FreeBus

Well, Bristol's transport certainly needs some radical thinking, and it won't come from First.

FreeBus is little more than an idea right now - next it needs people to commit time, money, imagination and/or enthusiasm to make it - or something like it - a reality.

Benchmarking

We've got a couple of benches (simple, railway sleeper type) on the Open Space now, since the 'Friends' group reminded the Wildlife Trust that they had the funds to do it. One's on the northern edge of the copse at the Coots (great view!), the other's at the foot of the stepped path from Holsom Road.

It looks like there'll be money available for a couple more. One looks like being further down the main path towards Briz. As for the other, I thought this should be a prime site - on the steep but well used path between Showering Road and the Hollway Road shops.

Green Spaces - and the dark side of party politics

Soon after the council's plans to sell off bits of our green spaces were announced, Stockwood's LibDem candidate in the last election wrote to the other parties (including me, as his opposite number in the Green Party) to suggest that we link up in all-party (therefore no-party) opposition to it. Seemed like a good idea to me, and I said so - but it didn't have the same appeal for the Labour party, nor, more importantly, for either of our two current councillors, both of them Tories. So I'm sorry to say that a Stockwood all party consensus is a non-starter - even if we all feel the same!

There is, though, a heavy whiff of hypocrisy in the air. Selling land is a vital element of the Parks and Green Spaces Strategy, welcomed by LibDems, Tories, and Labour alike a couple of years ago. They all voted for it. And if they didn't see it coming, it's because they didn't listen to the Green Party, who pointed out at the time that selling the family silver is neither sustainable nor desirable.

I shall sign the petition being raised by our Tory councillors against selling off open green spaces as development sites, because it is as bad a policy now as it was when they voted it through. But I feel angry that they're now making party political capital out of opposing something that they both voted for in the first place.

As for the LibDems, equally responsible for the sell-off strategy, their leadership seems quite happy to hand over publicly owned land to the off-shore owner of the football club, virtually for free, while it sells off our green space here to offset some of the deep public service cuts it's making (and to employ a parkie or two elsewhere).

A pretty good day in Itahari

The decision's been made - the new regional stadium will be at Itahari. (above - pic copyright Ragu Dangal. Note the football!)

The Himalayan Times reports that
"At the celebrations rally today held at the call of the Regional Stadium Struggle Committee, political parties, social organisations, chamber of commerce and industries, various ethnic organizations, businessmen, athletes, civil society and the general public attended."

"The rally went round various parts of Itahari town. Later the local also illuminated their respective homes and exchanged greetings and happiness."

Sounds good. But I suspect that the Itahari stadium won't be built on the Bristol business model (private ownership, single club, public subsidy). Would there be a similar outpouring of spontaneous happiness here?

Other 'regional stadia' revealed by a cursory google search include Port Macquarie NSW, Wellington NZ, and South Bend Indiana - but none of them answered the question - What IS a regional stadium?

So far as I can see, the new, bigger stadium proposed at Long Ashton will be the Bristol City FC stadium, just the same as Ashton Gate (though it will probably have some sponsors name attached to it). There'll be commercial opportunities to attract conferences and guests at the linked hotel, and maybe other functions - but essentially it's simply a football ground.

The phrase 'regional stadium' seems to have come from the club itself, and the fans and the politicians and (of course) the BEP have picked it up and are using it at every opportunity.

But does anyone know what it means?

News from the 'greenest government ever'

Thursday dawns - and it's another bad day for the planet. The government's due to kill off its sustainability watchdog, the Sustainable Development Commission.

Still, why pay £3m a year for the skills of 60-odd people to give you first class (and much needed) expert advice, when instead you can have the saloon bar pundits, the Daily Mail, and Pickles ?

Why do the LibDems tolerate it? No, don't tell me, I know....

Thumbs Up for the Sainsburys Thumbs Down

Tonight saw the refusal of planning permission for a Sainsburys megastore at the current BCFC ground at Ashton Gate.

This was all the more welcome after the Evening Post's blatant attempts to sway the outcome in favour of the supermarket, the club owners, and others who want to see the city expand into yet another traffic-intensive urban sprawl to the south west.

I don't think this was the first time that the Post has featured, alongside its editorial attempts to whip up public fervour, the names and pictures of the councillors who must make the decision. It had a strong element of 'we know where you live' about it, and it's a brave councillor who stands up to that kind of bullying.

I expect they'll find a way of funding a new stadium anyway. If so, lets hope that the old Ashton Gate site gets turned into something Bristol can really be proud of. A supermarket was never going to do that.

Coalition... Environment.... Localism: the Tory Way

10th June 2010:
Bristol's LibDem Cabinet agrees to run a pilot scheme penalising residents who persist in putting 'black box' recyclable waste into the 'residual waste' wheelie bins. Grounds? - 25% of wheelie bin contents could have been recycled from the kerb-side.

15th July 2010:
Council leader Barbara Janke meets with top LibDems in government. “With Lib Dems in power nationally,” she said, “we will ensure that the city’s needs, concerns and ambitions are understood by ministers and do everything to reinforce the need for closer relations.”

16th July 2010:
Environment Secretary Caroline Spellman announces changes to the Climate Change Act to prevent councils trialling or implementing 'pay-as-you-throw' schemes. It's particularly aimed at the Bristol initiative, and is (honest!) part of the Tory 'Localism' agenda.