Railing on - a work of frustration

I've been pondering for a while whether to make this posting as, in some ways, it plays into the hands of those who have a different view of the world.

I am off on a trip to Belgium and the Netherlands next week - partly for pleasure and partly as a lobbying and fact-finding mission for the Council. I will be talking to people in Brussels about EU funding opportunities for climate change projects in Bristol and having a look at the hydrogen-powered ferry in Amsterdam - something that we are looking into for Bristol.

For a number of reasons including the carbon one, I resolved to do the trip by rail. This is the first time I've travelled internationally by train, though I do it routinely for long-distance trips in the UK. Anyway, my Belgium/Netherlands trip works out at about the same price as flying once you factor everything in and takes only about an hour longer, without all the unproductive messing around that flying entails. All surprisingly good.

Then you try to actually book it! People complain about the British train service, but it gets even more tricky when you cross the 21 miles of water. Because there are four legs to my journey (Bristol - London - Brussels - Amsterdam, with a stop off in Dordrecht), it means booking separately for each. In fact, the Bristol-London bit was about the easiest and, thanks to the Euro exchange rate, about the cheapest mile-for-mile. The Belgian/Dutch train website charges a hefty booking fee for each transaction and won't let you book multiple tickets at once. It also tells you that you have to prebook international tickets, so you don't have any choice but to stump up extra money to use a credit card. And it's a mess from a usability perspective.

This is something that the EU needs to get hold of if it is going to persuade people to fly less and find alternatives. It'll be no shock that I am keen Europhile and it is exactly this sort of issue where the EU makes sense - helping people to travel freely around the continent. There needs to be a single website for international journeys that brokers with all the individual rail companies to make it easier for the customer. Thankfully, I only have to cross a couple of borders - who knows how tricky it would have been if I'd added in another country or two.

This experience hasn't put me off, but next time I will be older and wiser!

Proposed biofuel plant at Avonmouth

I have been getting quite a bit of mail about the planning application that is in for a palm oil power plant at Avonmouth, so I thought it would be helpful to repeat what I know here too.

I know and accept all the arguments about unsustainable biofuel. It is crazy on lots of levels to cut down rainforest (usually) and replace it with plantations. There is damage to biodiversity, a loss of potential food generation for local people and it's not even very carbon friendly when you factor in the carbon sink loss. However...

Legally, planning decisions cannot take into account whether people are generally "against this sort of thing" or concerns about impact elsewhere - if it's a legal operation, then it is only the local impacts that can be used in the assessment. Being opposed to biofuel isn't going to win the argument here. The planning decision will be made on the basis of things like traffic, air pollution, flooding, biodiversity, safety or visual amenity. Objections that go in that talk about these sorts of things will be far more effective than ones that talk about orang utans.

I know that some people think that this is wrong and I probably agree with them, at least to an extent. However, it is only reasons based in planning law that can be used to inform a decision. Failure to do so would simply lead to an appeal to an inspector that would be accepted, taking all control away from the Council. As I understand it, there are strong planning concerns about the application and these could well lead to its rejection.

Sadly, the last two governments have eroded the powers that local councils have, including in planning decisions - and there are plans to take even more away. I guess what I am trying to stress here is that whatever decision is taken cannot be seen as a reflection on Bristol or the Council - the same standards are applied nationally and we are just unlucky that it's landed here. I'd love to have the power to arbitrarily veto planning applications, but sadly I don't!

Residents' parking - next stage

The next stage of the plans for the pilot residents' parking scheme are now available on the Council's website. In brief, the Kingsdown pilot zone is largely as previously consulted on, with minor changes to the eastern and southern boundaries to make it more coherent. The vast majority of the main zone is therefore actually in Cabot Ward, with it ending at Cotham Road (which is where Cotham Ward starts).

However, as a result of the last consultation, there is a possible extension northwards too to cover an area south of Aberdeen Road and Trelawney Road - the link above will take you to full map. This is shown with a metaphorical dotted line as it is not part of the main plan, but residents in this area will be given the chance to opt into the main zone if they want. From the consultations to date, we know that people in this area are mixed in their views, so it seemed best to give them an option like this without jeopardising things for those in the main area who are overwhelmingly keen.

The main map shows exactly what would go on every inch of the roadside. Clearly this isn't set in stone and there is plenty of scope yet for comments and suggestions. Developing the plans to this level helps to make the whole idea real, so that people have a very clear idea about what they have to consider. This stage is a consultation on this aspect largely - there will be another stage of formal consultation on the final proposal, probably early in the new year.

My position on residents' parking remains as previously: I am broadly in favour in principle, but local people need to choose for themselves whether it would work for them. Now we've shot Labour's bizarre one-size-fits-all 24/7 approach, my view is that this is much more likely.

Police cover update

As a quick update to my previous post about late-night Police coverage on Whiteladies Road, I have now had confirmation from the Police that there will be patrols until 1am on weekends for the next five weeks. This has been achieved by rejigging shifts while they look at the scale of the problem and possible long-term answers. I am hoping that this helps - I am very grateful to Inspector Keith Rundle and the local team for being so positive in response.

Bristol pledges 10% carbon cut

The Council announced today that it is the latest organisation to sign up for the national 10:10 campaign, by pledging to cut our carbon emissions by 10% in 2010. This is something I've been working on for a while.

It needs to be made clear that this is a massively ambitious target. We are already committed to a 3% year-on-year cut, but a 10% cut is a big step change. Quite frankly, we might not make it, but we're going to be giving it our best shot.

More disappointing news is that Labour voted down a Lib Dem motion in Parliament yesterday to commit all public sector organisations to the 10:10 campaign. I just despair of the government on this issue (and plenty of others) - they make a target of an 80% cut by 2050, but then don't do the things necessary to make it happen. Sometimes I think the Climate Change Act was a cynical political move to try to seem green, while actually knowing that they won't be there to do anything about it. Sadly, I trust the Conservatives even less.

Back to Bristol... now that we have made the commitment, I am going to be working on pulling together the schemes which will make it real. This will include relatively simple energy efficiency measures, as well as significant equipment projects involving sustainable or renewable energy. More news on specifics in due course - lots of opportunity are out there, with more coming along all the time thanks to improvements in technology.

On a related note, I spent yesterday morning at an event for schools on energy reduction. Schools make up about 40% of the Council's carbon footprint (though they aren't included in the 10:10 commitment), so they are vital to our long-term efforts and the purpose of the event was to help them action plan. I was especially delighted to hear about St Peter and St Paul Primary School (in Cotham Ward) and their experience of cutting their energy use by 25%, despite having old-fashioned buildings to contend with - well done!

Police coverage on Whiteladies Road

Over the weekend, I got quite a lot of coverage for a press release I put out about preventative police coverage on Whiteladies Road on weekend nights. I did interviews for Original Radio and the Bristol 24/7 online newspaper, and there was a large piece in the Evening Post complete with vox pops from local residents that largely backed up the points I was making. (And, in a new departure for me, even some of the online comments are supportive!)

What I was saying was that Whiteladies Road needs to have some low-level, friendly, but hi-vis policing at the weekends in the same way that the city centre does. This helps to keep a lid on some of the worst excesses of behaviour in an area where residents frequently complain to me about noise, vandalism, litter, threatening behaviour and other low level crime.

The Police response has been surprisingly positive thus far. They have promised to do more in the next few weeks and I am meeting with the relevant Inspector tomorrow to talk about longer term solutions. To be clear, I don't see the Police as the bad guys here. Our neighbourhood team do an excellent job with the resources available to them. Unfortunately, we know that Avon & Somerset are underfunded to the tune of £12 million a year or 300 officers. I also need to be clear that I am not talking about emergency response - if people on Whiteladies Road call 999, they will get a rapid response the same as anywhere else or any other time.

I hadn't intended for the coverage to end up being about students, but this was the slant that the Evening Post took. Students in freshers week are part of the problem, but only in the sense that young people and cheap drinks promotions don't always mix that well. In the Post piece, the spokesperson for the University of Bristol makes a good point that is worth repeating. Barry Taylor said that the University is supportive of a greater Police presence in the area as this would help to protect the students too. It's important to remember that young people (and especially students) are far more likely to be the victims of crime than the perpetrators.

The residents of Cotham Ward are roughly speaking one third long-term householders, one third mobile young professionals and one third students. Each have their own priorities and foibles. I have come to see my role as a councillor for the area to be to help each to see the perspective of the others and to try to build an understanding and empathetic community. It doesn't always work, but I am trying!