration for local families, all of the farm’s events raise much-needed funds for the charity.

The farm was recently recognised to have achieved excellence in all eight categories of the Bristol City Council Workplace Wellbeing Charter. It was one of only two Bristol organisations to reach this high standard. The charter aims to promote positive physical and mental health and wellbeing in workplaces across the city. Burges Salmon solicitors was the other winner.

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southbristolvoice

33

n NEWS

Down on the Farm News from Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster

As mentioned last issue, the farm was nominated in two categories in the VOSCUR social impact awards. At a swanky ceremony at We The Curious in November, the farm won the Community Venue of the Year award. VOSCUR said “With voting fiercer than ever before and thousands of votes cast, the event once again proves just how valued the work of our sector

January 2018

The farm said goodbye to a long-standing member of staff in December. Nicky Bacon was the farm’s health and social care manager and had been there for 16 years, working with hundreds of local people in this time. Nicky was just one of the many longserving members of staff – it seems the farm is a great place to work! Keep an eye out on the jobs page of the farm website for upcoming vacancies.

Chicken run Thanks to a donation from the Fittleworth Grass Roots Fund, through the Quartet Community Foundation, the farm chickens are clucking with joy having been built a lovely new home.

The Chicken Palace, as farm staff have nicknamed it, has welcomed some new layer hens too, which has seen egg production increase significantly. You can buy these eggs in the farm shop.

Veganna try it!

In the spirit of Stoptober and Movember, the farm café is taking part in Veganuary, a national initiative encouraging people to give a vegan diet a try for the first month of the year, and maybe more. The farm café will feature some great vegan specials on their menu throughout January – pop in and try something!

• veganuary.com

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

Upping sticks after more than 200 years ONE OF the UK’s oldest timber companies released a picture showing its origins in Bedminster, as it prepared to leave Bristol for South Wales.

Clarks Wood, until recently based on Silverthorne Lane in St Philip’s, moved in December to Newport in South Wales to join its parent company.

The founder, Jacob Clark, was publican of the Hen & Chicken on North Street from about 1781 but from 1798 added a new business in the pub’s back yard, by selling timber cut on the Ashton Court estate.

Jacob’s wife Elizabeth took over the timber sales in 1806.

In 1818, son Samuel Clark expanded into premises at Harfords Bridge – the site of the present Bedminster Bridge – while keeping the yard at the pub.

By 1830 another yard was opened at Coronation Road.

In 1868 Samuel’s wife Susan Clark took on the business. When Susan died in 1870, her son

Old and new: This 1930s photo shows Clarks using a lorry and horses William expanded the firm by opening yards in Redcliffe Hill and Lawfords Gate.

In 1900 William opened premises in York Road and in 1906 he started yet more yards, in Mill Lane and Regent Street.

Clarks Wood was consolidated at one site in Dean Lane in 1908.

Ivor Hamilton Clark ran the company from 1937 to 1953, when he retired and sold the firm. In 1969 Clarks Wood moved to Silverthorne Lane.

Girls pick up healthy habits on their own UP TO 30 teenage girls from Bedminster Down school are now taking part in regular exercise outside school thanks to a grant from the This Girl Can campaign.

The school used the £435 grant to link up with Hengrove leisure centre to offer free after-school gym activities for all Year 9 girls. Every Wednesday afternoon since November up to 30 girls have made their own way to the centre to take part in classes and use gym equipment.

Bedminster Down school PE teacher Claire Liddell said: “It’s great to see so many girls thrive in a different environment, as many of those who took up the offer are not always enthusiastic during PE lessons. It’s my hope that we’re building good fitness habits that the girls can fit in to their lives.”

• thisgirlcan.co.uk

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January 2018

southbristolvoice

34

n YOUR COUNCILLORS

I

WAS at a meeting of the Bristol bike forum the other day, and a guy from Sustrans was telling me Charlie that they are Bolton finding it hard to Green get any traction Southville with the new West of England Combined Authority.

(This is the one run by the Tory metro-mayor.)

Within Bristol, someone at the same meeting was suggesting that a body called the Congestion Task Group is where it is at with transport in Bristol now. This body meets behind closed doors (the Green party is not represented on it). Anyway, it basically seems to be a body trying to make cars go quicker – cycling and walking don’t get much of a look in.

We have the ‘One City Plan’ – Marvin’s vision for Bristol until 2050. It mentions sustainability, but again, cycling doesn’t get a mention. And local food

Southville

campaigners have been wondering how to get a mention. (This begs the question of whether this plan actually has any value of course – some people think it’s great, some think it useless!)

And then we have clean air.

There will come a time next year where having a Clean Air zone will have to become a proposal, not just an idea.

With the removal of Greens from the cabinet, leaving only Labour members, it begs the question of what Labour will go for. Will they actually take on drivers of heavily polluting cars?

Maybe, but there could be votes at stake for them.

It was disappointing to lose our Green party colleague, Fi Hance, from cabinet, but it was in no way surprising. Sadly, mayor Marvin Rees seems unwilling to contemplate any dissent from his narrative – indeed his removal of cabinet members for something someone else has done is at best precautionary, and at worst makes you wonder about his judgement under pressure going forward.

B

How to contact your councillor: p2

RISTOL loves its live music and many people are getting upset at the threats to a number of Stephen famous venues in Clarke the city. A number Green of recent planning Southville applications have made music-lovers worried about the impact of new apartment blocks next to existing leisure outlets and other businesses.

For example, there are worries about the continuation of the Thekla as a music venue, and for the shipbuilding business next to the proposed McArthur’s Warehouse apartments near SS Great Britain.

The concern is that residents of the new flats may try to stop the existing uses next door. This is unacceptable, in my view. We live in a city where music and existing industrial uses (often of a heritage nature, as in shipbuilding) are integral to the fabric of our vibrant urban space.

We do not want to end up with a monolithic fabric of residential and retail.

To deal with this issue the mayor of London has proposed a planning principle called the Agent of Change rule, designed to ensure that established noisegenerating venues remain viable.

At the moment we have no such principle in our planning policy, but I am pushing for this.

You know the story with Long Ashton Park and Ride: a 1,500 space car park owned by the council, 500 metres from the City ground, can’t be used for stadium parking. Barking mad. Myself and Charlie Bolton have been trying for three years to unlock this issue; we really need your help to finally convince the council to follow common sense.

Please email me to give me as much ammunition as possible.

There are huge new plans for a large part of Broadmead coming to a planning committee shortly.

I would encourage you to have a look (application 16/06594/P) and make a comment.

January 2018

southbristolvoice

n YOUR COUNCILLORS

W

E WISH you all a happy and healthy New Year and look forward to working together in 2018. Here is a flavour of some of the issues we will be working on in the coming months.

Ashton Court There are plans to repair and restore Ashton Court mansion, a city asset that was left to the residents of Bristol, having been previously owned by the Greville Smythe family. We hope that there will be a consultation process, led by the Civic Society, to make sure that the house and the grounds once again become a profitable resource for the whole city. We will inform you as more detail is announced, and wish to work with the officers to develop a communications strategy. We are reassured that selling the mansion is not part of the plan and that the asset is recognised and valued by the council.

It is however, worth noting that Ashton Court mansion itself is not of significant historical interest and may not attract

Mark Bradshaw Labour Bedminster

Bedminster

Celia Phipps Labour Bedminster

grants or funding from charities such as the National Trust or English Heritage.

Action Greater Bedminster The former neighbourhood partnership welcomes groups from the area to talk about, and more importantly, act on the issues that residents would like to see addressed. The first sub group on Parks and Green spaces meets on January 22 at 7pm at Windmill Hill City Farm, chaired

by Charlie Bolton. We will be part of a wider cross-wards group for the local allocation of Community Infrastructure Levy, the funds often used for local projects, and AGB will have to have some smart plans ready

35 How to contact your councillor: p2

before choices are made.

We are continuing to meet with Bristol Sport to keep communications flowing as we are committed to the delivery of a match day parking scheme as the best local solution.

Luckwell school crossing We are working with Luckwell primary school and officers to find a new school crossing patrol, as this position has been vacant for some time. This post will be retained following the review of the lollipop schemes. We hope that the position can be filled in the near future. We intend to visit all the local schools in the coming months, with a specific emphasis on road safety.

Thrive Early 2018 will see the launch of a 10-year programme called Thrive, which aims to improve the mental health and wellbeing of everyone in Bristol, with a focus on those with greatest need. We know that one in four of us will experience a mental health problem and it’s time to talk about it. There will be a focus

on how the city can keep you well, not just the NHS, making use of statutory, voluntary and private resources. Celia has become the local authority mental health champion, joining a growing network of councillors of many political backgrounds from across England, willing to speak up for mental health.

Airport Flyer Bristol Airport is planning to open a second lyer bus route in the spring, to add to the existing route through Bedminster. There are no detailed plans ready to date but we will keep you in touch once they are approved.

Lastly, we continue to meet residents monthly at a number of places. Unfortunately, our monthly surgery will not take place on the first Saturday of this month, as Mezzaluna on West Street is undergoing a decorative transformation. If you wish to raise any issues with us, do contact us by phone or email – details are on page 2. We are always happy to hear from residents.

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

southbristolvoice

36

n HISTORY

January 2018

DAME CLARA BUTT, THE SOUTH BRISTOL MEGASTAR

The voice of an angel who spread wings Dame Clara Butt was one of the first international singing superstars – and she lived in an ordinary terrace in Bedminster WE TAKE superstars for granted nowadays. We expect the truly famous to exhibit extravagant spending habits, high-handed behaviour and a complete isolation from the public who made them famous. Indeed, we’re a bit sceptical about celebrities in general, because there seem to be so many of them, and some take their fame as a licence for bad behaviour.

Perhaps it’s time, then, that we remembered one of the first global superstars – possibly the only one who spent her formative years in South Bristol.

Singer Dame Clara Butt was for almost four decades one of the most famous names in the world. But to call her a singer and compare her to, say, Madonna, is to do her an injustice: Clara had one of the most extraordinary voices in the world. Extraordinarily deep for a woman, she also had a tremendous range.

Perhaps her healthy build helped: she stood 6ft 2in (1.87m) tall, which even today would make her a towering presence, and had the lungs to sustain her notes. She was capable of meeting the physical demands of opera, but she mostly used her voice to stir the emotions with more popular songs.

Yet her talent attracted the attention of the most eminent composers. Edward Elgar wrote his song cycle Sea Pictures with Clara in mind as soloist.

She was admired by the eminent French composer SaintSaens; and Sir Arthur Sullivan, better known as the composing partner in Gilbert and Sullivan, wrote The Lost Chord for her.

One of her favourite selections was Land of Hope and Glory, the stirring march by Elgar, of which she gave the first performance in 1902. Famous now as the finale

to Last Night of the Proms, it’s seen by some as a better national anthem than God Save The Queen.

Her signature tune was Abide With Me, which had long been a popular hymn, but was made into an enduring classic by Clara, when sung to an arrangement written for her by her fellow student Samuel Liddle.

Clara Butt was one of the first performers to travel the world.

She amassed enormous fame and wealth, and she did so in style, travelling with a retinue of up to 40 people, both family and assistants.

Yet she did this without, it seems, being accused of being a prima donna. She was forever beloved of the people of Bristol, because, although she lived only 10 years here, she regarded it as her home city.

She spent her formative years, and learned her craft, while living in Totterdown and Bedminster.

South Bristol, it seems, helps keep even a superstar’s feet on the ground.

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lara’s parents were neither of them shy or retiring types. Her mother, Clara Hook, eloped at the age of 16 with Henry Butt, 21, then a trawlerman in Shoreham on the Sussex coast. Neither family approved of the match and the young couple were left to fend for themselves. They went to Jersey where Henry had roots, and had a son, also called Henry.

Clara often went to sea with her husband, by then the skipper of a fishing boat, even though she was pregnant again, and on a stormy night at the end of January 1872, they were forced to put in at the little Sussex village of Southwick. There Clara junior was born, narrowly avoiding starting her life in the middle of the English Channel.

In 1874 they moved back to Jersey, and four years later in 1878, when little Clara was six, they moved to Bristol.

The family settled in Totterdown, though for the first two years it’s not clear where they lived. From 1880 to 1886 they lived at 3 Sydney Terrace, Totterdown – which we know now as Bellevue Road, and where there is now a plaque to the famous former resident. Then,

January 2018

n HISTORY

southbristolvoice

DAME CLARA BUTT, THE SOUTH BRISTOL MEGASTAR

in South Bristol and conquered the world

In the innocent days when children collected cards from cigarette packets, the face of Clara Butt was found on cards from Wills of Bristol

Dame Clara by artist Reginald Edward Higgins. This painting and other Clara Butt items are on display in the M Shed.

PICTURE: © Bristol Culture

for the rest of her life. Another their fortunes perhaps mishap followed. Aged eight, improving, they moved to 94 while still recovering from Coronation Road, Southville, diphtheria, she was in the known as Mida Villa, where they kitchen at Sydney Terrace when a were to stay until 1893. Henry younger brother, Freddie, pushed had become a shipbuilder when past her and upset a pan of stew, he moved to Bristol and the which scalded Clara’s legs. family took on an air of Her father immediately pulled respectability, employing a off the screaming girl’s stockings, nanny for their six children. but her burned flesh came off The nanny may have been too, leaving a nasty wound that hired because she was cheap soon became infected. rather than competent Such injuries were because (according to the cause of many Clara’s biographer, Maurice Leonard) on deaths in the days a trip to the seaside before antibiotics, and she decided to teach once again young Clara to swim by Clara’s life was in the throwing her in the balance. She recovered water. but she was not able to “A breaker carried go back to school for Plaque at Clara’s house, almost a year. her out and the 3 Bellevue Road terrified nanny had to Clara had not long quickly grab her, started at her first otherwise she might have school, Bath Road Academy, drowned. Clara never did learn when she fell ill with diptheria. to swim,” Leonard wrote.

The Leonard book says it was “a Behind closed doors at handsome old building shaded Sydney Terrace, the family was by a purple lilac tree”, but it’s not so grand. Clara slept nose to unclear now exactly where it was. tail with her elder brother, and Also of uncertain location was when he caught diptheria, it was Clara’s secondary school, the almost inevitable that she would South Bristol High School. It catch it too. Henry, tragically, seems likely this was somewhere died, and Clara took a long time in Bedminster, this being the to recover, being left with a heart most populated part of South condition which would affect her Bristol at the time. (If any

readers can tell the Voice where either of these schools were, we’ll be very grateful.)

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37

I

t’s hard for us to imagine how different music was in the days before there were recordings. Now we can satisfy our appetite for any kind of performance, from opera to punk, by slipping on our earphones and trawling the internet. In the 1870s, all music was live – and the most accessible instrument was the human voice.

Hence singing was not a casual activity to while away time in the bathroom, but a source of enjoyment for the whole family (assuming, of course, that one’s relatives weren’t tone-deaf). In the days before recordings and TV, listening to a talented offspring singing or playing the piano was the best home entertainment that could be hoped for.

And in those days of widespread churchgoing, there was a ready stage for everyone to perform. Clara’s father was a passionate believer who frequented the large Bible Christian chapel at Redcliffe Crescent – actually on part of York Road, facing the New Cut. It was probably here that

Clara acquired not only her own fervent Christian beliefs but her love of dramatic and sacred songs – the kind for which she would be best remembered. It was then she first heard Abide With Me, the unbearably melodramatic hymn which had been written in 1847 by curate Henry Lyle shortly before he died of tuberculosis. It tugged Clara’s heartstrings even as a child.

Decades later, in 1934, a famous evangelist, Gipsy Smith, told to a packed congregation at the Hebron Methodist church in Sion Road, Bedminster, that he remembers standing in front of young Clara at the Crescent chapel while she was singing in the choir, “and that was when she gave her heart to Christ,” he said.

Clara’s first music teacher, a

while she was still at the Bath Road school, was a Miss Adelaide Fincken. Clara found she liked singing, but piano playing not so much, and practising still less.

Later, in Coronation Road, their neighbour, Mrs Brooks, took over the tuition. Mrs B was a soprano, and taught Clara as if she had the same vocal range.

But it was becoming clear that there was something special about this young voice. Miss Fincken later said it was a “strange, sweet voice … not in the least like any voice, child’s or woman’s … ever heard.”

Clara went to the Colston Hall to hear a performance by the contralto Belle Cole. At home she tried singing in this lower register, and found she could do so easily. She took to belting out songs in the front room at Mida Villa for the benefit of passers by.

When Clara was 12 she started attending South Bristol High School. It happened that she was singing away in the front parlour when her new headmistress, Miss Cook, called to see her mother. “What a fine voice your son has”, said Miss Cook to Mrs Butt, not being able to see the singer. Laughter followed when it was explained that the voice was Clara’s; but Miss Cook could not believe that Clara was being taught to sing the high notes of a soprano.

The headmistress called in Dan Rootham, the conductor of the Bristol Festival Choir. He was in no doubt that Clara was a natural contralto, and told her: “You have gold in your throat, dear child.”

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his was the beginning of Clara’s success. She had already begun performing at Wedmore Vale Methodist church – her first public solo,

Bravo Bristol: Sung by Clara, with words

by Bristol barrister Fred Weatherly and music by Ivor Novello. It was a World War I rallying cry in 1915, to recruit soldiers to a new Bristol battalion. One verse went: And when the seas are free again And the bloody fields are won We’ll tell our Bristol children What Bristol men have done Their deeds shall ring forever From Avon to the sea And the sound of the march of the Bristol men The song of their sons shall be.

Two Children Out In The Cold, was delivered in a voice weak with nerves, made worse by a pair of new shoes that squeaked as she walked on stage.

Now she became the star singer at South Bristol High, performing at Bible evenings and school performances.

Rootham took her on as a pupil and a member of the Festival Choir, and trained her as a contralto. Clara’s biographer, Maurice Leonard, thinks this was to become a key reason for her enormous popularity. In those days, when people loved to sing, or be sung to, not everyone could manage the high notes of a soprano. But the contralto register was accessible to plenty of amateurs. If you went to a concert and liked a song, you couldn’t buy the recording, as you can now; but you could buy the sheet music, and plenty of people had pianos on which to knock out the tune.

Clara was rarely accused of being a prima donna. But she did show an absolute dedication to her performance, as she soon showed. She began to sing at home in little soirées arranged by her mother, and then to perform by request for church groups or other local societies. She was paid as much as a guinea a time – a small fortune for a teenage girl, worth £110 today after allowing for inflation.

She often drove to events with her mother in a “pillbox”, a small horse and trap carriage, often with young Clara at the reins.

It was at about this time that Clara showed her determination to give her best. She was singing at a temperance (anti-alcohol) meeting at the Crescent chapel – probably a big affair, because the chapel could hold 750 people.

(Despite her religious fervour, temperance was not one of Clara’s creeds: she was later to enjoy the taste of wine.)

The first half of the concert did not go well: Clara was not happy with her pianist. In the interval she met Alice Jenkins, a girl she knew, and found out she could play the piano. Acting on impulse, she asked Alice to take over. The original pianist was much offended.

But Alice and Clara’s first song proved them right: Clara Continued overleaf

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n HISTORY Continued from page 37 sang Frederic Cowen’s difficult piece Light in Darkness, and Alice played it perfectly, by sight.

She was to accompany Clara on and off throughout her career.

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aniel Rootham soon had Clara singing with some of the nation’s most accomplished musicians. She sang with soprano Lilian Nordica and the baritone Sir George Henschel. As well as the rigorous training the choir provided, she also heeded Rootham’s advice, because he often went to the heart of the matter.

Clara’s ability to tap into deep emotion was part of her appeal, and she was already beginning to be recognised in Bristol. She was often close to letting her feelings overwhelm her, and tried to remember Rootham’s advice that a singer must have a warm heart but a cool head.

Her father, Henry Butt was not a business success. One ship he had invested in sank, and his business partner drowned with it. Clara’s earnings became more important until, during her years as a megastar, her family were part of her entourage, living in a series of staterooms in hotels and liners, surrounded by a score of staff in lesser quarters.

Within three years Rootham realised he had taught Clara, then aged 16, all he could. Clara herself was determined to make a career in music, with the backing of her father and her siblings – though her mother was not keen.

So it was her father who accompanied Clara to an audition at the Royal Albert Hall in London for a scholarship to the Royal College of Music.

To a distinguished panel, Clara sang The Enchantress, an ambitious, dramatic piece that showed off her wide range and emotional appeal. The judges were taken aback with the strength of the performance and it showed on their faces. Clara was convinced she had failed – but she was wrong.

All Bristol was delighted when she won a full scholarship to the most prestigious musical college in the land. One whip-round at her farewell concert at the Tyndale Lecture hall raised £60 (worth at least £6,000 today).

The scene was set: Clara was leaving Bristol for the big time.

But she never forgot her home town, and throughout her decades of success she often

January 2018

DAME CLARA BUTT, THE SOUTH BRISTOL MEGASTAR DAME NELLIE FALLS OUT WITH DAME CLARA

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HE OTHER female musical superstar of the early 20th century was Dame Nellie Melba. It would not be too surprising that these two classicallytrained but enormously popular and wealthy singers were arch-rivals.

Nellie – born Helen Mitchell near Melbourne, Australia, in 1861 – was, if anything, an even bigger star than Clara.

They had much in common.

Both were recognised as having exceptional voices capable of singing opera, but both chose a more popular repertoire of hymns and melodramatic lyrics.

Both thought it their duty to sing for the war effort during Wordl War I. Clara had raised £40,000 or so for charities by 1917 (worth £18.5 million in purchasing power today). Nellie, who declared she was so dedicated to the Allied cause that she would work as a docker if needed, raised even more – perhaps £100,000, or £39m today.

Their wartime efforts won them

returned the charitable favours the city had done her. Students at the Royal College were not supposed to perform professionally, but an exception was made for Clara, partly because of the public interest in her, and also to enable her to send money home to her family.

Her debut was at the Albert Hall, performing Gluck’s Orpheus. The reaction was so positive that the Royal College

Cancer? What throat cancer?

From the days when adverts were more or less free to make any claim they wanted, Clara Butt – how apt her name is here – states: “I like them for their mildness – I never have the slightest huskiness from Wix”.

‘Wanting in spiritual refinement’: Australia’s darling, Nellie Melba both the title of Dame of the British Empire.

Both won huge affection across the English-speaking world, playing to packed houses from London to Sydney. Travelling through Australia with Nellie Melba was like riding through France with Marie Antoinette, a companion recalled: she handed out lavish tiepins as if they were medals from royalty. itself basked in the glory of its pupil. “That she is by far the best singer that has ever come from the Royal College of Music is beyond dispute,” said the Times.

She was feted by the actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, and Queen Victoria invited her to perform at Buckingham Palace.

Still a student in 1891, she was in the bath when she was told someone was downstairs wanting to show her some songs. The caller was asked to return the next day. It was Edward Elgar – to many, Britain’s greatest composer – and he wanted to show her the early drafts of his Sea Pictures. Clara was to debut the song cycle in 1899.

The collaboration with Elgar was to continue, and inspired some of the composer’s best work. The role of the angel in Dream of Gerontius was written for Clara. Land of Hope and Glory came about when she heard Elgar’s march from Pomp and Circumstance; she is supposed to have said, “What a tune, why don’t you write a song for me and use that as a refrain?”

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here is simply no room to list all Clara’s musical accomplishments over her long career. At no point on her tours of the world however, did she forget or neglect her

January 2018

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n HISTORY

DAME CLARA BUTT, THE SOUTH BRISTOL MEGASTAR

Yet while Dame Clara was seen as a singer who could reach genuine depths of emotion, some critics thought Dame Nellie less accomplished.

George Bernard Shaw, who was once a music critic, said Melba was “hard, shallow, self-sufficient and altogether unsympathetic”.

Nellie and Calara avoided falling out until 1928, when an Australian journalist, Winifred Ponder, wrote a biography of Clara.

In it, she quoted Clara as saying that when she had been about to start a tour of Australia, Nellie advised her: “Sing ‘em muck; it is all they understand.”

It was a slur on Nellie’s adoring Australian public. She denied ever saying such a thing, and threatened to sue for libel.

Clara said she had no idea that the passage was to appear in the book and was “most sorry”.

There is a tale, though, that Nellie added: “From what I know of dear Clara’s repertoire, she would hardly need this advice.”

Superstar spats, it seems, began earlier than we might think.

Dame Clara with sons Roy, left, and Victor, right, with daughter Joy. This picture was taken between 1910 and 1915, possibly on landing in New York at the start of a US tour. Both sons were to die tragically young

home city. At the start of her international career in 1893, she sang at the Bristol Festival in the Colston Hall, before she kept a date in Paris to sing angel’s Delilah for Saint-Saens.

Her engagement to the bass baritone Robert Kennerley Rumford was as big news as a royal romance, and when she returned to Bristol for her wedding in the cathedral the honour for the city was tremendous – she was offered the use of St Paul’s cathedral, but turned it down. The occasion, on June 26, 1900, was like a royal wedding. The whole city had the day off to join the celebrations and it seemed as if most of the population were on the streets from early morning. Special trains were arranged from London, and church bells rang.

The people of the city contributed to a spectacular wedding gift – a diamond and ruby brooch in the shape of the letters CB – which of course stood not only for Clara Butt but City of Bristol. (The brooch was later donated by Clara’s daughter to Bristol Museum, and it is now on show, with other memorabilia, in the M Shed.)

Guests at the wedding included Nellie Melba. On the same day Clara paid off her father’s £600 overdraft (£59,000

today) and some other debts for her family. Then began her long and often gruelling years of fame and touring, from Europe to the United States and Australia.

Clara and her husband lived in great style in a Hampstead mansion, later adding a home by the sea and a retreat in Oxfordshire.

She never lost her taste for spectacular dresses, including one decorated with grapes. She also showed a commercial acumen that many later stars would envy: it seemed there was not a product she would not endorse for money. these included the Grafonola gramophone: “several years in advance of any other gramophone”, she said; and the Schiedmayer piano: “such a help to the voice”.

Things named after her included soaps, perfumes, ice creams and racehorses. More alarming to the modern eye is her endorsement of cigarettes – not from Wills of Bristol, but a brand called Wix. It was not unusual then, when there was little restriction on bogus claims in advertising, to see Clara claiming that “I never have the slightest huskiness from Wix.” What better endorsement for a cigarette maker than from someone whose fame and fortune depended on her voice?

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hroughout her career Dame Clara often returned to Bristol, whether to see family or friends or to perform, usually at the Colston Hall.

Reviews were always glowing – “It is seldom that anyone experiences such a reception as Dame Clara Butt was accorded at the Colston Hall last evening,” gushed the Western Daily Press on October 17, 1922, reporting that she sang “with the fervour and spirit of a missionary”.

Part of her appeal was her patriotism: there was great applause, said the WDP after a Colston Hall concert in 1909, when she sang the lines: “So make you great our England: Child, there is much to do; You can, if you will, make her greater still; It lies, little child, with you.”

Often on the bill with Clara were her husband and one or other of her musical sisters, “Miss Pauline, Miss Ethel and Miss Hazel”, as the paper respectfully referred to them.

At Clara’s 25th wedding anniversary concert, also at the Colston Hall, on June 26, 1925, “the proceedings were of the most hearty character. It was evident that the audience would have liked many more encores,” said the Western Daily Press. The mayor of Bristol, Mr Brookhouse Richards, presented the couple

with “a small gift” – a silver table centrepiece made by the Bristol Goldsmiths’ Alliance – and said Clara had “carried the fair name of Bristol all over the world”.

The mayor added that he hoped the couple would return to Bristol to celebrate their golden wedding. Sadly, it was not to be.

In the 1920s Clare was diagnosed with spinal cancer and in 1931 she injured her spine, and began performing from a wheelchair.

She had already suffered tragedy: her elder son Roy died of meningitis while at school, in 1923, and the younger, Victor, committed suicide in Rhodesia, where he had a farm, in 1934.

This news was kept from Clara for some time because she was so ill – in the same year she had collapsed on a tour of Australia and was stretchered home.

In December 1935 the Western Daily Press noted that Dame Clara was well enough to spend Christmas staying with friends in Westbury-on-Trym.

Her every outing – even to the cinema at the Triangle, Clifton – was announced in the paper.

In June, she visited the opera house at Monte Carlo in her wheelchair and received a standing ovation. But in August she fell ill again, in Germany, and was flown to Croydon airport to be met by an ambulance. Having suffered years of pain, she died at

her home in Oxfordshire on January 23, 1936.

Even coming in the same week as the deaths of King George V and Rudyard Kipling, Clara’s death was still the cause of national mourning. There were tributes even from the grieving Queen Mary.

In her will she left an estate of more than £39,000 (worth £15m in purchasing power today).

It’s sad that so great an international star, and one with so exceptional a voice, is not remembered more. This is partly because, though Clara made many recordings – she had one of the first recording studios in her home – the technology of the day doesn’t come close to doing justice to her voice.

Clara Butt deserves tribute not only as one of the first true global celebrities but as a lifelong Bristolian, and a South Bristolian at that. In fact, her legacy lives on. Our love of heartstringtugging songs is undiminished, and her signature song, Abide With Me, is now sung by more people than ever. Would Clara have minded that this old hymn is mostly heard in football grounds?

Not a bit: to this Dame of the Empire, the highest art deserved to be appreciated by the largest audience.

Sources: Hope and Glory: A Life of Dame Clara Butt, by Maurice Leonard, 2012, pub. Victorian Secrets.

• victoriansecrets.co.uk Go Home and Do the Washing!

Three Centuries of Pioneering Bristol Women, by Lorna Brierley and Helen Reid, 2000, Broadcast Books.

Dame Nellie Melba, Australian National Dictionary of Biography: • adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ melba-dame-nellie-7551 Great Australian Women: Nellie Melba: • janesoceania.com/australia_ prominent_women/index.htm

The diamond and ruby brooch given by the people of Bristol to Clara Butt on her wedding day.

It’s on show at the M Shed.

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January 2018

January 2018

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Classic fairy tale supplies more magic than Disney REVIEW Beauty and the Beast, Tobacco Factory Runs until January 14 HERE is a lot of beauty in the Tobacco Factory’s big Christmas show this season.

Created by theatre company New International Encounter, it was first performed at Cambridge Junction last Christmas to rave reviews. This year its Bristol’s turn.

The audience sit in the round, surrounding a floor strewn with autumn leaves. Enter the band, placed off to one side, who play marvellous harmonic melodies with a French rustic twang, on accordions, flutes, cello, a double bass, ukulele, percussion and more. It soon transpires that all but one of these multi-talented musicians are also beautiful, brilliant members of the cast.

In the centre of the round are three panels of decking, which are cleverly moved by the cast to depict various scenes. To begin it’s the floor plan of the hovel in the forest in which Beauty (Isabella)

and her family must live following mother’s death and father’s business failure.

It’s claimed that the story of Beauty and the Beast can be traced back 4,000 years. This version takes the old French fairy tale as its inspiration, so the plot may be familiar to Disneywatchers, but it’s less cartoon, more ancient magical folk tale with a drop of humanity thrown in.

French-speaker Sara Lessore plays Isabella, and brings a gentle honesty and naturalness

combined with feisty fighting spirit to the title role – a great role model for little girls (and boys). Her two big sisters are spiteful meanies more concerned with their loss of wealth and gymkhanas than keeping the family together. Their shrill refrains of ‘Oh shut up, Daddy’ become the catchphrase of the show. These are lovable baddies though, and we warm to them right through to their bitter ends.

The sisters are excellently played

by Samantha Sutherland as Latrice and, with a nod to the traditional pantomime dame, Anastasia is played by Elliot Davis. Elliot is also musical director for the show and has done a great job in that capacity. He’s got an amazing voice and is incredibly watchable, and, I admit, I didn’t realise he wasn’t the usual gender of a sister until I read the programme afterwards.

Cursed to live alone in his chateau until he finds true love’s kiss, Martin Bonger plays an angry, scared beast who becomes lanky and lovable in his goofy guileless efforts to make Beauty love him.

Father Maurice (Ben Trolley) is a discreet low-key character who keeps the story flowing – and is rather good at playing the accordion whilst being pushed around in a wheel barrow.

Beccy Golding

n Stand Up for the Weekend with Carl Donnelly Comedy Box at the Hen & Chicken, North Street. “Carl Donnelly takes mundane stories of everyday life and turns them into selfdeprecating silliness.” Plus guests. 7.45pm, £11 advance, £14 on the door.

• thecomedybox.co.uk Monday January 8 n Young Theatre Makers Tobacco Factory theatre. Weekly sessions where youngsters can explore the world of the theatre and learn new skills. Movement, clowning, storytelling, teambuilding and creativity are on the agenda. 8-10 year olds 4.305.45pm, £50 per term; 11-13 year-olds 6-7.30pm, £60 per term. Help may be available if the fee is a problem.

• tobaccofactorytheatres.com Tuesday January 9 n Community Journalism Training Knowle West Media Centre, Leinster Avenue. Do you have a nose for what’s happening in your community?

Would you like to write for The

Knowledge newsletter in Knowle but need support? KWMC offers free community journalism training on Tuesday afternoons 2-3.30pm. No experience necessary. Adults only: call Sue on 0117 903 0444 or email sue@ kwmc.org.uk • kwmc.org.uk/events n People of Note Community Choir Southville Community Centre, Beauley Road. Spring term free taster session, 7.309.30pm. No auditions.

• peopleofnote.co.uk n Pattern Making and Sewing for Beginners Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster. Learn first steps to create your own clothes or craft items. A supportive environment where everyone is equal and can learn at their own pace. 10 weeks, 10am-12noon, £74 (may be reduced for those on benefits). One of several new courses starting in January at the City Farm, run by the WEA. Call 0300 303 3464 or 0117 916 6500 for details.

• windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk

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Christian Andersen is brought to life by the Travelling Light theatre company. Ducklings are supposed to be fluffy and yellow.

So who is the gangly and scruffy young duck who’s just waddled into the farmyard? Join the misfit bird as he sets off on an epic adventure to find the place where he truly belongs. The show is 45 minutes long and is suitable for ages two and over. Until January 14. Tickets £12 or £9 for concessions, shows at 10.30am, 1.30pm, 4.30pm and 7pm, but not all times are on all dates so please check for details. There’s a relaxed performance for those with extra needs at 1.30pm on January 2.

• tobaccofactorytheatres.com Saturday January 6 n Open Stage Saltcellar Folk Club, Totterdown Baptist Church, entrance off Cemetery Road. Open invitation to come and sing, play, dance, recite or just listen. One of the most popular events of the Saltcellar calendar. 7.30pm, £1.

• saltcellarfolk.org.uk

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n WHAT’S ON

n WHAT’S ON Sunday December 31 n New Year’s Eve Bash Southbank Club, Dean Lane, Southville. With Moonshot, seven-piece ska and reggae band, plus dancing, music and fun!

With bonfire, cabaret, dance class and circus acts. 9pm-2am, last entry midnight, tickets £25 or £30 with food.

• southbankclub.webs.com n Let’s Go Disco Tobacco Factory, North Street. Sold out, but there may be returns.

Another multi-level spectacular New Year’s Eve party: dig out your platforms and flares as the Tobacco Factory channels the spirit of 70s disco with international headliner DJs, a Studio 54-style nightclub, and Saturday Night Fever-style lit-up dance floor. Circus performers, music, street food, a retro photo booth and a tunnel of love. £38.

• tobaccofactory.com/whats-on n New Year’s Eve at Zion Zion, Bishopsworth Road. With a Battle of the Bands, a live set from the Road Zombie and a disco till the early hours. Bar and food. Over 18s only. No sharp heels. Tickets £10 advance, £15 on the door. 8pm-1am.

• zionbristol.co.uk/events n On the Beach The Thunderbolt, Bath Road, Totterdown. It’ll be just like summer at the Thunderbolt for New Year’s Eve in a collaboration with Craftisan. Surf sounds from the Dukes of Mumbai and DJs representing Knowle, Totterdown, Windmill Hill and Brislington. Firepit, a beach bar, and beachwear competition.

Tickets £10 advance, £12 on the door, 8.30pm-1.30am.

• thethunderbolt.net Monday January 1 n The Ugly Duckling Tobacco Factory theatre. For the younger Christmas audience, the famous story by Hans

January 2018

Natural, but feisty: Sara Lessore as Beauty, a great role model

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

Wednesday January 10 n Art for Beginners Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster. Develop your ability to see like an artist by trying a variety of techniques, materials and approaches. The emphasis will be on experimentation rather than the finished product.

10-week course £91.50 (may be reduced for those on benefits).

Other details as above for WEA. • windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk Thursday January 11 n Silver & Copper Jewellery Making for Beginners Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster. Learn traditional skills for making silver and copper jewellery from metal sheet and wire, including piercing out, shaping, texturing and soldering. 10-week course £91.50 (may be reduced for those on benefits). Other details as above for WEA. • windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk n Reading and Writing Poetry Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster.

Explore the structure of a poem and how it works, and develop the skills for writing poetry using different approaches. 10am-12 noon, 10 sessions £74. Other details as above for WEA. • windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk Saturday January 13 n Bristol Seed Fair and Potato Day Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster.

Get ready for spring by planning your planting. Seeds for vegetables, herbs, flowers, plus

Saturday January 13 and Sunday January 14 n George and the Flight of the Imaginees Zion, Bishopsworth Road. In his bedroom, George can conjure pre-historic worlds, mythical creatures and slip through black holes into other-worldly dimensions. It’s all just for fun, until George is summoned to protect the Ancient Spirits of the Imaginees. A show for the over-5s by South Bristol’s Brave Bold Drama. Also on January 14. Tickets £6.73, 2.30pm.

• zionbristol.co.uk organics, garlic bulbs and many varieties of seed potatoes. Advice on growing will be available too.

10am to 1pm, free.

• windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk n Stand Up For The Weekend with Ian Stone & Co Comedy Box at the Hen & Chicken, North Street. Edgy and provocative, with an easy-going manner and self-deprecating style, Ian is also a member of the Comedy Store’s acclaimed resident stand-up team. Plus guests. 7.45pm, £11.

• thecomedybox.co.uk Wednesday January 17 n Complementary Therapy

Ad libs and big effects in this laugh out loud celebration REVIEW Aladdin, Bristol Hippodrome; Until January 7 BRIGHT, shiny, colourful and loud: this show could never be described as subtle, but then, I don’t suppose a good oldfashioned pantomime should be. It mixes in some great modern bits too – fantastic animatronics include a massive King Kong gorilla, a giant genie with a (bad) Bristol accent, and an enormous cobra that looms up beyond the stage and right up to the ceiling.

There’s also a clever flying carpet sequence and the piece de

Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster. Introductory course covering ear candling, acupressure shoulder and neck massage, reflexology, Indian head massage and more. Other details as above for WEA. • windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk Saturday January 20 n Yoga retreat Arnos Vale cemetery, Bath Road. A day of yoga, mindfulness and detox techniques to help to unwind, feel cleansed and re-energised after the excesses of the festive period. 10am-4pm, £65. Details from devakiyoga@hotmail.co.uk • arnosvale.org.uk/events

n Soul Tunnel The Tunnels, Temple Meads. Three DJs playing the best in soul, funk, disco and rare groove including DJ PM, Andy B, one of the four founders of Soultrain Radio, and Lee Hasking. £8 in advance, 9pm.

• thetunnelsbristol.co.uk n Stand Up for the Weekend with Tez Ilyas & Co Comedy Box at the Hen & Chicken, North Street. “Armed with his trademark cheek and uncompromising approach, Tez Ilyas presents slick, smart and typically subversive standup.” Plus guests. 7.45pm, £11 advance, £14 on the door.

• thecomedybox.co.uk Sunday January 21 n Wassail St John’s Burial Ground, Cotswold Road, Windmill Hill. Join in this ancient celebration to wake the apple orchard into life, from 4-6pm. Bring pots and spoons to bash. Drinks, apple cakes, music and merriment organised

by Windmill Hill Community Orchard Association. Details by email from johnfirth@gmail.com Monday January 22 n Future of parks group Windmill Hill City Farm training room, 7pm. The parks sub-group of newly-formed community group Action Greater Bedminster holds a public meeting with parks officers and councillors.

With major council budget cuts, can our parks earn enough money to survive?

• greaterbedminster.org.uk Continued overleaf

show with an old friend and her two children. She said: “I thought the 3D part was quite scary for under sixes (although four-yearold Tara was fine). That poor woman in front of Merryn got a full throttle scream!”

The star of this show is Wishy Washy, played by Joe Pasquale – he carries the whole thing and really ramps up the fun factor. He’s clearly ad-libbing and messing about – a lot – there are points when the other cast members are trying so hard not to laugh that they cannot sing their songs or get their lines straight. There are some great moments between him and baddie Abanazar, played by Marti Pellow – yes that Marti Pellow, formerly of 80s ballad band Wet Wet Wet – and a great tonguetwister battle between him and Widow Twanky (an excellent dame, in riotous costumes, played by

David Robbins) ending with Marti pronouncing the word ‘situation’ with rather too much shh. “Wishy Washy was definitely my favourite,” said Merryn, “he was so silly and said such funny words.”

There were two other super set pieces – a wonderfully slapstick version of ‘If I were not upon the stage’ involving frying pans, boxing gloves, a feather duster and a policeman’s baton – “I liked the part where they hit Wishy Washy in the bum with a saucepan,” said Tara – and a wooden spoon dance best left to the imagination. The song and dance routines, not normally my favourite, were well put together and enjoyable too.

It’s all very Punch and Judy and it won’t win an award for forward-thinking or challenging stereotypes, but this is a brash, brassy, laugh out loud celebration.

Beccy Golding

When dreams take a life of their own

Brash and colourful: Aladdin resistance, when we don our 3D glasses and take a swooping flight past dinosaurs and exploding lava fields, bombarded by fireballs, spiders, rats and more – eliciting shrieks from the audience. Merryn, 6, said she loved this part. And Tara, 4 said: “I actually thought the dragon was going to eat me on the way to Egypt!”

I had the joy of going to this

Adventures become real for George in this original drama

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

southbristolvoice

44

January 2018

Who will save us from the evil Dr Knowle and his sulky teens?

REVIEW A View to a Hill Totterdown Baptist Church EACHER Elaine Spencer not only wrote, but produced and directed this classic, James Bond-inspired panto – full of super-puns and groan-inducing jokes, references to local landmarks (including pointed remarks about ‘vintage shops’), obligatory ‘he’s behind you’ and ‘oh no he isn’t’ audience participation, and a strong contingent of small

children wearing animal-onesies – of course their ad-libs were the bestest and most adorable.

David Lane played baddie Dr Knowle very well – he’s got form, having filled the role several times before here. His young henchmen were good at lurking about in sulky teenage fashion, joined by Sian Wilcox as femme fatale Miss Miaowplenty in luscious orange wig. The spy team made a good balance, with suave hero Jim Band backed up by Miss Honeycent, N, and droll techie P. Songs included a fun duet belted out by sparkly-dressed Queen Falala (Frankie Guy Taylor) and the Metro Mayor (Abbie Warren), and a rendition of It’s My Castle and I’ll Cry If I Want To from Dr Knowle.

I very much enjoyed the presence on stage of all three Bristol mayors – an excellent plot device, and all played by members of the same family. There were five Warrens performing in total though it’s unclear whether they were all related. I liked the three Grumpy Old Men up on the balcony, making snarky comments like the Muppets’ Statler and Waldorf. I also enjoyed the homemade snacks during the interval – what’s not to love about chocolate cornflake cakes with edible glitter?

The finale was a bad joke duel followed by the whole cast and the audience singing a resounding rendition of Always Look On The Bright Side of Life. And who can argue with that?

Beccy Golding

Street. Confident and cocky, Zoe Lyons is familiar from Live at the Apollo, Mock the Week and many other TV and radio appearances.

Plus guests. 7.45pm, £11 advance.

• thecomedybox.co.uk

Monday January 29 n Matt Woosey Band The Tunnels, Temple Meads.

Switching between cool-ambient and Matt’s trademark powerful blues-tinged acoustic onslaughts,

the German-based band are on their third UK tour. Support from Mia and James of Mohawk Radio with an acoustic set. Doors open 7.30pm, £10.

• thetunnelsbristol.co.uk

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southbristolvoice

n THE CITY PAGE

n WHAT’S ON Continued from page 43 Friday January 26 n Networking with Freelance Mum Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster. Guest speaker Angie Parker tells how she has combined motherhood with weaving award-winning rugs and contemporary designs from her Glimmakra floor loom in Bristol.

10am-12noon, £9 members, £12 non-members. Children free. • windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk n Angie Belcher’s Comedy Depot Zion, Bishopsworth Road.

Headlined by Andrew O’Neil wih compere Angie Belcher. 7pm, £6.

• zionbristol.co.uk/events Saturday January 27 n The Reggae Magic The Tunnels, Temple Meads. These musicians have worked with some of the world’s greatest reggae artists such as Dennis Brown and Gregory Isaac. Tickets £10 in advance, 7.30pm.

• thetunnelsbristol.co.uk n Stand Up for the Weekend with Zoe Lyons & Co Comedy Box at the Hen & Chicken, North

January 2018

BRISTOL CITY ROUND-UP

Sponsored by CLEVERLEY BUILDERS – supporting City and the best in building

Season so far shows that the top level is drawing nearer

T

City have had a fantastic run, and they have done it without losing their Bristol accent, says MARTIN POWELL

HERE is an international language of football and no matter where you go in the world it is a subject that you can talk about and debate with others.

As teams get nearer the top the number of different nationalities in the side increases, but it is fantastic to see that Bristol City are climbing the league table while still keeping a

MARTIN’S SHORTS n It was wonderful to see Bristol City president Marina Dolman receive her OBE for services to football from Prince William. Her late husband, Harry, introduced her to football when they married – but he only got his gong for his business dealings. Shows what can happen if you take your missus to football! n The FA Cup draw sees City take on Premier League Watford for the second time this season. Last time young Freddie Hinds scored. With not many fit strikers, it may be time for him to return from his loan at Cheltenham Town!

hint of a West Country accent!

Yes, there are now players from Australia, Bosnia, Ireland, Iceland, Germany, Italy and Senegal on display at Ashton Gate but Bobby Reid and Joe Bryan, both Bristol lads, were the stand-out players against Middlesbrough and were the toast of the Sky coverage.

With Lloyd Kelly on the fringes of the team and showing every sign of being able to play at the top level, we could soon see a City team with three regular local players playing at a high level.

It is clear that having been hit by a lot of injuries new faces will be needed in the January transfer window but most fans want to see the local connection maintained and there is a route into the team for local youngsters even if – dare we mention it – they get to the Premier League.

The win against Middlesbrough reminded me of an American I met in Chicago earlier this year, who, through the international language of football, I discovered was a Middlesbrough fan! His family originally came from there and he told me how he stayed up late at night to watch matches with his father.

Local talent: Bobby Reid is proving a stand-out player He was disappointed that they had just dropped out of the Premier League but fairly confident the side would do well in the Championship against teams like Bristol City.

The results so far this season have made a lot of people readjust their views on City. They are a group of relatively unknown players but are now firmly established in the play-off zone and pressing towards the top two.

The fantastic win at Sheffield United persuaded many people that something very special could be happening at Ashton Gate and top flight football may not be so far away. That January transfer window holds the key to what happens over the next few months.

Bringing in players who can slot instantly into the side, fit in with the fantastic team spirit that

CLEVERLEY BUILDERS WISHES ALL READERS A HAPPY NEW YEAR 01179 780 350 Leigh House, Whitchurch Lane BS13 7TA

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

45

PHOTO: BCFC

everybody is talking about, and make an impact right away in crucial games will not be easy.

But that is the task facing Lee Johnson and chief executive Mark Ashton.

The medical team have also got their work cut out in trying to get players back after serious injuries. Quite how City have managed such good results with so many injuries is remarkable – young players pressed into action have stepped up well.

No trophies are handed out at Christmas in football but a season that so far has seen a magnificent cup run featuring Premier League scalps, and league form in which City have conquered some sides with recent pedigree in the Premier League, shows that the top level is getting closer.

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

n YOUR MP

KARIN SMYTH Labour MP for Bristol

Latest figures show we still need to get off bottom of the university table

I

T’S BEEN a very busy year what with the snap election and EU Withdrawal Bill, but it is important to find time for the issues affecting Bristol South too.

I’ve written before about my relentless focus on achieving quality apprenticeships for young people and, in light of the latest figures which show that Bristol South is bottom of the table in England for the percentage of 18-year-olds going to university, I will continue to work to improve this and campaign for better post-16 skills and training.

There are two big campaigns that I’ve been working on this year – one is the trailer

safety campaign following the tragic death of three-year-old Freddie Hussey in 2014 and the other is airgun safety following the shooting of 18-month-old Harry Studley last summer, which left him with life-changing injuries. I’ve been amazed at the determination of both families who, in the face of the toughest of circumstances, have ploughed their energy into campaigning to ensure no other family has to endure such pain. And as their MP, I’ve been doing what I can to help.

Back in November, I spoke at the AGM of

n LOCAL SERVICES

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the National Towing and Trailer Association (NTTA) and learned more about the free safety checks being rolled out in parts of the UK. It followed a trailer safety conference I organised in Bedminster in March, which brought together the NTTA and government agencies with organisations that represent people who pull trailers, and local businesses, to highlight the issue of trailer safety. Freddie was killed when he was hit by a trailer that had not been correctly attached to the vehicle that had been towing it. Many drivers are unaware of the risks around trailers and this needs to change.

After speaking in parliament about airgun safety earlier this year, Home Office minister Nick Hurd agreed to look into the issue and I’ll continue to push for an airgun safety review. People may not be aware that air rifles can cause real harm, but they need only look at what Harry’s been through to see that that is not the case. Harry thankfully survived being shot in the head with an air rifle, but has lasting injuries that he will live with for the rest of his life.

Looking forward to 2018, I’ll continue campaigning for change, alongside the families, on both of these issues. In the meantime, may I take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and to thank you for re-electing me as your MP.

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January 2018

INVITATION

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