A new trough for a new day

Posted on February 7, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

Stephen williams MP

It looks like cash-strapped Stephen Williams MP has come up with a new and imaginative way to squander taxpayers money.

How about paying to publish – in the local glossie for the yoof, Venue – a sartorially challenged picture of yourself hanging about in Clifton looking like yet another overpaid and underworked middle class local? Then, to cover the £500 cost, plonk a contact phone number on it and charge the whole thing to your brand new £10k MP’s communications allowance.

MPs were given this new allowance from April last year “for the purpose of assisting members with expenditure incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily in communicating with the public on parliamentary business.”

Quite what Parliamentary business Williams thinks he’s urgently communicating by standing in front of the suspension bridge wearing Harris tweed and announcing “I’m on Youtube kidz” is not immediately obvious to the casual observer. But hey, what do we know?

Further news on Williams’ and his fellow MPs expenses also emerges. On top of the “paltry” £61k salary, the tax free £18k housing allowances and the receipt-free £250 a week cash mountain comes news of heavily subsidised parliamentary refreshments.

Just a week after revelations that the Frenchay and Southmead hospitals were spending just 50p on each patients’ meal, The Blogger’s reminded that hard done by MPs get subsidised meals and drinks at the House of Commons. A massive £5m a year is spent on this, equivalent to a 40% subsidy.

This works out at around £7k a year per MP or enough to buy 14,000 dinners at Frenchay hospital!

Posted in Bristol, Bristol West, Clifton, Lib Dems, MPs, Politics | Tagged , | There are 10 comments

A bad week for …

Posted on February 7, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

News BunnyEditing a provincial newspaper has never been the most intellectually rigorous of tasks.

Traditionally the ability to create an aggressively macho management culture by bullying the work experience girl; grooming a couple of contacts in the local Rotary Club; having some half-decent local knowledge and always taking up populist positions – no matter how barmy – has got your average small town conservative newspaper editor selling enough papers to have a quiet life.

Alas, it seems, such simple tasks are beyond the wit of Cancer editor Mike “News Bunny” Norton. As his hasty and unequivocal support for the BRT route on the Bristol and Bath Cycle Path looks likely to marginalise his increasingly marginalised newspaper – with the drastically plummeting circulation – still further.

Due to his woefully incompetent misreading of public opinion, lacking any grasp of local knowledge whatsoever, Norton now finds himself at odds with over 90% of his own readers who yesterday voted overwhelmingly in a poll to keep the cycle path as it is.

Norton also seems to have ignored the huge and growing petition on the council website, which – big hint this – just happens to be the largest one they’ve ever had on there.

Instead Norton has backed the madcap plan that’s only supported by our lobotomised transport boss Mark Bradshaw, a few First Bus executives seeking easy profits and a load of CONsultants out to make a small fortune for themselves.

Even the Cancer’s sister publication Venue magazine – not noted for embracing the cycling fraternity – today accurately describes the plan as “fucking stupid”.

Poor old Norton. Looks like he’s put himself out on a bit of a limb. How long before we find him delivering a perfectly executed U-turn on the issue then?

Especially when the News Bunny finally catches on that the other part of the BRT plan, which the council’s trying to keep quiet about at present, involves introducing a congestion charge. Something Norton claims to be implacably against!

Posted in Bristol, Bristol Evening Post, Congestion charge, Developments, Environment, Media, Transport | Tagged , , | There are 7 comments

Bradshaw and the amazing imaginary quango

Posted on February 6, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

Hands up who knows what the bloody hell the Bristol Transport Board is?

Because, according to under-pressure Labour Transport boss Mark Bradshaw’s open letter published yesterday, they’re the people deciding the future of our cycle path and whether it gets turned in to a rapid transit bus route or not.

Bradshaw helpfully explains in his letter : “A formal proposal on a preferred option will need to come before the Bristol Transport Board, which I chair and this will be required before any decisions are made.”

The only real problem here is that there’s no such thing as the Bristol Transport Board. A search of the council’s website clearly reveals no such committee has ever met; no minutes exist; no governing documents exist; no terms of reference exist and no formal membership is named anywhere.

Even by the standards of the City of Bristol, run for years now by a demented collection of unaccountable quangos, Bradshaw is breaking intriguing new ground with this one. Is Bradshaw totally off his trolley? Do we face the prospect of a major decision for the city being taken by an entirely fictitious committee?

Or is this the latest imaginative wheeze for getting our local politicians off the hook, evading their responsibilities and avoiding making unpopular decisions by organising some new and baroque committee of other people to do it for them? Or maybe Bradshaw simply doesn’t have a clue what’s going on and how the city council functions?

Whether Bradshaw is losing his mind and slipping into an imaginary fantasy land of weird and wonderful sub-committees under his all-powerful control as his short-lived political dream collapses into ruins or whether he’s cynically inventing a solution to pass the buck on an intractable problem for short term political gain – frankly, who cares?

Surely such a loose grip on truth and reality means he should just go?

Posted in Bristol, Developments, Labour Party, Local government, Transport, WESP | Tagged , | There are 15 comments

Rapid Transit: An Open letter to Sustrans from Mark Bradshaw

Posted on February 5, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

First Out! Sustrans in! “To help explain the impact on the cycle path in much greater detail.”

Climb down or buying out the opposition? You decide …

Release Date: 05-Feb-2008

Below is the text of an open letter sent by Cllr Mark Bradshaw, Executive Member for Access and Environment at Bristol City Council to John Grimshaw MBE, Founder and Chief Executive of Sustrans

Dear John

Thank you for your letter of 23rd January 2008 detailing Sustran’s concerns about the possible use of the Bristol to Bath cycle path to accommodate part of a bus rapid transit link between Ashton Vale and Emersons Green. I have decided to make this letter public as was your letter to me – I hope this is acceptable.

I have also been taking careful note of the concerns expressed on various websites and the e-petition, and those made direct to me. I understand the concern and anxiety felt by many people as a result of the information obtained and the lack of wider explanation about BRT available at the same time.

In my comments on 24th January I referred to the Bristol to Bath cycle path as a ‘strategic route in its own right and a powerful symbol of our city’s need to find alternatives to the car.’ This remains my view.

Promoting and encouraging walking and cycling are important to this authority given the positive implications for health and wellbeing and in helping to alleviate the transport pressures in our city.

As you know, I am personally committed to supporting the full range of travel options, including walking and cycling , and we have endorsed the successful Connect 2 bid, expressed strong interest in Bristol becoming the Demonstration Cycling City, and through Showcase and other measures, have been investing in safety improvements for cyclists and pedestrians. This was recognised in the recently published Audit Commission report into the City Council’s transport services.

At our meeting last week, we discussed the current status of technical work on BRT options including full or partial road based solutions. This work, undertaken by the West of England Partnership (WEP), follows on from earlier broader analysis in the Greater Bristol Strategic Transport Study (GBSTS), the Joint Local Transport Plan, and more recently, in the outline proposition for Transport Innovation Funding. All of which, bar the latter, pre-date my appointment.

The work on various BRT options has been progressed by consultants instructed by WEP together with some BCC officer participation. I understand that First Bus have also been involved as technical advisors, but this arrangement will cease. A formal proposal on a preferred option will need to come before the Bristol Transport Board, which I chair and this will be required before any decisions are made. At this stage there is a need to consider the full range of options and not to close anyone down withouT fuller investigation. As a city we have limited enough scope for enhancing physical connectivity so we need to make best use of existing routes where possible – and that includes our roads.

It is vital that any evaluation of this and the other route options should take into account the effect on existing and potential growth in walking and cycling, plus impacts on local residents, biodiversity, and whether the proposed route offers a strong enough incentive for car users to make the modal shift required.

We will also need to be clear about the citywide and sub-regional objectives underlying this work and proposed investment.

There are also additional issues surrounding the technology (vehicles and track), detailed mitigation of physical barriers (bridges etc), and possible enhancement of the cycle path and walkway (improved lighting, widening etc). This will all form part of the ‘mix of factors to be assessed. We will take as long as required to complete this work and I will want to work closely with Sustrans to ensure we have used the most appropriate methodology. In reality, this means looking at all the alternatives and making sure we can explain the impact on the cycle path in much greater detail.

I’m sure you will be interested to learn more about what might form part of this assessment package.

I have asked officers to ensure that the latest guidance on sustainable transport systems is adopted for this work. I know that you and colleagues have helped shape this work published recently by the Department for Transport.

At our meeting, I spoke about the potential for Sustrans becoming a key advisor to the BRT programme, perhaps (and subject to agreement by our partner authorities) as a member of the BRT Executive Board and Project Team. My officers are sending you further information on the role of each group. I do hope that you will give this positive consideration given the need to ensure that BRT adopts high standards of sustainability and complements, not
diminishes, other travel choices.

The last few weeks have shown the need for Bristol City Council to better engage with the expertise within our city – in sustainable, environmental technology and transport engineering in particular. I will bring forward proposals to assist in making this happen through the appointment of advisers to the Bristol Transport Board. I also propose to establish a revamped Bristol Transport Forum, one of whose early tasks will be to examine the BRT concept and proposals.

Let me finish by assuring you of the need for full public involvement in shaping the options and my personal commitment to work with Sustrans to ensure that we strengthen the role of cycling as part of the overall strategy to encourage less dependency on the car.

Councillor Mark Bradshaw
Executive Member for Access and Environment
Bristol City Council

Author: Cllr Mark Bradshaw

For all media enquiries relating to this press release, please contact Corporate Communications on 0117 922 2650.

To link to this page directly, use the URL
http://www.bristol.gov.uk/redirect?oid=PressRelease-id-23040003

Posted in Bristol, Developments, Environment, Labour Party, Local government, Transport, WESP | Tagged , , | There are 4 comments

That "disused" railway track in full …

Posted on February 5, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

Bristol and Bath Cycle Path

A reader has sent in a series of photos to BBC Bristol of the Bristol and Bath Cycle path that show just how popular it is. This is the path described by local politicians, the West of England Strategic Partnership (WESP) and their BRT Project Board as “disused”.

One of the most interesting aspects of the photo above is that it demonstrates not only that people move up and down the path and use it as a safe cycling and pedestrian route but that they also go across it at very regular intervals to easily and safely access other communities and facilities.

A rapid transit bus route would put an end to this. The crossing points on the path would have to be reduced to a minimum of footbridges and the BRT route would effectively act as yet another road barrier as far as local communities and pedestrians are concerned.

This could be a potentially catastrophic development for Easton in particular, which is already blighted and hemmed in by the M32 and the only section of the abandoned inner-city ring road ever built. Movement, particularly on foot, is already difficult in the area. The BRT can only make it worse.

The Bristol Blogger is unable to attend this evening’s meeting about the BRT scheme. Anyone who attends, feel free to post a report, rant, update or opinion in the comments.

Posted in Bristol, Developments, Easton, Environment, Local government, Transport, WESP | Tagged , , | There are 6 comments

Fancy that!

Posted on February 5, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

I recently received my copy of ‘Our City’, which replaces the former Bristol News. I would like to compliment the officers who worked on the publication for a job well done. Explaining the City Council’s Draft Budget is not an easy thing to do and there are a good many councillors and I suspect officers, who struggle to get to grips with it.The officers responsible for preparing ‘Our City’ have succeeded in explaining where the money comes from, where it goes to and in accessible bite sized chunks just what spending pressures face the City of Bristol. They then go on to explain the important changes that are proposed in the Draft Budget in similar bite sized chunks

Councillor Mark Brain (Labour), State of the City Debate

The statement [about the budget] from Helen Holland (republished through Our City magazine) gives a false gloss that is the hall mark of Labour obsession with secrecy and spin.

It conceals her proposal to end Adult Learning Services – that had to be teased out by the all party Scrutiny Commission.

It conceals her savage cuts in the funding of many valuable voluntary sector groups, such as Grounds4Change and St Pauls Study Centre in Ashley ward.

We know of many other valuable voluntary sector organisations around the city, doing good work, that are being cut by this wasteful Labour administration.

It conceals the savage cuts by the Labour Government on the most deprived areas of our city.

It conceals the lack of ambition on the environment. No extra street cleaning. No commitment to save money by recycling more (we have pledged to help Bristol recycle 50% of our waste by 2010).

It conceals the huge costs of the Labour and Conservative mad rush to build a PFI funded mass burn incinerator in Avonmouth when our own reports suggest that generating energy from our residual waste using pyrolysis offers a better, modular and more sustainable
option (and is in use in a number of countries around the world).

It conceals the subsidies having to be made to deliver inefficient services in Adult Community Care, with no guarantee that those inefficiencies will be addressed.

She fails to mention that her plans will close Marksbury Library. The Liberal Democrats have pledged to amend that decision in Full Council.

And finally, and most damning of all, is her failure to deliver a single one of the Labour election promises. She has continued privatising home care with proposals to deliver 80% through the independent sector within 5 years.

She has failed to save the four residential care homes earmarked for closure; instead she was secretly planning to close all 13.

She has failed to remove charges for bulky waste; instead she proposes to charge £20 for a replacement bin if it is lost.

She has also failed to deliver their promised council tax rebate, instead she is sticking rigidly to the 4% in the medium term financial plan.

Bristol deserves better.

Cllr Steve Comer and Cllr Dr Jon Rogers, public statement to Cabinet (pdf), 4 February 2008

Posted in Bristol, Labour Party, Lib Dems, Local government, Politics | Tagged , , | There are 2 comments

Snout watch (featuring trough of the week)

Posted on February 4, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

nouts in trough

Thanks to ‘Poor Dear’ on the dazzlingly revamped Bristol Indymedia for this one.

With spectacularly bad timing, Bristol West MP, Stephen Williams has used his weekly web-based ‘Westminster Yawnfest’ (surely diary? ed.) to complain about his pay.

You see, the former corporate accountant has to struggle by on just £61,000 a year. Although this is topped up with expenses of just £18,000 a year to keep him in style when in London and another further £250 a week cash to buy his lunch so that mummy doesn’t have to make his sandwiches when she packs him off to parliament every morning.

“For weeks I’ve been irritated by newspaper headlines about MPs’ “snouts in the trough” or “‘gravy trains,'” he huffs to his readers just as the press reveal that many MPs do indeed have their snouts, their wives’ snouts, their kids’ snouts and, er, their mistresses snouts in a particularly expansive and unaccountable parliamentary trough.

Not a big enough trough for Williams’ snout though. He whines: “For the first time in my career it looked as though I was going to be able to vote on whether I got a particular percentage pay rise.”

As if it’s perfectly normal for public sector employees to choose how much of a pay rise they get. Does Williams live in the real world?

Posted in Bristol, Bristol West, Lib Dems, MPs, Politics | Tagged | There are 6 comments

Well informed councillor of the week

Posted on February 4, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

Step forward Labour’s Noreen Daniels, councillor for the Hillfields Ward of the city.

In her favour, Noreen’s the only councillor so far known to have responded to any correspondence from the public regarding her party’s plan to turn the Bristol and Bath Cycle Path into a bus route.

Although her response that “it would help her elderly constituents go shopping in Bath” is a little bit confusing considering as this is a bus route that will run from Emersons Green to the middle of Bristol!

Posted in Bristol, Hillfields, Labour Party, Local government, Politics | Tagged , | There are 3 comments

Gravy train update

Posted on February 3, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

The Tax Payers Alliance have published the latest in their ‘council spending uncovered’ series. Their last outing, you may recall, showed that Bristol City Council’s communications budget has increased by 275% in the last ten years and is now costing council tax payers in excess of £4m every year.

This time the alliance has turned their attention to middle management pay in local authorities and specifically those earning more than £50k a year.

And they have uncovered (pdf) the fact that the number of Bristol City Council officers earning in excess of £50k a year has jumped from just 12 in 1997 to 102 in 2007. That’s over eight times as many bureaucrats taking home top salaries courtesy of us, the council tax payer, and we are now paying out £6.7m every year on these hugely inflated salaries.

The growth in top-earners at the council is unprecedented, even accounting for inflation and economic growth. In the wider economy the number of people earning more than £50,000 has increased by less than three times over the same ten years.

And what do we get for our money? We’re told the council has to pay top whack to get the best people and compete with business. But their performance suggests otherwise.

Local authority controlled services like education and transport are pisspoor, while it seems senior officers in social services are congenitally incapable of managing budgets. They ran up a debt of £18m just over two years ago and now they’re proposing to run an in-house home care service that they haven’t even costed.

What exactly are we paying for?

Posted in Bristol, Home Care, Local government | Tagged | There are 4 comments

Doesn’t a promise from the chief exec of a one-star council count for anything these days?

Posted on February 2, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

by Keren Suchecki

Neighbourhood Renewal is over and Bristol won’t be receiving Working Neighbourhoods funding. There’s just a couple of million transition funding to cushion the fall for those being flung off the funding cliff.

Luckily, the city has planned in advance to cope with this news. Back in November, the council’s Neighbourhood Renewal Unit asked neighbourhoods to decide on their priorities and then brought them together with service providers, evaluators and other stakeholders in a day-long citywide joint planning session to agree priorities together.

And very well it went too. The chief exec of the council opened the day by proclaiming this the opportunity to really influence Bristol’s regeneration work by making informed and joined-up decisions. It ended with an agreed framework of priorities for funding that all approved of. We were well prepared.

So it felt like swallowing something hard and jagged when we saw the funding proposals from the council’s Cabinet last week. They bear no relation to the list agreed in what the chief exec plainly told us was the decision-making process. Apparently a more important bit of the hierarchy ran a separate, non-consultative process, with no reference to the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, and ejected the agreed framework with the efficiency of a dose of Norovirus.

And a stunningly ill-informed bunch of proposals they are, for example: they’ve removed education initiatives from all white working-class areas as Bristol has again been declared bottom of the league tables; stripped money from drug services when Bristol receives less than half the funding per user than other cities; distorted the funding so that south Bristol (highest population and deepest deprivation) is proposed to get a third of what north Bristol will receive.

For that brief moment in November it looked like Bristol City Council had got the hang of informed decision making. Doesn’t a promise from the chief exec of a one-star council count for anything these days?

This article first appeared in ‘New Start’ magazine. Keren Suchecki is a regeneration worker in South Bristol.

Posted in Bristol, Local government, Politics | | There are 11 comments