South Bristol Voice Bedminster July 2018

southbristolvoice July 2018 No. 33

www.southbristolvoice.co.uk

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INSIDE • A MULTI-STOREY AT ASHTON GATE?

10-11

High rises: The people speak 13

Stand up for our shopping centre IT’S TIME for Bedminster to blow its trumpet – and wake everybody up to the opportunities that exist for the future.

The Voice has teamed up with Bedminster Town Team, which represents traders and town centre businesses, to call on everyone in BS3 to get behind our local retailers – and our

community. Last month came some sobering news, when the Voice revealed that Argos is to pull out of East Street in August.

Shortly afterwards came news that clothing chain Bon Marché was leaving too – a departure that happened within days.

These are worrying times for every high street. But it’s easy to Continued on page 3

6

• OTTERS! OTTERS! 24-25

• STEP IN TO SAVE THE LANTERN PARADE 15

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July 2018

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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

You can find South Bristol Voice on Facebook and Twitter facebook.com/ southbristolvoice Twitter: @sbristolvoice Next month’s deadline for editorial and advertising is July 18th

Intro

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: A surgery will be held on Friday July 6 and 20. Call 0117 953 3575 for an appointment.

My councillor?

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

WHY THIS IS A CRUCIAL TIME FOR BEDMINSTER IT’S ALWAYS depressing when retailers leave a high street, so when news of two big names exiting East Street arrived at once, it was a shock.

True, Argos is only moving into Sainsbury’s in Winterstoke Road – but Bon Marché is gone.

Many would say Bedminster has never been the same since the closure of the Imperial Tobacco factories and offices deprived South Bristol of thousands of well-paid jobs that were never replaced.

In any case the future of many high streets looks dicey – if Marks & Spencer can’t keep all its stores open, it’s a bad

How do I get in touch with ...

sign. That’s why it’s crucial we all recognise the opportunities: • Millions to be had in developer levies from new homes in BS3 (though many don’t want them to be high-rise).

• Many new businesses starting up, and lots of evidence that people want to move to BS3.

• A thriving community spirit, and a vibrant artistic culture.

But perhaps most important – the knowledge that local traders can meet most of our needs on our doorstep. Let’s make use of them!

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

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 Police Inquiries 101 Emergency 999 Fire

Emergency 999 Inquiries 0117 926 2061 NEIGHBOURHOOD MEETINGS Action Greater Bedminster Forum for the public, councillors and community groups.

No meeting scheduled.

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 (unless otherwise stated) 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

That’s music to my ears!

July 2018

southbristolvoice

n NEWS

Let’s all back Bedminster!

THE CHALLENGE – AND THE OPPORTUNITY

Continued from page 1 forget that Bedminster is Bristol’s second biggest shopping area, after the city centre.

It’s also one of the most vibrant places in the city culturally. We’re about to welcome Upfest, Europe’s biggest festival of street art (see page 5).

We have the Winter Lanterns parade, a popular and defiantly local event (that still needs your money to survive – see page 19) We have the Tobacco Factory, Bristol’s best butcher (Rare) the city’s first no-packaging shop (Zero Green), and a vegan junk food shop (VX). New ideas are

THE VOICE has started the We’re Backing Bedminster campaign in conjunction with the Town Team, which speaks up for traders and funds improvements.

Town Team manager George Grace is in no doubt about the challenge facing Bedminster and all town centres: “Amazon isn’t going away. we have to do something.” But with the prospect of more than 1,000 new homes in

Bedminster Green, and hundreds more nearby, he believes there is hope. Hope that new residents will bring new prosperity to East Street.

And hope of £6 million levied from developers to fund improvements.

• Members of the Town Team are attempting to resurrect the Business Improvement District (BID) in the autumn. Asda voted down the BID this spring, putting funds for things like the Lantern Parade and Upfest in jeopardy. A new vote will be held, excluding Asda.

coming all the time – from the new art gallery, North, in the former car spares shop in North Street, to the planned Nursery Village in the old Denny’s Bakery.

There are lots of traditional traders too, from Lion the hardware store to George’s famous café. And the sense of community is second to none – a relatively new group, Action

Greater Bedminster, seeking to draw up an action plan for the whole community.

There’s also BS3 Helping Others, another great homegrown idea which matches people with spare time to those who need help.

There’s a BS3 Repair Café for those who need stuff fixed. We could go on.

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WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT WE’RE BACKING BEDMINSTER “I’m proud to Back Bedminster, and have met with many of the fantastic small businesses. Each year, we support Small Business Saturday with the Federation of Small Business, recently with businesses along East Street. Our independent traders in Bedminster have it all. With great variety and a friendly welcome, they are a really important part of our community.

We should all support them where we can.” Karin Smyth, Labour MP, Bristol South

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“I would support this” Cllr Charlie Bolton, Green, Southville “The face of retail is changing dramatically and threatens Broadmead and Cabot Circus, us on and we really value our local independent traders” Cllr Celia Phipps, Labour, Bedminster “I’m very supportive – I’d welcome a more inclusive future” Cllr Mark Bradshaw, Labour, Bedminster • MORE BACKING BEDMINSTER: Pages 19-22 • UPFEST INTERVIEW: Page 5

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250 North Street, Southville, Bristol BS3 1JD Tel: 0117 966 3593

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

July 2018

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n NEWS Apology after graves are left overgrown THE CITY council has apologised after graves at South Bristol crematorium and cemetery were left untended and overgrown.

Distressed relatives took to social media to protest after they found graves festooned with weeds and brambles in early June.

A Bristol city council spokesperson said: “We apologise – we understand this could be distressing to people coming to visit their loved ones.”

Freezing temperatures in February stopped ground staff applying herbicide to suppress weeds, the spokesperson said.

Then a warm, wet spring brought sudden growth, just as staff were struggling to cope with demand for graves.

“The area has now been tidied and we will do everything we can to make sure this does not happen again,” the council said.

Police hunt mugger after elderly women robbed POLICE are investigating reports that a man in his 20s attacked three South Bristol women, two of them pensioners, for jewellery.

A woman in her 70s was confronted by a man, described as black, wearing dark clothing and in his mid 20s at about 12.40pm on Monday June 11 in Baynton Road, a cul-de-sac off

Ashton Road, opposite Greville Smyth Park. He tried to tear several gold chains from her neck before riding off on a bicycle.

At about 3pm a similar man tore a gold necklace from the neck of a woman in her 80s at about 2.30pm in an alley between Beckington Road and Wingfield Road in Lower Knowle.

The elderly woman is reported to have been bruised and shaken. At 3.30pm in Somerset Street, Redcliffe, a woman in her 30s was robbed of a gold necklace.

Police made house-to-house inquiries and are reviewing CCTV. Anyone with information can call 101 and quote 5218128054.

‘Google spy kiosks’ rejected by council as ‘alien, intrusive’ CONTROVERSIAL applications to install new hi-tech phone booths in Bedminster, Knowle and elsewhere have been rejected by the city council.

Planners have thrown out 25 planning applications for InLink phone and wifi units, which use Google technology. The units,

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which would each have two digital advertising screens, would be “alien, prominent and intrusive,” planning officials said.

The InLinks would provide free phone calls and internet connections. But they contain CCTV cameras and have been attacked as “Google spy kiosks”.

The public made dozens of objections to the kiosks in Wells Road, Knowle, outside Asda in Bedminster, and elsewhere.

Nicola Round from campaigning group Adblock Bristol said: “The InLink units were swept through in London despite a lack of clarity around

Free phone and wifi not enough to sway planners how the technology will be used, but Bristol has recognised the problems and is taking a stand.”

She fears the applicants may try another tack – claiming the InLinks are essential telecoms equipment, which would be subject to less scrutiny.

AdBlock is also campaigning against large digital advertising screens in the city centre. adblockbristol.org.uk

A maze appeal

Bike day for all

SEE HOW the Malago Greenway Berry Maze is growing, and lend a hand at the same time, when volunteers meet on June 30 from 10am-1pm, off Marksbury Road.

Facebook: TheBerryMaze2017

BRISTOL Family Cycling Centre in Bamfield, Hengrove hosts a Festival of Inclusive Cycling on August 1. It’s from 1.30-5pm,with special cycles for all abilities. betterbybike.info

July 2018

southbristolvoice

n NEWS

5

Headline act at street art’s biggest gathering EXCLUSIVE HE REGARDS Upfest as being the spirit of Bristol – and now Knowle-based Jody has been given the privilege of being the headline festival artist in the event’s 10th anniversary year.

It’s hardly a surprise to those who have followed him: Jody Thomas is one of those who inspired Banksy. He is one of the most distinctive artists to be found at Upfest, the biggest street art festival in Europe. Though he paints with a spray can, he’s also a fine artist, exhibiting and creating live painting all over the world (he’s soon off to Singapore).

Jody’s photo-realist style, most often portraits of strikinglooking women with a distinctive, almost metallic sheen, has created some of the most memorable images to adorn the walls around North Street, where Upfest has always been centred.

In fact, his fans will have longer to appreciate last year’s work Reverie (right); the owners of the house in The Nursery,

UPFEST FACTS • Upfest is from July 28-30 at venues and walls all over BS3, from Ashton Gate stadium to East Street and beyond.

• Upfest was founded in 2008 by Steve Hayles with about a dozen artists, including Jody, at the back of the Tobacco Factory.

• It’s now Europe’s biggest

Bedminster, like it so much they don’t want it painted over.

That’s caused a small headache for festival founder and organiser Steve Hayles, who counts on reusing BS3’s best wall spaces year after year.

But it’s clear to Jody that the picture has struck a chord: more or less every day, he says, someone tags him on Instagram to say something about Reverie.

The answer is, just behind the TinCan coffee shop on North Street, a site only just secured after another North Street landlord refused Upfest permission to paint. Oh, and Jody had to rethink his subject after a French fashion photographer rebuffed a request to use a picture as inspiration.

“I don’t like to just steal someone’s work, I would rather collaborate,” he says.

No matter; he’s got another idea, inspired by a model he’s worked with. In fact there will be a series of paintings, reaching possibly to Temple Meads and street art festival, with 30,000 visitors and 400 artists.

• Founder Steve Hayles and partner Emma run it with the help of 50 volunteers.

• Upfest supports Nacoa – a charity helping the families of alcoholics.

• The biggest names back Upfest – from Mr Men to Aardman to, this year, the Simpsons.

Meet Jody, the artist with a spray can, not a brush Jody, left, with Reverie, his 2017 work for Upfest – so loved that it’s not being removed Anchor Road. You’ll have to wait to see, but it involves the festival theme of a hand; and a lot of gold.

The colour will contribute to his trademark sheen – “a sheen of luxury, I guess!” he says.

“Someone recently called me the Christian Dior of street art. I certainly wouldn’t compare myself to him, but I thought, that’s a wonderful compliment.

My work has always had a kind of fashion edge to it.”

He’s devoted to Upfest and very honoured to be the Festival Artist in its 10th year. “It started very humbly, in the back garden of the Tobacco Factory with about 12 artists,” he says.

“It’s very much grown organically and it’s a microcosm

of Bristol culture, run by local people, funded by local people.”

Jody credits Upfest with lifting the reputation of street art in the UK almost single-handedly: “It’s an enormously big deal.

“I was painting the side of the Hen and Chicken one year. I got there early and the street was empty. I looked down at midday and it was like Sao Paolo carnival, with hundreds of people dancing.

“It brings in so much custom to local businesses – for some, it’s their Christmas.

“It’s like Wimbledon and Glastonbury – it always rains, it’s a bit of a problem to manage!”

• To read more about Jody and his roots in Bristol’s graffiti scene, go to the Voice website.

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

July 2018

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6

n BRIEFLY Libraries saved MARKSBURY Road library is one of 17 libraries saved from closure until at least 202o. Mayor Marvin Rees said reserves had been used to help plug a £1.4 million gap in the library budget and promised new plans soon to invest in libraries. Bedminster library was one of only 10 not to be threatened in the cuts plan.

Speed review THE PUBLIC’S views are invited on the 20mph limits across much of Bristol. A UWE survey earlier this year said the 20mph zones, which began in 2014, have saved four lives and prevented almost 200 injuries. Southville Green Cllr Charlie Bolton has suggested a new limit of 15mph is debated. bristol.gov.uk/20mphreview

Gulls on patrol BUSINESSES around the dockside are being invited to host a woolly seagull. Bedminster crafter Vicky Harrison, who organised the famous Briswool diorama, has other projects for volunteers too, including an embroidered Birdgarden to be hung at Bristol Museum in July.

Facebook: craftingthecity

Safe at last CHILDREN at Holy Cross primary school in Dean Lane took to the streets in hi-vis clothing on June 25 to highlight road safety issues to the community. The school is on a dangerous double blind bend. But hazards are reduced now that a parking bay outside the entrance has been removed and yellow zig zags made legally enforceable after a two-year wait.

n NEWS £10 WINNER

A Peppered Moth and Buff Ermine

Moths are this month’s winner SOMETIMES the bigger creatures get all the attention – but with butterflies and insects in general decline, it’s good to see some sightings in South Bristol.

Reader Duncan McLaughlin has recorded around 25 species

since he set up a moth trap in his garden in Southville Place.

He’s the winner of this month’s £10 wildlife photo prize – if you have a picture of wildlife in BS3, email it to paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk.

Is a multi-storey car park set to go next to Ashton Gate?

Maybe – Bristol Sport isn’t giving any details yet MYSTERY surrounds the a possible multi-storey car park for sports fans at Ashton Gate.

The owner of the stadium suddenly revealed the possibility of a new car park next to the City FC ground in a newsletter delivered to thousands of residents in South Bristol.

But it doesn’t appear to have consulted councillors or residents about the plan.

In the newsletter, Martin Griffiths, chairman of Ashton Gate Ltd, said a multi-storey car park could help combat congestion on nearby roads.

Parking problems appear to be getting worse, even with extra yellow lines and police enforcement. First Bus are halting the 24 route at Sainsbury’s on some match days, while the fire service is worried about access for emergency vehicles.

Mr Griffiths wrote in the newsletter that public transport

The Wickes store

PHOTO: Google

to the stadium isn’t an option for many rural fans. “A new multi-storey car park at Ashton Gate would help congestion on surrounding streets significantly,” he added. It’s not clear where a car park would go – though rumours suggest it could take the place of the Wickes DIY store, next to the stadium.

Cllr Mark Bradshaw, a Labour member for Bedminster, said he had no idea about the car park plan until he saw the newsletter.

“We have to have a better way of working rather than just reading about stuff in a leaflet which has no context,” he said.

“If it’s too big, it’s going to be an even bigger magnet for traffic.

They are not cheap to build – are you gong to have to operate it for much of the year to make it pay?”

The stadium told the Voice it wouldn’t have any more details of the plan for a couple of months.

But it hopes to reveal soon the results of its survey of residents’ opinions on travel policy, which ended in February.

Mr Griffiths said the stadium has done a lot to ease pressure on residents – directing fans to offsite parking spaces, laying on new bus routes and helping pay for minor road improvements.

He wants to see Long Ashton Park & Ride opened to fans, and a new railway station at Ashton Gate. But legal problems still mire the Park & Ride, and a new station is many years away.

The stadium is reluctant to fund a residents’ parking scheme – though it will have to do so once City tops a gate of 25,000 in three successive games.

Cllr Bradshaw said: “As the ward councillors we are very supportive of the club. I have a season ticket for rugby, I think [the expanded stadium] is a good thing, we want to see them fly.”

But, he said, the stadium needs to communicate better with residents. One simple move would be for residents to get a leaflet telling them when home games take place.

ASK A VET: What should I think about before I take my dog to the beach?

A

DAY at the beach is a great opportunity to have some fun with your dog and thankfully there are plenty of dog-friendly beaches in the South West for us all to enjoy. Plan your perfect day out with these top tips.

Beach Restrictions Sometimes, during the summer, popular locations do not allow dogs; however there are usually areas cordoned off for dogs or nearby dog-friendly beaches. Check online or visit thebeachguide.co. uk/dog-friendly for some ideas.

Swimming Dogs are usually a lot more willing to brave the chilly British waters than us, but make sure the sea is safe for your dog to swim. Tides and currents can be very strong and, although dogs instinctively know to paddle, you may discover that they are not an expert swimmer! Remember to rinse sea water from your dog, as salt may irritate their skin when dry.

Keep them safe Be sure to provide them with plenty of shade and fresh water

throughout the day. It may also be worth bringing toys to distract them from picking up beach debris or seaweed that could be toxic.

Pick it up Don’t ruin it for other owners and make sure you pick up after your dog. If it is a dog-friendly beach, there will probably be plenty of bins around. If you don’t abide by the rules, then it may influence a future decision to no longer allow dogs on that beach.

If you would like any more information about looking after

July 2018

southbristolvoice in Bristol The Best UK Stand Up Comedy

n NEWS

Windmill Hill residents fear impact of road closures RESIDENTS of Windmill Hill are waiting anxiously to see the effect of work on cycle lanes which could close several roads.

The junction where Windmill Hill meets Fraser Street and Cotswold Road North may close for three weeks in June or July, highways officers warned. Access will be from the other side of the hill, on Paultow Road or Hill

Avenue. Neighbours are worried a plan to narrow Windmill Hill, about access for emergency and install a speed table. vehicles on the narrow since streets. 1994 The work could take nine Operating The Malago Greenway cycle weeks but the closures should way will be widened where it last no more than three weeks. meets Cotswold Road, and it will Pavements – and access to continue onto Fraser Street.

Bedminster station – will remain Five parking spaces will be open, the council said. removed in Fraser Street. But a plan to make the road one-way has Right: The planned changes, been dropped. Also abandoned is looking towards Fraser Street

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July 2018

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n NEWS

METROBUS

Who will be the champion for Metrobus METROBUS needs a champion to sing its praises and guide it forward, a meeting probing the much-delayed rapid transit bus network has been told.

A special June 6 scrutiny meeting of the West of England Combined Authority, or Weca, heard that work on the £230 million network was run by a joint committee of three local councils – Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

News of further delays dribbled out this spring – including the admission that buses do not fit the guide rails of the 3km guided busway from Ashton Vale to Cumberland Basin. This problem will take £200,000 and several more weeks to fix – way beyond the promised opening date of Easter.

There were several calls at the June 6 meeting for a single political leader to grasp the nettle and take leadership of Metrobus, helping smooth the opening of

OFF THE RAILS? OR ALMOST ON TIME?

W

HY the long delays to Metrobus starting?

Officials would argue their record is actually pretty good, considering the challenges of such a huge project built around a motorway (the M32) and across rivers, requiring several bridges and a complex flyover at Winterstoke Road.

The overspend, too, may not be

the first three routes and pave the way for several more routes expected in the future.

But so far no leader has emerged – and Tim Bowles, the man many people think is the obvious candidate, as the metro mayor responsible for transport networks across the West, was not at the meeting.

Metrobus has only just opened its first route, the M3

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so bad – £30m over at £230m is a far better record than Edinburgh’s tram project, whose cost is put at £1bn, double its £545m budget.

Nor are the delays perhaps too bad compared to other projects: the Sheffield tram-train link to Rotherham is three years late.

Bristol’s Metrobus has been attacked as too costly and in the wrong place. Both mayor Marvin Rees and his predecessor George Ferguson criticised the routes, but were unable to change them, as

the project had already won government funding.

But it is the lack of explanation for delays which has earned criticism this year.

The Ashton Vale to Temple Meads route, along the 3km guided busway, was to be the first route, set to open last autumn, then at New Year, and then in the spring of 2018.

Rumours started that the buses were too tall for the rebuilt Ashton Avenue bridge over the New Cut,

from Emersons Green to the city centre, after promising to begin services last autumn.

It has suffered not only from delays but from a lack of communication, with even councillors and Bristol South MP Karin Smyth complaining they did not know what was happening.

The two routes serving South Bristol will not start for months – the M1 from Hengrove to

Cribbs Causeway in the autumn, and the M2 from Ashton Vale to Temple Meads in January.

And there is no sign of a route on the new South Bristol Link road from Hengrove to Long Ashton. This was touted as one of the major benefits ever since Metrobus was proposed almost 10 years ago. But the route is not seen as profitable by bus firms.

However, the M3 is already

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July 2018

n NEWS

southbristolvoice

9

METROBUS

and get it working properly?

or that the corners were too tight on the elevated busway over Winterstoke Road.

These were denied, and, in

February, the Voice was told that installing the iPoint bus stop terminals was the major job still to be done. But the Ashton Vale route was still on track for “the spring”.

Within weeks, new facts emerged. The M2 Ashton Vale route would not be the first to open, though it was not revealed why.

The M3 Emersons Green route would open first – on May 29.

The M1 Hengrove-Cribbs Causeway route, first scheduled for the summer, would take until the

New Year. In a surprise move, the contract was handed to Bristol Community Transport – who said they had to order ultra-clean biofuel buses first, and install gas fuelling equipment at their depot in Parson Street, Bedminster. It’s now expected to open in January.

The Ashton Vale route needs £200,000 of work to adapt the bus guide rails, it emerged on June 6.

It’s now scheduled to open in the autumn. Some buses need work to align their wheels to the rails.

proving popular and more than 25,000 people took advantage of a two-week free trial.

Meanwhile, a host of improvements, including changes to the city centre, plus new bus lanes and bridges, have sliced minutes off journey times for all road users, claimed Peter Mann, director of transport at Bristol city council.

The South Bristol Link is taking traffic off Hartcliffe Way and other less suitable roads, said Mr Mann.

Steve Clarke, Green councillor for Southville, who chairs the Weca scrutiny committee, said he called the June 6 meeting to find out more about the delays.

“At a Weca meeting at the end of January I asked when Metrobus was going to open from Ashton

Vale to Temple Meads, and I was told ‘in the spring’,” he said.

“Clearly that was mad – it was never going to start then, however you defined ‘the spring’.

And that made me think we need to dig into this, because no one else is doing it. Whose fault that is I don’t know.”

But asked by the Voice who he thought should be the champion for Metrobus, he said: “Tim Bowles is the obvious person to do it – I think he should pick up the nettle.”

Labour’s Bristol South MP Karin Smyth went further. She said in April that Mr Bowles should be fighting to restore the South Bristol Link route, not shrugging off responsibility.

“Instead of looking for creative ways to drive the project

forward, he is scrambling around for reasons not to. It beggars belief,” she said.

Mr Bowles has said the current Metrobus routes are being delivered by the three local councils, not Weca– he is only involved in planning new ones.

In a statement to the Voice, Mr Bowles said: “It’s brilliant to see MetroBus on the roads of the region and I’m delighted with the positive comments I’ve heard from passengers. At the most recent meeting of the joint committee, we all spoke about the benefits of MetroBus, which offers direct routes designed to get people around the region quicker. We must all champion the benefits of MetroBus.” The Voice will interview Mr Bowles for a future issue.

Metrobus: New facts emerge

THE MISSING LINK

CONFUSED? YOU WILL BE

HE SOUTH Bristol Link road was always a major part of the Metrobus network, listed as one of the three routes.

The other two routes were from Ashton Vale to Temple Meads – now known as M2 – and the ‘North Fringe’ route, from Hengrove through the city centre to Cribbs Causeway and Emersons Green. This route has now been split into two, the M1 (to Cribbs) and the M3 (to Emersons Green).

As recently as January 2015, transport minister Baroness Kramer unveiled a £27m grant for the South Bristol Link, which she referred to as “a combined new road and rapid transit link”.

It only emerged this year that the South Bristol Link is no longer on the Metrobus network. The change was not announced, but was obvious because the Link road was left off the Metrobus map.

Bristol South MP Karin Smyth

VEN some councillors don’t understand how decisions are taken on Metrobus.

Plans for the current network were laid in 2009-2010, led by a joint transport committee of three councils – Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

But some decisions were taken by each council locally.

In May 2016, Conservative Tim Bowles was elected as metro mayor – head of the new West of England Combined Authority (Weca). Weca is planning several new Metrobus routes, including one along Bath Road. Mr Bowles does not to want to get involved in current Metrobus routes.

Yet since Weca began, the joint transport committee of the three local councils hasn’t met. Some say this led to an information vacuum.

Into this void has stepped Mr Bowles’ own scrutiny committee, chaired by Cllr Stephen Clarke.

T

E South Bristol Link: No Metrobus was furious, seeing the Link as vital to enable people from the most deprived parts of South Bristol to reach jobs, education and leisure opportunities.

She said Bristol city council was looking at ways to try to subsidise the route, but metro mayor Tim Bowles had done nothing.

The route may become viable to bus firms when hundreds of new houses are built in Hengrove – but that will take years.

Cllr Tim Kent, Lib Dem member for Whitchurch, has said 2011 plans show it was always intended that the Link route would need subsidy.

Lunar landing will light up Ashton school

Stunning: Museum of the Moon THE MOON will descend on Ashton Park school in a showing of a spectacular artwork by a world-famous South Bristol artist.

The Museum of the Moon is a seven-metre illuminated globe made from detailed NASA images of the moon’s surface. It has been shown around the world and was created by Luke Jerram, whose studio is at Paintworks in Totterdown (he was interviewed in the Voice last year).

Luke is also known for the giant waterslide he installed down Park Street and his installation, Play Me I’m Yours, of 20 street pianos placed across the city for everyone to play.

The moon will be on show at Ashton Park school from July 5-8. Tickets to view it will be sold to raise money to improve sound and lighting facilities for performing arts in the school. moon.ashtonpark.net

Memory magic THE MEMORIES Of Bedminster group meets on Mondays at 1.30pm in South Bristol Christian Centre, Churchlands Road. On July 2 the topic is Ballooning in Bristol by John Penny.

On July 9 it’s Old Bristol Photos, while the July 16 talk is yet to be confirmed. On July 23 Andy and Sue Green talk about a trip to the Galapagos Islands, and July 30 is an End of Term party.

The group’s new magazine, Remember Be’minster No 67, is due for publication in July.

Contact Lew Pedler, editor, to obtain a copy on 07305 157750.

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

July 2018

southbristolvoice

10

n NEWS Calls for action on risky South Liberty bridge COUNCILLORS and MP Karin Smyth want the council to do more to protect pedestrians on South Liberty lane as HGVs continue to use the narrow railway bridge and exit on Winterstoke Road.

The opening of a new spur road to the South Bristol Link in May last year was meant to solve the problem, but lorries are still using the bridge.

Freightliner, the biggest HGV firm, says its lorries can’t get to the Link road for parked cars.

There should be more yellow lines, and more enforcement, said Cllr Mark Bradshaw. “This is about helping jobs and investment, but to better balance this with the needs of residents,” he said.

Ms Smyth is consulting residents about whether they would back a weight limit on the bridge – forcing HGVs to use the

ARENA REPORTS ARRIVE

July 2018

southbristolvoice

n NEWS

11

ARENA REPORTS ARRIVE

Fury in South Bristol as arena

at Temple Meads recedes from view

KPMG says Temple Meads arena costs have shot up, and more jobs and benefits will come from using site for homes, a hotel and conference centre

‘Where we needed vision, bold thinking and a willingness to invest boldly, we were instead presented with management speak of the worst order. Moreover, there was an unsettling reliance on intelligence from a private developer, alongside an overarching feeling that the reports simply said what they’d been asked to. The reports pose more questions than they answer ... to avoid assessing crucial issues.’

Karin Smyth MP

‘This does not actually move the arena to the Brabazon hangars – what it does, and what it’s designed to do, is to kill the arena at Temple Meads. What’s not in there is any meaningful assurance that an arena will be built at all. I think a lot of it is down to over-ambitious design and a failure to get to grips with that. The costs are massively higher than comparable schemes elsewhere – why is that?’

(Lib Dem, Knowle)

From the scrutiny meetings held on June 18 and 19 • Arena Island Ltd, the firm which woud build the city centre arena, says it offered the council £55m to cover cost overruns – but was turned down; • YTL wants the council to axe its plan for Arena Island before it will draw up plans for a Filton arena – but will not guarantee it will go ahead even then; • The KPMG reports cost £100,000; • Councillors called the two rival schemes ‘like comparing apples and pears’ because the Filton plan is so sketchy, while the Temple Meads one is far advanced; • Mayor Marvin Rees is expected to make his view known on June 25, ahead of cabinet on July 3.

stage … for detailed due diligence”. Others fear that YTL will want hundreds of millions spent on transport around Filton, and question what guarantee there is that the firm will actually build an arena.

Cllr Gary Hopkins, deputy leader of the Lib Dems in Bristol and a member for Knowle, told the Voice that he believed the reports were intended to quash hopes of a Temple Meads arena.

Cllr Hopkins said: “This does not actually move the arena to the Brabazon hangars – what it does, and what it’s designed to do, is to kill the arena at Temple Meads.

“What’s not in there is any meaningful assurance that an arena will be built at all.”

Earlier this year campaigners

for keeping the arena in the city gathered thousands of signatures, forced a council debate and saw councillors vote in favour of the idea (though it was only an advisory vote).

Among Labour members voting for the Arena Island option were Windmill Hill councilors Lucy Whittle and Jon Wellington.

Fans of the city centre site say it is not only close to rail, bus and Metrobus links, it will also bring a tide of business from arena-goers to restaurants and hotels.

In contrast, the Filton site is on the very edge of Bristol, and many businesses to benefit will be in South Gloucestershire.

KPMG said “The strategic benefits of the Temple Island arena would transfer to Filton.

There would be some leakage of economic benefit outside of Bristol, but retained in the West of England area.”

Mayor Marvin Rees will not take a decision until a cabinet meeting on July 3, after what can be expected to be two lively scrutiny meetings on June 18 and 20, after the Voice went to press.

However, he has for months appeared to be veering towards the Filton option. At a public meeting in Windmill Hill in February, he spoke of the chance for a five-star hotel and conference centre at Temple Meads.

On investment-hunting trips to China and to Cannes, he appears not to have touted the offer of a Temple Meads arena.

Bristol South MP Karin Smyth was scathing about the reports.

THE LONG-awaited consultants’ reports into a Bristol arena are designed to kill off the idea of siting an arena at Temple Meads, claims a prominent councillor.

A clutch of reports by consultants KPMG, released on June 11, concluded that a 12,000-seat arena next to Temple Meads station would be one of the most expensive venues of its type per square metre in the

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country. Costs of a Temple Meads arena have rocketed, from £123.5 million to £188.6m, an increase of almost 53 per cent.

Since it was last assessed in 2016, the building cost has jumped to £156.3m, with extra bills of £16.2m for car parking and £16.1m for land and interest.

An alternative arena site at Filton, built by Malaysian-owned firm YTL, would have a “bigger economic and employment impact”, said KPMG. It would also not cost the council anything, assuming a £53m grant from the Local Enterprise Partnership could be transferred to Filton to help pay for transport improvements.

However, KPMG cautioned that projections provided by YTL “are not at a sufficiently advanced

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Cllr Gary Hopkins

STOP PRESS

TEMPLE MEADS

FILTON

12,000-seat venue on Arena Island, funded by council and grants KMPG says ...

• Arena would cost £188m, up 53 per cent on 2016 estimate; • It would be “one of the most expensive arenas in the UK in terms of cost per square metre”; • It could create an extra £387.1m in economic benefits and up to 660 jobs; • Alternative uses for Arena Island could be homes, a conference centre and hotel; • The alternative uses could create an extra £875.3m in economic benefits and up to 2,026 jobs.

16,000-seat venue in Brabazon hangars; YTL says cost is £80m KMPG says ...

• Arena would not need public funding, if a £53m grant could be used for transport works; • “Significant risk remains as to the commercial and technical deliverability because of the early stage of development”; • “Economic and employment impact of Filton arena will exceed that of Temple Island”; • But “there would be some leakage of economic benefit outside of Bristol”, and the figures for Filton are “not ready for advanced due diligence”.

‘In an ideal world, there is no doubt a city centre location would be best, but we are not in an ideal world.’

Simon Peacock, property consultant ‘Marvin and the other politicians making decisions talk a lot about helping disadvantaged areas; well South Bristol needs some help right now. Build the arena at Temple Meads and get Metrobus fully opened!’

Cllr Stephen Clarke (Green, Southville)

In what will be seen as a veiled swipe at Mr Rees, she said local people need “a signal from those running the city that they are not forgotten.”

In her Voice column, she writes: “Where we needed vision, bold thinking and a willingness to invest boldly, we were instead presented with management speak of the worst order.

“Moreover, there was an unsettling reliance on intelligence from a private developer, alongside an overarching feeling that the reports simply said what they’d been asked to.” She continued: “It is an accepted fact that South Bristol needs investment, jobs and improved infrastructure. I would also contend that residents need a signal from those running

the city that they are not forgotten. Instead, we are now looking at a process which has not only failed to deliver in every regard, but actually cost millions of tax payers’ money to achieve precisely nothing. ” Former mayor George Ferguson called the idea of a Filton arena “a betrayal of the people of Bristol” and said he wished he had signed the contract to start construction at Temple Meads before he left office in May 2016.

Cllr Hopkins, however, blamed Mr Ferguson for an “over-ambitious design” which allowed costs to spiral. He also pointed to a flow of key staff from Bristol city council to YTL. “I think that Bristol city council is not in a position where it can make an objective judgement because all the experts it was relying on before are now working for YTL,” he said.

Others were more cautious.

Simon Peacock, Bristol regional director for property consultancy JLL, told bristol-business.net: “In an ideal world, there is no doubt a city centre location would be best, but we are not in an ideal world. If the YTL site at Filton is the only way to get the thing built, because of the level of public investment required for the Temple Quay site – money the council simply does not have – then we must press ahead.”

KPMG was until 2017 auditor for YTL – though it has now given up the role. The reports: tinyurl.com/bristolarenareports • Your councillors: pages 32-33 • Your MP: page 46

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

July 2018

southbristolvoice

12

n NEWS

BEDMINSTER GREEN

Rollo struggles to convince on height and parking fears DEVELOPER Rollo Homes met residents of Windmill Hill in an attempt to reassure them over its planning application for 215 flats on Malago Road.

Architect David Rhodes and planning expert Kit Stokes tried to convince members of WHaM, the Windmill Hill planning group, that the proposed blocks of up to nine storeys on the old Pring & St Hill steelworks are needed to provide the homes Bristol is so desperate for.

But they struggled to convince the audience, many of whom couldn’t understand why there are more homes per hectare in the Wapping Wharf development – which is no more than six storeys high.

It’s because the rules on how you work out housing density are complex, said Mr Rhodes.

Wapping Wharf has little outside space and small flats, while the Rollo homes will each have an average of 23.5 sq m of outside space – most have a balcony.

It’s simply not true, though, that the development would overshadow the historic St John’s churchyard, the Rollo team said, in response to a question.

Won’t the courtyards between the Rollo buildings be in constant shadow, asked a resident? “I don’t see why anyone would want to use them, you will have great high buildings either side,” he said.

No, said Mr Rhodes, the courtyards are south-west facing

and will catch the evening sun.

Garden areas are two storeys up, above the car park, so there are only four or five storeys above them, said Mr Rhodes.

He also denied there would be any risk from emissions from the site’s energy centre. The flue will not protrude above the eightstorey building at the end of the site nearest Sheene Road.

The gas-fired power plant will produce hot water, heat and some electricity for the 215 Rollo homes, not the whole Bedminster Green area, and the building will contain 32 affordable homes.

Other attendees objected to the fact that only half the homes,

TOWER PLANS SUBMITTED SOON

D

ANDARA, the Isle of Man-based developer, expects to apply for planning permission this summer to build 340 flats between Stafford Street and Little Paradise, in blocks of up to 18 storeys.

The firm specialises in building and then renting out its flats, said director Ed Tynan. “So it’s in our interests to have something with a high quality design,” he told a meeting of Bedminster Town Team, which represents traders.

Members of the Town Team appeared largely happy with the plans – though residents groups such as WHaM object strongly.

Roof gardens: The Malago Road flats would mostly have balconies 90 or so, will have parking spaces.

But the council will simply not allow any more parking in an area so close to rail, bus and future Metrobus links, Rollo said.

The Rollo team also struggled to win over the 50-strong audience to the height of the blocks. “ I think you have realised that there’s a huge amount of unhappiness and concern about Traders are hoping hundreds of new homes will bring new customers to revive East Street.

Dandara want to see a framework plan, which includes the Green’s other three developers, released within weeks to help end public uncertainty, the meeting was told.

George Grace, manager of the Town Team, pleaded for the developments to be designed to connect easily with East Street.

Like the Rollo scheme (above) it will have parking for about half the flats – the council won’t allow more, said Dandara.

But this will lead to people parking elsewhere, said one trader: “People won’t give up their car because the council wants them to.”

this, and you can take that away and address it – and get those heights down!” said Nick Townsend, WHaM chair.

Rumours are circulating that the council may want to widen Malago Road to 24m to allow Metrobus lanes either side – cutting in to the land available for developers all around the Green. The Rollo team made it clear they would resist such a move.

After the event, a spokesman for Bedminster-based Rollo said: “We’ve made significant changes based on feedback, including reducing the height from 11 to six, seven and nine storeys to help protect the long distance views for people from Windmill Hill.

“We’ve reduced the density so it is in line with Wapping Wharf; we’ve increased the level of outdoor space; we’ve pulled the scheme back to allow for the future provision of bus lanes along Malago Road, pushed it forward where it fronts the Malago river, and have been working closely with the other Bedminster Green developers to ensure that the area becomes a vibrant new neighbourhood.”

Talking up: Mike Kendall told Emma how he has managed his Type 1 diabetes for 28 years

For Southville resident Mike Kendall, 49, talking is been one of the things that has helped him most over 28 years of living with Type 1 diabetes.

“I have been blogging about my experience of diabetes for years, and that was an enormous benefit for me,” he told Emma, in a recording for her breakfast show that was broadcast later in the week.

“The idea of reaching out for

help is a little bit too much for many men,” he said. The internet can be a scary place where some people want to sell you snake oil, he said, but when you visit a pharmacy you know you are getting scientifically-based advice from a trained professional.

Pensioner Reg Higgs gave Emma a different perspective – he looks after his brother and his sister, both diabetics.

• More on the Voice website

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southbristolvoice

n NEWS Survey shows overwhelming rejection of high rise blocks to solve housing crisis

BBC’s Emma Britton persuades men to open up GETTING men to talk about their health has never been easy – but Emma Britton from BBC Radio Bristol persuaded two South Bristol men to open up about their experience of living with diabetes.

Emma’s willing volunteers were found by Bedminster Pharmacy, which encouraged men to ask questions about their health problems during Men’s Health Week from June 11-17.

July 2018

THE ATTITUDE of Bristol city council towards tall buildings has been thrown into confusion following consultation which found skyscrapers are opposed by a large majority of residents who responded.

About 600 people sent in comments on the council’s Urban Living document, even though the consultation was not widely publicised and lasted only eight weeks, from February to April.

More than 70 per cent were against the idea that Bristol should “extensively promote high rise tower blocks to meet its housing need”.

A similar number, 68 per cent, favoured providing homes mainly in low- and mid-rise developments like Wapping Wharf near the harbourside, and Paintworks on Bath Road.

An even bigger proportion, 82 per cent, strongly disagreed with allowing buildings that are significantly higher than those around them.

And 75 per cent agreed that new buildings should reflect the prevailing height nearby.

The results of the Urban Living survey were revealed by senior planning officials on June 13 to members of interest groups including WHaM – the Windmill Hill community planning group which opposes high-rises – and the newly-formed Bristol Campaign Against Tower Blocks.

“We all left feeling that there was quite a lot of good news.

They cannot ignore the depth of feeling when they get this feedback,” said Nick Townsend, chair of WHaM. “We are not complacent at all but it encourages us. If they look at this consultation they cannot possibly go ahead with tall buildings,” he told the Voice.

A council spokesperson was at pains to point out that Urban Living is a consultation about how to provide high-density housing, not just about high-rises.

Yet the planners’ presentation on June 13 seems to be sympathetic to objections about tall buildings. It quotes architect Lloyd Alter talking about what he

13

TALL BUILDINGS

The people reject tall buildings – so what IS council policy going to be?

NOT QUITE ON THE SAME PAGE ...

Mayor Marvin Rees, left, favours tall buildings. Yet the council’s Urban Living document mainly features mid-rise developments, such as Paintworks, right “I want Bristol’s skyline to grow.

Years of low level buildings and a reluctance to build up in an already congested city….. is something I am keen to change.”

Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees, introduction to Urban Living planning document, February 2018 calls the Goldilocks density, an ideal for inner-city housing, where: “sun can penetrate to street level ...where one can sit without being blown away, as often happens around towers.”

It also quotes Labour politician Nye Bevan, talking about the post-war need for mass housing: “We shall be judged for a year or two by the number of houses we build. We shall be judged in 10 years’ time by the type of houses we build.”

The planners told their audience they had been sent “numerous arguments against tall buildings.” Many of the comments referred to Bedminster Green – and were very anti-skyscraper (see panel, top right).

There was support for high rises from the developers: “Some parts of the property industry are supportive of tall buildings and felt the document should go further,” read the planners’ brief.

Matthew Montagu-Pollock, founder of Bristol Campaign Against Tower Blocks, called the meeting an “unvarnished

“There is what I have called the Goldilocks density: dense enough to support vibrant main streets with retail and services for local needs, but not too high that people can’t take the stairs in a pinch.” Toronto-based architect Lloyd Alter, 2014 presentation of Bristol’s rejection of tall buildings, complete with bar charts.”

He added: “The planners know, and the vast majority of the planning community agrees with them, that building tall is more expensive, bad for residents, destructive of communities, bad for cities, and especially inappropriate for historic cities

FEEDBACK TO THE COUNCIL ON BEDMINSTER GREEN • Very high density (350 dwellings per hectare) is too much for Bedminster – from a community and environmental perspective.

• Needs supportive infrastructure, such as schools and doctors’ surgeries.

• Very tall buildings aren’t the only solution to increasing housing stock and are inappropriate for Bedminster.

• Homes shouldn’t come at the expense of employment space.

• Bedminster has a unique and historic character.

• Bedminster is an urban area, not an inner‐city area.

• Bedminster should have a joined‐up overall plan (a master‐ plan) that is developed with the community. like Bristol.” It’s not clear whether these views are shared by mayor Marvin Rees or his cabinet.

Cllr Nicola Beech, cabinet member for city design, was billed to address the meeting but did not attend because of illness.

Mr Rees has gone out of his way to back the idea of tall buildings. His introduction to the Urban Living document begins “I want Bristol’s skyline to grow,” (see panel, above left).

The council said the feedback will be refined into more guidance on high-density homes and tall buildings.

Mr Montagu-Pollock said this will give campaigners more time to make their case before a Local Plan for the whole city is finalised in two years. The results of the consultation can be found at tinyurl.com/brisurbanliving

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n NEWS

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15

Please keep letters as short as possible, Write to paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk LETTERS and provide your postal address. or to 18 Lilymead Avenue, BS4 2BX doctors’ and dental practices. jobs and family Rethink these Tall and mean ordinary However, the biggest concern networks. Not a “forever home”, is clearly the height of some of for sure. And the biggest con is proposed blocks. These will using the need for affordable high-rise plans the in the Wild West change the skyline for ever. housing as an excuse to cram.

AS WARD councillors for Southville and Windmill Hill, we write to register our concerns at the scale of development being proposed at Bedminster Green.

We support the development of the area. We further support development which is high density. However, the current proposals are simply enormous.

The main problem is with the ever-increasing height being proposed. It is also with the concentration of tall buildings in this relatively small area.

It is massively unpopular with residents of both wards.

There is conflicting information about whether tall buildings deliver higher densities, but accepting that they do, you can achieve most of the density with a much lower development. For example, Wapping Wharf – five or six storeys – has 194 dwellings per hectare. Developers at Bedminster Green suggest it would be 240 or so per hectare.

Residents of both wards have also raised concerns about air quality, and pressure on schools, POLICE REPORT

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Windmill Hill consists overwhelmingly of Victorian terraces. The area between East Street and Malago Road also has terraces and flats among industrial units. We reject the notion that this is the right location.

We are aware that the Bedminster Improvement District (BID) is supportive of the development but point out that they would get most of the benefit of an increased population serving East Street from a highdensity development that is considerably lower in height.

We ask the developers of the Bedminster Green area to rethink the development and bring back proposals which are considerably lower in height.

Cllr Lucy Whittle (Lab, Windmill Hill); Cllr Jon Wellington (Lab, Windmill Hill) Cllr Charlie Bolton (Green, Southville) • Cllr Stephen Clarke (Green, Southville) is not commenting, to avoid conflict of interest, as he sits on a development committee.

With PCSO Charlotte Tait Broadbury Road police station

HE SOUTHVILLE neighbourhood policing team have joined forces with Bristol city council and other agencies, as well as with local residents in a new Clutter Patrol programme. A number of issues have been identified which affect those with disabilities and the elderly. The Clutter Patrol this month focussed on East Street. Positive action such as enforcement or street cleaning is taking place in order to rectify issues which came to light as potential hazards such as obstructive vehicles, or commercial litter blocking pavements. This is a new project which the neighbourhood police team are keen to support and I will keep you updated.

We have also been helping the council with enforcing the pedestrian zone on East Street. A number of motorists who breached the pedestrian zone were issued tickets.

During a recent patrol on East Street, one such motorist was

identified by PCSO Olszewski for driving through a no entry sign while using his mobile phone. It also transpired that he had no driving licence or insurance.

PCSO Olszewski said: “Where possible, we will take positive action when motorists knowingly breach the pedestrian zone restrictions. I think the public expect us to take a strong stance on this.”

The pedestrian zone prohibits drivers from driving down East Street from 7am to 7pm, seven days a week. Please follow the rules – you have been warned!

I

Beat surgeries F YOU would like to raise any issues or concerns, please feel free to come and visit us at our Beat Surgery Hub. This is located in the carpark of Asda Bedminster. It’s open (where possible) Tuesday 8.30-10.30am and Thursday 4-6pm.

Special beat surgeries are to be held for our Polish community on July 2 and September 3.

AS AN architect working in the residential sector over the last 30 years I have seen the argument for “high density” used to justify some very destructive redevelopments. At first the justifications seem compelling – we need homes, more people could support more shops and other facilities, we use less green land, and we can provide more affordable housing, as Urbis are arguing.

But in practice these arguments have been used to justify greed. High rise developments where common areas are mean, amenity space is minimal, and connection to the ground or neighbours limited, have become the new norm.

Either expensive, aimed at childless people working long hours or out a lot, or if “affordable”, very unsuited to people with children and

The cost of land is linked to what you think you will be able to squeeze on to it.

If we had properly enforced standards about the quality of new homes and the impact on the neighbourhood then densities would generally be limited, and if the amount of affordable housing was also enforced then landowners would have to sell at a price that works for such developments.

But right now it’s the Wild West – if I own a plot I wait till someone gets planning permission for the tallest, meanest scheme they can market, and sell the land to them.

We should not be conned into allowing unaffordable anti-social housing to use up valuable land which could provide better.

Wolfgang Kuchler Dean Lane, Southville • A letter on The Vale, near Ashton Vale, is on the Voice website

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

July 2018

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n NEWS

PLASTIC ATTACKS GO VIRAL

How simple plastic attacks in South Bristol Voice naturalist and campaigner Alex Morss reveals how protests against plastic packaging that began here in South Bristol have snowballed into a global movement

I

T IS easy to think we are personally incapable of anything more than tiny ripples, when we need a massive tidal wave of global change to heal our trashed planet.

But here is a great example of people power, and I hope it will replenish the optimism in anyone who, like me, sometimes feels despair and helplessness on environmental issues.

A small anti-plastic

movement that we began at stores here in South Bristol has now gone global. It has shown what a huge influence we can have as ordinary people – and that campaigning is not a waste of time.

South Bristol members of new local campaign group #OneByOne began staging and promoting ‘plastic attacks’ at BS3 supermarkets earlier this year.

These peaceful protests involve shoppers being invited to rip off all the unwanted plastic packaging and handing it back after paying, asking the shops to recycle or deal with the plastic.

Our local uprising was perfectly timed, because the issue had just hit the mainstream public consciousness after being highlighted by Sir David Attenborough during the Blue Planet II TV series.

Soon afterwards, in January, I sent out an angry Tweet about an ‘organic’ coconut pictured at

ICELAND LEADS THE WAY ONE STORE chain, Iceland, has promised to remove all own-brand plastic packaging by 2023. Other brands are starting to follow.

Iceland spokesman Keith Hann told the Voice there has been an “overwhelmingly positive”

response from customers. The issue is to reduce plastic use without creating another problem, he said, such as an increase in food waste, or greater volumes of non-recyclable packaging.

Iceland has stores at East Street, Bedminster, and Winterstoke Road, Ashton.

Sainsbury’s in Winterstoke Road, that had been stripped of its skin and covered in plastic, sold wrapped in a box with a plastic straw. That went around the world and found its way on to pretty much every UK news channel, radio station and newspaper, with the chief executive of Sainsbury’s, Mike Coupe, going on national TV and vowing to investigate.

And although sadly the boss has so far failed to restore the coconut to its natural state – it is still being sold wrapped in plastic – it helped trigger an army of

plastic attackers to band together and do ‘mass unwraps’ at staged events across South Bristol, at branches of Asda, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, and further afield at Waitrose, Morrisons and Tesco.

Action groups who teamed up included members of Bristol campaign #OneByOne, Bristol Greenpeace, Bristol Friends of the Earth, BS3 Plastic Free, Action Greater Bedminster, Plastic Free Bristol and Keynsham Plastic Re-Action. A video of a plastic attack in Keynsham has now had 18 million views on Facebook.

The protests have been copied

THE HANDYPERSON SERVICE YOU CAN TRUST When Mr and Mrs Leaper in Horfield needed some door handles replaced, their first thought was to call WE Care & Repair.

It was the sort of thing Mr Leaper would have taken care of himself, but now in his 90s he was aware that he should be taking it easy.

They’d previously used a WE Care & Repair handyperson to repair a kitchen cabinet and were impressed by the service – “We had a good laugh, (the handyman) was very pleasant and did a nice job. You can always rely on the service and the cost wasn’t excessive, which is important as money has to last.”

If you are over 60 or disabled of any age and need something doing you may wish to consider WE Care & Repair’s handyperson service. They can look at any handyperson-type work around the home: carpentry, fixtures, plumbing, security, flat pack assembly and adaptations like grab handles and supporting rails, to help with the stairs or the bathroom.

The work is subsidised by Bristol City Council, so the rates are competitive. We are a local organisation with over 30 years experience, we are accountable and trustworthy.

July 2018

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17

PLASTIC ATTACKS GO VIRAL

sparked off protests all over the world

Unhappy shoppers at Sainsbury’s in Winterstoke Road with unwanted wrapping, left, and protesters, right by frustrated shoppers in more than 100 towns and cities in the UK, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Austria, Norway, Canada, Peru, Australia and China. Many of them got in touch to tell us we inspired them to take action.

One news report in France published by Bioplastics News website likened the plastic attacks to “the bullet that started the First World War” and called it a people’s revolution.

Well-known people have helped shared the message on social media, including comedian Jennifer Saunders, Adrian Utley of the band Portishead, actors Jim Murray and Liam Bergin, and authors Sean Taylor and Suzy Davies. Musician Billy Bragg turned up at one store to join in with a mass unwrap.

Protesters have signed two

petitions – one calling for a Bristol city-wide ban on single-use disposable plastics; and a second petition by Greenpeace asking stores to move to plastic-free. The latter has half a million signatures.

Greenpeace believes UK supermarkets generate 800,000 tonnes of plastic packaging a year. Millions of tonnes of plastic litter end up in the ocean each year, with devastating consequences for wildlife. #OneByOne’s own analysis from plastic attack results shows that the majority of plastic we’ve handed back has been supermarket own-brand. This unnecessary single-use, mostly non-recyclable packaging is generated at a rate that would fill 10,000 trolleys per hour.

There is evidence that much of the food wrapped in plastic

could be sold and kept fresh without it, and food waste would not necessarily increase as a result.

The current system makes plastic cheap and easy for UK producers and supermarkets. They pay less

than any other European country towards collecting and recycling waste: tax payers meet 90 per cent of the bill.

A new code of conduct, UK Plastic Pact, is being promoted by the industry and Government think-tank Wrap UK. But we think it is too slow, too voluntary, not bold enough and largely passes the onus on to consumers, not producers. We believe change will happen faster if there is increased public pressure and awareness, more regulation, incentives and penalties.

Several UK supermarkets have told us they are listening to our campaigners, and that the protests by customers have shown them they must do more.

• The next peaceful protest will be a plastic attack at Lidl in Sheene Road, Bedminster, on Sunday, July 8, 1-3pm. All welcome.

You can see a film of one of the Keynsham protests here: tinyurl.com/plasticprotest

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July 2018

July 2018

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REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL ABOUT BEDMINSTER

Exterior finish is subject to change

1. Lanterns appeal is going well

5. Helping the homeless works

FOR THE first time in its history, the Bedminster Winter Lanterns Parade isn’t sure of going ahead. But after a few days of crowdfunding, it’s almost halfway – £1,800 – to its £3,800 target. Who can doubt that Bemmie will fail to support the Lanterns? But first we have to pledge money! tinyurl.com/bemmielants

HELP Bristol’s Homeless, the charity making homes out of shipping containers, is an inspiration. It’s on track to build 11 containers, ready to be moved to a new site off York Road – if £20,000 can be raised. More than £3,400 is in already. Jasper Thompson and his band keep coming up with ideas, from a fashion show with Hobbs Hairdressers of Clifton to an art auction. A golf day on July 22 at Filton Golf Club is next. facebook: helpbristolshomeless

2. Parson Street station has friends THE FRIENDS of Parson Street Railway Station, to give their full name, have won £10,000 to spruce up the station from Great Western Railway. In the last year the group have made a lot of noise about the potential for the station and it seems they are being listened to, and they are hoping there will soon be some more good news.

Facebook: FoPSRS

3. There’s a new gallery on North Street ANDREW Price and Adrian Mantley have opened North, at 135 North Street, to sell interesting works by local artists, including Kevin O’Keefe.

4. There could soon be a new nursery ADAM Llewellyn and Vicky Collins want to help meet a huge shortage of nursery places by offering childcare at 226 North Street in the old Denny’s Bakery. The premises is much bigger than it looks, and has room for 100 children. Planners seem unwilling to allow a change of use for the building, but there have been almost 100 messages of support, including from other traders. The couple would open a children’s boutique in the shopfront and have almost signed up 100 children already, “showing the desperate need for childcare in the area”.

6. Upfest is near YOU DON’T need us to tell you that Europe’s biggest street art festival will soon be with us (July 28-30). These days it attracts support from The Simpsons, yet as veteran Bristol street artist Jody tells us (p5), it had a humble start in BS3. upfest.co.uk

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Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk 13/06/2018 11:52

July 2018

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WE’RE BACKING BEDMINSTER Highlighting some of the businesses which make Bedminster such a popular centre

Why Bedminster is best for all WIN a free hair treatment worth £30+ at Reflections, East Street TO CELEBRATE more than 40 years at their East Street salon, the team at Reflections are offering Voice readers a special prize: a haircut worth at least £31!

To win, answer this question: What’s the latest must-have treatment at Reflections?

Just send your entry by email

B

EDMINSTER is the city’s second-biggest shopping area after the city centre and it’s got everything from supermarkets and chain stores to a host of independent businesses meeting your every need – like our advertisers below.

Reflections

143 East Street, Bedminster BS3 4EJ; 0117 963 4521 reflectionshair.co.uk REFLECTIONS Hair Group is a family owned business with its Bedminster salon celebrating more than 40 successful years on East Street.

With its friendly staff and

ADVERTISING FEATURE

warm welcome, the salon has gained an enviable reputation among local residents. Salon manager Kerri Lawson says: “It’s an exciting time at Reflections Bedminster, as the salon has recently undergone a refurbishment. With a brand new interior and a bespoke chill out area, clients are now able to take a break during their treatment or colour service and enjoy a

complimentary drink and relax with a magazine.

“One such treatment might be Olaplex – a product that has revolutionised the hairdressing industry and actually rebuilds the broken bonds in the hair – we have seen some incredible results and our clients absolutely love the take-home product.”

Reflections Bedminster offers 20 per cent off for students,

to paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk, or by post to Reflections Competition, 18 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BX, to arrive

by July 18.

• Not open to employees of Reflections or the Voice, or under-18s; winner must live in BS3 or BS4.

OAPs and NHS and emergency services staff and has convenient late night openings and free parking nearby.

The salon is currently offering £10 off for new clients and a FREE Olaplex treatment for existing clients! Show this article to claim your treat.

To make an appointment pop in anytime or call Kerri and her team on 0117 963 4521.

Reflections F i r s t I m p r e s s i o n s A l w a y s Co u n t

Reflections Bedminster is located in the heart of the East Street shopping area. Salon Manager Kerri and her creative, fashionable team are ready to offer you expert advice on all aspects of Hairdressing. We are stockists of ghd, Moroccanoil and System Professional and have a wealth of industry knowledge literally at our fingertips!

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Reflections, 143 East Street, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 4EJ

Tel: 0117 963 4521 www.Reflectionshair.co.uk

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

July 2018

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WE’RE BACKING BEDMINSTER

21 ADVERTISING FEATURE

the things you need from a high street Compuwave

237 North Street BS3 1JJ 0117 963 1111 compuwave.co.uk COMPUWAVE Computers, established in 2005 and recently voted one of the top three computer shops in Bristol, is an independent business providing computer and technical support to home users and local businesses requiring professional IT support at competitive prices.

They respond to everything from simple PC or laptop related issues such as installing a printer, to data recovery, virus removal or complete computer system upgrades and configuration.

Wireless networks can also be installed.

Repairs, all done on site, are an increasingly large part of the business and in addition to laptops and PCs they also repair tablets and Apple Mac products.

A large number of Mac and laptop spare parts are kept in

stock, meaning quicker repairs are often available.

The service is aimed at the home or small business user, who require professional IT support at affordable prices.

An on-site specialist is also available for TV and audio

repairs, gaming products and small electrical items.

There’s also a small internet café, open for internet use and printing. Photocopying is also now available in A4 and A3 (in colour or black and white).

Continued overleaf

The South Bristol Voice believes Bedminster has a great future. We’re proud to showcase such great independent businesses in this sponsored feature.

We will continue not only to provide an advertising service which is seen by more people in BS3 than any other publication but we will champion the best interests of Bedminster’s businesses, and its thriving cultural community, in every issue. Tell us what you think: paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

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July 2018

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WE’RE BACKING BEDMINSTER

July 2018

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

Zara’s Chocolates

228 North Street, BS3 1JD 0117 953 3892 zaraschocolates.com ZARA’S Chocolates are on the move, but thankfully not going far – about 10 shops up the road.

They have exciting plans for a new hot chocolate bar, plus a larger chocolate kitchen to offer more workshops and classes.

The expansion will also give more room for the creation of exciting new products, and there are plans to host tasting evenings, special chocolate screenings, and talks – so creating a bit of a chocolate hub in South Bristol.

To help raise some of the money for the much-needed shop refurb they have set up a Kickstarter campaign. There’s a whole host of indulgent rewards for backers who contribute anything from £10 to £5,000.

Some of the rewards include: enjoying a hot chocolate tasting flight for two in the new premises;

A world of chocolate: Zara is crowdfundng to expand an opportunity to be the first to sign up for October’s Chocolate Week events; or perhaps joining their new Tasting Panel for exclusive monthly deliveries of new and exciting chocolates!

Lam Rim Bristol Buddhist Centre

12 Victoria Place, Bedminster BS3 3BP www.lamrim.org.uk/bristol info@lamrim.org.uk THE LAM RIM Bristol Buddhist

The Lam Rim centre has been in Bristol for 30 years

Centre was established 30 years ago under the guidance of Ven. Geshe Damcho Yonten – a Tibetan Lama from Drepung Monastery. Sadly, Geshe-la passed away last August at the age of 89. We continue to follow his teachings, taking guidance from eminent teachers – notably His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The building incorporates the Centre for Whole Health, offering complementary medicine from a range of therapies, and courses in the main hall in Tai Chi, Yoga,

Shiatsu and more.

The Centre promotes the welfare of all at every level.

Buddhist practice is one of awakening to our present conditions and understanding its prior causes and conditions. It opens the mind to the possibility of freedom from all suffering and follows the Buddha’s path to achieve this. The Centre focuses on the Mahayana – the path that seeks to achieve the greatest benefit for all living beings, not just oneself.

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The Buddhist Centre programme Monday 7:30pm guided meditation Wednesday 7:30pm silent meditation Thursday 7:30pm introductory talks and discussions

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The Buddhist Centre offers a quiet space to hear teachings, reflect and meditate. We study the Tibetan Gelug tradition, following His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The Lam Rim Centre also incorporates The Centre for Whole Health, providing complementary therapy and hall space for Tai Chi, Yoga, Shiatsu etc.

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

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*Based on a mortgage repayment term of 35 years. Prices and terms shown correct at time of going to press. Illustration refers to Mews House 13. Mortgage repayments must be made regularly or you could stand to lose your home. Ability to obtain a mortgage is subject to qualifying criteria. Mortgage payment amount is based on an average 2 year fixed rate mortgage.

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

July 2018

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FEATURES

A

N OVERCAST Friday afternoon in Ashton Vale, and I’m excited – I’m about to look for signs of a creature most people probably think doesn’t come anywhere near Bristol – the otter.

But first I have to find the expert guides from the Greater Bristol Otter Group – and after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing around the residential streets of the Vale, I see three purposeful-looking women tying their boots beside a car at the end of Ashton Drive.

This must be them – yes, it’s Sian Parry, Cher Czugalinski and Hannah Watts, the founders of the local otter group.

What are we here for, I ask, and what do we hope to see?

They quickly lower my expectations – we are pretty unlikely to see an otter. But they are very hopeful of finding evidence that otters are nearby.

They exist in more places than you might think – almost everywhere there is water, from the Henleaze swimming lake, to the River Avon and the harbour.

We set off around the back of some garages and straight away we are beside Colliter’s Brook, a gentle stream only inches deep but surrounded by vegetation.

The excitement comes almost immediately. The undergrowth clears and three experts clamber down to the brook – “That looks like spraint!” someone says.

They’re talking about the otters’ poo – usually on a rock where it can’t be washed away.

Hannah says: “They do it so that other otters can smell it – it’s always above the waterline.”

“It’s to say, ‘I’m here!’ and mark their territory,” adds Cher.

Hannah explains that poo is the main evidence that otters are

about. Cher adds that their footprints are hard to find: “They have five toes and the fifth doesn’t often show, and overlapping dogs’ prints can confuse things.”

This is older, grey poo on a rock only yards from Ashton Drive – good proof that the otters are using the stream.

We carry on, emerging after 100 yards or so onto Brook Gate and walking through part of the Vale’s industrial estate before plunging back into the greenery.

At a culvert, we look down six feet to see a splash of poo on a concrete ledge. It looks like the stuff we saw before, with bits which might be fish bones.

We can’t see it well; I take a picture and zoom in on it. The experts peer: “I don’t think so.

Looks like something else has fallen onto it,” says Hannah.

“You need to smell it, some say it’s like jasmine tea!” says Cher.

We walk on, under the railway bridge next to the new South Bristol Link road. Otters travel big distances, with a range of up to 20km, explains Cher, males even more, though they may take several days to cover it all.

They eat quite a diverse

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We often encourage you to look for South Bristol wildlife, from butterflies to hedgehogs – but did you know there are otters on our doorstep? Paul Breeden puts on his wellies to take a look

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SOUTH BRISTOL OTTER EXPEDITION

PHOTO: © Richard Scantlebury

Urban explorers: Cher, Hannah and Sian venture along Colliter’s Brook

Thriving: A Bristol otter, though sadly not seen on our South Bristol expedition

Looking for fish bones in the poo

We’re going hunting for otters – in the friendliest way menu, mainly fish and eels, adds Hannah. I express surprise that there are many fish to catch in Colliter’s Brook, which is only inches deep at best.

“I think if there weren’t fish they wouldn’t be here,” says Hannah. They also eat moorhens, crayfish and frogs, she says – but the brook does contain small fish such as sticklebacks and bullheads. There may even be mink, she says – a non-native animal which has the same habits and diet as the otter.

Now we are walking on a path above dense vegetation hiding the brook, and it doesn’t seem so impossible that all kinds of creatures live there unseen.

“Otters and mink do the same thing and their spraint looks similar, that’s why you need to smell it”, says Hannah.

Sian points into the dense undergrowth just yards from the

OTTERS IN BRISTOL How you can help

T

HE GREATER Bristol Otter Group has around 13 members but it could do with more. New members get trained in how to find signs that otters are present.

In particular they are shown how to find otter poo, or spraint, and how to recognise it. It’s found above the waterline, usually on a

busy dual carriageway: “The brook runs right along here so we were quite concerned when the road was being built, but the council ensured the appropriate mitigations.” This meant making sure the otters had easy routes away from the road, mainly tunnels underneath it.

We climb down to a broad section of the stream. The trio have found quite a lot of spraint here before. But there’s nothing here today, even though there are lots of rocks clear of the water and it looks an ideal place.

For now, we can see no signs of humanity, only trees, rocks and water. We splash our way upstream, like a band of four doughty naturalists tackling unknown rainforest.

“We found some!” shouts Cher from up ahead.

“If you can smell it, and it’s not horrible, it’s otter,” says rock, but it can be hard to identify.

Records are kept covering as much as possible of the 100 miles of watercourses around Bristol, and the group liaises with other otter groups, local councils and wildlife bodies about any measures needed to keep the otter population safe.

The website has lots of useful information and links. bristolottersurvey.wixsite.com/ greaterbristolotters

Hannah. They bend and peer at a brown, wet deposit on a rock.

“You can see all the bones in here, yes definitely,” says Cher.

It’s the third time they have found spraint in this spot, just short of a bridge which takes the road safely over the brook.

And this poo is wet, which means it’s recent. I feel like a tracker on the trail of a tiger when the expert guide says “It’s a fresh kill – it’s round here somewhere!” I bend and smell: it just smells a bit wet and fishy.

“It’s fantastic!” says Cher.

“Ottery people get excited when they find wet spraint,” explains Hannah. “That’s it, we can have a drink on this tonight!”

We are just yards from a Friday night traffic jam on a busy road. But otters are quite adaptable, Hannah adds, as long as they have clean water and enough food. They have had reports of people seeing them from the amphitheatre on the harbourside. “As long as they don’t have to use roads, that’s

where most deaths happen,” adds Sian. She says the group have just agreed with the city council that they will collect any dead otters found by the public. They send them off to Cardiff University for a post mortem. Most are road deaths, though there was one found emaciated in the harbour – which may already have been weakened by a road accident.

It turns out I have just missed World Otter Day on May 31. How did the group celebrate? They had a small social but the experts at Cardiff University marked the occasion by showing an otter

OTTERS ON THE UP Numbers slowly increasing

A

NEW survey of the UK shows, surprisingly perhaps, that otter numbers are rising – up almost 50 per cent to 11,000, according to a survey by the Mammal Society, released in June.

It’s a rare success story among a tide of bad news for UK wildlife. TV

post mortem. It might sound grisly, but it’s important to know the state of health of wild otters, and to find out how they died.

While we pause, I ask the three why they are here.

Sian is keen on conservation, and used to work for Avon Wildlife Trust.

Cher said she first saw an otter when one was brought into her primary school, “and ever since I have been hooked”.

It sounds like a bit of an addiction, but Hannah’s is the worst: “I have been obsessed with otters ever since I was three.

PROPERTY MAINTENANCE

naturalist Chris Packham has and an end to otter hunting are spoken of an environmental among the positive factors. The catastrophe in the making, and the prospects for the otter population new survey shows a fifth of UK and its habitats is stable, says the mammal species are at risk of Mammal Society. extinction. otter now inhabits every PROPERTYThe MAINTENANCE But hopefully not the otter – part of the UK except central & EXTERIOR PAINTING since last surveyed in 1995,INTERIOR London and parts of Kent, and the numbers have risen from an chances are it will continue to find FENCING • PATIOS • LANDSCAPING estimated 7,350. A reduction in use new ranges, the survey says.

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My parents thought I would grow out of it, but I have got worse! It’s just an obsession.” Hannah travels all over the world with the aim of seeing all 13 otter species.

Her tally will be four this year: her last trip was to Singapore, where there’s a thriving colony.

To reach her goal, she will have to visit every continent except Australasia and the Antarctic.

The three came together in 2010 when mammal expert Gill Brown suggested to Hannah that the was no group keeping tabs on otters around Bristol: why didn’t she set one up?

Sian, Cher and Hannah got together and formed Greater Bristol Otter Group. They are still its core members, and have become firm friends.

With the help of around 10 members who hep in regular surveys of the waterways around Bristol, they have built up a picture of the otters’ situation locally, and it’s pretty positive.

They even told me of evidence of a holt, an otter’s waterside home where they raise their young, which they found last year – though for obvious reasons we are not going to reveal where it is.

We have reached Hanger Hill wood on the other side of the Link road, a wilder place where otters could easily pass unseen.

It’s been a fascinating afternoon, but back at SBV Towers a dog needs feeding and I have to go. I thank Sian, Cher and Hannah and promise to spread the word about helping them keep tabs on Bristol’s otter population (see panel below).

Some (shaky) video of our hunt: youtu.be/M4TiPpofGDE

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n FEATURES

J

ESS Wright is director, manager and owner of Zion, which celebrated its seventh birthday in June with a free daylong party. She is committed to bringing the arts, in all its forms, to the area, and creating a space that welcomes all the community.

Everything on her journey to the converted Methodist Chapel on Bishopsworth Road in Bedminster Down seems to have pointed her here.

“I grew up in Somerset, in Street,” she tells me, “did an art foundation course in Yeovil and a fine art degree in Exeter. Not very handy for making an income, it turns out,” she adds wryly.

After graduating in 1997 “I got a job as a picture researcher in Bristol – a job I’d never heard of!” It involved getting images for specialist corporate publications, in pre-digital days.

“I did a theatre design course at Bristol Old Vic theatre school, then went freelance, doing theatre design, prop making and graphic design. I worked for TV, small films, music videos, theatre. None of it brilliantly paid

July 2018

southbristolvoice

Welcome to Zion, ZION COMMUNITY SPACE

Just a short step from Bedminster and Knowle is a unique community centre that hosts comedy, arts and music. And it’s got a great café.

Beccy Golding finds out more

– I didn’t read the small print!”

In 2005 Jess started a magazine, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, promoting local businesses. And opened an office and shop on North Street, called Retro Collectibles.

“Lots of small businesses don’t get an easy time – I wanted to celebrate what they do.” So she created the South Bristol Business Awards. Held in 2007 and 2008, there were five

awards, each with £1,000 prize money donated by large businesses. “It was good fun. And then the recession hit.”

With a colleague, Dave Morgan Davies, Jess then created an arts event for the ‘other end’ of North Street (towards Dean Lane). Illuminate, held over a weekend in 2009 and 2010, displayed art in empty shops.

“I thought it would be much easier if I had a venue to hold events in. My mates kept coming in to drink my coffee – so I thought it would be a good idea to have a café too! And I wanted to live and work in the same place.”

Then lo and behold, “I visited Bishopsworth and saw the For Sale sign. I went to the open day – I thought there would be loads of people in suits – but there was only me and one other person.

The building had a community caveat on it – hence no suits!”

To raise money for renovations, “I went to the banks – who

laughed. None wanted to support a community centre. Eventually Triodos (the ethical bank) said yes to my business plan. In 2011 the sale went through.

“It was just a shell, the roof was off, but it had a really nice feeling. I did the community space up then sold my house and used the proceeds to create the living space where the vestry room and organ used to be.

“I was reticent to start with a big bang (which is perhaps why lots of people haven’t heard of us). We had a soft opening and have grown slowly but sustainably. We started with a postcard to local homes, inviting people for tea and cake. Lots of people called in in the first few months, pleased we were here.

“There’s much less around here [than Bedminster] – there are pubs, the British Legion and us – we’re all needed.

“Lots of people were suspicious and didn’t think we’d

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one of South Bristol’s best-kept secrets n FEATURES

last, but we have strong support now. The worst time was in 2012 – we were having a neighbourhood partnership meeting and there was a massive bang and a cloud of smoke – part of the gable wall fell in. No one was hurt, thank goodness.

Conveniently the fire and police were at the meeting! The whole road was closed off.

“We thought ‘this is the end’.

We had to raise £20,000 for repairs in two weeks. Over 100 people showed they cared, and through fund-raising and support from the council we got the money together to re-open. They had to take all the render off the front, and it’s beautiful now.”

This was when Fans of Zion was created. Annual membership is £25, which goes towards the upkeep of the building. In return Jess lays on a big annual party.

This year Jess has secured some larger sources of funding Lottery money to the ornate

ZION COMMUNITY SPACE

Home cooking: Jess, left, and partner Tanya live and work at Zion, top stained glass window, and renovate the café.

“Evenings and weekends we’re really busy, but day trade is slower. We want to let people know we’re here. Our café serves excellent fresh food, we have a great menu and our ingredients

are good. And we have a beautiful garden – it’s a lovely space.”

There’s a full programme during the day, including groups for breastfeeding mums, local history and a memories café. “We aim to be different with our kids’ stuff. Lego sessions are really

popular, we have the Little Music Band, lots of kids craft sessions.”

The evenings see pamper nights, live music and Angie Belcher’s monthly Comedy Depot. The first Baby Comedy Depot, an afternoon gig of proper comedy where you can bring your babies, debuted in June.

Along with Tanya, her partner, Jess lives with Koshkin the cat. He’s often seen upstaging the live acts as he strolls through the hall. “And we got some rabbits last year – they cost a fortune and show no love back!” As if she isn’t busy enough, “I’d have a herd of guinea pigs if I was allowed.” zionbristol.org.uk

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

28

July 2018

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THE OLD MILL INTERIORS

July 2018

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n THE MAYOR

TOTAL STOCK DISPOSAL

GRAND SALE! 70% OF UP TO

F

£785,000 FURNITURE STOCK FOR IMMEDIATE CLEARANCE Dining, living & bedroom furniture, sourced by us from the world’s best manufacturers plus selected ranges from: Westbridge, Worth Furnishings, Alpha Designs, Sweet Dreams, Coach House, The Wicker Merchant, etc., etc...

MASSIVE PUBLIC SALE! STARTS FRIDAY 29TH JUNE AT 10AM

MARVIN REES Mayor of Bristol

I want this city to inspire a new generation to take up sport

I

WANT to kick off by wishing the England football team great success in the Russian World Cup. Hopefully they will do well, although they might be on the plane home by the time you read this!

Sport is a key priority for me, particularly as it made such an impact on my own development as a youth. I want to improve Bristol’s sporting offer and make it accessible to all. We’re aiming to do this in three ways: improving elite talent pathways for Bristolians, bringing world-class sporting events to the city, and increasing participation.

That’s why I was so pleased to support the launch of Bristol’s Sporting Hall of Fame at Ashton Gate stadium. Over 70 nominations were uploaded to tinyurl.com/bristolhalloffame including community heroes, young hopefuls,

29

stars who compete at an international level and those who achieve against the odds.

Amongst those mentioned are some of Bristol’s biggest sporting names like former world champion boxer Lee Haskins, three-time ironman world champion Chrissie Wellington and Olympic gymnast Claudia Fragapane. They represent some of the best of our city and their stories will hopefully inspire a whole new generation to get involved in sport.

It’s great that Bristol’s Sporting Hall of Fame will celebrate the city’s many sporting inspirations, and I congratulate everyone who has been recognised as part of it.

There are two other awards I want to

mention. They are the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) South West Sustainability Award and a RIBA South West 2018 accolade, both given to a new project called Challender Court in Henbury. This Bristol city council housing development was recognised for the sustainability of the eight one-bed properties.

I have a commitment to build 2,000 new homes – 800 affordable – a year by 2020. As part of this, we are not just looking at numbers, but also the quality of housing and communities we create. Challender Court is designed to meet the Passivhaus building standard, which aims to reduce energy usage.

This will result in extremely energy-efficient properties which will see household utility bills dramatically reduced.

We have completed 81 new homes since the start of the New Build Housing Programme, regenerating brownfield sites to provide high-quality homes across Bristol.

Four sites are under construction, providing a further 64 new homes. We have also gained consent for 133 new homes at Ashton Vale, 53 of which will be council homes.

We have really started to see progress on meeting this challenge and I would like to thank our housing team, along with the contractors and architects, for helping to provide much-needed housing for the city.

At our Bristol Store Only

We have really appreciated the support from so many special customers, and all the people of the area since we took over the former Branches store in Bristol. Now, to improve our ranges and clear excess stock from across the group, we will undertake a major clearing & remerchandising programme exclusively at the Bristol shop. We must clear the floor without delay so this major project can be completed. The Bristol store is briefly closed to reduce prices and prepare for the launch of our £785,000 STOCK DISPOSAL GRAND SALE. EVERY SINGLE PRICE WILL BE DRASTICALLY REDUCED! THIS WILL BE OUR BIGGEST EVER SALE! We must urgently sell off all of our stock including: Sofas, chairs, dining sets, sideboards, dressers, robes, chests, bedframes, mattresses, coffee & lamp tables, bookcases, rugs, mirrors, wicker baskets & storage, pictures, lamps, furnishing accessories, etc...

Absolutely Everything Must Be Sold Out a.s.a.p!

ALL GOODS WILL BE CLEARLY MARKED FOR SALE ON A FIRST CLAIM BASIS. EVERYTHING …

INCLUDING NEW FACTORY ORDERS …WILL BE AVAILABLE TO YOU WITH BIGGER SAVINGS THAN EVER IN OUR HISTORY!

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Ashton Veterinary Surgery is a trading name of CVS (UK) Limited: a company registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 03777473. Registered office: CVS House, Owen Road, Diss, Norfolk IP22 4ER Terms and conditions* Please present this advert to reception on arrival. One pet per consultation. This offer applies to the consultation fee only. This offer does not include any other services, any medication prescribed or products purchased which are chargeable and must be paid in full. The offer has no other monetary value. No cash alternative. This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or scheme, including The Healthy Pet Club.

CITYPOINT, TEMPLE GATE, BRISTOL BS1 6PL TEL: 0117 934 9200 FORMERLY BRANCHES OF BRISTOL

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

July 2018

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30

n NEWS

ADVICE FROM A PHARMACIST Men: are you willing to join us on our mission in South Bristol?

M

EN ARE more likely than women to develop diabetes and also more likely to experience life-changing or even life-ending effects.

Most worryingly, thousands of men don’t even know they have diabetes or are at serious risk of it.

Are you one of them? Why it is that one in 10 men now have

diabetes and, in middle-aged men, the disease is expected to increase sharply over the next 20 years?

• Men are more likely to be overweight, with a Body Mass Index, or BMI, of 25+. However, they are less likely to be aware that they are overweight or to participate in weight management programmes. Those beer belly jokes may indeed be making light of a severe health issue.

• Lack of exercise, overconsumption of food and alcohol as well as smoking are also factors.

Men are dying prematurely from diabetes, suffering sight loss or having a major amputation. So can we do anything to help stop this in our city?

Bedminster Pharmacy is taking up the challenge. Our patients

know the excellent care we always provide, checking on how they are getting on with new medications, offering regular medication reviews, free blood pressure checks and free delivery. We also offer a free smoking cessation service, now supported with our own e-cigarette products. All of these approaches can help those with diabetes.

A new diabetes screening service is being set up in the

Down on the Farm News from Windmill Hill City Farm with Beccy Golding

Taste Kefir culture

Here comes the sun: holiday activities • Woodland Tribe: July 21 & 22, 10am-12 noon, 12-2pm & 2-4pm Taking the best ideas from adventure playgrounds around the world, children get to use hammers, nails and saws, build dens, be creative with natural materials and play freely with nature. Age: 6+, must be accompanied by an adult. Early bird tickets £8, on the day £10.

pharmacy. Call us to find out how we can help you stay healthier and make the most of your medications. Remember, our services are accessible to everyone in the area because we cover all the GP surgeries. If you make the right changes, together we can stop and sometimes even reverse diabetes!

Every man’s life matters, especially to those that love and care about them.

South Bristol men: step up to the challenge, let’s beat diabetes together. Bedminster Pharmacy is ready to help you do so.

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

Stalling autumn Pour it out: Learn how to make kefir, the fermented milk that’s claimed to have health benefits Tickets include one adult and one child. Concessions available.

• Wood Water Fire: Wednesdays, August 1, 8, 15 & 22 10am-3pm Outdoor nature play drop-in sessions - make the most of the

T

he farm’s autumn fair is a massively popular event, with hundreds of people attending each year.

Held on September 29, 11am4pm, hopefully it will be one of those last few sunny days of summer. Would you like a stall? £25 for the day. Email info@ windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk for more information.

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great outdoors with the farm’s play team. £2 drop-in per child.

• Wild Outdoors Club: Thursdays, August 2, 9, 16 & 23, 10am to 12 noon These very popular sessions are back, with cool crafts, fun nature activities, and great games galore. Age: 6 to 9 years, £10 per child per session.

Book online.

K

EFIR is a type of cultured milk that’s meant to have loads of health benefits.

Fermented foods and kefir have been increasing in popularity recently and have even featured on the Archers! On Sunday July 3, from 10am-12 noon, the farm is holding a kefir-making workshop with Dr Caroline Gilmartin, with a whistle-stop tour of the ancient roots of fermentation before learning how to make it, and preparing your own kefirs to ferment at home.

You’ll also get to do some tastings and look at ways to incorporate kefir into your cooking. Cost: £25 (+£1.79 booking fee), includes all jars and kefir grains, and water and milk kefirs to take home.

July 2018

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

n YOUR COUNCILLORS

B

July 2018

southbristolvoice

32

RISTOL Food Network may be the city’s best-kept secret.

But it has been around for nine Charlie years, trying to Bolton make Bristol more Green sustainable in its Southville approach to food.

Two years ago Bristol become only the second city after Brighton to achieve Silver in the Sustainable Food Cities scheme.

Now the council has announced it is aiming for Bristol to be the first city to achieve a Gold award.

I can think of loads of things Bristol does around food, mainly good, sometimes bad. Locally, it ranges from the Leigh Court Farm veg delivered to the Southville Centre, and the “Don’t be shy, pop in and buy!” veg man on East Street. The introduction of weekly food waste collections a decade ago took our recycling levels up to unheard of rates. The Zero Waste shop and the Southville Deli both have

Southville

packaging-free offers. And we even have the vegan shop on East Street (in case you don’t know, meat-based food can be highly resource-demanding).

The downside includes the threat to the food and veg wholesale market in St Philip’s, the loss of some of the best quality agricultural land in Stapleton – and, well, the dominance of non-local, non-seasonal, processed food.

Going for Gold is an attempt to ramp it up a level. Bristol needs to focus on food poverty and food waste. Food poverty is trickier to deal with, because it covers all sorts of issues, including social isolation. I do wonder, however, if there is something which could be done locally about food waste.

Many businesses already have to deal with waste food, and should the town centre BID get through its second ballot (please, please), perhaps this is a project for them.

But isn’t there something the good people of BS3 could be doing themselves? bristolfoodnetwork.org

T

How to contact your councillor: p2

HERE have been a few decisions recently that have made me think that South Bristol is not Stephen getting a fair crack Clarke of the whip. To give Green some historical Southville perspective, locals (including my sister who worked there) often talk about the influence of the Wills factories and the economic devastation that was caused locally when they closed down. This closure was one of the major factors that led to parts of South Bristol becoming some of the most deprived wards in the country.

Unfortunately, I feel the lessons might not have been learned and history is repeating itself.

For example, we know that the Metrobus link between Long Ashton and Hengrove will not be operating any time soon, even though many millions have already been spent to build the link itself. It disappeared from

the Metrobus website map and became “aspirational” rather than planned. This is nonsense and it should be opened as soon as possible (subsidised if necessary – perhaps by the metro mayor?).

The other prime example is the arena. As I write, no decision has been made between siting it at Filton and Temple Meads but I can see which way the wind is blowing (towards Filton). The mayor has a choice between an arena at Temple Meads, which the expert reports say will bring nearly £400m of extra cash and 600 jobs into the area, and a largely uncosted, pie-in-the-sky development at Filton, right at the edge of Bristol, which might bring cash into already rich South Glos and will certainly bring even more traffic there. Which would you choose? Exactly!

Marvin and other politicians talk a lot about helping disadvantaged areas; well South Bristol needs some help right now.

Build the arena at Temple Meads and get Metrobus fully opened!

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n YOUR COUNCILLORS Will we ever get an arena for Bristol?

Y THE time you read this, Bristol’s elected Mayor, Marvin Rees, will have made his decision on the fate of the arena project. He has several options to consider. He could decide to scrap the Temple Meads arena project and perhaps promote the site for other uses.

Alternatively, he can press ahead, or at least ask for expert advice on reducing costs. That is our preferred view – to get the contractors, Buckingham Group and AECOM, who have detailed knowledge of the specification and many UK and international case examples, to work together on getting the cost down – but without compromising the important acoustic, flexibility and capacity requirements that will make the arena appeal to event-goers and performers alike.

The Temple Meads site is in public ownership; it has planning consent and an outline agreement on sharing profits with the promoters over 25 years. In

Bedminster

B

Mark Bradshaw Labour Bedminster

Celia Phipps Labour Bedminster

reality, the proposals for a venue at Filton in the historic Brabazon hangar are much less advanced and will be a private investment decision for YTL, not the councils, either Bristol or South Glos, within whose territory most of the site is located.

There has yet to be a feasibility study, planning consent or travel plan. It is likely to fail key planning tests and to be called in by government ministers. This adds to delay and uncertainty, even if South Glos grants planning approval.

Highways England will probably need extra reassurance and money to improve motorway access and prevent further

33 How to contact your councillor: p2

chronic congestion. I doubt many of you will have read through the detailed reports commissioned by the mayor from KPMG. They have produced financial appraisals for an arena at Temple Meads; other uses there (probably a mix of office, conferencing and housing); the emerging Filton concept (although details are sketchy) and overall. While the costs for the Temple Meads arena have escalated, this is in part due to the delay, and market uncertainty about whether it will be built. Construction inflation alone is currently running at around 10 per cent per year.

But, of course, we expect a decision to have been made and this column is putting a view on record. There are others too and what is important is that Bristol gets a venue to be proud of, which contributes to the city economy, jobs and growth. Also, it needs to be accessible and sustainable. As Bedminster and South Bristol councillors, we want it to have the maximum

benefit for our constituents and the wider community nearby.

It is no accident that the majority of other cities have built their arena in the city centre (at least, their first arena, as some cities are building their second or third). Let’s see what happens.

Local jobs and access – an opportunity to resolve alancing business growth, jobs and nearby residents is always a difficult challenge and Mark recently met local firms on the South Liberty trading estate. The number of vehicles travelling to and from businesses on the estate has grown in recent years.

What is very clear is that access to the estate is insufficient.

The narrow road-over-railway bridge on South Liberty Lane towards Winterstoke Road is shared with pedestrians, people cycling, and others. It is one-way, but traffic speeds are often in excess of 20mph and risks are growing. We want the council to see what it can do; you can read more in the story on page 10.

B

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n PLANNING APPLICATIONS

of maximum height 3.4m with eaves of 3m high. Refused

Bedminster ward: Awaiting decision Land adj. 5 Winterstoke Road BS3 2NN Replacement of internally illuminated 48-sheet advertising display with a 48-sheet digital LED display.

The Old Tabernacle, Palmyra Road BS3 3JQ Change of use from offices use (Use class B1a) to four selfcontained flats (Use class C3).

Granted

Imperial Tobacco, 121 Winterstoke Road BS3 2LL High-level externally illuminated signage.

9 Gore Road BS3 2LX Single storey rear extension and loft conversion with side and rear dormer. Withdrawn

41 Irby Road BS3 2LZ Demolition of store, construction of single storey rear extension.

88 Winterstoke Road BS3 2NY Two storey extension to form additional living and bedroom accommodation.

Withdrawn

22 Ruby Street BS3 3DY New dormer window in roof space and single storey extension to rear.

Bedminster ward: Decided Land to rear of Silbury Road, Alderman Moores, Ashton Vale Erection of 133 dwellings with associated access, landscaping and services (Major application). Granted subject to conditions 96 Smyth Road BS3 2DP Single storey rear extension to extend beyond the rear by 5m,

Win a e Composit r o Do ze Pri w r Da

southbristolvoice

July 2018 Bedminster, Southville & Ashton

63-65 North Street BS3 1ES Retrospective application for change of use of ground floors to cafe/bar (Use class A3/ A4); conversion of first floor of 65 North Street to storage; alterations to shopfront and creation of outdoor rear seating area. Granted subject to conditions Southville ward: Awaiting decision 89 Stackpool Road BS3 1NX Rear roof extension.

200 North Street BS3 1JF Change of use from a shop (Use class A1) to a café (Use class A3).

subject to conditions 13 Pembroke Road Southville BS3 1PP Erection of roof/second floor rear extension, extension over outrigger/back addition and second floor rear balcony. Refused 15 Pembroke Road Southville BS3 1PP Erection of roof/second floor rear extension, extension over existing outrigger/back addition and second floor rear balcony.

Refused 25 Howard Road Southville BS3 1QE Erection of rear dormer window roof extension and roof extension over outrigger. Granted

Land adjacent to 18 Victoria Place BS3 3BP Removal or variation of condition 10 (Restriction of parking level on site) attached to planning permission 14/00826/F for 4-bedroom dwelling. Refused

Southville Lodge, Southville Road BS3 1DG Various tree works including pollarding, crown lifting and removal of dead wood and epicormic growth.

Southville ward: Decided

79 East Street Bedminster BS3 4EX Conversion from 2 self-contained flat to four studio/1-bed flats and alterations to windows. Withdrawn

The Orchard, Clanage Road BS3 2JX Creation of vehicular access onto Parklands Road.

Granted

89 Greenway Bush Lane BS3 1SG Replacement of roof to provide extra storey of living accommodation. Granted

• The status of these applications may have changed since we went to press. Check for updates at planningonline.bristol.gov.uk

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July 2018

n HISTORY

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35

A TALE OF THE BLITZ

Lynton Road was a deadly place to live – but I don’t remember anyone leaving Continuing our occasional series on the Blitz in South Bristol, we find out how the Marksbury Road area was pummelled again and again by German bombers – and how one teenager learned to grow up fast

T

O SEE one workplace destroyed might be thought unfortunate. To lose a second could just be coincidence.

To lose four, as Oscar Wilde almost said, looks downright suspicious – unless of course the country happens to be at war.

Vic Heybyrne was 14 when the bombs started falling on Bristol in 1940 – part of the Blitz that lasted on and off until 1942.

A trainee motor engineer, he saw four of the workshops where he was trying to learn his trade destroyed or put out of action by the Luftwaffe.

But of course, like every other Bristolian who stayed in the city during the Blitz, he saw far worse – not only wholesale destruction of the city centre and of hundreds of homes, but death and injury all around him.

Vic, doesn’t remember any of the despondency or panic which is mentioned in some accounts of the Home Front in Bristol – just a tight-knit community that was determined to show a brave face, and just get on with life – and winning the war. What follows is based on his written recollections and an interview with the Voice.

We also include the memories of Kathleen Braywood, who also remembers the Bedminster Blitz.

T

he German air force, the Luftwaffe, was trying to damage the city so badly it could make no contribution to the war. The motor workshops of South Bristol were not high on its list of targets. It was aiming for

Devastated: Almorah Road, hit by a huge landmine in 1942 the city’s industrial and transport hubs – the harbour, Temple Meads station and high-value targets like gasworks, which if hit would cause widespread damage.

This put South Bristol in the firing line. Other districts close to the city centre were hit too, but the south was an easy target – it was close to the River Avon, which was used as a navigation aid by the German pilots.

The weapons dropped by the Luftwaffe were designed to cause widespread destruction. Large bombs weighing 250kg (550lb) or more used high explosive to blow buildings apart.

Hundreds of small incendiary bombs were often dropped at the same time. The 1kg (2.2lb) Elektron bomb set itself on fire on impact, blazing hot enough to melt steel. If one of these lodged in the roof of a house it would burn it down. But the slow-burn action could be a lifeline to those on the ground, as we will see.

Vic Heybyrne was born in

PHOTO: Facey Collection, Bristol Archives 41969/1/46

Redcliffe in May 1926. His roots were very local: his mother’s family were from Redcliffe and his father’s from St John’s Lane.

The area around St Mary Redcliffe is now known mainly for the views of its elegant church, but until World War 2 its

tightly-packed streets were full of homes that would now be classed as slums. “We had an outhouse with a boiler in it where my mother would make the best Christmas pudding,” he said.

But the whole area was Continued overleaf

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July 2018

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36

n HISTORY

n HISTORY

fearsome reputation. For one thing, Vic says, the soldiers wore no ear defenders or safety protection.

“The biggest fright I had in the war was waiting in a queue to fire this thing. When you fired it, by pressing a button, there was no brake in the system so it would shake the whole platform and the flames would singe your uniform!

“The twin rocket projectors we used later had a lever and a brake which held it in position. It was

rumoured later that when the Americans did a practice on this thing, half of them ran away!”

Whitchurch Lane was one of two rocket sites defending Bristol.

There were meant to be five, but the others were never built.

“There were 64 projectors on site with two rockets each, each with 4lb of TNT. The timers were set in the nose cone and the aim was to have all the rockets explode in a mile-wide cube in the air.” This was meant to destroy any plane in the affected airspace.

The Bristol rockets were only fired once – but Vic believes that they had an effect. The barrage deterred the bombers from approaching Bristol, and the raid switched to Bath, he says, with one aircraft being brought down.

Bristol historian John Penn, however, believes that the target on April 25, 1942, was always meant to be Bath, which was undefended by anti-aircraft guns.

Penny says bad navigation brought some of the bombers over Brislington, where their bombs killed 18 people and injured 14.

Continued from page 35 rat-infested. “We used to drown the rats in the boiler. The kitchen had a stone floor, the cupboards were nailed shut and we still caught a rat every time we put a gin trap down.

“We didn’t have cats as pets, we had cats to keep the rats away!” Vic told the Voice. When he was 10, the family had to move when Pile Street was widened to form Redcliffe Way. They were given a new council home in Lynton Road, part of the new estate being built around Marksbury Road, Bedminster.

“We moved from a ratinfested home into a council house and it was luxury,” Vic said. No matter that they still had a coal bunker in the kitchen, and

the toilet was in the back porch.

“We still had a bath we had to fill by hand but it was luxury because the water was heated by gas.”

Young Vic was mechanicallyminded and found a job at age 14 working for Joseph Fish & Sons, a transport company and garage owner. But his first workplace was to last no longer than the first major air raid on the city centre. On Sunday November 24, 1940, the Luftwaffe sent 148 bombers to the city. With the RAF still learning how to intercept bombers at night, and Bristol woefully undersupplied with anti-aircraft guns, the raiders were able to drop their bombs almost unhindered for four hours.

This first major raid was also the most destructive. The central

shopping area, clustered on medieval streets around what is now Castle Park, was almost completely destroyed. More than 200 people were killed and 890 injured. About 10,000 homes were damaged, and 1,400 people made homeless.

Vic was one of the luckier victims: all he lost was the garage he worked at in Victoria Street.

He transferred to a sister garage, Fish & Mullets on Coronation Road (sited where the Asda car park is today).

When he worked on the car belonging to the manager of the Bedminster Hippodrome cinema, known as the Stoll, his reward was free tickets [see panel, p38].

A few weeks later, enjoying this free perk was to lead him closer into danger. On January 3, 1941, an air raid siren interrupted Vic’s enjoyment of a film, Tom Brown’s Schooldays.

“I spent the remainder of the evening in a Little Paradise Street shelter,” recalled Vic. “On leaving the shelter and walking back down East Street, I saw the remains of the Stoll and other damage, the apples and vegetables strewn across the pavement of a shop opposite the old library – and also the destruction of my second workplace on Coronation Road.”

It was also the end for the Stoll – though it hadn’t been flattened, it was damaged too badly to be used again, and it was demolished after the war.

Vic’s garage had also been put out of action, and he was sent to a third Fish’s workshop, at Pennywell Road in Easton, by the side of the River Frome. But this was soon flattened in another raid. “I could see the fish floating down the river, masses of them”, said Vic. This time Vic found a new job, at the Bristol Motor Co, which had a prominent art deco

showroom in Winterstoke Road.

“However, celebrating this by visiting the Ambassador cinema in Winterstoke Road that very evening was quickly curtailed by an air raid warning and, on leaving the cinema, observing that Bristol Motor Co was ablaze!

Needless to say I needed to seek other employment!”

Vic then found the post that would last him the rest of the war, at Auto Engine Services at Glasshouse Lane, off Feeder Road in St Philip’s.

Vic’s developing skills as a motor engineer meant that, though he was promised he would be called up for war service, he never was.

“I had three medicals and at the first one they said you will be in the Marines by such and such a date – and then they said you have to stay and work,” he said.

In the end he stayed at Auto Engine Services until he became fed up of being paid a boy’s wages. After a row with the boss, he went back to Fish & Mullets in 1946, until a short time later when he got his call-up papers.

competing with US servicemen who were stationed in Bristol, many of them billeted at White City, the former exhibition centre at Ashton Vale.

“I was the jitterbugging champion of Bristol and West in 1943 – that kept me fit,” he said.

With so many Americans in town, and few young British men, as so many had been called up, Vic found he was popular with the ladies. “I was a jitterbugging fiend, I was 17, lucky not to be in the army, and all the girls had the option of a British lad or the

Yanks.” Like many others, he was shocked to see that the US services were segregated – black soldiers were separated from white ones, and the black men got heavy treatment from their own military police, or MPs. “The only place you could dance on a Sunday was the basement below the Council House. It was a British Restaurant [a wartime subsidised café, which in Bristol featured live music].

“It was 3d a time [58p in today’s money] and the Yanks used to go in there. You would

have fights, and those white MPs would go in with their truncheons.”

But there was dancing to be had closer to home, too: “We used to go to dances in the Wills staff hall, where Asda car park is now, the Raleigh Road Co-op, and the Wells Road YMCA. It was all dance halls round Bedminster.”

Dancing was always to live music and Vic remembers some of the bands – “We were well away with Jimmy Dunsford and his band, he was one of the best, he played the Wills on a Saturday and Raleigh Road on a Monday.”

Ready, take aim, fire: A ZTT rocket projector, similar to those used in Bristol

W

PHOTO: Imperial War Museum

projector was [garage colleague] Fred Mollison. The rockets had a meter on the nose to set the range.

“We had a competition with the regular soldiers, and Fred and I were selected as the team that had to simulate a misfire. We beat the regulars because we were young lads and used to using micrometers.”

Vic’s father, a sergeant in the Home Guard, was watching and was very proud.

But the early rockets had a

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southbristolvoice

A TALE OF THE BLITZ

ROCKET MAN HNEN Vic Heybyrne turned 16 he was excused the call-up, as mechanics were vital to the war effort.

But he was expected to do his bit by joining the Home Guard. At his group’s first meeting in Winterstoke Road, “this sergeant asked if anyone did any fishing.” Vic put his hand up. “You are used to working with nets, so you can put the camouflage up!” he was told.

“That taught me a lesson.”

Vic’s platoon crewed an anti-aircraft rocket battery in Whitchurch Lane, on duty one night in five.

“We would stand there all night, sometimes with our hobnail boots frozen to the ground. We were discharged at 4am and always given pilchards for breakfast. I would sit at home for an hour in my uniform, then it was time to go to work!” he recalled.

Vic’s mechanical training gave him an advantage working with the ZTT rockets, which were six feet (2m) long.

“My No 2 on the rocket

July 2018

NIGHTS ON THE TOWN

T

HE GOVERNMENT ordered the closure of cinemas on the outbreak of war in 1939, fearing mass casualties if a bomb fell on one. But the order was soon lifted, because it was recognised that in wartime, entertainment was more important than ever.

As well as watching films, Vic enjoyed dancing and was a prizewinner at jitterbugging – the fast-paced American dance craze which swept the UK in the 1940s.

From 1942, Brits like Vic were

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37

A TALE OF THE BLITZ

Ruined: Vic Heybyrne never started his job at the Bristol Motor Co in Ashton – the Luftwaffe got there first. Firefighters are on the left PHOTO: Facey Collection, Bristol Archives 41969/1/42

A

s if seeing one workplace after another destroyed wasn’t enough, Vic saw plenty of destruction around his home in Lynton Road.

The first raid to affect the Heybyrne family was a devastating attack on the BAC aircraft works at Filton, on September 25, 1940, where Vic’s father worked. Six bomb shelters were hit and 91 BAC staff killed.

“My father was in one of the bombed shelters and, although not physically harmed, I recall him suffering some sort of post traumatic shock 12 months later,” Vic said.

“Two days later, when the second raid on the aircraft works was attempted, I was allowed outside to watch the dogfight that took place over the city.

Ironically, morale was boosted and all cheered at the sight of aircraft falling, not really knowing whether they were friend or foe!”

In fact, Vic and his mates had good reason to cheer. The Luftwaffe had attacked in daylight but were intercepted over Bristol by the Hurricane pilots of 504 Squadron, who had made Filton its base only the previous day. The RAF routed the raiders, who were forced to jettison their bombs before reaching the aircraft plant. Ten of the 52 Messerschmidt 110s which formed the raid were shot down.

This was an unsustainable rate of loss, and the daylight raids were abandoned.

“This boost to morale was short-lived, however,” said Vic. Weeks later came the “Sunday night Blitz” referred to above, when his Victoria Street workplace was destroyed along with much of the city centre.

“The following morning, I remember the scene of despondent fellow workmates, watching firemen in freezing Continued overleaf

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n HISTORY

A TALE OF THE BLITZ

July 2018

n HISTORY

Continued from page 37 conditions frantically trying to quell fires still raging and the numerous hoses interlaced across the road with icicles hanging from leaking points.

“My own recollections of this fateful evening include viewing, with three other lads, the flares lighting up the city centre from the back door of the Marksbury Lads Club in Wedmore Vale. We spent the rest of the evening in the underground air raid shelter at the triangular green close by, singing songs, trying to cheer up the other occupants.”

Somehow the reality of what

was happening had not quite sunk in for Vic. He recalled: “Undisturbed and walking along Marksbury Road the following morning, I was shaken into some reality by the sight of bomb craters, particularly a large one filled with muddy water blocking the entry to Lynton Road.”

And on reaching home, there was more news to shake Vic: “I was further alarmed to learn my mother had spent the whole night in the Anderson shelter on a wooden chair with my younger brother on her lap, in water up to her knees, and feeling concerned about my whereabouts!” The

bomb crater damaged the water and gas supply – there was no fresh water for a couple of days and no gas for two weeks.

“The locals had to improvise by boiling muddy water and cooking by other means, such as the fire hob,” recalled Vic. “The problem of cooking the Sunday joint was overcome by taking the meat tin to the baker, Dewfalls on the corner of Cotswold and Brendon roads, and as the result of collecting two tins with hot meat, our own plus another as a favour to a Mrs Sheppard, I had the mishap of spilling warm fat down my

ome incidents were both alarming and amusing. On the evening of the Good Friday raid, on April 11, 1941, Vic was near the back door of his house, 78 Lynton Road.

“I was standing with another lad, Albert Mills, and boasting that you could tell by the sound of the engines that the aircraft above was a Bristol Beaufighter.

The inaccuracy of this remark was exposed by the sound of a

falling bomb and the two of us attempting to dash back into the archway, colliding with my father whose theory was, ‘out of the arch to avoid the blast and back in to avoid the falling shrapnel’.

My tin hat struck him under the chin and he swallowed his false teeth, but despite him nearly choking, he managed to push us out and drag us back into shelter.

Something to smile about!

“Other tales of that night include the story of Mr Hardwell, saved by a visit to the toilet and left with the chain in his hand as he pulled the flush when the rest of the house was destroyed.”

Also flattened were the adjacent and opposite houses, including the home of relations at 33 Lynton Road.

Further up the road Vic found another comical picture – next to another scene of destruction.

“Searching for my Aunt Floss and young cousins (Uncle Bert Simmonds was away in the army), I found them in a neighbour’s Anderson shelter with two other families, all blocked from view by a Mrs Campbell, who was stuck fast sat on the step, halfway in the door, with only her large rear end protruding outside, miraculously not damaged despite the nearby bomb explosions!

“Exploring the destruction, I discovered my uncle’s dog cowered under a bath in the debris, safe and well. But next door at No 31 Mr Summers was buried and severely injured.”

Vic was about to cheat death once more. He was with his father and family friend Tom Hill under Tom’s front porch when they heard the a bomb falling.

“We decided to duck around the side of the house. The bomb destroyed the porch and landed

BLITZ DEATHS, BRISTOL

Central Clinic, Bedminster.

• 194 Marksbury Road Raymond Frederick Sanders, 2, of 19 Vale Lane, Bedminster, son of Frederick Thomas and Violet May Sanders.

• 196 Marksbury Road Margaret Lilian Matthews, 15 months, daughter of Mr and Mrs IJ Matthews.

• Gasometer, Marksbury Road Ernest Charles Thomas, 40, of 198 Marksbury Road, husband of Ivy Thomas; Jack Keith Thomas, 12, of 198 Marksbury Road, son.

• Martock Road shelter Charles William Davis, 82, of 29 Martock Road. Died 25/11/40 at Bristol General Hospital.

• 12 Timsbury Road William Lidbury, 63, of 13 Aylesbury Road, Bedminster, husband of Rose Edith Lidbury.

• Wedmore Vale Frederick Richard Broomsgrove, 59, of 56 Wedmore Vale, husband of Eda Broomsgrove.

January 3/4, 1941 • 9 Glyn Vale Franklin Charles Gale, 37, father of Edward Charles Gale, 13, John Franklin Gale, 15.

• 11 Glyn Vale Frances Patricia Stoneham, 44, wife of James Price Stoneham; Michael John Stoneham, 7, son; Pamela Dorothy Stoneham, 16, daughter.

March 16/17, 1941 • Pennywell Road Frederick George

Buss, 57, firewatcher, of 62 Pennywell Road. Husband of Louisa Emily Buss.

April 11/12, 1941 • Martock Road shelter Lily M Daveridge, 40, of 60 York Street, St Philip’s, wife of Sidney Baden Powell Daveridge.

• 45 Martock Road Samuel J Jones; Alice Searle, 75; James Searle, 65, husband.

• 57 Marksbury Road Florence Florina Carpenter 24, wife of Stanley Robert Carpenter; Robert Neil Carpenter, 2, son; Henrietta Dyson, 58, wife of AH Dyson.

• 63 Marksbury Road Worthy Charles Horseman, 36,

firewatcher, husband of Rose Florence Horseman.

• 21 Haldon Close William Henry Ayton, 73, of 22 Haldon Close, husband of Ada E Ayton.

• 48 Lynton Road Gertrude Ellen Millard, 63, widow of George Kempton Millard; Grace Alexandra Millard, 44, daughter.

• 50 Lynton Road Edna Joyce Challenger, 19, daughter of Jim T Challenger; Florence Elizabeth Challenger, 47, wife of J J Challenger; Iris Challenger, 18 months, daughter of AG Challenger; Joan Challenger, 4, daughter of AG Challenger.

• 61 St Dunstan’s Road Florence

PERKS OF THE JOB

I

N THE DAYS of petrol rationing, Vic found that his job on the hand-wound petrol pumps at Joseph Fish & Sons gave him the chance to do some customers a valuable favour.

He said: “I was just 14 when I worked at the petrol pumps in Victoria Street and I was so small I used to stand on sandbags to wind the handle on the pump! It was easy to wangle the readings on the pump to give them extra petrol on their coupons. I was also friendly with a Lloyds bank manager and a tobacconist on Victoria Street – I had the best cigarette case and lighter you could have!”

A later job at Coronation Road led to Vic servicing a car belonging to the manager of the Bedminster Hippodrome – the grand 2,156-seat cinema in East Street, standing next to the former tobacco offices on East Street, at the corner of now-pedestrianised Lombard Street. Vic had a free pass to any show – and he was present at the last film shown in the building, as our story relates.

1940-1942 Marksbury Road area, and other places mentioned in the text November 24/25, 1940 • 15 Doveton Street, Bedminster Frederick James Andrew Williams, 22, Son of Mr and Mrs F Williams of 7 Lynton Road, Bedminster, and Gladys Ivy Williams, 21, wife of Frederick Williams.

• 1 Glyn Vale Violet Elizabeth Fullgrave, 30, daughter of Pauline Mary Adams of 8 Kinvara Road, Filwood Park, Knowle, wife of John Fullgrave. Died 25/11/40 at the

Grand show: The Bedminster Hippodrome, on the corner of East Street and Lombard Street, in 1922. It was built as a variety theatre in 1911 to a design by noted architect Bertie Crewe. There was seating in stalls, dress circle and balcony. But it struggled against the new feature films and was bought by the Stoll cinema empire in 1915. Variety acts played there until the 1930s.

PHOTO: Bristol Archives 43207/9/13/42 Sunday suit. This lady then spent an hour after dinner removing the fat by pressing the suit using a hot iron and brown paper.”

S

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Vic, far left in the middle row, played rugby for Redcliffe school’s U14 team in 1939. Val Sidoli, fifth from left, middle row, lived in Redcliffe until he died in April. Captain Edgar Neal, centre, lives in Southmead. in the front garden less than 10 yards away, but we all escaped injury because it failed to explode!” Tom and his wife later had to move out of the house and they spent a couple of weeks with the Heybyrnes until the unexploded bomb was removed.

Ironically, Vic’s mother and younger brother had been staying with the Hills, to avoid the thick smoke from a blazing gas main in the middle of Marksbury Road.

Vic alerted his father and Tom Hill to the plight of Mr Summers, still buried in the wreckage of No 31. “I was despatched to get help at the First Action depot in Malago Road. Running along Marksbury Road, there was a stick of bombs falling and I was in between them. I dived into a privet hedge, as if that would do me any good!”

Perhaps in a sense of denial about how close he had come to death, Vic remembers clearly his arrival at the depot and starting to report the situation, amused to see the civil defence volunteers hiding under the tables. But the

dangers weren’t over. “Returning to Lynton Road, my luck continued when passing the Engineer’s Arms [on St John’s Lane – now the Brunel] I waved to the landlord, George Wagstaff, and companion, just as a bomb fell. Unknown to me at the time, it severely injured George and killed the other person. Although blown off my feet, my only damage was a large dent in the fire-watching tin hat I was wearing and I carried on unconcerned, arriving back to see Mr Summers rescued by a group of neighbours, including my father, well before the presence of any civil defence personnel.

“Mr Summers subsequently recovered in hospital and, together with his family, was re-housed in St John’s Crescent.

George Wagstaff also recovered.

“Tragic events sadly remembered of the same raid include the Anderson shelter at No 56 receiving a direct hit and killing two women.” Even more poignant is the story of “a young mother, her sister and two

Ellen Joyce, 57; Harold Ernest Joyce, 57, husband.

• 36 Wedmore Vale Mary Jane Welch, 82, widow of J Welch, died 15/4/41 at Southmead Hospital.

• 2 Bedminster Road Mary Jane Long, 68; Richard Long, 68, husband.

June 11/12, 1941 • Willway Street Herbert Alfred Hutton, 74, of 5 Willway Street.

• 5 Willway Street Alice Gertrude Webster, 47, wife of Frederick James Webster; Lilian Mary Webster, 16, daughter.

• 6 Willway Street Reginald Thomas Alden, 36, husband of Leah Alden.

• 8 Willway Street John Gillett, 67,

of 25 Littleton Road, Bedminster.

• Balloon Barrage site 51/12, Victoria Park Aircraftsman Duncan McDonnell, 997865, No 951 (BB) Sq RAF, of St John’s Lane, Bedminster and 15 Tark Street, Nairn, Scotland. Died 12/6/41 at Bristol Royal Infirmary.

• 10 Almorah Road Arthur Edgar Walks, 49; Minnie Walks, 49, wife.

13 Almorah Road Ivy Mary Jordan, 28, wife of Alfred Jordan; Terence George Jordan, 7, son.

• 15 Almorah Road Florence Glendinning, Harry Gendinning, 61, fire guard, 58, husband; Doris Nellie Glendinning, 16, daughter; Harry Edwin Glendinning, 18, fire

39

A TALE OF THE BLITZ daughters from No 58, forced by the husband to take shelter.”

They were running down the garden path towards their air raid shelter when a bomb dropped and killed all three. The husband remained unharmed in the house.

“Another tragedy that remains vivid in the memory was the destruction of one of the two gasometers in Marksbury Road and the cooling water from its lining enveloping the adjacent gardens and drowning a family of seven and others trapped in their Anderson shelters.

“The devastation of the locality was obvious the following day, seeing huge holes through the sides of houses, caused by large water pipes blown out of the ground and littering the area.”

V

ic also remembers the impact of other raids on the centre of Bedminster, where many more bombs fell (a story we’ll cover another time).

“Equally devastating and perhaps remembered by most of the older readers for its effect on the Bedminster community, was an isolated raid on June 11, 1941, when a single bomber dropped two land mines, one causing severe damage in Almorah Road, Windmill Hill and the other destroying a large proportion of property in Willway Street, Bedminster.

“In addition to the casualties, it was stated that seven firewatchers were killed running towards the parachute of the latter, under the impression that it was a flyer bailing out!”

During yet another raid Vic and his friend Stan Dagger performed an act of heroism when a stick of incendiary bombs Continued overleaf guard, son; Kathleen Joyce Glendinning, 19, daughter.

• 19 Almorah Road Nita Chapple, 4, daughter of Cyril and Gwendoline Chapple.

• From the register of those who died in the Bristol Blitz compiled by John Penny at fishponds.org.uk No comprehensive war memorial exists to commemorate those who lost their lives during German air attacks on the Bristol area. Many civilians are buried in mass graves at Greenbank cemetery.

This is believed the be the most accurate list compiled, though it does not always tally with our story.

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like comradeship. What you saw was groups of men standing near their houses, on lookout.”

Some families in South Bristol, especially those few with a car, would decamp each night to villages in the Chew Valley, where they would rent rooms.

But not in Lynton Road – Vic only remembers one man who used to leave the estate, for the relative safety of Novers Lane.

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used to be so well bonded,” he said, that they never even left the housing estate during raids.

“For boys of my age it was bravado – you feel that you have got to set an example, as if it wasn’t going to get you down.

“What surprises me is that you read articles and heard stories that people were panicking during the raids, but I never knew of any panic on the estates. It was more

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became the refuge for some of those bombed out of their homes, including Vic’s aunt and cousins.

“Families slept huddled together on the hall floor, ably cared for by volunteers. My aunt and family were subsequently re-housed at No 54 Lynton Road, and the Hardwells in Dawlish Road.

After the war was over for most, Vic was sent on National Service to Palestine, soon to become Israel. Afterwards he became an engineer: at first he

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Elektron bombs were designed to burn fiercely without exploding – but it wasn’t to be long before the Germans inserted an explosive charge too.

In the meantime though, the incendiaries could sometimes be defeated, as Vic noted: “The only damage that night was a fire in the attic of Tom Stevens – one of the group that came running – and he and his son managed to extinguish it with a stirrup pump.”

The Marksbury Lads Club

AMILIES were often split on whether to leave Bristol for safety from air raids. Many children, like Kathleen Braywood, were sent to relatives in Wales.

Many went to Somerset or Devon.

Others, like Vic Heybyrne’s family, stayed put. Vic attributes this to the strong community spirit. “The men in Lynton Road

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Continued from page 39 dropped onto Lynton Road.

“Stan and I, alerted by flashes and the sound of popping through the blackout curtains, ran out, lifted a couple of manhole covers in the road and were kicking burning bombs down the holes as a group of men, including our fathers, came running frantically from the Engineers Arms!” he recalled.

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terrible damage wrought around him, in West Street and other parts of Bedminster.

One terrible scene was the devastation of Palmyra Road.

Kathleen remembers hearing of rescuers arriving to find a pile of rubble where a house had stood and being told, “There are six people under that.” All six were rescued.

In early 1943, when the threat of air raids seemed past, Kathleen

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cottage to themselves – before long more members of the family came to escape the devastation of the Good Friday raids on Bristol in April 1941. Two more aunts, three cousins and Kathleen’s grandmother came to stay, leaving Kathleen sleeping on the floor.

They were to stay in Wales for two and half years. “We were safe and dad came to visit us every month,” said Kathleen. Her father kept the shop open despite the

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On parade: Kathleen Braywood (inset) pictured with her Girls Brigade pals being presented to Princess Margaret on a postwar visit to Bristol in 1949

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ATHLEEN Braywood, 85, also lived through the Blitz in Bedminster – though she was spared the sight of some of its horrors by being evacuated.

Kathleen lives in Churchlands Road, just around the corner from the house where she was born in Brighton Terrace. Sadly her husband, Maurice, passed away while this article was being written.

Her father, William Owen, kept a hardware shop in West Street, opposite the Argus fish and chip shop (which is still there on the corner of South Road).

Bristol had been peaceful for the first year of the war, but when the bombing started in November 1940, Bedminster immediately started taking punishment.

“People started to get their windows broken and Dad said to Mum, ‘Write to your Aunt Marianne and she will take you in’.”

Aunt Marianne was more than willing to provide a refuge, and soon the Owens – Mum and four daughters – were off to her home in Talgarth, Mid Wales.

Kathleen’s younger twin sisters, Gwen and Grace, stayed with their mother and aunt, while Kathleen, eight, and her older sister Margaret stayed with a neighbour.

The girls all went to Talgarth school. Soon enough the family were reunited – a cottage was found for them a mile or so away at Bronnlys. But they didn’t have the

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

July 2018

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Two-course meal, one cocktail or drink. £25, 7.30-11.30pm.

Facebook: SouthBank Club n Andy Christie Quartet El Rincon, North Street.

Instrumental quartet playing the lyrical jazz-inflected compositions of pianist Andrew Christie, with Sarah Moody on cello, Greg White on drums and Jon Short on bass. elrinconbar.com Saturday June 30 n Summer Fayre Victoria Park Baptist Church, St John’s Lane. Includes cream teas in the community café, 2-5pm.

Proceeds towards the church’s Food Bank, and a public defibrillator. victoriapark.org.uk n FoodFireEarth supper WindmillHill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster.

The farm’s café and outdoor kitchen are taken over by food writer Genevieve Taylor and chef and cookery teacher Jo Ingleby for an evening of wood-fired cookery using produce from the farm and their own allotments.

Tickets £35, 7-11pm. windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk n Stand Up For The Weekend with Ivo Graham Comedy Box at the Hen & Chicken Studio, North Street.

Said to be “posher than a corgi working the tills at Waitrose,” (Chortle magazine), apologetic ex-Eton pupil Ivo Graham was the youngest ever winner of a new act contest at the Edinburgh Fringe. With Luke Toulson and Clint Edwards. £11, 7.45pm. thecomedybox.co.uk Sunday July 1 n Summer Flowers Tour

WIN tickets to see top comics Wednesday July 18 – Friday 27 n Double Deckers Comedy WANT to see some of the top names in comedy performing their Edinburgh Fringe shows, without going to Scotland? The Comedy Box promotes an eight-day programme of stand-up from some of the top UK circuit performers at the refurbished Hen & Chicken Studio in Southville.

The Double Deckers comedy series features 16 top acts – two each night – including Abandoman, Lucy Porter, Glenn Wool, Paul Sinha, Alfie Brown, Tom Ward and Andrew Lawrence. It’s the Comedy Box’s eleventh year of producing Double Decker shows.

As many of the names are familiar from TV, booking is recommended. Tickets are £9, or Arnos Vale cemetery, Bath Road.

Join an experienced ecologist on a journey around the beautiful summer flowers that bloom in Arnos Vale. 11am-12.30pm, £5. arnosvale.org.uk/events Tuesday July 3 n Drink’n’Draw Tobacco Factory bar, North Street. All invited to draw, scribble, doodle, sketch and drink. Suggested donation of £3; first come, first served, 7.45-9.45pm. tobaccofactory.com/whats-on Tuesday July 3 & Wednesday 4 n The Woman Next Door Acta theatre, Gladstone Street, Bedminster. “Problems seem much bigger when you face them alone. Why not share them

Unrivalled collection of photo swaps

Hillary Clinton at the Liberty Awards, held at the Nation Constitution Center, Philadelphia, 2013.

Until September 15 n Magnum Swaps: David Hurn’s Collection Martin Parr Gallery, Paintworks, Bath Road

this collection are on show at the Martin Parr Foundation, which can be found in Phase 3 of Paintworks – up the steps in the new area of the complex, to the right of the Victorian buildings.

It includes works by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alec Soth, Elliott Erwitt and Newsha Tavakolian.

Admission free. martinparrfoundation.org/ exhibitions

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PHOTO: ©Christopher Anderson / Magnum Photos

AVID Hurn has made a request to every new fellow-member of the famous Magnum photographers’ co-operative – will you swap a print with me?

Over six decades he has built

up a vast and varied collection of more than 600 prints from some of the finest documentary photomakers on the planet. Highlights of

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n WHAT’S ON

n WHAT’S ON Thursday June 21 –Saturday June 30 n Welcome to Thebes Tobacco Factory theatre.

The students of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School present Moira Buffini’s Welcome to Thebes, which premiered at the National Theatre in June 2010 to critical acclaim. Faced with an impoverished population, a shattered infrastructure and a volatile army, the first democratic president of Thebes, Eurydice, promises peace to her nation.

Without the aid of Theseus, the leader of the vastly wealthy state of Athens, she doesn’t stand a chance. But Theseus is arrogant, mercurial and motivated by profit. A swaggering opposition circles, impatient for insurrection. Ages 14+, tickets £12 (limited availability), 7.30pm, matinees Thursday and Saturday 2.30pm, no show Sunday. tobaccofactorytheatres.com Wednesday June 27 n Jim Johnston + The Jesus Bolt + The Cormorants + Foulplay The Thunderbolt, Bath Road, Totterdown. Bristolbased songwriter & guitarist Jim Johnston launches his third album, Three-Dimensional Living. The Jesus Bolt are Hazel Winter and Gerard Starkie, formed to promote Hazel’s book of poetry, I’m Scared Of The Pig On The City Farm, due in July. £5, 7.30-11.30pm. thethunderbolt.net Friday June 29 n Funk, Fajitas & Margaritas SouthBank Club, Dean Lane, Southville. A night of Mexican food and music with a local funk duo, and more entertainment.

July 2018

Looking in: Lucy Porter is one of the stars in the Double Deckers comedy series £6 each if you book three shows. thecomedybox.co.uk WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO YOUR CHOICE OF DOUBLE DECKERS ...

We have three pairs of Double Deckers tickets to give away – and you can choose which of the eight shows you want to see if you can answer this question: • How many years has the Comedy Box been presenting Double Deckers shows?

Answers to paul@ southbristolvice.co.uk by July 13 or to 18 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BX. Include your name, address and phone number. with the woman next door?”

An original show by the Stories theatre company of St Paul’s. A warm tale about getting to know your local community. 7pm, £3. acta-bristol.com Highlighted listings cost just £5: email sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk Friday July 6 & Saturday 7 n An Elephant In the Garden Tobacco Factory theatre, North Street. By War Horse creator Michael Morpurgo, this story about a family fleeing the Nazi regime chimes with the plight of refugees today. It’s 1945, Dresden, where Lizzie, her mother and an escaped zoo elephant try to avoid bombing by the RAF, the advance of the US army and Russian soldiers coming from the other direction.

Tickets from £12, 7.30pm. tobaccofactorytheatres.com Saturday July 7 n Neubau Eyewear Launch Party Lynne Fernandes Optometrists, Wells Road, Totterdown. Exclusively browse the new Neubau collection including sunglasses. Enjoy a special offer on the day, refreshments, free prize draw and more, 9am-5pm. lynnefernandes.co.uk n DIY Sensor Workshop Knowle West Media Centre,

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

Leinster Avenue. Did you know that you can make sensors with yarns and fabrics? Learn how to sew and knit sensors that sense movement and motion, then make this data visual. No experience required. Details on 0117 903 0444 or e-mail martha. king@kwmc.org.uk. 10.30am4.30pm. Suggested donation £5 but you can attend for free. kwmc.org.uk/events n Summer Garden Fete St Martin’s Church and grounds, St Martin’s Road, Knowle, 2pm.

Afternoon teas and cakes, games, bric-a-brac, toys and plants. n Coffee Morning for Methodist Women in Britain Fund Bedminster Methodist Church, British Road, Bedminster. 10.30am-12 noon.

With stalls including cakes, books and bric-a-brac. Tea and coffee. n Open Stage Saltcellar Folk Club, Totterdown Baptist church, entrance off Cemetery Road.

This open mic night is one of the most popular events of the Saltcellar calendar. 7.30pm, entry £1. Refreshments served, glasses available if you bring your own alcohol. saltcellarfolk.org.uk Monday July 9 Lymphoedema Awareness and Information Day Spire Conference Centre, Aztec West, 11am-3pm. Garment suppliers, healthcare professionals and support services will be presenting an exhibition of everything connected with the treatment of lymphoedema. Free to attend, all welcome. Light refreshments. Spire Oncology Centre, 300 Park Avenue, Aztec West, Almondsbury BS32 4SY. Email BristolAndDistrictLymph@ gmail.com for details. sites.google.com/site/ bristollymph Tuesday July 10 – Saturday 14 n Anne Boleyn Tobacco Factory theatre, North Street.

Howard Brenton puts the story of Henry VIII’s second wife in a new light. Boleyn has been portrayed by history as both a victim and a sexual predator. Here, Bristol’s Kelvin Players try to balance the picture of a woman who changed the course of England’s religious beliefs. Tickets £12 (limited availability), 7.30pm; matinee at 2pm on Saturday. tobaccofactorytheatres.com

South Bristol makes the stage move for Shakespeare Tuesday July 3 – Saturday 14 n 1599 Stackpool Playhouse, St Thomas Mar church, Stackpool Road, Southville.

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D VINEY, assistant director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, wrote 1599 and directs a community cast in a show about a year of disasters for the Bard as critics encircled him and his theatre was dismantled.

Yet it was also the year in which the Bard sealed his reputation by writing Henry V, Julius Caesar, As you Like it and Hamlet. It’s billed as

Wednesday July 11 – Thursday 12 n Henna Night Paintworks, Bath Road. Judith leaves her exboyfriend a message saying she’s not coping with their break-up, she might be pregnant, she has bought some henna to dye her hair – or she might slash her wrists. But it’s his new partner, Ros, who hears the message, and she rushes to Judith’s bedsit … £5.50-£8.50, 7.30pm. paintworksbristol.co.uk Thursday July 12 n Quantum Physics For Beginners Loco Club, Temple Meads. A Funzing talk on the weirdness of the quantum world, where the atoms in your body are able to exist in two or more places at once. With Michael Brooks, who (luckily) has a PhD in quantum physics. £12, 7pm. locobristol.com/shows Friday July 13 n Ed Force One The Tunnels, Temple Meads. Ed Force One are a tribute band formed in 2017 to pay homage to “the mighty Iron Maiden”. With support from The Fumes and Metal Gods. Tickets £12, 8pm. thetunnelsbristol.co.uk Saturday July 14 n The Shakespeare Heptet Arnos Vale cemetery, Bath Road. As part of the Bristol Shakespeare Festival, experience a haunting folkblues musical reimagining of Shakespeare’s sonnets. The Shakespeare Heptet explore

Beset by troubles: A comic look at a year that almost broke the Bard a fantastic, laugh-out-loud, illumination of Shakespeare and his plays, and if it’s anything to go by, its forerunner last year, Shakespeare’s Worst, was a sellout.

Expect the very stage to come alive and to see Bill Shakespeare as

you’ve never seen him before.

It’s part of Bristol Shakespeare Festival, which has dozens of events across Bristol. Tickets £13, £11 and £6 for children. 7.45pm, matinée 2.30pm Saturday. bristolshakespearefestival.org.uk

the Bard’s preoccupation with mortality, death and the agony of love. £14, 7.30-9pm. Bar. arnosvale.org.uk Sunday July 15 n Underfall Yard walk Knowle & Totterdown Local History Society. Join Steve Hallam on a tour of the historic Underfall Yard at Bristol’s Floating Harbour. Email info@ knowleandtotterdownhistory. org.uk for details. knowleandtotterdownhistory. org.uk Monday July 16 n Book Group Windmill Hill community centre, Vivian Street.

Meets on the third Monday of every month, 8.30pm. whca.org.uk

Tuesday July 17 Henry V Bedminster library, Bedminster Parade. “My horse, my horse, my kingdom for a horse!” Shakespeare’s most famus history play condensed to an hour on a tour of libraries as part of Bristol Shakespeare Festival. £8/£5, 8pm. bristolshakespearefestival.org.uk Tuesday July 17 – Friday 27 n South Western Tobacco Factory theatre, North Street.

An odyssey of revenge from the mean streets of Bristol to the perilous cliffs of Cornwall, via Wookey Hole, the Eden Project and Easton-in-Gordano services.

Award-winning Bristol company Wardrobe Ensemble (creators Continued overleaf

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July 2018

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n WHAT’S ON Tender journey into a mind that’s fragile REVIEW: The Nature of Forgetting Tobacco Factory HIS is the most joyous, tender, gorgeous piece of ensemble movement, mime and music.

A father and daughter prepare for a birthday party. But he is slipping in and out of memories until the present and past are hard to distinguish, starting with a simple search to remember which suit he’s been told to wear.

Schooldays are captured beautifully, with the cast playing teenagers so authentically we are

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Continued from page 43 of 1972: The Future of Sex) present notorious villains, doomed love affairs and thighslapping folk music: “a spaghetti western with Cornish pasties”.

From £12, 7.30pm; matinées Saturday and Thursday July 26. tobaccofactorytheatres.com Wednesday July 18 n Pamper Night Zion, Bishopsworth Road. For women only: a revitalising pamper with friends. Treatments include reiki, Indian head massage, reflexology, feet and nail treatments, hot stones, hand massage, chiropractor advice and more. 6.30-9,30pm, treatments from £5. Entry £2.50, includes glass of bubbly, bar. zionbristol.co.uk

right there with them, a group of friends passing messages, messing about when the teacher’s not looking, and forming lifelong bonds. A vignette on a bicycle is absolute magic – our hero cycles to school, dawdling then sprinting, then his girl rides the bike as he runs alongside, faster and slower, overtaking each other, before she jumps on the handlebars and they ride together. This is all enacted with a non-moving bicycle, fixed on the stage. It’s so joyful, carefree, nostalgic and well done it brings a lump to my throat.

Clothes rails become scenery as well as holding costumes; desks and chairs are spun, slid and danced into place, the cast moving in and between scenes in complex creative sequences. Memories and Thursday July 19 & Friday 20 n The Other Side / How To Survive School (Kind Of) Acta community theatre, Gladstone Street, Bedminster.

A double-bill of shows by Bedminster Youth Theatres. “An ordinary day at Miss Winston’s Academy; science lessons, detention, Sid Jenkins getting locked in a dusty old cupboard.

No-one realised what was waiting on the other side. Everything is about to get very Unusual.”

6.30pm, £2. acta-bristol.com Saturday July 21 n Coffee Morning Bedminster Methodist Church, British Road, Bedminster, 10.30am-12 noon.

With stalls including cakes, books and bric-a-brac. Teas.

Wild women tackle Chekhov REVIEW: Three Sisters, after Anton Chekov, Tobacco Factory T STARTS in blackout. Light up, we see three women in gowns, staring into space. Black out – lights up – they’ve moved. Repeat.

They seem depressed, self-absorbed or laden with existential crisis.

The Three Sisters, Olga, Masha and Irena, are accompanied by two female musicians. At one point they are dressed as the Spice Girls, with red-headed Masha in Union Jack-sequinned dress. Later one wears a sequined balaclava, à la Pussy Riot. Mention of a fire in the city, from the original Chekov text, is timely; we all think Grenfell.

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Sisters: Getting the lines for once The sisters clothe and unclothe each other – laid bare, near-naked on stage. Discarded costumes are thrown onto a heap, which builds.

In sensual acrobatic dances the cast balance, leap, lean and loll across each other. It feels chaotic and powerful and liberating, and

July 2018

southbristolvoice

n COMPETITION Subtle balance: The Nature of Forgetting manages to bring the weird reality of memories to the stage in an enthralling piece of theatre the present are blurred as our hero loses his grip and slips between memories, good and bad.

We reach a crescendo of chaotic clattering voice and Wednesday July 25 – Friday 27 Play in 3 Days Acta theatre, Gladstone Street, Bedminster.

A challenge for young carers – create and perform a play in just three days. Email info@actabristol.com to find out more. acta-bristol.com Thursday July 26 n Murderers, Mafia Hitmen & US Prison Arnos Vale cemetery, Bath Road. Shaun Attwood, a Brit, was incarcerated in Arizona’s highest-security prisons for six years. He tells how he was protected by Two Tonys, a Mafia hitman who left a trail of corpses but claimed they “all had it coming.” Adults only; includes graphic video shot inside prison. £12, 7.30-9pm (bar open 6.30pm). arnosvale.org.uk funny – faux breastfeeding a bust of Chekov a case in point.

Abbi Greenland, who plays Masha, is the standout performer – funny, ironic, universal, with a voice that belts out some amazing numbers. They all play instruments and sing, unapologetically fearless.

This provocative production by RashDash theatre company describes Chekhov as a dead white man and asks, why do the men in this play have all the lines?

Confession: I haven’t read or seen the original Three Sisters, but I am now inspired to check it out.

The finale is a rip-roaring piece which begins with Masha reading a review of a performance of Three Sisters. It becomes poetry, then rap, then a full-bodied punk rock session. It’s remarkable.

Beccy Golding

movement, until the stage is laid bare. I was enthralled and didn’t want this performance to end. It deserved a much bigger audience than it had.

Beccy Golding

Regular events

To advertise your event here from just £5 per month, contact Ruth at sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk n Danceblast “Bristol’s most exciting dance school.” Every Saturday and Sunday at St Francis Church Hall, North Street, Southville. Saturday: juniors, 3-4 years 10-11am, 5-6 years 11am-12 noon, 7-9 years 12 noon-1.30pm, 10-11 years 1.303pm, 12-13 years 2.15-4.15pm.

Sunday: seniors 14-18 years 1.304.30pm, Tobacco Factory studio.

Call Anne on 07984 069485. danceblast.co.uk n JollyTots Music & Singing Workshops. Fun drop in music class for 0-5years and their grown-ups. No booking, just turn up! Tuesdays 10am (term time) Southville Centre, Beauley Road. £3.50 (siblings under 1 are free). jollytots.org.uk n BS3 Repair Cafe Repairs for a donation, plus cream teas and home-made cakes. 1.30-4.30pm, last Saturday of every month United Reformed Church Hall, West Street, Bedminster.

Facebook: BS3 Repair Cafe n APPilates Qualified teacher Anna Pearson holds classes Tuesday at Holy Cross primary school, Dean Lane. Intermediate 6-7pm, 7.15-8.15pm, Beginners 8.20-9.20pm. Starting soon: Mixed ability group, Thursday at Work Out Bristol, Brewery Court, North Street, 11.30am12.25pm. Booking essential.

From £7.50. Email: annapearson@ hotmail.com 07980 937726.

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

IT’S BRISTOL’S BIGGEST GIG OF THE YEAR ...

S

UMMER will finish with a flourish in Bristol as The Downs festival returns with a superb line-up featuring Noel Gallagher’s High-Flying Birds, Paul Weller, Orbital and Goldie & The Ensemble on Saturday, September 1.

Former Oasis frontman Noel will be heading up the bill, with fellow British music legend Paul Weller another heavyweight act for the event.

The Heavy, Houston trio Khruangbin, Nadine Shah and Dream Wife will also be playing to tens of thousands of music fans on Bristol’s much-loved green space.

The Avon stage will be headlined by a live set from electronic legends Orbital and will also host performances from producer-DJ Goldie and the Heritage Ensemble, Basement

Jaxx playing their world-beating DJ set, Channel One reggae soundsystem and Laid Blak.

The Information Stage, home of keynote speakers and discussion, will also return.

Conal Dodds, co-founder of co-promoters Crosstown Concerts, commented: “Noel has never headlined a show in Bristol so we are really excited to bring him and his band to the city and I think we’ve got the best line up we’ve had so far at The Downs.”

WIN A PAIR OF DOWNS FESTIVAL TICKETS!

W

E’VE got a pair of tickets – worth £55.95 each – up for grabs for The Downs Bristol on Saturday September 1. It couldn’t be easier to enter: simply tell us why you should win.

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DOWNS FESTIVAL thedownsbristol.com

Stunning line-up on the Downs: Led by Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller RULES • Send entries by email to paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk or by post to 18 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BX. You must include your name, address and phone number.

• Closing date July 31.

• Open to BS3 and BS4 residents only. Not open to employees of

the Voice or anyone connected with the show.

• No information regarding entries will be disclosed to any third party not involved in the promotion of The Downs Bristol.

• The prize is not transferable, or exchangeable. There is no cash alternative.

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

n YOUR MP

Arena process has failed in every regard, at a cost of millions

P

LANS for a major development at Temple Meads have been mooted for 20 years or more, long before my election as Bristol South MP. Countless incarnations have been raised, then discarded, falling foul of the many vagaries associated with such large-scale projects. In recent years, however, a broad body of support has developed around the arena, a proposal billed as more than a construction project. It would, we were told, create jobs both in the short and long term.

Crucially, it would benefit the area of the city that often seems overlooked – South Bristol.

It is for these reasons that I have been an “in principle” supporter of a Temple Meads arena for some time. For me, it has never been a simple, transactionary endeavour, nor one where cheapest equalled best. It represented

a meaningful investment in the fabric of Bristol South and the people of Bristol South – both sorely needed, and long overdue.

It is deeply disheartening, therefore, to read the KPMG reports into the arena project published by Bristol city council. However you read them, the reports are very bad news for South Bristol. The main takeaway is as brutal as it is shortsighted – no arena and no investment for South Bristol. In fact, the only guarantee that residents have is years of uncertainty around the Temple Meads site.

Where we needed vision, bold thinking and a willingness to invest boldly, we were instead presented with Management Speak of the worst order. Moreover, there was an

n LOCAL SERVICES

AERIALS

KARIN SMYTH

unsettling reliance on intelligence from a private developer, alongside an overarching feeling that the reports simply said what they’d been asked to. They pose more questions than they answer, leading the reader through a maze, hedging bets and relying on the narrow terms of reference to avoid crucial issues.

It is an accepted fact that South Bristol needs investment, jobs and improved infrastructure. I would also contend that residents need a signal from those running the city that they are not forgotten. Instead, we are now looking at a process which has not only failed to deliver in every regard, but actually cost millions of pounds of tax payers’ money to achieve precisely nothing.

Too often, the challenges facing Bristol South residents seem overlooked when strategic decisions are taken. Embedded areas of poverty, poor transport links, and an overreliance on the city centre for jobs are all at play but, as with the recent Metrobus mess, apparently not properly considered.

We cannot allow the arena plans to be discarded without an urgent conversation about what replaces it. If the decision makers are of the opinion that the Temple Meads arena is not viable, a view I disagree with, they are duty bound to say what will take its place. One thing is certain – another 20 years of talk and uncertainty simply will not do.

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PROPERTY MAINTENANCE

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

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FITNESS

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GARDENING Don’t leave it too late!

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

southbristolvoice

T: 07811 766072

www.southbristolvoice.co.uk

July 2018

INVITATION

CJ Hole Southville invite you to accept our offer of a free sales or lettings valuation.

To arrange an appointment, please telephone the office or call in personally.

If you have instructed another agent on a sole agency and/or sole selling rights basis, the terms of those instructions must be considered to avoid a possible liability to pay two commissions.

MEDIUM SOUTH WEST

268 North Street, Southville, Bristol BS3 1JA

t: 0117 963 4373 southville@cjhole.co.uk With 17 offices covering Bristol, Gloucester and Somerset

OPENING HOURS Monday - Friday 9am - 7pm Saturday 9am - 5pm

SOUTH WEST

MEDIUM AGENCY ESTATE AGENCY YEAR 2011

The Multi Award Winning Agent