News from your Green Party Clifton Down councillors George Calascione and Serena Ralston
We are excited to announce our first ward surgery on Friday 2nd August, 12 – 1.30pm at Redland Library. Our monthly surgeries, which will take place on the first Friday of each month, at the same time and location.
We are looking forward to meeting you and hearing your local concerns. No appointment necessary.
Waste
We have heard from many of you that waste issues are some of your biggest concerns. Councillors across the city are hearing the same.
Whether it’s overflowing bins, garbage littering the streets, uncollected recycling or fly tipping, we have all seen it and noticed that it’s been a real problem lately.
We’re sure you’re aware that during the last 13 years of austerity, government funding from national government to local councils has been severely cut.
As a result, the last administration cut the budget to Bristol Waste. A long-planned rerouting, with fewer collection crews, took effect from May this year. It hasn’t been successful. An expanding population places more demand on the service, and cardboard packaging from increased online purchasing fills up the lorries more quickly, so they have to return more often to their base. Meanwhile the fewer crews are under pressure to cover their routes quickly, to ensure that the whole city is still covered.
Clifton Down is disproportionately affected at this time of year due to the high number of students. Many struggle to clear their flats and deal with their unwanted possessions.
What is the council doing about it?
=Bristol Waste has had most of its funding restored by Council this year, and are hiring more operators.
Meanwhile they have undertaken a root cause analysis to develop a better long term solution.
All of your complaints are now being centrally recorded, so that streets with repeatedly missed collections can be identified. We have asked Bristol Waste to track and target streets with repeated problems.
So please continue to report waste issues by email to your councillors, or even better, straight onto the council website.
Is it going to improve?
Government funding to councils fell, in real terms, by a whopping 40%, between 2010 and 2020. Labour’s manifesto pledged to ´unlock fairer funding ‘to local councils, so we are hopeful that things will improve.
Here in Bristol, future service plans and the next recycling contract will be developed to deal with new legal responsibilities and growing costs, then a cross party committee will determine how to deliver a more reliable service and better recycling in future. We councillors will continue to work with the university and other partners, to try to reduce waste and increase repair and reuse in the city. Bristol has the best recycling rate compared to other cities, due in part to you our residents and our local culture, but we hope to do even better.
Spotlight on Oakfield Residents Association.
We’ll be focusing on a different community group in our column each month.
Oakfield Residents Association is the local Residents’ Group for the area bounded by Pembroke Road, Queen’s Road, Alma Road and Whiteladies Road.
The association promotes the local community and the welfare of its residents, whilst working to maintain the character of the area. It aims to promote the sense of community holding meetings to discuss matters of local interest (e.g planning applications), give ideas to help improve the community and provide assistance to members to rectify problems that occur locally, acting on behalf of the community through engagement with local Councillors, Bristol City Council and other organisations. Examples are the bin stores on Oakfield Road and Oakfield Place, the proposed change of use of Barley House and Oakfield House, the pillar surrounded by fencing on the corner of Oakfield Grove, and the many HMOs within the area. There are also social events like cheese and wine evenings and Christmas gatherings to meet your neighbours in person whom you may have walked by many times!
ORA also works alongside Arlington Garden Association supporting the only public green space within our bounds and hosts events in the gardens.
You can join ORA by emailing OakfieldResAss@gmail.com, they are always looking for more interested volunteers to help with litter picks, attending local meetings and arranging social events.
Greener High Streets grant scheme.
This is a small grant (£500 – £5000) available to small and medium sized business on certain designated streets. It can be used for buying and installing new equipment that reduces carbon emissions, to cut utility bills or to improve energy efficiency. Please see the council website for more details.
=And finally, a small success story!
We are delighted that the frontage of Be in Bristol has finally been smartened up.
Since it closed as a bar several years ago, the frontage has become an eyesore which is unfair on local businesses and residents. We will continue to press the agents about the future of this building which has been derelict for far too long.
Serena Ralston cllr.serena.ralston@bristol.gov.uk
George Calascione cllr.george.calascione@bristol.gov.uk