Cyclepath: here come the sketches!

Posted on February 1, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

The new Bristol to Bath Cyclepath
How wide do they think the cycle path is?

A quick roundup of cycle path related shenanigans …

The meeting arranged for Tuesday 5 February 2008 at 7.30pm is at Easton Community Centre, not Easton Leisure Centre or The Cornubia.

The scale of opposition and anger to the plan to turn the Bristol and Bath Cycle Path into a bus route is now becoming clear. A petition set up to oppose the plan on the council’s website has gained over 5,000 signatures in under a week. A discussion forum on the BBC website is also demonstrating a similar level of opposition to the plans.

As does the rumour reaching the Blogger that one Bristol City Councillor has received over 800 emails opposing the plan. The recipient is likely to be Labour’s Mark Bradshaw, who is fronting the plan at present.

Anyone who has emailed Bradshaw may have to be patient though, as Bradshaw is known to get his local government officer assistant Roger Livingston to find out the political affiliations of any his correspondents before he sends them a reply.

Bradshaw also cropped up on the front cover of the Cancer today defending his plan. The newspaper already seems firmly on board, headlining the article ‘Welcome to the Future’ and giving the plan the thumbs-up in an editorial.

Tuesday night saw Bradshaw appear on BBC Points West. His tired line – that buses and cyclists can coexist on the path – is still broadly the same as the one in his press release last week.

However Bradshaw’s own project board who are responsible for developing the plan seem to disagree with him on this in their own minutes (pdf):

“It was a Sustrans policy to support the return of former railway corridors to public transport use as long as there was no negative impact in the amenity value for cyclists. It would be difficult to demonstrate this.”

Which hasn’t stopped Bradshaw trying to demonstrate exactly this anyway. Not least through the publication of some unrealistic sketches of a very wide cycle path indeed demonstrating bicycles and buses “coexisting” in his brave new world:

Brave New World

While Bradshaw and Labour take all the political hits on this at present, the Tories and Lib Dem are keeping very silent on the issue and so far haven’t responded to any emails and taken a public position.

This might be because their respective leaders, Bunter and the Pudding Basin, have been party to these plans all along and have nodded through tens of thousands of pounds worth of expenditure to work up a scheme that may well end up in the dustbin due to an entirely predictable public outcry.

Lib Dem boss Pudding Basin Comer is even a councillor for the Eastville Ward, which the cycle path passes through. So much for his local knowledge then.

The Greens meanwhile, who have been handed the issue on a plate, have not failed to take an opportunistic shot at this open goal. Having spent last weekend reading through the documents obtained by the Bristol Cycling Campaign through a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, the Greens have released a lengthy statement with some decent observations, which at least has saved the Blogger the effort of trawling through these interminable documents.

The Blogger’s eye was, however, caught by the minutes of a discussion the BRT Project Board (pdf) had about their communications strategy:

Richard Rawlinson (RR) raised the issue of awareness raising on BRT proposals. KH considered that this needed to be linked with GBBN and other initiatives to provide a more strategic approach. Peter Bartlett (PB) suggested use of a common overview context setting text across scheme communications activities. DO considered that more proactive communication strategy would assist with stakeholder support (eg Business West) as schemes develop.

So what the hell does that all mean? Well in practice “use of a common overview context setting text across scheme communications activities” seems to translate as “we’ll keep our heads down and force the public to use FoI legislation to find out what’s going on”.

More coming soon as it happens …

Posted in Bristol, Conservatives, Developments, Environment, Green Party, Labour Party, Lib Dems, Transport, WESP | Tagged , , | There are 36 comments

Fancy that!

Posted on January 31, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

Bristol City Council has admitted misleading parents over the catchment area for its flagship secondary school at Redland Green. Scores of children living within the “area of first priority” did not get in to the comprehensive last September because of the demand for places. The same situation is likely this year … Last year, places were filled with pupils who live up to 1km (0.6 miles) from the £33 million school in Redland Court Road, leaving about 90 children who had expected to get in to Redland Green having to take up places elsewhere.
Bristol Evening Post, 31 January 2008

It has become abundantly clear that there is a significant discrepancy between the number of pupils within the proposed catchment area and the size of the proposed school.

This was accepted by Mrs Boulter [former Assistant Director of Education] but no ideas were forthcoming about what would happen to all those who erroneously believed that because they were in the catchment area they would obtain a place.

The reality is that if all those who are closest to the site at Redland applied for a place, it would be full from within a half-mile radius.
PACE (Parents Action for Secondary Education), March 2004

Posted in Bristol, Bristol Evening Post, Education, Redland | Tagged , | There are 2 comments

The strange case of the disappearing press release

Posted on January 31, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

First thing this morning the city council published a press release – “Parks to get even better deal from revised investment plans” – with yet another new set of figures regarding how much of our park land the Labour Party intends to sell off to developers.

By this afternoon anyone wishing to check these latest claims and the actual figures issued by the Labour Party would have been disappointed as the press release had mysteriously disappeared from the council’s website.

The Evening Cancer, however, must have seized on this brief window of opportunity – that or they been granted special access denied ordinary members of the public – because they published a story today using information from the release.

Entirely contradicting the official figures released by the council late last week for councillors to discuss this evening at a meeting, the Cancer’s saying that only £90m worth of what Labour call “marginal, surplus land” will be sold.

Whether these latest figures really stack up, we just don’t know because the information is simply not available to check at present. And we still don’t know what or where this “marginal, surplus land” actually is.

It just gets murkier and murkier …

Posted in Bristol, Environment, Local government, Politics | | There are 3 comments

CONsultant's healthy profit

Posted on January 31, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

The Cancer revealed yesterday that Frenchay and Southmead Hospitals, both part of the cash-strapped North Bristol NHS Trust (NBHT), are spending just 50p per person on their less-than-appetising hospital meals.

This news comes just as the hospital trust has been forced to reveal they handed over £183,000 in fees to corporate accountants Ernst & Young for “consultancy services” last year. This is despite the fact the trust already employs a small army of very well-paid accountants and auditors anyway.

No doubt all these accountants can afford a little more than 50p to spend on their evening meals.

Posted in Bristol, Bristol Evening Post, CONsultants, Health | | There is 1 comment

Eurotrash

Posted on January 30, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

The appalling Esther Pickup-Keller – wife of the equally appalling Derek Pickup, the city’s education boss with the shady past in the council’s community grants department – has discovered a new gravy train to her liking.

Pickup-Keller currently picks up a salary not unadjacent to £50k a year for doing a complete non-job in the city’s hopelessly failing education department run by her husband.

As the city’s ‘Attendance and Behaviour Consultant’, diversity obssessive Esther spends her days producing pointless anti-homophobic policy documents and organising ‘Tackling Islamophobia’ working groups while actual attendance and behaviour in Bristol’s schools crashes to new lows year-on-year.

And so busy is Esther on our behalf that she also finds plenty of time to be an active member of the Labour Party. She was last seen acting as an agent at last year’s council elections for their Lawrence Hill candidate, the notorious Busharat Ali, the Photoshop faker. On whose behalf Esther published fake photographs to try and con the electorate in to voting for him.

Managing to obtain a national profile for being a dishonest little shit is obviously considered good form in the Labour Party. For now news leaks of Esther’s next career move:

—– Original Message —–
From: Esther P-K
To: xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 10:23 PM
Subject: MEP

At the GC on Friday people will be asked about MEP selections etc.
Unfortunately I cannot be at the meeting myself, as I am visiting my parents in Holland, who celebrate special birthdays this month.
However I would just like to let you know that I am interested in being on the South West list as a Labour Party candidate for the European Parliament. If any of you would like to talk to me about that, then please do not hesitate to contact me.
My mobile number is 078xxxxx427.
Regards,
Esther Pickup-Keller

Posted in Bristol, Education, Elections, Labour Party, Politics | Tagged , | There are 5 comments

Muslim Balls

Posted on January 30, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

It looks News Bunny Norton, the Evening Cancer editor, has decided to grab himself a slice of the diversity action by employing a Muslim columnist.

Farooq Siddique of the the publicly funded Bristol Muslim Cultural Society – who no doubt we have to refer to as a “community leader” – published his first article yesterday. And very offensive it is too.

Choosing to discuss the Holocaust as it was Holocaust Memorial Day on Monday, Siddique blithely announces half way through his column:

[The Holocaust] was, in fact, part of an ongoing pattern of behaviour that has long been associated with “Christian Europe” by the Muslim world.

I’m not sure what the purpose of the quotes around “Christian Europe” are meant to denote, but the statement appears to be promoting the worst kind of racial prejudice and stereotypes.

I wonder if Norton would print a column saying “Blowing yourself up on public transport is, in fact, part of an ongoing pattern of behaviour that has long been associated with “Muslims” by the Western world.

Possibly not. As it is untrue, offensive and ridiculous.

Siddique then comes out with this little gem:

Finally, there is the [Holocaust’s] link to Palestine. I am not going to debate who suffered more, the Jews in Europe during the war or the Palestinians since 1947. But the link with the Holocaust is very much clear.

Well fancy that! He’s not going to debate who suffered more … Er, maybe because his comparison is fatuous, offensive and doesn’t bear scrutiny.

Between 1933 and 1945 the Jewish population of Europe was reduced by two-thirds from 9m to 3m. Since 1967 the Palestinian population has trebled. OK, there’s plenty to criticise about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians but to accuse the Israelis of genocide is fanatical nonsense.

Siddique seems to be intent on ramping up the vicious rhetoric just like the people of violence on both sides of Palestine/Israeli conflict constantly do. Or does he think directly comparing the State of Israel to the Nazi regime in a Holocaust Memorial article is the way forward to peace and harmony?

Posted in Bristol Evening Post, Middle East, Politics, Race | Tagged , | There are 6 comments

Our cycle path's being Savaged!

Posted on January 29, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

Now this is getting fucking ridiculous. It’s like Bristol’s got its very own multi-millionaire Merchant Venturer Forrest Gump character popping up every time something totally crap is announced in the city.

To be honest, the way things are run around here, it wouldn’t surprise us if you woke up tomorrow morning to find Business West boss John Savage‘s ugly mug creepily leering at you in your bed while a couple of his local government officer minions, assisted by a grand-a-day Atkins consultant, set up a laptop and delivered a snappy Powerpoint presentation on ‘the delivery phase of your regional household breakfast spatial strategy’.

Should you find yourself in this situation; for god’s sake take the day off work. Otherwise you’re likely to return home later to find Herr Savage and his quangocracy have blitzkrieged the house and concreted the garden in order to carve out some more Lebensraum for his ever-expanding state funded regional Businessreich.

Multimillionaire Savage’s latest unelected power grab, where he supposedly represents us, is on yet another local quango, the West of England Strategic Partnership (WESP) Board (pdf). Here he sits alongside the clueless (although at least elected) triumvirate of party leaders Bunter Eddy, Pudding Basin Comer and Helen Holland.

WESP is the quango that has decided – without consultation or discussion – to turn the Bath and Bristol Cycle Path into a rapid transit route although they also appear very determined to dump a congestion charge on us as well whether we want it or not.

Savage would just have to be involved really wouldn”t he? How could the man who failed to deliver us our Arena not be up for the wanton destruction of one of the city’s most outstanding and popular remaining features? And who else but an unelected multi-millionaire could possibly be at the forefront of moves to create a very special new regressive transport tax that will shaft the poorest in the city a little bit more?

The Blogger says enough’s enough. Savage: go get yerself elected or go get yerself out of Bristol’s public life right now you destructive, self-serving little scrote.

Posted in Bristol, Congestion charge, Developments, Environment, Local government, Merchant Venturers, Transport, WESP | Tagged , | There are 4 comments

EXCLUSIVE: £200m of Bristol park land is officially under threat

Posted on January 29, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

Concrete
That attractive new look for our parks being proposed by Bristol City Council.

After a couple of weeks of pooh-poohing claims from the Bristol Parks Forum that the Labour administration tried to sneak through a hastily assembled report at their last cabinet meeting (pdf) to flog over £200m of land from Bristol’s Parks to developers, the council has been forced to reveal that, er … The Labour administration is trying to flog over £200m of land from Bristol’s Parks to developers!

Hidden away in the agenda for a Physical Environment Scrutiny Commission meeting on January 31 is a report – the Parks and Green Spaces Strategy – Financial Considerations (pdf).

And what’s this? Why it only says that the minimum cost of land that the council will be looking to sell off is £166m worth.

But the report also claims £25m in contributions will be made by the developers of this park land for funding improvements to our remaining parks. However the planning department says this contribution is only realistically likely to be £15m.

That’s a further £20m worth of land that might have to be sold off to make up this £10m deficit then. This is because under Labour’s hastily assembled funding formula half of all proceeds from these land sales have go to directly to the cabinet so they can fund their own pet projects with the money.

A further £11m towards future park improvements has been budgeted to come from “grants”; although at present none have been applied for – let alone agreed to. That’s another £22m of land that may need to be sold under Labour’s formula.

So the grand total of land at risk? £208m. Slightly over the Parks Forum estimate that’s been slated by politicians and council officers for the last two weeks.

Meanwhile details of the actual land that will be disposed off are still being blatantly withheld by Bristol City Council.

Posted in Bristol, Developments, Environment, Labour Party, Local government | Tagged , | There are 13 comments

Oh no … It looks like it's time for the infamous south Bristol ring road gambit!

Posted on January 28, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

Pushmi-Pullyu

With the plan to turn the Bristol and Bath Cycle Path into a bus route formally announced, it looks likely local politicians will be readying themselves to play the infamous south Bristol ring road gambit.

This is an extraordinary technique developed over recent years where local councillors and politicos manage to point in two opposing directions at the same time.

Both Labour Leader Helen Holland and her transport boss Mark Bradshaw, you may recall, loudly opposed the south Bristol ring road during the local elections last year. This hasn’t, however, prevented either of them – now they’re in power – continuing with the preparation work needed to build the road.

At the last Full Council Meeting Bradshaw was even straight-batting Lib Dem questions (pdf) about the road claiming he knew no details of the public consultation he’s personally responsible for running this summer. Neither was he forthcoming on the funding required for the road from council taxpayers or the timetable the city council might be working to for the project.

Hardly the robust approach you might expect from someone supposed to be implacably opposed to building the road. Particularly when they’re the person doing the very job that could stop it going ahead if they wanted.

A similarly strange condition afflicted the Lib Dems when they were in power until May last year. They too continued to secretively engage in the preparatory work necessary for this road building project but now that they’re in opposition they are noisily opposing the project instead.

This bizarre attitude towards major transport projects in the city is already surfacing from the Labour Party over the Bristol and Bath Cycle Path. Labour’s Bristol West Parliamentary candidate, Paul Smith, announced on this blog on Saturday his intention to attend the meeting opposing the rapid transit plan for the cycle path organised by the Bristol Cycling Campaign.

Smith correctly says, “Public transport should displace cars and not cyclists and pedestrians – I can’t imagine that Bristolians will ever let this happen – see you at Cornubia.”

Smith is, of course, in the same party as Mark Bradshaw who – courtesy of his boss Helen Holland, Tory boss Bunter Eddy and Lib Dem leader Stevie “the Pudding Basin” Comer – has already signed up to the plan, featured in their West of England Strategic Partnership’s (WESP) Our Future Transport (pdf) document sent off to the government in the autumn.

Confused? You will be …

Posted in Bristol, Bristol East, Labour Party, Lib Dems, Local elections 2007, Local government, Transport | Tagged , , , , | There are 4 comments

First in line

Posted on January 27, 2008 by The Bristol Blogger

Mark Bradshaw, Labour’s architect of the plans to convert the Bristol and Bath Cycle Path into a rapid transit route, is very keen to play down any role First Bus – Bristol’s most hated firm – might have in the plans.

Bradshaw says in his press release, in a deliberate attempt to play down the political difficulties of the First Bus issue, “I want to make clear that no contracts have been awarded regarding the rapid transit operators.”

A perfectly true statement as far as it goes. However the Bristol Cycling Campaign have already discovered courtesy of a Freedom of Information request that there are at least two First employees – John Birtwhistle and Clive Bryant – on Bradshaw’s ‘Bus Rapid Transport Project Board’ who are responsible for developing the plans.

Widespread rumour also suggests that no other bus company will seriously compete for the contract because the major public transport companies allegedly have an informal deal where they carve up between them the different regions they are going to work in.

This seemed to be confirmed by a poster on The Blogger recently who described attending a transport consultation event where he was openly told by a council officer: “First and stagecoach have a gentleman’s agreement not to work on each others patch”.

Such a cartel between public transport companies is of course illegal. Which makes you wonder why our local government transport officers are glibly telling members of the public who walk in off the street about this arrangement rather than preparing a case on our behalf for the competition commission.

But then a local government officer – maybe looking to use their transport expertise to make that lucrative move into the private sector at a later date in their career – doesn’t want to be seen to be rocking the boat or upsetting potential employers do they?

Posted in Bristol, Bristol West, Environment, FOI, Labour Party, Local government, Politics, Transport | Tagged , , | There are 8 comments