A View from Bristol North West (Article for Bristol Civic Society Newsletter)
My constituents in Bristol North West contact me on a wide variety of subjects including their environment. People may not use the phrase ‘campaigning for a better Bristol’ but, clearly, they want to improve at least their little bit of it.
First are the problems to do with transport, road congestion and parking. People complain to me about the buses –cost and unreliability; the trains – not enough of them and fears about closures; and other people’s cars – too many, in the wrong place and parked outside their houses. I follow up these concerns and, occasionally, have a partial victory. But if, as happened recently in Patchway, we eventually succeed in getting a residential road closed to through traffic, everyone has to go the longer way round, including local residents.
The fact that there are no easy solutions to traffic congestion will not come as news to the Civic Society. I hope that our existing but currently unused suburban railways will be brought back into use and I want to see a new Park and Ride facility bringing people from South Gloucestershire and north Bristol into the city. Although the one at Avonmouth is not yet very well-used I am pleased that it has become accepted. During the planning stage I received many complaints, but afterwards one of the most vociferous critics admitted that it was not the problem she had anticipated.
Many people come to my advice surgeries with housing problems. Some cannot get a home of the size they need at a price they can afford. Others have little insulation to protect them from the noise of neighbours. The Government’s Decent Homes Initiative (to bring all public sector housing up to a decent standard by 2010) is having an impact but we desperately need new homes as well.
On a positive note, I have been delighted by the new secondary school buildings in my constituency, mostly replacing tired, tatty buildings from the 1960s. It is not just that they provide our children with attractive surroundings and modern facilities. At Henbury, for example, new bike lockers have encouraged more children to cycle to school; the attractive dining areas have encouraged more to stay to the healthier school dinners that are now provided; and the time-locked doors have helped to cut truancy and lateness. Altogether, the new schools at Henbury, Monks Park, Portway and Bradley Stoke are delightful places to learn and socialise with friends. I have been a big critic of the short-sighted policy of selling school playing fields, but when a school that once had 2,000 pupils now has about 800, it doesn’t need so much space. If some of that spare land can be used for much-needed housing, then I’m all in favour. But, of course, that will increase the traffic!
And speaking of playing fields….I supported the many people from Lockleaze who objected to the enclosure of part of Purdown for playing fields for Fairfield School. This over-rides the Local Plan and takes local wild space from one of the most deprived wards in the city. My views made me unpopular with some of my party colleagues, councillors and parents of Fairfield pupils but in politics, as in life, you can’t please everyone.
