hotwells news autumn 2011
TRANSCRIPT
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HOTWELLS&CLIFTONWOOD
NEWS
Autumn 2011
Published by Hotwells & Cliftonwood Community Association, 3,Charles Place, Hotwells, Bristol, BS8 4QW www.hotwellscliftonwood.org.uk
h&cca HOTWELLS & CLIFTONWOOD COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
Hotwells Day Centre set to close
Temporary barriers and signs to discourage through traffic on Clifton Vale, Granby Hill and Joy Hill have been in place for 3 months. Have they made a difference? Should they be made perma-nent? Are they enough, or do we have to consider more radical measures? Let us have your views and we will pass them on to the Coun-cil. (you can find contact details on the next page)
The day centre which has provided care for vulnerable elderly people at Holy Trinity Church for over 20 years has had its sup-port grant cut. Unless there is a change of heart by Bristol City Council, it will close on October 31st. Currently around 60 clients with an average age of 80 are registered with the ser-vice which operates Tues-Friday and provides them with a hot meal, exercise, entertainment and an opportunity to socialise and go on shopping trips. For many, the day centre offers one of the few opportunities they have to get out of their homes and meet other people. As Mark Griffiths, Trinity Care Ser-vice Manager explained: “We are trying to keep people independent and out of nursing care and resi-dential homes. There’s no joined up thinking between the Council and the NHS. We only need to prevent a few hospital admissions to save the £80,000 annual cost of this service. Without it we are leaving vulnerable people even more vulnerable”. A feature of Trinity Day Centre from its foundation has been the high level of vol-untary support it receives. All the trustees and most of the care workers are vol-unteers and Holy Trinity Church priovides free support and charges no rent for the use of the Trinity Rooms space. “Enabling people to be part of a community is what it’s all about”, says Mark. “The alternative for the Council is to fund support for these people to stay at home. They can’t possibly match the efficiency of our voluntary service”. Some of the clients were in tears when support workers explained the situation to them. An online petition to the Council had collected over 250 signatures as this paper went to press but it closes on Sept. 4th in order that the petition can be presented to the next full Council meeting on Sept. 6th. If you want to express a view about this decision, contact our local councillors [email protected] and [email protected]. If you can help with the campaign to save Trinity Day Care e-mail [email protected]. See comment on page 2
but are they working?
new traffic controls introduced
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Community News h&cca HOTWELLS & CLIFTONWOOD COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
O117 9291883
Hotwells & Cliftonwood Community Association 3 Charles Place, Hotwells, Bristol, BS8 4QW
tel: 0117 9291883
[email protected] www.hotwellscliftonwood.org.uk
Management Committee Dennis Gornall (Chair) Brenda McLennan (Treasurer) Rosemary Stibbon Administrator Ray Smith Communications Mike Timmins Open spaces Stephen Perry vacant CHASE Anthea Bruges Community Links
CONTACTS
Bus service changes The City Council’s attempt to reduce the cost of public transport subsidies by putting all services out to tender ended in an unexpected shortfall of £2.2m in the budget. It’s not all bad news as First Bus, in particu-lar, has ‘taken commercial’ a number of early morning and late evening services that were previously subsidised by the Council. However, many service changes are due to take effect from September. For Hotwells, the main impact will be the loss of the 500 which is the only ser-vice to Baltic Wharf and the Great Britain and the easiest way for Hotwellians to get to Temple Meads. Follow-ing the interven-tion of Cllrs. Wr igh t and Woodman from Cabot Ward, a compromise has been arrived at involving splitting the old 586/587 routes and creat-ing a 505 and 506 (I hope you’re keeping up with this). The 506 will run on a modi-fied route from Broadmead and Temple Meads to Southmead Hospital via Cumber-land Rd. and Hotwells. It is promised to be a half-hourly service running Mon-Sat from 07:00 to 19:30 with a new operator, Wes-sex Connect. this will take effect on Sept. 4th, however no timetables were available online at time of writing. The Park & Ride services that pass through Hotwells are changing to different opera-tors. The 902 will be run by a company called CTPlus and the 903 by First.
Persuading commuters not to drive into Bristol or dump their cars in Hotwells & Cliftonwood residential streets will not be made easier by an increase in the park & ride peak service interval to 12 mins and increasing the fare by 50p to £4.00!
Ray Smith
Ashton Meadow This is the historic name for the space beside the river on the far side of Ashton Swing Bridge which, like Cumberland Piazza, doesn’t seem to have any strategic plan for develop-ment (or protection) This point was recently flagged-up by Stephen Wickham of Bristol Civic Society. There has been some recent tree-planting and it will be affected by the proposed Bus Rapid Transit route from Ashton Gate (see update on page 3). Stephen is interested in convening a user group for this space so, if you have an interest or some great ideas to improve it then please let us know.
Winning the war on potholes The Council has made some real pro-gress in the battle to fill in Bristol's potholes. Since October 2010, over 2,500 potholes have been eliminated from local roads, us-ing pothole busting teams who operate across the city. Council workers are well on the way to meeting their target of re-pairing 90% of all potholes within 10 days of them being reported, but they need more help from the public to complete the job. Tell them about the potholes in your neighbourhood and they’ll get their teams working on them. Have you got a pothole in your neighbour-hood the Council hasn't got to yet? If you have, you can report it at https://
www.bcc.lan/StreetFault/
Merchants Road Mardyke inbound
Loss of Trinity Day Centre Public service cutbacks are beginning to bite and there is no reason why even a service which has been part of the fabric of our community for 20 years should not come under scrutiny along with many oth-ers. The trouble is that this cut is about government failure to see the big picture; not the failure of service providers. Trinity Day Care was once part-funded by the NHS but this link was lost and, as things stand, the Council has no obligation to continue fund-ing something that could re-sult in reduced demand for residential care and less hos-pital admissions. The taxpayer will end up paying more for these services when an exist-ing voluntary-run organisation is far more cost-effective. If ‘localism’ is the buzzword of the moment then it would be hard to think of a better exam-ple of its positive benefit than this project. Volunteers have invested hundreds of hours of their time and saved govern-ment the cost of providing an alternative service, yet, it seems, that obvious connec-tion is not factored into spend-ing decisions at local level.
Memories of Summer Yes it’s all over for an-other year. If you are al-ready getting nostalgic about charred sausages and warm beer here are some snapshots of local street parties: Ambra Vale South (left) has a certain genteel ele-gance (note actual table-cloths and -is that a real bottle of champagne?)
nice new bus stop –only one thing missing...
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green light from Transition Hotwells & Cliftonwood
Community News
Hotwellians win 2 seconds Virginia Bergin’s campaign to reduce the waiting time at the ‘Hotwells Gyratory’ traffic lights has produced the following response from Trans-port Dept. “... I have arranged for a 2 second overlap period to be introduced. This means that when the green man ends and the flashing green man begins there will be 2 seconds of additional red to traffic before the flashing amber period begins. This will effectively give you 2 extra seconds of crossing time before drivers start to encroach on the crossing whilst retaining the flashing green man time to indi-cate that pedestrians should complete their crossing as traffic is about to start moving”.
Note: this concession does not affect the lights at the Merchants Road junc-tion: “They form part of a network that reaches all the way back to the centre. The lights are linked in with all the lights on the Hotwells Road / Anchor Road to co-ordinate traffic flows and reduce congestion and pollution”.
Bus Rapid Transit We have attended consultation meetings for the BRT2 ‘bendy-bus’ route planned to run from Ashton Gate Park & Ride along the Harbour Railway track to Prince Street Bridge and then in a loop around the City Centre. The Government has forced a cut in the budget to £50m and the proportion that Bristol and North Somerset Councils will have to find has risen from 10% to 30% of the total. BRT2 is in a pool of 45 major transport schemes nationally and the pro-moters now have to make their final bid by Sept. 9th in the knowledge that no fur-ther capital funds will be available until 2015 at the earliest. It is therefore BRT or nothing if Bristol
wants to see major investment in public transport and the Council is very keen to present a united front in support of the scheme. Many people will remember that the last attempt at a tramway for Bristol fell apart amidst bickering between the local authority partners in the project. It is proposed that existing double-decker buses from North Somerset will share the new route with the bendy buses. This means Vauxhall footbridge will need to be raised and almost all the bus services cur-rently running along Hotwell Rd will be diverted. Services to and from the Centre and Bus Station therefore seem certain to be severely downgraded. The Ashton Swing Bridge will now only carry a single bus lane so there will be no need to canti-lever a separate bike/walking path on the side (one of the cost-cutting measures). Overall, BRT2 will probably be of limited use for our neighbourhood because the nearest stops will be at Create and Spike Island. When the 18m long bendy buses move beyond their dedicated route to Prince St. Bridge they will have to mix with ordinary traffic and use existing bus lanes. Given the extra ‘footprint’ of these vehicles it’s hard to see how there will be anything ‘rapid’ about their progress at this point.
Street banners scheme buried Council officers attempted in April to gain ‘blanket’ planning consent for lamp post advertising banners on major roads all over the City. This included Clifton and Hotwells (take a look at Bond Street to get an idea of what they had in mind). The plan was launched with poor consultation. It created a furore amongst resident and conservation groups which led to the ill-considered scheme being abandoned. Be alert for further in-genious money-making schemes as Council funds get tighter!
Mardyke outbound
There have been a wealth of "green" activities in Bristol this summer, and once again locals have been playing their part. Events at CREATE, included a series of activities on Green Doors "Solar Saturday" in June - part of sustainable Bristol's "Live Local" weekend. In addition to the activities at CREATE, household-ers showed how they were using the sun to produce either electric-ity or hot water, and a local flat-owner opened his home to show how gas bills had been reduced to less than 1/3 with a combination of solar hot water tubes in the roof valley, sheep's wool insulation in the loft and a more efficient gas boiler. Since the electricity for this flat is bought from "Good En-ergy" (100% renewable) this is now a more sustainable "low car-bon" household.
Returning to earth, the Transition Hotwells and Cliftonwood shared allotment now boasts a self-composting toilet, opened by the Lord Mayor. Keep an eye open for information about the Bristol Energy Co-o p e r a t i v e s h a r e o f f e r . They plan to generate solar pow-ered electricity using PV plates on the roofs of community buildings, and use the income to carry out further local work on sustainable energy. They also aim to offer a good return to local investors. If you want to keep in touch with sustainability activities in Bristol, including the development of a local currency, join the the Transi-tion Hotwells and Cliftonwood mailing list, or come to one of the "Lion" meetings - dates listed on the HCCA website. contact [email protected]
solar thermal installation on a roof in Clifton Rd.
Meanwhile; Clifton-wood Crescent (right)engages a different sec-tion of the community with its legendary cherry stone spitting competition. Send us your best party pics and we’ll put some on our website. A re-minder, as the nights draw in that we did get s ome ha l f - dec en t weather this year
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If you hadn’t yet noticed the changes at the Spring Garden Tavern on Hot-well Road, then you can’t fail to now, as the new eye-catching mural tells you - this place is all about live music. Since closing its doors as ‘The Demi Lune’, the pub has been taken over by new owners and is now run as a Community Interest Company. This means it operates as a non-profit organisation, putting all surplus money back into nominated community groups. In the case of the Spring Garden - as the sign over the bar tells all newcomers - this is the promotion of: ‘music and drama and local interest groups with charitable aims’. The family team behind the new-look pub are Richard, Lorna and their son, Dan. they all decided to pitch in together and take over the challenge of a new company when Dan came back from working abroad and was struggling to find work locally. Having noticed the venue had closed and as a family of music fans, they saw the poten-
tial and a plan began to formulate. The Spring Garden consists of a pub downstairs, with a stage for bands and a function room up-stairs which also has a stage available (there’s also a large garden). There are a wide range of free music and community events currently running at the pub. These include: a variety of live music nights, dance lessons, club nights and soon yoga. New and emerging bands are given a platform to perform without the prohibitive cost of putting on a gig - which can be a stumbling block at many other venues - so you will find a wide range of live music happening most nights of the week. Richard, Dan and Lorna have also applied for a PRS (Performing Rights Society) Foundation Grant for new artists. This would provide the financial means to promote and support new original musicians. The Spring Garden can also assist with the problem of HCCA’s current lack of a commu-nity venue. The upstairs room holds about 40 people and is available for private hire, as well as community events. If your event is non-profit generating and serving the local community then you won’t be generally be charged (although check with the team first). As a good example, Richard recounted a story about a street party that took place in Pooles Wharf, which unfortunately got rained-off. They ran over the road and asked if they could de-camp upstairs at the pub and the team happily obliged.
Richard & Lorna are always looking for new events and ways to engage with the community, so the best thing to do is to get down there and check it out!
Jayne Marshall
The Spring Garden—a pub with a mission
Richard & Lorna; your hosts at the Spring Garden Tavern
Don’t become a victim of bike crime Bike theft locations reported by the police at Community Links meetings have included Rownham Mead, Granby Hill, Hotwell Road and Cornwallis Grove in the past 3 months. Our neighbourhood officer Nick Shaw says “Priority crime in the city is still cycle theft. We are operating initiatives to catch these offenders but cannot reinforce the crime prevention advice enough”. We thought it a good time to spell out what police advice actually is on this subject. The following comes courtesy of PC Mike Woods. Don’t say you weren’t warned! Record and Register
J Register your bike FREE, visit national property database Immobilise.
J Insure your bike. Photograph your bike, write a clear description of it.
J Record your frame number. Secure at Home
J The safest place to secure your bike is in your house.
J If you don't have room indoors make sure it's kept in a secure garage or shed.
J Make sure your bike is out of sight. Out and About
J Always lock your bike to an immovable object don’t just lock the frame to the wheel.
J Lock in a well-lit public area with other bikes. .
J Don’t lock your bike always in the same place. It could be stolen to order. Locking tips
J Use two different high quality locks.
J Lock your bike through the wheel and frame.
J Secure removable parts.
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The weekend of 4th and 5th of June saw the launch of Hotwell’s very own festival – Art under the Flyover. It took place on Cumberland Piazza with the aim of engaging the local community with Hotwell’s biggest (but sadly neglected) open space. Events over the weekend included: chalking the pavements, a video installation of images from around Hotwells, live painting, a cardboard city, an outdoor gallery, guerrilla gardening and many other creative activities. Saturday was sunny and bustling, with the community coming out in force. Lots of people had interesting and varied ideas on what the space could be used for in the future and it was an excellent information gathering exercise, as well as a lot of fun. Sunday’s weather was in direct contrast to the previous day - rainy and grey! However, there were plenty still plenty of visi-tors, including an ‘official’ one, in the form of the Lord Mayor, Cllr. Geoffrey Gollop and the Lady Mayoress who came to look around the space and hear about ideas for future redevelop-
ment. The overall focus of the event was to bring attention to the disused space and to encourage its reclamation for community use in the future. With this in mind, following the event, an exhibition called ‘Hotwells Quest for Open Space’ took place at Create Centre from June 15th to July 7th. This detailed the history of the Piazza and included some of the work created for ‘Art under the Flyover’, to bring more attention to the area and eventually acquire funding to realise the plans displayed. All in all, the main aim of the event - that of engagement - was certainly fulfilled. People came and enjoyed the Piazza, where previously they might have at least ignored it, or at worst, avoided it. The planters that were put in place for the event and offered up for adoption have been thriving over the ensuing weeks, with a team of dedicated ‘waterers’ tending them (read more about this on page 6). We would like to thank Anna Wilson for organising the artists and events; the artists themselves, who made it all worthwhile, the Clifton & Cabot
Neighbourhood Partnership that supported us financially and the many other helpers who rallied round to setup and manage the event on the day.
Jayne Marshall
What next…. Local architect Roger Foster is leading the work to create a masterplan for the Piazza site, and then we will be undertaking further consultation with the local community before submitting a Planning Ap-plication to Bristol City Council. We are meeting regularly with a multi-departmental team from the City Council, including transport, parks and plan-ning and hope we can get the basic design agreed over the next few months. We are seeking advice on specific ele-ments like re-connection of water and power; the feasibil-ity of a small ‘wheels park’ and installing some permanent public art. We would like to site some interpretation pan-els to explain the heritage significance of Hotwells, the Floating Harbour and the adjacent entrance locks but of course, we are mindful that, in the first round of consulta-tion, there was twice as much support for ‘greening’ the space with more trees, plants and grass than for any other single improvement. This will be challenging given that the site is largely covered with 10-15cm of tarmac and concrete and beneath that, the rubble of the houses that were demolished to make space for the flyover. We will also need to allow ongoing access to the 50 year old flyover structure for maintenance. All the ideas will be progressed in stages as we can identify sources of funding at this difficult time. However, we are hopeful that additional tree-planting can be undertaken this winter, courtesy of the Greater Bristol Bus Partnership. There is still time to get involved in the project. If you want to help or just be kept informed, e-mail the HCCA of-fice and ask to be added to the Cumberland Piazza project news distribution list.
Cumberland Piazza
Bob Walton devised and led a performance of his poem ‘Voices of the Pillars’
A show in the Create Gallery called ’Hotwells quest for open space’ gave us another opportunity to exhibit some of the art inspired by the area.
this computer model is one of several produced by Guillermo Sanchez to help us to visualise how a new scheme might look
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Events & Reviews
Pride of Place Exhibition Hotwells is represented in the permanent displays at the new M Shed Museum. As previously reported, you can see the miniature Pantomime Chest that Di Steeds created in the ‘Places’ Gallery, as well as some photographs of our area. In addition we had the opportunity to contribute to an exhibi-tion at the museum organised by the Neighbourhood Partner-ships. ‘Pride of Place’ ran from July 23rd-31st; aiming to pre-sent what was special a b o u t d i f f e r e n t neighbourhoods in the City. We decided to avoid the predictable ‘pictures on pinboards’ approach and to cre-ate instead an interac-tive map of Hotwells, using a touch-sensitive screen to enable visi-tors to navigate around the area and pop-up information about places and peo-ple of interest. With a zero budget for this challenging experiment we are greatly indebted to all the people who contributed, particularly local resident Liv Franzen who de-vised the concept and created the program within a very tight schedule. Also Blom ASA who gave us free access to their wonderful aerial imagery, Janet Margrie who decorated the ‘kiosk’ containing the computer hardware and the Hotwells Pantomime Fund that paid for the hire of the screen. The exhibition attracted hundreds of visitors and was a won-derful showcase of our area and what it has to offer. If you missed the event you can still access our interactive map online at:
http://www.hotwellscliftonwood.org.uk/content/heritage.html
To use the interactive map you will need an internet browser that supports ‘flash’ programs or you can download a stand-alone flash player free from http://www.adobe.com/products/
flashplayer/ Ray Smith
The Rose of Denmark Holds a regular Pub Quiz every Monday and Thursday is al-ways live music night (free entry). Both start at 8.30pm
WEA Courses The Workers Educational Association is running a number of courses local to us this Autumn: Shakespeare –Richard II –8 weeks from Sep. 29th, 10:00 at Friends Meeting House, 126 Hampton Rd. Redland. £67.00 How to Read a Painting - 6 weeks from Oct 4th, 14:30 at Friends Meeting House. £46.00 Poetry –Love & Relationships -8 weeks from Sept 29th, 14:00 at Friends Meeting House. £67.00 Reading & Writing Poetry -10 weeks from Sept 28th, 10:00 at Clifton Library, Princess Victoria St.. £76.00 ffi: www.wea.org.uk or call Marion Breen on 0117 9292409
Hotwells, Clifton and Cliftonwood Local History Society Meetings of the History Society are not that frequent but always memorable. The next one on Oct 19th at the Create Centre is particularly worth attending for anyone with an interest in the heritage of our area. Local historian Michael Pascoe is giving a talk entitled ’Street names of Hotwells’ Cliftonwood resident David Bolton, whose book ‘Made in Bristol’ will soon be published by Redcliffe Press, is returning with more stories about some of the unusual objects made in the City. Sue Stops and Dorothy Brown will be showing a fascinating exhibition about the Hotwells Spa which they devised for display at the Central Library during August. This contains much information and new images that many people may not have seen before. The meeting starts at 19:30 and the cost of £2.00 includes a glass of wine or soft drink.
Clifton Rocks Railway You are probably aware of this hidden gem on our doorstep and may know something of its remarkable history but perhaps don’t realise how easy it is to ar-range a visit. On Doors Open Day (Sep 10th) there will be tours of the top station all day. While there, you can also sign-up for one of the pre-booked tunnel trips to the bottom station. You can also e-mail [email protected] if you have a party of up to 10 friends or neighbours interested in a 2 hour tour arranged for a time to suit your group. Could be a birthday treat with a difference?
Flower Pow-wow Have you noticed that the flyunder/ Piazza is looking very flowery and colourful? I’m sure you have. This loveliness is mostly down to Janey Robson, followed up closely by Helena Kowalski who have been meeting on Wednesday’s at 7.30 pm to water the flowers and plants that were installed on the ‘Art Under The Flyover’ weekend in June. Why not come along one Wednesday if you can spare
a few moments? Oh yes and there is always the possibility for a bit of so-cialising afterwards to discuss flowers and re-lated things or even something entirely differ-ent! ring or e-mail the HCCA office if you can help. (contact details page 2)
Lynda Marshall
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J H THOMPSONJ H THOMPSONJ H THOMPSONJ H THOMPSON
BA (Hons) DO MRO
REGISTERED OSTEOPATH
39 Oldfield Road Hotwells BRISTOL BS8 4QQ
Tel: (0117) 927 2100
Events Diary
DIARY when what where
Sat Sep 10th
10:00-16:00
Bristol Doors Open Day free tours at Clifton Rocks Railway & Clifton Suspen-sion Bridge
see bristoldoorsopenday.org
Sat Sep 10th
19:00 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' performed by Norman Bowler in aid of a Tamil school in India tickets £6 incl. glass of wine
Holy Trinity Church
Sat Sep 10th
20:00 Cliftonwood Open Air Cin-ema - 'Be Kind Rewind'
Argyle Place Park
Mon Sep 12th
18:00 Community Links Meeting 3, Charles Place, Hotwells
Sun Sep 25th
10:30 Church service addressed by Bishop of Bristol, Mike Hill
Holy Trinity Church
Mon Sep 26th
19:30 HCCA Management Com-mittee
3, Charles Place, Hotwells
Sun Oct 2nd
10:30 & 18:30
Harvest Sunday service Holy Trinity Church
Mon Oct 3rd
18:30 Clifton Neighbourhod Fo-rum
Clifton High School
Sat Oct 8th 19:30 Barn Dance & Harvest Supper
Holy Trinity Church
Thu Oct 13th
19:30 Friends of Avon New Cut AGM
Southville Centre, Beauley Rd., Southville
Wed Oct 26th
18:30 Clifton & Cabot Neighbourhood Partner-ship
TBC
Tue Nov 15th
19:30 Hotwells & Cliftonwood Community Association AGM
Spring Garden Tavern, Hotwell Road
Sun Dec 11th
18:30 Carol Service with Bristol Brass Consort
Holy Trinity Church
Sat Sep 17th
13:00 Bristol Cycle Carnival Queen Square ffi: bristolcyclefestival.com
Fri Sep 23rd-Sun Sep 25th
Brisfest Music Festival City Centre ffi: www.brisfest.co.uk
Wed Oct 19th
19:30 Hotwells Local History Society (see details page 6)
Create Centre lecture theatre
D O W R Y CHIROPRACTIC CLINIC Alison Archibald & Associates Registered with the British Chiropractic Association & the General Chiropractic Council back and leg pain sports injuries neck shoulder and arm pain postural advice headaches free chiro checks ergonomic products available Perrin technique also available
MEDICAL INSURANCE APPROVED
Tel: 0117 929 8384 3 Dowry Place, Hotwells, Bristol
BS8 4QL www.archibaldclinics.co.uk
(also at Taunton 01823 412489)
REMEMBER -YOU CAN ALWAYS CHECK FOR LATEST UPDATES TO EVENTS HAPPENING LOCALLY AT: www.hotwellscliftonwood.org.uk/content/whats-on.html
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GARY MARSHALL ELECTRICAL SERVICES
40 YEARS TIME SERVED ELECTRICIAN
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T: 0117 927 3541 07799 252451
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busy world Gentle Class
Thursdays from Sept. 8th,
11.00-12:30 at Clifton Library,
Princess Victoria Street
Call Em Sawday to book a place
0117-9738213 or 07833751235 [email protected]
Now Taking Christmas Bookings Menus are available on our Website: www.lockside.net
Open for dinner Friday & Saturday evenings