Clifton and Hotwells Improvement Society CHIS News archive

CHIS News Archive 2009

The following news items are listed with the latest items first.

Alice Roberts

Alice gave a fantastic, popular talk "The Incredible Human Journey" on 13 October 2009.

Green belt development

Evening Post
Concerned residents and campaigners packed Bedminster Down School hall last night for a meeting to discuss the controversial Ashton Park plan. In the next few months, North Somerset District and Bristol City councils will consider an outline planning application for a plan to build about 9,500 new homes and other facilities in Ashton Vale over the next 20 years. Also within the plan for the area between the A38 at Dundry and the A370 Long Ashton bypass are shops and offices, a leisure centre, a new secondary school and as many as six new primary schools. The Government has said thousands of new homes will be needed in the Bristol area as part of the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS). And although the RSS has not yet been ratified nationally, council planners could make a provisional decision on the Ashton Park plans in January.

Dundry Residents Action Group (DRAG) chairwoman Debbie Nicholls said: "This is not going to be a fairy tale come true. This is going to be a nightmare for at least 20 years."
The Bedminster Down and Uplands Society (BDUS) and its friends paid for the hire of the school hall and, with DRAG, organised the meeting. BDUS chairwoman Diana Porter said: "We are convinced that this represents the greatest threat yet to destroying our local landscape forever." The majority of the land in question is owned or controlled by the Land Trust.
John Baker, of project manager Baker Associates, told the audience this amount of new homes would be needed in the future and this was the nearest suitable land to the city centre. Mr Baker outlined the transport infrastructure that would be provided, including a rapid transit bus route and a link road from the A370 to the A38. He also said green spaces would be kept and a new energy plant would use waste to create power for the development.
But questioning the figures given for future housing needs, Jill Britten, who runs an organic beef farm in Whitchurch, said: "Is there nobody in this world that sees sense?"
Chris Pope, 61, of Dundry Lane, said: "People living round here today will be expected to live in the middle of a building site for the next 20 years if this plan gets the go-ahead."
Other residents were concerned where the jobs would come from for people living in Ashton Park. Mr Baker responded: "The continued growth of Bristol will bring employment into Bristol and the housing will support that."
Peter Crispin, of the Ashton Vale Heritage Group, said: "We are being fobbed off by the idea that you can have a development like this and it's not going to create any more traffic."
Other fears were raised about drainage and flood risks and increased crime. Chairing the meeting, Bristol City Council's Conservative party leader Richard Eddy said the RSS should be "abolished" and said the amount of houses it has earmarked for the region is "unsustainable". Fellow Bishopsworth councillor Kevin Quartley was also at the meeting.
One Bedminster Down resident of 25 years spoke in favour of the proposals. He said apart from the new secondary school, there had been very little investment in the area.
Residents in North Somerset – where 98 per cent of the development would be – have until October 23 to register their opinions. Write to the planning department, North Somerset Council, Somerset House, Oxford Street, Weston-super-Mare, BS23 1TG. Bristol residents can send comments to City Development, Brunel House, St George's Road, Bristol, BS1 5UY.

Suspension Bridge

4 October 09: More maintenance- this time by climbers on the chains

5 April 09: Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge was closed on Saturday evening after a crack was found in one of its metal hanging rods. Dorothea Restorations came to the rescue.

undoing the 150 year old stud after supporting the chains	the break can clearly be seen
removing the broken rod	David Anderson the Bridge Master looking at the stud

CHIS Suspension Bridge Pictures

New Neighbourhood Partnership

www.bristolpartnership.org Next meeting for the Cabot, Clifton and Clifton East Partnership. All welcome www.bristol.gov.uk/meeting
5 October 2010, Council House 7pm-9pm.
This is a chance for you to air your views of Bristol City Council Services For more details contact Ariaf Hussain on (0117) 922318 or email ariaf.hussain@bristol.gov.uk

At the meeting on 2nd March it was resolved that:

pedestrianisation of Boyces Avenue and Kings Road, Tyndalls Park Road and Woodland Road should be progressed as priorities, as would areawide minor signs and road lining
road surface dressing schemes to be implemented in Kingsdown Parade and Cliftonwood Road
footway schemes to be implemented in Princess Victoria Street (to the Mall), Colston Avenue. Cotham Hill, ZigZag path, St Stephens Street, Nelsons Street

Bristol is establishing 14 Neighbourhood Partnerships (NPs) across the city. These will be clusters of two or three wards, ie 20-30K people. A few of these structures are already well established. Most are in their very early stages.

One aim is to provide a mechanism for holding departments of the council, Primary Care Trust, Police etc more accountable for locally delivered services.
A second aim is to involve local people in the identification of priorities and the design, implementation and evaluation of solutions.

This sounds very familiar. For Network groups 'our' department is Planning and 'community involvement' is what we've been banging on about for years with regard to 'early, effective and ongoing involvement in the preparation of all development plans', S106 planning obligations, allocation etc.
The NPs themselves will be drawn from local residents (in practice that usually means local organisations), local businesses and elected representatives, ie councillors. These, hopefully, will build productive links with officers paid to deliver services in particular areas. It's early days yet, but the talk is of a transfer of some budgets to these bodies and that they will become significant players in determining 'neighbourhood' agendas. Some even talk of 'urban parishes', but that's way down the line.
The most successful NPs, so far, are those that have shown themselves to be independent of the statutory organisations and really interested in empowering local people.
NPs, we are told, will be the main focus and forum of neighbourhood working in the future for statutory agencies. Working with your NP is likely to be a good way to win friends and influence people. Time will tell....

The Neighbourhood Planning Network (NPN) http://www.bristolnpn.net administration group will identify those NPs in which there is no Bristol NPN member or the organisation is only concerned with part of the area and do what they can to get a good Bristol NPN representation in all the NP areas. They don't know how (or if) this is going to work in practice.

West Bristol Art Trail

Fantastically successful inaugural year. The trail twists its path through the work of 120 artists exhibiting in over 50 homes and venues throughout the area. You will discover ceramicists, filmmakers, jewellers, painters, photographers, printmakers, sculptors and textile artists as you follow the trail from its bed in Hotwells and the richly historic docks, through a maze of cobbled lanes and secret passages to the summit, the Georgian stateliness of Clifton and as far as Blackboy Hill.
CHIS has been a major sponsor
More details on http://www.westbristolarts.org.uk/

Removal of grade II listed lamp post in Clifton Park

21 Sept 09: A grade II listed lamp post has recently been removed from Clifton Park just by the Roman Catholic Cathedral. It was knocked down by a Council dustcart. It was a particularly fine specimen with very ornate ladder rests, and had a traditional lantern. It also had a separate adjacent feeder pillar so was electrically safe too. It was also a very substantial post so very unlikely to have rotted. We are trying to get it repaired and put back under insurance. Any person looking at this post should surely have been aware that it was out of the ordinary. It was even well looked after and freshly painted! Pictures and more detail can be seen on the streetscape section

Window boxes

1 July 09:CHIS sponsored £360 to put the window boxes outside the library in Princess Victoria Street

Sutton House, Clifton Down Bristol BS8 3HT (bottom of Canygne Rd)

31 August: conservatory and dormer still there. Another enforcement order
5 June 09: Mr Hale has advised that the conservatory company has been contracted to begin works on 18 July 2009, as this is the earliest date that was available, and that the conservatory structure will take approximately 2 weeks to be completed. He also intends to carry out the removal of the dormer at this time. Should the works proceed without any complications, the outstanding elements should be completed around the first week of August 2009.
4th March 09: Sutton House - Planning Update
Bristol City Council's enforcement action for breach of planning regulations came before Bristol Magistrates Court on 4th March.
The owner of this grade 2 listed building, currently on the market for £3.5 million , a Mr.Hale of Venture, Cadbury Camp Lane, finally pleaded guilty to charges of building a dormer window and demolishing a front boundary wall without the necessary planning consents.
The Magistrates were told that the front garden wall had now been rebuilt, albeit with a wider entrance, in accordance with retrospective planning consent. However, planning consent in respect of the dormer window was refused on appeal last November and it, the court was told, had now been removed. (It was still there on 8th March.)
Mr.Hale, a property developer, was fined £2000 in respect of the wall, £3000 in respect of the window, with costs of £1674, making a total of £6674 plus £15 surcharge. At his request, he was given 28 days to pay.

11 Feb 09:09/00299/LA closing date for comment 4 March Proposal:

i. Demolition of existing aluminium conservatory and replacement with new painted aluminium conservatory (800mm lower than existing unauthorised conservatory);
ii. Provision of a rooflight/sunpipe;
iii. Removal of unauthorised dormer window on rear of property;
iv. Replacement of rear UPVC casement window with painted timber sliding sash window;
v. Retention of rebuilt front boundary wall, vehicular access position and modified entrance gate.

original gateway shown by pennant stone crossover and gates (May 08)

gateway now central and over 2 metre wider than original (Feb 09). Permission was originally given to make gateway wider by 1 metre at original location

Look here for more detail

Campaign to Protect Rural England

The Future of the Green Belt around Bristol. A Public Survey – April 2009. Campaign website
http://www.cpreavonside.org.uk/districts/bristol/. Bristol section of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) Avonside Web site. There is no separate District Group for Bristol but members in north Bristol are represented by the South Gloucestershire District of the Branch and those in the south of the city by North Somerset District.

Clifton and Hotwells Improvement Society (CHIS)