Tag Archives: European Green Capital 2015

HARTCLIFFE’S HOT AIR CENTRE

Anyone got any idea what’s happened to the HARTCLIFFE RECYCLING CENTRE, the state-of-the-art recycling facility for south Bristol that could be located on a 5-acre site on Hartcliffe Way?

Politicians of every shade of useless have PROMISED the facility for years now. While the hot air expended on this non-existent facility, if captured, could generate imaginary plans for the city for the next hundred years.

This recycling centre was originally touted by the Lib Dems’ Gary “Fuckbucket” Hopkins in 2010 when he was the cabinet member responsible for waste. However, the centre has subsequently been promoted by Labour, Tories and Greens, including the Reverend Rees who PROMISED to build the place by 2018 in his first speech to Bristol City Council in May 2016.

The Lib Dems even got as far as agreeing, at cabinet meeting on 4 July 2012, to build the centre and allocated £2million for the task. Alas, Mayor No-more Ferguson arrived in autumn 2012 and put the project “ON HOLD” citing government cuts. Although Ferguson subsequently found MILLIONS to splurge on European Green Capital eco-tainment for the wealthy, such as dumping a load of festering tugboats in Leigh Woods to “challenge us to think about issues surrounding climate change”.

The Reverend, having personally put the recycling centre back on the agenda in 2016, appears to have done NOTHING about it since and he’s now set to miss his own 2018 deadline for the opening of the centre. Will it ever happen?

Perhaps Bristol Waste Managing Director, Tracey Morgan, who seems to take all the decisions in Bristol these days, has decided she doesn’t want a recycling centre in Hartcliffe?

NOT CLEAN, NOT GREEN

explosive-art-1434120503Bristol’s time as European Green Capital is not going at all well when it comes to the cleanliness of the city’s streets.

Even before the start of Green Capital year, Bristol had an unenviable reputation as the dirtiest place in the West of England. Government statistics reveal that in 2013/14, 10,472 incidents of fly-tipping were reported to Shitty Hall. This compares with 1,258 over the same period for South Gloucestershire and a mere 413 for Bath & NE Somerset.

Things haven’t improved much with the advent of the elite greenwash bunfight either. While the city’s great and good slap each others’ backs over their pretended environmental credentials, Bristolians from Lawrence Hill to Lawrence Weston are complaining about unacceptable levels of litter and fly-tipping in their areas.

But it’s not just in north Bristol that the locals are concerned about filth on the streets and the city in general. South of the Avon too, residents are complaining that fly-tipping is being made worse by the lack of a household waste recycling centre in Hartcliffe. The main reason there isn’t one is that the proposal that is being opposed by Mayor George Ferguson.

Presumably he thinks it’s acceptable for people in south Bristol to drive miles across the city to Avonmouth or St Philips, adding to the city’s congestion and pollution? Nice one George!

And when it does take action against litter louts and fly-tippers, there’s only one word to describe the council’s response – pathetic. Since 2010 only 120 people have been fined or taken to court by the city council for dropping litter, while in the BS5 area – one of the city’s hotspots – enforcement action has been taken against only 32 people.

This low level of enforcement is due to one major reason: council staff cuts. Before 2010 Bristol had a complement of 10 so-called ‘streetscene enforcement officers’ to deal with fly-tipping, litter, fly-posting, dog fouling and other such banes of modern urban living. These 10 officers were assisted in their work by 2 technical support/admin staff and a streetscene enforcement manager whose only other remit was to manage 3 dog wardens.

Following the 2010 general election and George Ferguson’s election as mayor the city was promised “no cuts to frontline services”. Yet the streetscene enforcement team has since consistently lost staff and no replacements recruited. The team is now down to 4.7 officers only and managed by a man with no knowledge of environmental legislation or how to investigate and prosecute a case.

Is it any wonder that reported fly-tips in the city more than doubled over the period in which the team has been more than halved?

The word from the streets is that this situation is unlikely to improve in the near future. Since August waste management and street cleansing have been taken back in house after Kier/May Gurney walked away from their contract with the council pleading lack of profitability despite doing a crap job and BCC never penalising them for doing so.

BOOM! AVONMOUTH RISING: LEGAL CLASS ACTION TO SINK EUROPEAN GREEN CAPITALISTS?

avonmouth sunrise

Residents in Avonmouth, sick of FEEBLE mayors, FAKE Green cabinet members, BENT council managers, BLIND regulators, GREEDY businessmen, UNACCOUNTABLE port owners, THICK councillors, ABSENT MPs, POINTLESS partnership meetings and the general PANOPOLY OF TOSS they’ve been subjected to while POLLUTING GREEN INDUSTRY wrecks their lives, homes and community are launching a legal CLASS ACTION due to the plague of flies this summer.

The BRISTOLIAN can confirm from its sources that at 11.30am this morning a number of Avonmouth residents obtained legal representation to investigate the possibility of bringing a group action to seek redress for the fly infestation which occurred over the summer months in Avonmouth and surrounding areas.

The BRISTOLIAN‘s source says, “this group action has the potential to grow in to a very large number of litigants and no stone will be left unturned in achieving redress.”

The BRISTOLIAN‘s also been told that “many, many thousands” of people will be able join this action, obtain financial redress and strike a blow for the community of Avonmouth.

A blow that the Mayor, the Cabinet, councillors, MPs, the local authority, regulators and the Bristol Port Company have refused to strike so they can protect VESTED INTERESTS and PROFITS for the few.

So where does this leave the GREEN CAPITAL OF EUROPE? A major legal action is now taking place against one of them for polluting one of their own communities!

An action started on the day it was revealed that useless Green Capital boss KRIS DONALDSON “DUCK” has been SACKED and PAID OFF with OUR public money while Mayor “UNCLE” GEORGE squeaks that as a Green Capital board member he has no knowledge of the amount of money DOLED OUT to Donaldson for failing.

We’ve had the farce; now let’s see the court room drama …

GREEN SPONSOR FARCE

 

green cap

NEWS that the 2015 Green Capital nonsense had attracted major corporate sponsors FIRST GROUP buses and accountants KPMG was greeted with much excitement by the usual gullibles of the city’s press and establishment.

While the amount the corporations were handing over to get their logos plastered all over the year long greenwash non-event had to remain secret due to “commercial confidentiality” we were told.

However, we can reveal the reason for the secrecy. The “major sponsorship” adds up to a free audit from KPMG and a couple of new hybrid buses from First that they were introducing anyway!

KING GEORGE THE GREEN ‘A SWEATSHOP BOSS’!

Whilst Mayor Fergo embarks on a jubilant celebratory bender to mark Bristol winning the expensive right to call itself ‘EUROPEAN GREEN CAPITAL 2015 (announced at a ceremony in the French city Nantes, which naturally George felt compelled to attend) we can hazard a guess as to his strategy for greenifying the city – unplugging anything electrical that might make working for him bearable.

Thanks to commenter Concerned for this tasty morsel:

Talking of Fergusons Tobacco Factory Bar model of low-status, low-wage and no-rights employees, I mentioned to one that his sweat dripped on the bar as i bought an overpriced pint during that rare hot spell recently. He moaned that FERGUSON DELIBERATELY DOESN’T HAVE AIR CONDITIONING IN THE BAR as it makes people thirstier, unlike his penthouse style quarters upstairs.

We look forward to George and his talented Rainbow Hotdesk Imagineering Roundtable Collective (AKA the council’s Cabinet) coming up with other similarly outside-the-box ideas to foist upon ordinary Bristolians to offset their own hot air emissions.

Kidney dialysis machines which only work if you’ve put your rubbish in the right recycling box, perhaps? Or a low impact water taxi service powered by oar-pulling children paying off their parents’ Bedroom Tax bills? Or – gasp – maybe at last the dream will be made reality…

A BOULEVARD OF SOLAR-POWERED INFLATABLE VEGETABLES?!