Tag Archives: Bristol City Council

WHO THE FUCK IS JOHN BETTY?

John Betty

Possibly the most expensive idiot you’ve never heard of. This dodgy old fart has spent years grabbing lucrative local authority interim contracts.

He pitched up in Cornwall for a couple of years in 2018 where a local blog colourfully called him “a 10-minute shoe-in pensioner” as he forked out £2.5m without authorisation to an associate for a regeneration scheme in Truro.

Another career highlight was a stint in Bath 2005 – 10.

In charge of the later stages of the Bath Spa development where costs spiralled from £13 million to £45 million. He also featured in the press. They revealed he earned £1.2m during his five years there. A deal the coalition government called “exorbitant”.

So guess who, since leaving Cornwall under a cloud in 2020, has been project director for the Bristol Beacon as costs spiralled from £52m to £132m?

Remarkably, there’s no record of who appointed 77 year old Betty or why and there’s no recorded process for his appointment. Neither has he appeared before any committee of councillors. Nor is his, undoubtedly, huge salary recorded in the council’s statement of accounts.

Why is this high-earning, high public spender not accountable?

CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?

Alacatraz
Bristol’s first prison food restaurant?

Our down home new £130m concert hall announces the opening of the Colonade, ‘a sustainable-forward restaurant set within the historic heart of Bristol Beacon’.  Which is more than enough to make you want to heave.

Their copywriting hacks then move into overdrive. We’re talking no less than ‘a fresh take on modern European cuisine’; ‘seasonal menus and daily specials led by artisanal local produce’ and ‘consciously low-carbon impact’ here.

But how much do these well worn foodie cliches cooked by someone you’ve never heard of set you back?

Bread and butter comes in at a fiver while a serving of cheese and ‘cracker’ is nine quid. An actual plate with a meal on starts at 14 quid plus a fiver for fries and six quid for veg. The cheapest bottle of Spanish plonk – ’round on the palate’ and heavy on the wallet – is 27 quid.

No sign of a cost of living crisis at the ‘inclusive’ Bristol Beacon then.

‘OPPRESSIVE AND DYSFUNCTIONAL’

Contrary to the contrived local PR waffle, the Colonade is actually owned by a Kent-based catering company, Graysons. Their major shareholder is US prison food provider, Aramak.

Aramak also run three ‘direct provision asylum centres’ in Ireland where asylum-seekers are forced to stay until their application is complete.

Praxis, the artists union of Ireland say, “the direct provision system is an oppressive and dysfunctional migrant prison system which has successfully enriched private companies like Aramark over many years.”

Praxis also described the National Gallery of Ireland’s decision to award Aramark a multi-million catering deal as “a stain on the reputation of our public institution.”

If you must support the local economy by eating overpriced food, try elsewhere.

MEET THE ‘CLIMATE LEADERS’

Nicola-Yates-1024x684
Lady Gaga: a leading bank balance

News just in from our You Really Couldn’t Make This Ridiculous Shit Up Department:

While hanging around looking for a job in Dubai at COP 2023, the global climate talking shop, the Reverend Rees got a gig on a panel at the UK Climate Action Forum & Dinner.

Rees was billed as a ‘UK climate leader’ along with another familiar face who got to deliver a speech. Please step forward the one and only Nicola “Lady Gaga” Yates!

This is the former Chief Exec at Bristol City Council who was rather unceremoniously ‘disappeared’ from Bristol with a generous £200k handout after running up a mystery £30m deficit in the council’s accounts in the lead-up to the mayoral elections back in 2016.

Is it a requirement of a ‘UK climate leader’ that they have a history of failure and being shown the door?

The electorate, of course, sent the Reverend packing last year. Scrapping the post of mayor after an abysmal performance pissing our money up the wall.

Is there some fail Bristol, become a ‘UK climate leader’ rule?

TOP JOB NEWS

City office Avonmouth

The Reverend Rees told long-suffering journalists daft enough to attend his stillborn ‘CITY OFFICE’ launch last month that he planned to tackle “inequalities within leadership roles” by changing the people who are awarded the top jobs.

“This will mean having leaders from HARTCLIFFE and AVONMOUTH as well as Clifton”, he assured an audience invited and organised by his old, white, highly paid, Cambridge educated right hand man and personally appointed “leader”, council Chief Exec, Stephen “OAP” Hughes from, er, Birmingham.

Who thinks Hughes could even find Hartcliffe on a map?

SPENDING WATCH

The Reverend has a tasty destination in mind for his all-expenses spring jaunt

The Mayor’s PERSONAL OFFICE continues impress as they lead the way in savings at this time of austerity and cuts to vital public services.

In September, not only did the Reverend manage TWO TRIPS abroad – one to New York and one to Norway – to play at global mayors but he also returned home proposing to spend OUR MONEY on hosting the annual convening of the Global Parliament of Mayors – an enormous junket for mayors – here in Bristol next year at a minimum cost of £150k.

Other absolutely necessary expenditure emanating from his office in August included the purchase of 1,600 branded water bottles for over TWO GRAND, £448.00 of catering for people who can afford to buy their own lunch and £4,000 handed to an agency for a SINGLE translation.

He then popped off for some pre-Christmas junketing in Malaysia and China and says he’ll be visiting the notorious annual piss-up cum mass council land sell-off MIPIM in Cannes next year.

Good to see the Reverend leading from the front, eh?

TRASHING AVONMOUTH ‘BEST OPTION’?

Wind turbines
These would look lovely on the Downs

Labour’s Southmead councillor and cabinet member for climate change stuff, working class man of the people, Kye “The” Dudd, has another shit idea in the pipeline that will dump on a working class community.

“With the Local Plan review, we’re looking at allocations in the Avonmouth area for wind turbines,” he blustered at the Nazi Post recently.

“Within our boundaries, that’s probably the best option. There are other options outside our boundaries, but obviously that’s not for us to decide.

Not strictly true. “Probably the best option” within Bristol is the Merchant Venturer-managed Downs, which have the best wind patterns in the city. How about the comfortably well-off posh of Clifton and Stoke Bishop lead on our climate emergency commitments for once and host a few wind turbines?

A direct challenge to the wealthy and influential of the city that great big pussy and bootlicker of the wealthy, The Dudd, is way too scared to pursue.

AIR YOU KIDDING?

St Philip's Bridge, Bristol 01
Air on sale

Bristol City Council’s latest brilliant business wheeze is to buy, er, fresh air off royalty!

A decision sneaked out under the cover of darkness explains, “the council must pay the Crown Estate (TCE) for the Right of Air being granted over TCE land in order to provide the St Philips Footbridge connection between Temple Island and Albert Road.”

Yes, you read that correctly. We’re paying Tampon Charlie for the use of  fresh air in St Philips. The deal is that we pay the super-wealthy king an ‘air space levy’ of £117,500 plus costs. This, we’re assured, comes at a fifty per cent discount. What a deal!

We’ll be paying Merchant Venturers for our water next … Oh hang on …

VAGINA WATCH

Eddy Golly
Hard to think of a caption that does this idiot display justice

Dribbling Tory councillor for the Redcatch Development Partnership, Richard “Bunter”, Eddy recently featured in the pages of the Nazi Post denying he was a vagina!

The freak show chair of the council’s Planning Committee ‘A’ has had a few problems recently following the ‘bewildering reversal’, by his committee, of their refusal of planning permission for the horrific over-redevelopment of Broadwalk Shopping Centre.

While defending himself from what appears to be the reasonable observation that he’s another bent Tory fucker too close to wealthy property development interests, Eddy explained, “I make no excuse for being a real Bristolian rather than a pouncy (sic) humourless Leftie.”

‘Pouncy,’ we’re reliably informed, is a slang term for ‘vagina’. So it seems the idiot councillor is helpfully clearing up any confusion there may be among the public between local Tories and women’s genitalia.

Out of decorum, we’ll avoid the obvious cunt gag.