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BRISTOLIAN #75: ON THE STREETS NOW!
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CAZ-RAZY SHIT
Farewell, then, to a Bristol institution.
Marcruss Outdoors, probably better known as “the army surplus shop on Hotwell Road’, is calling it a day in July. The grand old 18th century building will become ten unaffordable flats and three retail units instead.
Shop boss, Marcus, was concerned about the clean air zone (CAZ) in 2022: “I think it could essentially kill us off because it starts from Ashton. Unless people are allowed to come into this area, nobody’s going to shop in here.”
Death by CAZ then. Viva CAZ!
Compliance
The Bristolian hears that the parks’ vehicle fleet is not compliant with the city council’s Clean Air Zone (CAZ).
The department is therefore paying every time one of their vehicles enters the zone. Adding insult to injury, they also have to pay fines if bosses are on leave or don’t pay the charge on time.
Money for our cash-starved parks’ is therefore being shovelled at a formidable rate into the coffers of the council’s Green Party pet project slush fund to get wasted on sustainable transport tosh.
Who needs trees?
CRUEL SPORT
Dan “The WECA Man” Norris is a very busy WECA man indeed. As well as being the Metro Mayor and an MP, Dan is also the Chair of the League Against Cruel Sports where he has been served with legal papers for an Employment Tribunal claim by the charity’s former chief executive, Andy Knott.
Former army officer, Knott, alleges that “Dan Norris asked him to keep quiet if Labour dropped its commitment to close loopholes in existing fox-hunting laws.”
Knott then claims that when he raised concerns about this political interference to the board and senior management, “they refused to investigate”.
TORY TONY’S CORPORATE MADNESS
“Tory” Tony Dyer continues his deranged odyssey to the outer reaches of corporate madness.
A breathless press release from pension fund Legal & General (L&G) recently announced, “[L&G] has submitted a planning application for Bristol Temple Island, a £350m masterplan regeneration project that will transform a derelict, former diesel depot site into a vibrant urban quarter.”
The council, in a dubious deal, actually handed over Arena Island to L&G in exchange for a free lease of an office block for 40 years while agreeing to spend £32m decontaminating the land all over again.
Tory Tony enthusiastically appeared in L&G’s PR dross describing this totally shit deal on land originally earmarked for our arena as “great to see”!
It isn’t. It’s monumentally depressing to see our money being pissed up the wall to benefit a wealthy corporate.
Shawbrook ‘shank-um’ redemption
Or Green-wash, rinse, repeat.
Remember the global economic crash of 2008 when American banks deliberately lent mortgages to folks they very well knew couldn’t repay? Ooh! The ecstasy of home ownership
Of course we do… It’s the reason we’re in the shit we are now. Despite us bailing banks out with our taxes and suffering two decades of sub-standard public services through austerity policies.
One of Bemmy Greens’ development mortgage lenders, ‘Shawbrooks’ has again been slammed by the Financial Conduct Authority for lacklustre scrutiny on their terms for loans to the self-employed. For, you guessed it… home ownership!
These crooks were exposed in the last ‘Bristolian’ as fraudsters to the tune of at least £100 million.
Is there no end to the tenacity of these city council sanctioned developers?
LORD FOR SALE
Heady days at the Soho Agency – ‘a leading literary, theatrical and talent agency based in the heart of Soho, London’.
Joining an exciting roster of b-list celebrity TV talent including Dick Strawbridge, Sarah Beeny and Ben Fogle is none other than our old mucker the Reverend Lord Rees of Beacon Overspend.
The recently enobled ex-mayor and, er ‘keen snowboarder’, is for hire as an author and an expert.
Expert in what Soho Agency ain’t saying.
Are council bosses still spying on residents?
A rumoured council legal letter knocking around claiming they are entitled to spy on us suggests they could be.
As does this comment from a boat dweller at the docks in a public statement to the Harbour Committee in December: “There has also been suspicion of covert surveillance, particularly when accessing services and collecting electricity cards.”
Council bosses’ resistance to an investigation into their surveillance of SEND parents promised years ago begins to make sense …
GINGER NUT JOB BOSSES
The latest revelation in the ongoing scandal of council senior boss nutjobs spying on parents of disabled children moves firmly into the realm of farce.
According to emails in the public domain, deranged council bosses deployed a covert human intelligence asset to spy on and report back on an, er, tea and biscuits carer support group run out of Knowle West!
While offering a commentary on parents’ clothing choices, the email fails to reveal what biscuits these dangerous carers were consuming as they deviously plotted in public to get a better education for their children.
Can our scumbag council get any lower?
WASTER!
The city’s business press got all hot in early November over the announcement of a new Managing Director for Bristol Waste. Step forward “Rubbish” Richard Williams from, er, Aldi.
Williams cheerfully jotted down for the copy and pasters of the city’s press that he would be “driving innovation in the sector” and that he wanted “to enhance Bristol Waste Company’s reputation as an industry leader.”
Shame, then, that by the end of the month the press was announcing, ‘Bristol Waste fraud probe concludes with five people referred to Crown Prosecution Service’.
Currently Bristol Waste are an industry leader in fraudulent conduct then.
We look forward to Rubbish Richard further enhancing that.
DUMPTY WATCH
Desperate times at the top of Bristol City Council.
A recent question to Full Council from a member of the public – ‘The Chair’s confidence in the work of the Monitoring Officer’ – was unceremoniously banned by, er, “Dumpty” Tim O’Gara, the Monitoring Officer!
Dumpty Tim claimed the question was ‘offensive’. Although from where we’re sitting it looks more like the chair, “Tory” Tony Dyer, didn’t fancy having to tell the truth to the public.
Which is that his legal brains Dumpty Tim is obviously a useless lying bent incompetent that it’s impossible to publicly state you have any confidence in.
Oh dear.
GAGGING FOR IT!
Huge sums of money dished out to ‘disappear’ WECA bosses by clown man regional mayor
It’s been a very busy time down at WECA for tasty payoffs and gagging orders. Since hapless clown man, Dan “The WECA Man” Norris, was elected in May 2021 there’s been the following exits:
June 2021: David Gibson, Director of Infrastructure exited with a pay off and gagging order;
September 2021: the Director of Governance exited with a pay off and gagging order;
February 2022: the Director of Finance exited with a pay off and gagging order.
And let’s not forget Chief Executive, Patricia “Psycho” Greer disappeared in 2022 too. Later paid off in August 2023 with a £219,000 golden handshake with a gagging order in place.
Into 2024 and we’ve said goodbye to Rachel Musson, Director of Resources, with rumours of sex discrimination circulating. She exited with a pay off and gagging order.
Another Director of Infrastructure exited with a payoff and gagging order and Alex Holly, Director of HR exited with a payoff and gagging order.
The term ‘basketcase’ doesn’t do the Weca Man’s organisation justice.
EBLN: IT’S CLASS WAR!
EAST BRISTOL LIVEABLE NEIGHBOURHOOD LATEST:
IT AIN’T HAPPENING!
WORKING CLASS BARTON HILL KICKS MIDDLE CLASS GREEN ARSE AS DERANGED SCHEME IS HALTED BY PROTESTORS
‘CORRUPT CESSPIT’
In a packed field, the best question to Full Council in December came from Jamie Bolley.
He asked for a breakdown of EBLN costs to be published “so the public can be reassured that the council isn’t the corrupt cesspit that it is appearing to be!”
The council’s expensive PR team aren’t working are they?
The gift that keeps on giving
Posted on Facebook in December:
“Last night I had to call an ambulance for my husband. I thought he was having a stroke. The ambulance didn’t know how to get from Salisbury Street back to the main road and had to double back twice due to road closures and parked cars. They only got to hospital before me in the car because they were on blues and twos. I left after them. The ambulance reported that it’s not the first time they’ve been delayed. Someone is going to die if this crazy scheme doesn’t stop.”
FAKE CONSULTATION
The wheels have come off claims by Bristol City Council officers that their public consultation for the EBLN was some sort of top quality engagement process.
Transport Committee Chair “Dick” Ed Plowden has had to admit, after being asked publicly, that one of the council’s community group consultees – The Barton Hill Disabilities Group – was entirely fictitious. Apparently invented by dodgy transport officers to tick some boxes.
Lo and Behold! One of the main groups now objecting to the EBLN are disabled people struggling to get out of their homes and around their own neighbourhood.
Who would have ever guessed?
LAWFARE?
Council officers thought they were on to a big winner on the streets of Barton Hill back in January.
They requested the coppers remove local anti-EBLN protestors from the road for ‘obstructing the highway’ and preventing council contractors installing their liveable neighbourhood street furniture crap.
“Er,” came the response from Avon and Somerset’s finest, “they aren’t ‘obstructing the highway’ because the council has closed the road to carry out its works. Protestors are doing nothing illegal. They can’t obstruct a closed highway.”
Ain’t the law a bitch?
ONE RULE FOR US: ROAD BLOCKS
Green Windmill Councillor, Lisa Stone, is demanding that Hereford Street in her ward is made two-way again after being turned into a one way street as part of the Bedminster Green regeneration shitshow.
She also complains that the Hereford Road one-way scheme was implemented after plans were drawn up after a consultation which only mentioned changes to Whitehouse Road and Whitehouse Lane.
Shame Councillor Stone and her Green colleagues remain silent on the concerns of residents suffering in the East Bristol Liveable neighbourhood where numerous roads have been blocked and made one-way after poor quality consultation with residents.
One rule for them?