… As Sustrans reject fig leaf role
More bad news for Labour’s transport boss Mark Bradshaw as his desperate attempts to control the fallout from revelations that he intends to turn the Bristol and Bath Railway Path in to a road for buses collapse even further in to predictable chaos.
On the evening of the first public meeting of the fledgling Save the Railway Path campaign group, coward Bradshaw – who was too scared to attend the meeting and explain himself – instead released an open letter to the national cycling charity Sustrans, inviting them to join the planning group for his inane scheme.
Never really anything more than a cynical attempt by Bradshaw to get the charity on board and provide a fig leaf of environmental credibility as cover for his madcap scheme to concrete over the last few bits of inner-city East Bristol his Labour Party missed in the 60s and 70s, Sustrans have obviously seen Bradshaw coming and rejected his offer out of hand.
In a letter to Bradshaw (pdf) published on their website they tell him in some pretty plain language:
Immediately abandon the plan for the proposed BRT route on the Bristol and Bath Railway Path. Your predecessors may have been asking the wrong question by seeking a public transport route that would least inconvenience road users. Perhaps they should have been asking how we bring about the beginnings of a truly sustainable and integrated transport network fit for purpose in a 21st century city with all the challenges the next four decades are going to bring.
Oh dear no fig leaf for Bradshaw then, which leaves him looking rather exposed and his chances of getting a greenwash strategy in place for his BRT scheme look well and truly scuppered.
What now then for Bradshaw? Perhaps he should get his pair of council officer supporters – Kate Hartas and Roger Livingston – phoning around Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the WWF to see if any of them are interested in sitting on a soppy committee to help him pretend to the general public that his madcap scheme is not a complete and utter social and environmental disaster waiting to happen.
Bristol City Council trying to employ greenwash? Surely not!
It’s not as though BCC has history of this sort of thing, say, by using its press office to run interference on the awkward questions generated by the sponsorship of @Bristol by baby milk formula pimps Nestlé.
The West of England Partnership, proponents of the bus route, already have one obliging green fig leaf on their board, Steve Grainger, chief executive of Avon Wildlife Trust.
Last week, sensing which way the wind was blowing, Grainger started to distance himself from the BRT proposals with a piece in the Post about the threat to the wildlife corridor that is the Railway Path, saying “It’s only now that we are seeing where the (BRT) lines are being proposed”. As if he and the rest of the WEP board didn’t know six months ago.
Chris Hutt said; “The West of England Partnership, proponents of the bus route, already have one obliging green fig leaf on their board …”
Just goes to show, doesn’t it. Sadly, the wildlife trusts are about as bent as the rest of the establishment. Reformists propping up the system for a little bit longer.
Figleaf indeed. I’m going to sew that poor man a nice pair of Harris Tweed boxer shorts. Do you have his address?
Blogger mentions that Bradshaw is a coward in this post – very true, yet there’s one Labour Party member who’s cowardice in this sorry affair truly knows no bounds:
Kerry McCarthy MP.
It’s Kerry’s constituency that will be carved up by the 14 metre busway. The Railway Path runs through Bristol East.
It’s many of Kerry’s constituents who are up in arms about the sacrifice of their green lung.
What’s she had to say about this burning issue?
Nada, nothing, rien.
Kerry’s website claims that – “Transport in Bristol is one of Kerry’s major concerns”.
It’s bloody well not on this showing, is it?
There’s not a mention of the issue at the forefront of many Bristolian’s minds on her website and her blog hasn’t been updated since last year.
Welcome to the Kerry McCarthy style of politics –
http://writingjunkie.net/images/ostrich-head.jpg
Magic!
http://kerry-mccarthy.blogspot.com/2008/02/blogging-again.html
To be fair, though, Ms McCarthy has got her work cut out keeping Brown afloat and asking lots and lots of helpful questions. There’s a minister-in-the-making. No doubt she’s disappointed to lose NuLab’s new client classes in Easton and Lawrence Hill, in exchange for the old client classes in Hillfields.
Business as usual though, as we know so well – vote Labour devotedly and get taken for granted – don’t vote Labour and get punished. Either way, we lose and the politicians win.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/kerry_mccarthy/bristol_east
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/search/?s=section%3Awrans&pid=11455&pop=1&p=2