Letter to Adam Crozier, Chief Exec of Royal Mail

Dear Mr Crozier,

In October 2008, the Queens Road Post Office in my ward in Bristol was closed.

At the time, I was told that this was because the “current partners have tendered their resignation” and that “the premises are no longer available for Post Office use”. For visitors to the area, this fact was obvious – the convenience store in which the Post Office was located was boarded up.

The closure of this store was a severe blow for the local community. It was well used by local residents and businesses, and provided services such as car tax renewal and passport checking which are not available at other nearby Post Office branches.

I sought assurances from Royal Mail at the time that an alternative branch would be opened as soon as possible. In the meantime, it was suggested to me that a temporary, mobile Post Office could be set up nearby.

Disappointingly, neither of these have come to fruition, and over a year later, I find that the area is still deprived of its Post Office. This, I hope you would agree, is a sorry state of affairs, and in my view is a damning indictment of Royal Mail’s policy of co-locating Post Office branches in the premises of other retail businesses.

I would be grateful for an indication of when a new Post Office will be opened in this area, and an assurance that everything possible is being done to expedite its opening.

Yours sincerely,

Alex Woodman.

Liberal Democrat Councillor for Cabot Ward

Climate Countdown

Not the best reproduction of their flyer, but have a look at the Climate Countdown Event on 24th October at Millennium Sq...

Interpreter Needed

I have been receiving a series of anonymous, illegible letters over the past few weeks. Each one is addressed as such:

The letters started after an article in the Evening Post about a licensing sub-committee hearing which I chaired. Licence applications are not decided by the full 15-member Licensing Committee, but by sub-committees of three members. Sub-committees can be chaired by any of the three councillors there, and the sender of these letters appears to mistakenly believe that, as I chaired this particular meeting, I must therefore be the Chair of the full committee. I'm not.

Frustratingly, the letters are all anonymous, meaning that I cannot write back to the sender to advise of their mistake.

In addition, the handwriting is so poor that, I can't even understand what the problem is, and so can't help. The most recent letter looks like this:

If you're able to read and understand the above and can provide a translation, I would be most grateful for your assistance! And if you wrote it, please get in touch to talk about what exactly the problem is, and how I might be able to help.

Latest Cabot eNews Published

Dear Resident,

Welcome to this edition of Cabot eNews - your monthly local e-newsletter from Cabot councillors Mark Wright and Alex Woodman. Cabot eNews is sent to those who have expressed an interest in what is happening in Cabot ward and central Bristol.

In this edition:

1. Residents' Parking

2. Museum of Bristol work continues

3. Banksy vs Bristol Museum - late night openings

4. Two evenings of free music in Queen Square

5. Road safety measures

6. Road closure

7. Closing City centre roads at weekends?

8. Cycling to work

9. Billboards

10. Petition against "burger trailers"

11. PACT / Drop in surgery

12. The Folk House adult education centre

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1. Residents' Parking

Residents have expressed concerns to Alex Woodman and me about delays in the residents' parking scheme. We'd like to assure people that there have been no deliberate delays.

Parking Officers have been carrying out technical surveys of all streets within the two pilot areas (Clifton and Kingsdown). This has taken a little longer than was originally scheduled, due to the potential size of the areas increasing (particularly Kingsdown).

They are now using the results of these surveys and the comments from the residents' survey that was carried out in April/May to produce detailed designs for each street.

Alex and I remain as committed as ever in the belief that a fair and workable residents' parking scheme is necessary to improve quality of life in Kingsdown.

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2. Museum of Bristol work continues

Bristol's historic dockside cargo cranes will once again be brought back to life when a restoration project re-starts this month. Hoardings have come down in front of the development of the new Museum of Bristol to allow Museum staff and volunteers access to the cranes which have stood still for the last two years.

Work on the cranes will continue the restoration process begun years ago and will involve full cleaning - including the removal of the resident pigeons which have made the cranes their home.

New volunteers are always welcome to help, and they are looking for people to join the friendly team to help look after big working exhibits, including the cranes, steam train and boats. Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Andy King on 0117 903 1569, email: andy.king@bristol.gov.uk

The new Museum will open in 2011. For more information visit: www.bristol.gov.uk/museums

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3. Banksy vs Bristol Museum - late night openings

In a bid to accommodate even more visitors to the hugely successful and massively popular Banksy vs Bristol Museum exhibition at Bristol's City Museum & Art Gallery, there will be special late night openings on Wednesday evenings .

The city council has arranged for the late night openings - up until 8pm - on Wednesdays in August.

Museum staff have been overwhelmed with the fantastic response by the public to see the exhibition. Around 200,000 visitors have seen the exhibition since it opened on Saturday, June 13, 2009. The record-breaking visitor numbers has resulted in extra staff being taken on over the summer to help with front of house and in the galleries.

The Banksy exhibition on the Triangle has permanent queues outside it now, as we enter the last few weeks. I have visited the exhibition and it really is very good. I advise you to go early on a weekday, ideally when the weather is terrible, as that's when the queues are shortest!

Unfortunately, not everyone thinks that this is a good thing, and one of Banksy's most famous pieces has been defaced. The "Man hanging out of window" at the bottom of Park St was hit with blue paint: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/8114184.stm

Banksy's other great piece on Stokes Croft, "Mild, Mild West" has also been attacked twice in recent months.

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4. Two evenings of free music in Queen Square

The hugely popular 'Square Sessions' - are back - and once again there’s a chance to catch up with the sounds of summer in Bristol’s historic Queen Square.

The Square Sessions are part of the city council’s busy summer programme of free music, arts and events. They take place from 5pm to 9pm on Friday, 14 August and on Friday 21 August 2009. As well as showcasing home-grown talent, the sessions provide a great opportunity to meet up with family and friends to enjoy a summer evening together.

From jazz-funk and Gypsy swing to up-and-coming singer-songwriters, there’s something to delight audiences of all ages.

With award-winning real ales from local heroes Bath Ales and a selection of fine, fresh food - Bristol’s free Square Sessions have all the ingredients needed for a special summer evening.

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5. Road Safety

Road safety build-outs have been installed for pedestrians and cyclists on two dangerous junctions: Cumberland Rd/Wapping Rd roundabout, and St Augustine's Parade at the bottom of Park St. The Cumberland Rd scheme was the result of Cllr Alex Woodman spotting that "Section 106" money given to the Council by developers was about to be lost if it wasn’t spent in the area soon.

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6. Road Closure

Anchor Rd will be closed for some or all of the time between 8pm Aug 15th and 6am Aug 17th for major crane-lifting works.

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7. Closing City centre roads at weekends?

Bristol’s transport supremo, Cllr Jon Rogers has suggested closing some roads in central Bristol at the weekends to make the streets more friendly to humans. Do you have ideas of what roads would be good to close? If so, let us know.

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8. Cycling to work

Employees working in Cabot ward are now starting to receive a range of cycle promotion activities including Personalised Travel Planning at their work place. The areas currently identified to receive the cycle promotion activities are based in Temple Quay and Central Bristol.

The Cycling City's Personalised Travel Planning Team will offer advice to employees whose companies are working with Cycle City through the Business Engagement Process. Employees will be provided with help and advice on cycling, for example free bike checks and advice on cycle training, route planning, safety, security, loan bikes and cycle purchase schemes.

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9. Billboards

A "Discontinuance Notice" has been served on billboard on the corner of Jamaica Street and Stokes Croft (sometimes called "Turbo Island". More details on http://stokescroft.wordpress.com/ a new blog on the lively street.

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10. Petition against "burger trailers"

Cllr Alex Woodman recently submitted a petition of over 600 signatures to the Council, calling for an end to the proliferation of "burger trailers" in the city centre areas.

There are large numbers of food venues/shops in central Bristol, who like many others are struggling in the recession. Owners of these venues say that "burger trailers" that set up in the evenings and pay no business rates have an unfair advantage and are driving them out of business.

Cllr Woodman and I agree that the trailers not only act as unfair competition to shops in the area, but they are unsightly and a cause of extra rubbish and - late at the weekend - a focus for anti-social behaviour. As a result, we are supporting shop based food vendors in their campaign.

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11. PACT / Drop in surgery

There will be a "drop-in surgery" to meet with our new local community police officer (beat manager) in Kingsdown, Jen Appleford, on Tuesday evening 18 August at St Matthew's Church Hall from 6.30 to 8pm.

Advanced notice of the date of the next Cotham and Kingsdown PACT meeting, which will be held at St Matthew's Church Hall at 2.30pm on Saturday 24th October.

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12. The Folk House adult education centre

Cllr Alex Woodman and I are supporting Council plans to establish an Adult Education Select Committee to review provision of adult education in the city. There was a funding crisis for the Council's Adult Learning Service two years ago when the funding system changed. The Council was able to plug the gap then, but there is yet more pain on the way.

One example of an organisation providing 'learning for pleasure' is The Folk House on Park Street. With a history going back to 1870, The Folk House is Bristol's oldest adult education centre, and is entirely self-funding through course fees, venue hire and fundraising events.

Alex recently visited The Folk House to learn more about their work. He said, "I was surprised by the range of courses they offered, which included subjects as diverse as foreign languages, yoga and knitting. But like many other organisations, they are feeling the recession. I encourage Cabot eNews readers to visit them to see their peaceful courtyard off Park St, or even think about taking one of their courses."

More information can be found at www.bristolfolkhouse.co.uk

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If you know of people who would be interested in any of Cabot eNews, please forward it on to them. If you have received this email from a friend and like it, email us to get added directly to the distribution. We also welcome feedback. We are happy to help residents, local businesses and voluntary agencies where we can, to pursue issues to make Cabot a better place.

Best wishes,

Mark Wright and Alex Woodman

Cabot Tower

I received the following message yesterday, about the closure of Cabot Tower:

"Cabot Tower – Progress Report

Cabot Tower is a grade 2 listed building. As such, no work can take place on the structure without the full written approval of English Heritage (EH). As the tower is of a unique construction, the rectification of any structural problems requires the specialist technical advice of a structural consultant and the full agreement of an EH specialist structural advisor.

The structural issues associated with Cabot Tower are not a new problem.

Historically, various attempts have been made to address similar faults in the structure with little success. Basically, the problem is that the weight of the upper portion of the tower is pressing downwards on the external walls, which due to a lack of ties in the original construction, is causing the stonework to be forced outwards.

It is evident from an analysis of the structure that remedial works have been carried out on at least two previous occasions during the past 100 years. However, the previous attempts made to address the problem were only partially successful, as the work concentrated on the effects and not the underlying cause of the problem. The current issues came to light approximately one year ago when new cracks appeared in the stonework surrounding the observation gallery on the upper levels of the tower.  In the past, action had been taken to arrest any movement in the stonework by installing metal rods within the structure and repairing the cracks that appeared in the high-level stonework. However, over the years the metal ties have corroded, causing them to expand, which has exacerbated the problem.

The most important consideration in dealing with this problem is the Health and Safety of the general public. Therefore public access to the tower, and the surrounding area, has been restricted until the whole of the structure can be considered free of danger.

When the recent structural problems occurred, consulting engineers were engaged to advise on the possible causes and suggest ways in which the faults could be resolved on a permanent basis. Due to the complexity and specialist nature of the problem, a number of consultants declined to take on the work but eventually, a consultant was found who was confident that they could resolve the problems.

Subsequently, the consulting engineers were commissioned to undertake a full structural survey of the tower and to report on the extent to which the existing embedded metalwork had contributed to the problem. Their report confirmed that much of the embedded metalwork was badly corroded and that this was contributing to the overall structural problems. It took approximately three months for a specialist EH structural advisor to respond to the consulting engineers suggestions for rectifying the problems and a further two months for EH to attend a site meeting to discuss the implementation of the proposed works. During the intervening six-month period, the cracks in the stonework were closely monitored in order to assess if there was any on-going discernable movement within the structure.

EH stated that they would not allow any intrusive investigative work to take place without reference to the original structural drawings. Unfortunately, after considerable searching to unearth structural drawings of the tower, which included investigating possible locations suggested by EH, no structural drawings of the tower could be located.

EH then insisted that BCC employ a professional researcher from the Society of Architectural Historians to carry out an independent search. The person employed to undertake this work was Dr Sarah Wittingham, who took an additional 4 to 6 weeks to research the problem before concluding that no structural drawings were available.

As no records could be found, EH were asked to approve the solution recommended by our consulting engineers. The consultant’s advice was to dismantle small areas of stonework to expose some of the embedded metal ties, which were thought to be corroded and replace them with a stainless steel mesh, specifically designed to prevent any further movement within the structure.

After some delay, for which EH apologised, a meeting was convened in April this year. At this meeting, EH confirmed that their approach is one of minimal intrusion into the structure. They stated that they would only allow small sections of stonework to be opened up for inspection; they would not allow any of the embedded metalwork to be removed or any additional stabilizing rods/mesh to be installed at this stage.

Currently, discussions are continuing with all professional parties in order to agree the most appropriate way of restoring the tower to it’s original condition. The basic requirement of EH is that any solution must resolve the underlying cause of the problem, must be technically achievable without compromising the architectural design of the tower and must be totally acceptable to the EH structural advisor. 

The conditions imposed by EH prevented the consultants proposed works from being implemented. Consequently, EH put forward an alternative suggestion that a solution should be considered that included stabilizing the existing embedded metalwork by cathodic protection. This action would prevent further corrosion of the imbedded metalwork but would not deal with the on-going structural integrity of the tower.

Subsequently a meeting was held with Bristol Contract Services in order to design a system of internal scaffolding within the spiral staircase of the tower that would allow access to the embedded metalwork without restricting access to the staircase from below. Due to the problems with access, each scaffold pole will have to be individually manoeuvred into place without being fixed to the internal stonework of the tower. This work has now been ordered and it is expected that this will take 2/3 weeks to complete.

EH have agreed to return at the end of June, when the ends of the embedded metalwork have been exposed, and make a decision on an overall solution for rectifying the problem.

Until EH have returned to site and inspected the exposed metalwork, they will not give their approval to any of the proposed rectification works going ahead. Consequently, we are currently unable to implement any of the proposals, as we cannot apply for listed buildings consent until the approval of EH has been obtained.

Assuming that EH agree to a solution in June, it is feasible that the tower could be reopened to the general public by the end of the year. However, if EH subsequently decide that further work is necessary, such as the introduction of chemical anchors or additional metal ties, the opening date will be further delayed, as this will be dependent upon EH giving approval to the implementation of their recommendations."

Colsten Street?!

As if more evidence were needed about how awful First are...

Do you think they mean Colston Street?

I once asked a bus driver if he went past Broadwalk shopping centre in Knowle.  He said 'yes' and took me to Broadmead.

Paper

I was chatting with Peter Abraham the other day about paper, and how, in his many years as a councillors, the growth of IT has affected the amount of it which is created.  His view was that today, even with e-mail and the internet, there is just as much of it as there has even been.

That conversation reminded me of a longstanding intention to have a clear out at home, to try and rescue my shelves which over the past (almost) two years have been bowing under the increasing weight of paper I've put on them.  So, today I decided to sort through it all and relegate some to the recycling.

The photo is half of it - I didn't dare put any more on top for fear of triggering a paper tsunami.

Most of it is stuff which tends to be useful, e.g. copies of planning policy, booklets about various areas of a councillor's work. or guides to different areas of policy.  (I should say that none of it is meeting paperwork - agendas, reports etc - which go straight in the recycling because they're all available online.)  However, amongst these various strategies, policies, newsletters and reports I also found:

- The first (and only!) edition of "Scrutiny Biz - An information bulletin for councillors and senior officers" dated Sept 2007.

- "OpenLine - Newsletter of the Mobile Operators Association - Summer 2007".  I only received this once, and it was around the time that a planning application was being considered for a mobile phone mast in my ward.  Coincidence?

- Calendars.  Loads of them!  So many organisations seem to think it's a good idea to present their annual report in calendar format!

- "E-democracy News in Bristol, Autumn 2007", which I mention only because I'm writing about this on my blog.

- My personal favourite, "Public Conveniences in Bristol".  Humour aside, I know this is a serious issue, and I hope that our Neighbourhood Partnership might look at ways of dealing with it.

- And finally, the newsletter of the Bristol and District Moth Group.  Enough said.

So there you go.  An insight into some of the different kinds of documents which councillors are sent by the countless local and national organisations who want councillors to know what they're doing.  I know that one of my colleagues (who I won't name) has a sort of "straight in the recycling" policy.  I like to at least read what I'm sent, so couldn't do that, but given the volume of stuff we're sent, I can understand why.