Tag Archives: Ashton Vale

44 RICHMOND TERRACE: THE BIG COUNCIL LIE

As council housing activists continue to occupy former council property 44 Richmond Terrace, Avonmouth to get homeless ex-serviceman Anthony Palmer and his 18 month son housed in dignified conditions, the council continues to LIE about what they can do.

Senior housing bosses led by their useless Tory-boy liar-in-chief, Housing Director, Nick “Drooper”Hooper, continue to claim that they have NO POWER to let Anthony ‘jump’ the housing list and give him a home.

THIS IS BOLLOCKS.

If you cast your mind back to 19 February 2012, you might recall Bristol City Council announcing with great fanfare that “the sole unnamed local person has discontinued his application to the High Court for a Judicial Review [into the Ashton Vale Town Green application].”

And you may also recall, the withdrawal of this person from this judicial review briefly made it look like Bristol City FC could build their multi-million pound new stadium and commercial development on greenbelt land unimpeded.

However, what you may not have realised is that this “sole unnamed local person” who briefly helped make this lucrative development a possibility also happened to be a council tenant in Ashton Vale.

You also may not have realised that the day before this gleeful press announcement from the council appeared, this “sole unnamed local person” was mysteriously whisked away in a chaueffeur driven car never to be seen at his Ashton Vale council home again.

And why was this? Er, because Nick Hooper’s housing department, which – remember – has no power to let anyone jump the housing list, rehoused this  “sole unnamed local person” in a well-appointed one bedroomed bungalow elsewhere in the city at very short notice – working to a timetable that turned out to be very convenient to a local billionaire.

Isn’t it amazing what Nick Hooper can manage to do at the drop of a hat to help out a mega-rich football club owner who resides offshore to avoid tax and what he can’t do to help a homeless ex-serviceman trying to care for a young son just released from care?

Hooper’s clearly a man only too prepared to drop his pants and bend over his desk for the wealthy and influential of the city. The only question is: does he charge for his generous favours to local gentleman of considerable means?

OUR TOWN GREEN AND PLEASANT LAND

Town green

Despite the best efforts of the Tory government, supported by local councillors of all persuasions – who are never ones to shirk their responsibilities when it comes to helping out wealthy and influential PROPERTY DEVELOPERS – legitimate town and village green applications continue to get a hearing.

The Growth and Localism Act 2013, was supposed to spell an end to most town and village green applications. Legislation that was specifically drafted after the residents of Ashton Vale STUFFED Bristol’s richest man Steve Lansdown and his little coterie of Bristol City Council helpers trying to build a football stadium on their open space

However, it increasingly looks like the new law is not the developer free-for-all planned. In and around Bristol there’s due to be TVG hearings for COLSTON’S FIELDS, neighbouring Eastville Park, after the Merchant Venturer’s Colston School tried to build luxury houses on open space there and on CLAVERHAM GREEN in the North Somerset village where developers have designs on designated open space.

Our TVG expert tells us, “It feels like there’s a BIG SELL OFF of green land planned for after the mayoral election to build houses. Communities need to look at their green spaces NOW because local authorities might SELL them.

“It’s likely to happen in North Somerset and South Gloucester more than Bristol I reckon. Mostly AGRICULTURAL LAND on fringes of housed areas or sports pitches.  As soon as it’s zoned for development in local plans, it’s too late to apply for a TVG. Same if there’s already been a planning application in last two years.”

If you have open space nearby and you value it, apply for a Town Green NOW before the bastards rezone the land for their developer friends.

The Bristolian can put you in touch with people who can help.