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ASTROTURF AVONA IN ‘BIG SOCIETY’ SURVEY NONSENSE

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AstroTurfii

Avonmouth fake ‘grassroots’ community organisation AVONA exposed in the December issue of the Bristolian has recently published the results of its ‘Community Survey’.

AVONA run by Ian “PULL MY STRINGS” Smith, the quisling puppet of George Ferguson, local Tory councillors and the Port Authority, mysteriously sprung up last year in the wake of the pollution scandals, community protests and law suits against the corporations that followed. Pro-business, pro-polluter AVONA is apparently being used by Ferguson as a ‘safe’ channel to funnel cash (and now it seems bullshit) into Avonmouth outside of the accountable Neighbourhood Partnership grants process.

It is reputed that AVONA requested funds from Ferguson in an invitation-only meeting in June last year to carry out a survey of local residents. Since then AVONA have refused to answer questions about how many people had actually responded to the questionnaire, but it seems it was pitiful; as one resident put it ‘no one gives a fuck about their organisation and no-one wants to be in it’.

Let’s take a look at what AVONA were asking residents in their (his?) survey:

Do you feel there is a need for a community bus in Avonmouth?  Yes or would like to know more: 80%
Would you be able to volunteer in running or maintaining a community bus service in Avonmouth? No: 78%

Hmmm, something fishy going on here….

Would you like to see the public toilets reopened in Avonmouth Village? Yes: 73%
Would you be happy to volunteer in the upkeep and hygiene of the public toilets? No: 80%

AVONA is having a laugh….now they want us to clean the bogs for free…

What support would encourage you to take part in learning activities? Free courses: 77%
Do you have a skill that could be shared with others in the community? Yes: 7% No or maybe: 88%

So we have to provide our own voluntary education whilst still paying our Council Tax?

How much of a police presence do you see in Avonmouth? Never: 51% Monthly: 38% Weekly: 9% Daily: 2%

Many residents stated, ‘where are they?’, ‘what presence?’, ‘what police service? there is none’. Maybe AVONA wants us to set our own volunteer police force up?

And the big question….

What are things that negatively affect your health? 80% of residents responded: Pollution, dust, smoke, flies, smells, sewage, Sims Metal, Boomeco

And no follow up question to that in the AVONA survey, funnily enough…well maybe one…

Do you think massive cuts in public services are leading to ‘Big Society’ nonsense surveys? Yes: 100%

We rest our case.

AVONMOUTH ASTROTURF

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Astroturf

Astroturf

A pro-business, pro-polluter grassroots campaign called ‘AVONA’ appears to have mysteriously sprung up in Avonmouth.

The ‘ASTROTURFING’ campaign (known as such because of its fake grassroots) appears to be very well funded indeed through a mystery slush fund, apparently being handled by a local business-friendly resident, Ian Smith with the help of a local church!

Smith has already set up a cheesy branded ‘Avona’ website registered in his name and he’s helped create and distribute 4,000 USELESS GLOSSY QUESTIONAIRES to residents. These questionaires – complete with paid reply envelopes – must have cost a fair few quid and it isn’t clear where Smith got the cash from.

Not least because neither ‘Avona’ nor any of the other names he uses for his “COMMUNITY ORGANISATION” like ‘Avonmouth Projects’ or ‘Avonmouth Village’ have formal constitutions, memberships or open accounts we can have a look at.

A handy means, then, of handling cash from UNDISCLOSED SOURCES who might want to avoid the scrutiny of any successful anti-pollution campaigners in Avonmouth. Especially campaigners who have been hitting business hard where it hurts – in the wallet.

As the Bristolian has already reported, Smith received £1,000 into his personal bank account from bust criminal waste polluters Boomeco just before last Christmas to fund seasonal festivities for the community in Avonmouth. This money has subsequently DISAPPEARED without explanation after many residents demanded it was returned to the polluters.

Smith also recently launched an ATTACK in the The Nazi Post on the organisers of a, potentially, multi-million pound legal class action against the local criminal polluters, Boomeco responsible for 2014’s fly plague. He described the trio as ‘VILE’ and claimed no one in the village supported them.

An unlikely claim as 200 residents have signed-up to SUE THE ARSE OFF Boomeco and its boss Oliver Latter. Smith, meanwhile, can claim the support of, er, Boomeco plus the company’s chief supporter and supplier of public money, Mayor Poison and some RETARDED VICAR prepared to put mysterious cash handouts through his church accounts to help out local businesses keen to fight local campaigners.

Smith is also reputed to have requested cash for a leaflet/questionaire from George Ferguson when he attended a small INVITATION-ONLY community meeting with Mayor Bent-as-Fuck in Avonmouth on 25 June. A PRIVATE MEETING organised through the supposedly public and city council-run Neighbourhood Partnership.

Quite why Bristol City Council would consider handing money to an individual POSING as a community organisation without working through the agreed, open and accountable Neighbourhood Partnership grants process is not at all clear.

Neither is it clear why Avonmouth’s Neighbourhood Partnership boss and city council employee, Keith “Lazy Boy” Houghton, has been offering support and encouragement to Smith, a FRIEND OF LOCAL POLLUTERS, while marginalising the views of, at least, 200 RESIDENTS involved in a wildy successful legal action against er, LOCAL POLLUTERS!

Rest assured the Bristolian will be keeping a close eye on these dodgy dealings …