Budget Blues - a blog post from Tess Green

Another council budget day faced and passed. No-one on the council welcomes this annual bed of nails on which we all lose out and I was glad to see it over.

Eric Pickles at the annual local government conference told us that as local councils we were good at dealing with cuts and so he was going to dish out more – never mind that we have to deal with the effects of government welfare cuts, increases in the number of school- aged children and more and more vulnerable elderly people.

There were some very tiny bright spots here– more people than ever taking part in the budget consultation, some services threatened and then saved, such as the public toilets, but the end result is that Bristol City council will again lose hundreds of staff, adding to the dole queue, and the remaining staff will find it difficult and stressful to meet the needs of Bristolians. £83 million is a lot to lose from a budget of £325 million.

This year the budget meeting was a quiet affair – no members of the public shouting from the gallery or having to be forcefully removed, no loud impassioned speeches against the government from councillors and very few amendments to the mayor’s proposals.
The Lib/Dem group seemed fixated on avoiding a council tax increase despite the public indicating in the consultation that a majority would accept a small rise in order to protect services.

Conservatives kept quiet except for a small amendment on the capital budget to renovate rail stations.

The Labour group used their larger muscle to slightly increase some areas of funding such as sports development, pest control and children’s services.

The Greens made no amendments as they felt that there was no room for any meaningful change to the negative effects of the overall budget. We had tried to bring an amendment to cancel the bus rapid transit and South Bristol link roads, which could have saved this utter waste of money. But this was ruled out of order due to our not being able to cost the effects of neighbouring councils suing the city for damages. After all, the benefits of the schemes would be mainly residents of Bath and NE Somerset and N. Somerset despite Bristol picking up the largest bill!

We had also prepared a strong case against a Labour amendment from Sean Beynon, which would have taken £100,000 from key arts providers in order to boost community safety, but fortunately common sense prevailed and the amendment was withdrawn.

Most people recognise that communities are strengthened by arts activities – the Arts Trail, local theatres, Lantern Parade, Upfest and many music events in our area all keep us in touch with one another and help to make this area safer, and most need minimal funding. Large arts venues like the Old Vic bring visitors and should attract expertise that assists the smaller local events.

As the song goes “yes it is bread we fight for but we fight for roses too”, so let’s keep the small amount of funding available for arts.

The Greens believe that the government austerity plan is ill founded and will not take us in the right direction. Daniella, as our leader articulated that we need more local authority and other public services, more jobs in renewable energy, recycling and energy conservation industries to reduce our carbon emissions, more sustainable and public transport and more attention spent on avoiding the worst effects of climate change such as flooding.

This could be financed by a financial transaction tax (Robin Hood), by ceasing to fund Trident and other unuseable nuclear weapons and by collecting the millions of unpaid tax which big firms manage to avoid. The ordinary people do not need yet more punishment for the mistakes of the bankers. Instead they need adequately funded and high quality public services.
Tess Green

Bus service changes

1st April 2014

Service
number
 Destination
 Operator
 Summary of changes

X7
 Bristol – Clevedon
 Pier Buses
 Saturday service withdrawn.



13th April 2014

Service
number
 Destination
 Operator
 Summary of changes

1
 Bristol - Weston-super-Mare
 First
 Service 1 re-numbered to W1.  Timetable amended.

3, 3A, 3B, 3C, 3X
 Bristol City Centre – Aztec West
 Wessex
 Service 3 withdrawn.  3A, 3B, 3C, 3X - timetable amended.


4
 Bristol City Centre - Downend
 First
 Service withdrawn, please refer to service 5 and 24 for further information.

5
 Bristol City Centre - Downend
 First
 Service extended to Emersons Green via Bromley Heath and will no longer serve Downend, The Horseshoe.  Monday-Saturday daytime frequency increased from every 30 mins to every 20 mins.  Monday-Saturday evening and Sunday & Public Holiday services will operate every 30 minutes which compares with the current frequency.  

17
 Southmead Hospital - Keynsham
 First
 New service operating between Southmead Hospital and Keynsham via Fishponds, Hillfields, Kingswood and Hanham.  Provides an enhanced replacement for the withdrawn Service 507.  Please note that Service 17 will operate via Muller Road and will no longer serve Lockleaze. The timetable has been amended.

18
 Emersons Green - Southmead Hospital
 First
 Significant changes to route and timetable.  Service will be extended beyond Southmead Hospital to Henbury via Westbury, Shirehampton and Lawrence Weston.  Service 18 will now operate via Gloucester Road North, Filton Road and Monks Park Avenue before entering the Southmead Hospital site via Monks Park Way.  Consequently, Southmead Road will no longer be served, however services 501/502 will still operate via Southmead Road. 

20
 Bristol City Centre - Southmead
 First
 Route and timetable amended.  The previously withdrawn section of route along Clare Avenue, Kings Drive and Bishop Road will be reinstated.

24
 Horfield Common - Ashton Vale
 First
 Service will be extended to serve Southmead Hospital.  Frequency increased to every 10 minutes due to the withdrawal of the 25 service.

25
 Horfield - Ashton Vale
 First
 Service withdrawn.  Please see service 5 and 24 for further information.

36
 Bristol City Centre - Withywood
 First
 Timetable amended.

37
 Bristol - Bath
 First
 Service 332 is re-numbered 37.  The route will be revised and services towards Bath will operate via The Horsefair & Penn Street rather than Fairfax St & Broad Weir.

38
 Bristol - Bath
 First
 Service 338 is re-numbered 38.  Minor amendments to timetable.

39 X39
 Bristol - Bath
 First
 Service 339 is re-numbered 39.  Minor amendments to timetable.

42
 Bristol City Centre - Keynsham
 First
 Timetable amendments which will include an additional journey from Cadbury Heath to City Centre at 0632 (Monday to Friday). Route is revised around Cadbury Heath area.

43
 Bristol City Centre - Cadbury Heath
 First
 Timetable amended which will include additional journeys from Cadbury Heath to City Centre at 0700 and 0722 (Monday-Friday) and from City Centre to Cadbury Heath at 1540 and 1840 (Monday-Friday).  There will also be an additional night journey between City Centre and Kingswood at 0400 Tuesday to Sunday Morning.  Route is revised around Cadbury Heath area.

44
 Bristol City Centre - Kingswood
 First
 Timetable amended.  Saturday daytime frequency increased to every 20 minutes from every 30 minutes.  There will be an additional night journey at 0421 from Kingswood to Lawrence Hill.

45
 Bristol City Centre - Longwell Green
 First
 Timetable amended.  Saturday daytime frequency increased to every 20 minutes from every 30 minutes.  There will be additional journeys from Longwell Green to City Centre at 0620 and 0720 (Monday-Friday).

46 / X46
 Bristol - Yate / Chipping Sodbury
 First
 Service 327 will be renumbered 46 and operate a slightly revised route in South Gloucestershire.  Service 46 will be supplemented by a new X46 service operating between Bristol and Chipping Sodbury, via the M32, Winterbourne, Iron Acton and Yate.

47 / N47 / X47
 Bristol - Chipping Sodbury
 First
 Service 342/X42 is re-numbered Service 47/X47 operating a revised timetable but unchanged route.  Service N50 will be renumbered N47 and now operated by First.

52
 Cabot Circus - South Bristol Hospital
 Abus
 Timetable amended.  

57
 Bristol City Centre - Stockwood
 Abus
 Timetable amended.

81
 Kingswood - Yate
 First
 New service operating between Kingswood and Yate via Fishponds, Frenchay, Stoke Gifford, Winterbourne and Frampton Cotterell. This replaces service 581.

82
 Southmead Hospital - Yate
 First
 New service operating hourly between Southmead Hospital and Yate, Monday to Saturday, and a two hourly service on Sundays and Bank Holidays.  Service 82 replaces the current 482/483.

309/310
 Bristol - Thornbury
 First
 Timetable amended.  Additional off-peak journeys to Cribbs Causeway withdrawn.

327
 Bristol - Yate
 First
 Service 327 is re-numbered to 46.

329
 Bristol - Yate
 Wessex
 Service withdrawn.

332
 Bristol - Bath
 First
 Service 332 is re-numbered to 37.

338
 Bristol - Bath
 First
 Service 338 is re-numbered to 38.

339
 Bristol - Bath
 First
 Service 339 is re-numbered to 39.

342 / X42
 Bristol - Chipping Sodbury
 First
 Service 342 / X42 is re-numbered to 47/X47.

501 502
 Parkway Station - Shirehampton / Avonmouth
 Wessex
 Route and timetable amended.  Services will now terminate at Parkway Station, passengers travelling to the M.O.D or UWE will be able to use Service 18.  Services will now operate via
 Southmead Hospital grounds. Combined frequency of services is increased to every 20 minutes with the addition of Monday to Saturday evening journeys on 501.

505
 Bower Ashton - Southmead Hospital
 Wessex
 Route and timetable amended.  Services will now terminate at Parkway Station, passengers travelling to the M.O.D or UWE will be able to use Service 18.  Services will now operate via Southmead Hospital grounds. Combined frequency of services is increased to every 20 minutes with the addition of Monday to Saturday evening journeys on 501.

506
 Create Centre - Southmead Hospital
 Wessex
 Route and timetable amended.  Service will now operate into Southmead Hospital via Dorian Road/Dorian Way.

507
 Keynsham - Southmead Hospital
 Wessex
 Service withdrawn, replaced by 17.

581
 Hanham to Chipping Sodbury
 Wessex
 Service withdrawn.

635
 Bristol - Chippenham
 Faresaver
 Timetable amended.

689
 Bristol - Yate
 Wessex
 Service withdrawn - replaced by X49

A1
 Bristol Airport Flyer
 First
 Timetable amended.  Monday to Friday daytime frequency increased to from every 10 minutes to every 8 minutes.  Saturday and Sunday unchanged.

N50
 Bristol City Centre - Chipping Sodbury
 Wessex
 Service withdrawn and replaced by N47. 

X8
 Bristol - Nailsea, Clevedon, Portishead
 First
 Timetable amended.

X9 / X10
 Bristol - Nailsea
 First
 New X10 service will follow same route as X9, except that it will operate via Long Ashton rather than the Long Ashton Bypass.  Minor amendments to X9 timetable.

X27
 Bristol - Yate
 Wessex
 Timetable amended.  Last trip from Bristol Monday to Fridays will now depart at 18:10.  The Saturday service has been reduced to two-hourly.

X40
 Bristol City Centre - Avonmouth
 Wessex
 Service withdrawn.

X49
 Bristol - Yate
 First
 New service between Bristol and Yate operating via M32 and Fishponds Road, replaces the current 689 

Letter to the editor: cycling

Dear Sir

It is a shame to see Sid Weber continue with the abuse levelled at cyclists started by Tory councillor Richard Eddy ('Cyclists are arrogant and self-righteous', letters, 25th February). I am therefore not surprised that he has missed the point that my letter was trying to make.

A cycle network will increase the numbers of cyclists for several reasons. Experienced cyclists may use the road, but will know how much more pleasant an experience it is to use cycle path - and with more routes, will cycle more. Inexperienced cyclists will be nervous and can be given more confidence to cycle on road through cycle training, but also more opportunity to avoid traffic by having separate routes. Leisure cyclists get more places to go. And beginners have more options to get started.

The truth of it is that by building a cycle network for the whole of Bristol, you'd get fanstastic value for money. A whole network for around two thirds of the cost of a couple of BRT routes. But it doesn't stop there. The city wins because by converting motorists to cyclists, we have less congestion. It wins because  cyclists are healthier. It wins because we reduce levels of air pollution, and cut greenhouse gas emissions. Even Mr Weber and Councillor Eddy would win, there would be fewer cars congesting the roads they use.

Yours


Charlie Bolton
Green Party candidate
Southville

Why we need to make RPS cheaper for those on low incomes (again)

I spoke to a woman today in Ashton Road who is unemployed and clearly desperate about residents parking.  She can't afford to heat her house. She told me she simply can't afford to pay it.

She said she needed a car to get a job, although if she had a job, she'd pay the fee like a shot (to be rid of problems parking on matchdays)

I told her George is going to introduce RPS to Southville regardless - to which she was singularly unimpressed (unsurprisingly). Apart from that there was little I could say to her.

(Well I suppose I could have argued the toss about whether you really need a car to get a job. Ideologically, I suppose I'd say either you don't or those are the sort of jobs we need to phase out. Clearly we are, as yet, a long  from a green nirvana).

Anyway, I have said that I can see reasons for doing residents parking. I've even been pushed into saying I support it with proviso's. But seeing this woman's look of desperation, this has to be one such proviso.

The question is, what can we do  about it.....I've already submitted a statement asking for lower prices for those on low incomes....because I for one am not in the business of penalising the poor

I can't see there being a quick fix, but if elected I will pledge to campaign for a version of RPS where costs for those on low incomes are reduced.

A lament for Labour - the big budget miss

Having attended part of Bristol City Council's budget meeting on Tuesday night, it occurs to me that a massive opportunity to take on the government over its ideologically driven cuts program has been missed.

To set the scene, the LibDems, Labour and the Greens had all expressed their opposition to the budget. Indeed, Helen Holland, leader of the Labour group had said (2hrs 54mins into the webcast) said Labour couldn't support the budget. Her reason - 'we have lost sight of the huge amount of cuts we have to deal with'. 'By the general election', she said local authorities 'will be working with 42% less than they had'. At the time, the cuts amounted to £83 million from Bristol's budget. A clear majority existed against the cuts, and the budget that contained them.

So - imagine - if Bristol's councillors refused to set such a savage budget, and the reason being given was the scale of the cuts. It would in itself have been newsworthy.

 But there would have been an opportunity - of course, one council acting alone in defying government will be picked off. But lots of councils acting together, now there is a challenge.

 (And of course, Labour control lots of councils, and government cuts have hit them much harder than the Tory heartlands). So Helen could have taken the opportunity to contact all those like-minded Labour councils leaders and said 'now is the time - lets say no to the cuts, let's all refuse to set a budget'.  Perhaps George would have helped.

Unfortunately, within two hours of these statements - possibly the quickest U-turn in history - Labour had done a deal with George to put just over £1 million back in to the budget, and vote it through. This is of course great for the services saved. But, what they have actually said is while local government working with 42% less than before is no good, working with 41.5% less seems fine. £83 million of cuts bad, £82 million of cuts is perfectly acceptable.

Of course, opposition may not have worked. But for goodness sake, for the sake of all those who will still be deveastated by their severity, couldn't they have even tried?

Bristol Labours chance to show Ed's views on Climate Change are serious

I welcome Ed Millibands comments in the media in the last couple of days - he was all over the Sunday Observer, with his comments about the need to take action on climate change.

So lets make a quite reasonable assumption that the local Labour Party supports Ed. I therefore ask the following.

For Ed's comments to be more than so much hot air, we as a society are going to have to take a whole set of decisions to tackle climate change.

Some will be popular, some will be easy, But there will be others which are neither.

One decision which fits into this latter category is residents parking. On the one hand, there is no doubt that residents parking will stop commuters coming in to parts of Bristol. It will also set some small limits to the number of vehicles owned in an area.

On the other hand, there is no doubt that numbers of people both resent and loathe the very idea.

So perhaps the local Labour Party can tell us. Do you take your leader seriously? And if so - are you prepared to risk unpopularity in order to tackle climate change?

Letter to the editor - cycling

This is a response to a letter from Tory councillor RIchard Eddy (link to original
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Reader-s-letter-Cyclists-behave-badly-Amsterdam/story-20602751-detail/story.html#ixzz2t2Y9h8vu)


Dear Sir

I note that Tory councillor Richard Eddy describes cyclists as 'afflicted with a sense of self-righteousness, superiority and entitlement' (the Post letters, 'Cyclists behave badly in Amsterdam as well', 11/2/14). I was surprised, because I thought the Tories had cornered the market in those particular attributes.

He further describes a friend whose visit to Amsterdam was a 'confusing mix of users ( tram lanes, buses, cars and bikes)'. Well, I can only recall my own experience of visiting Amsterdam. The trams were fun, the cycling pleasurable, the infrastructure good to see, the cyclists - there were lots of them. Overall I had a great time.

As far as I'm concerned, having an extensive cycle network in Bristol, combined with policies to maximise levels of cycling is exactly what Bristol needs to do. But more pertinently,  I would point out that we could introduce an entire cycle network for the whole of Bristol for less than the price of the a couple of the proposed bus rapid transit schemes - and to do so would have far greater benefits for the city as a whole.

Yours


Charlie Bolton
Green Party candidate
Southville