Another inappropriate license defeated

I heard yesterday that The Hill pub on Cotham Hill has withdrawn its application for a 1am license just before it was heard by the Licensing Committee. I and local residents had opposed the application given how close it is to people's homes, with all the associated nuisance. It's another victory for the Whiteladies Road Cumulative Impact Area - we just need to see off Domino's application for a 5am license now...

Pledge to children in care

I am sat in Full Council at the moment and the first item on the agenda has been the signing of the Council's Pledge to Children in Care and Care Leavers. Three young people joined the Lord Mayor on stage for the signing. A lovely moment!

People who read this blog will know the importance I place on supporting young people who call on the Council to care for them in the difficult times. These young people are among the most vulnerable in our society and their life outcomes still lag behind the population as a whole.

Given all the lurid headlines that we hear about the care system, it is great that the Council is making this pledge and it is important to also remember the sterling work done by staff in supporting young people and helping them to flourish. It is also vital to remind councillors of their responsibilities as 'corporate parents' to 600 or so young people.

At the top green table

I spent Friday at a Friends of the Earth invitation event in London talking about how councils can meet carbon reduction targets and what they need national government to do to help. They had asked along those councils, including Bristol, that have set rigorous carbon reduction targets for themselves to talk to each other and their top campaigners.

It was possibly one of the most rewarding days that I've had as a councillor. It was really interesting and inspiring to hear what other councils are up to - and being able to throw in some of Bristol's strengths too. We had a really interesting discussion about how you measure carbon footprints and how unhelpful the government's method is for helping people to act. For example, it discounts things like carbon from waste and there is a two year delay on getting data published. This is clearly daft!

We also talked about some really interesting 'big ideas' about how to fund macro-energy projects like combined heat and power plants and eco-friendly waste processing plants and the challenges of raising the hundreds of millions required by each council to make the changes necessary to reduce carbon and secure energy supplies. We shared stories about some of the blockages, human and technical, which make action challenging.

I am very proud that Bristol is at the 'top table' for these sorts of discussions (we've also been selected as one of nine councils to work on Local Carbon Frameworks) and I really appreciate the work that Friends of the Earth are doing in pulling people together and getting them to problem-solve creatively together. It was great spending a day talking to others in the same boat and sharing ideas with other councils like Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester.

Transport good news!

A couple of bits of good news on the transport front!

First up, the Council is funding a trial of smart cards for buses, starting in June 2010. It'll only be on the lines run by Wessex Connect and ULink, but it will operate similar to the Oyster Card in London. This is something that we Lib Dems promised to progress when we were elected to run the Council last year. Details are in a press release on the Council website, including which routes will be operating the smart cards. There is a large-scale regional project underway too to get a scheme operating across the Avon area. It's a shame that First Bus haven't been keener on the whole idea, but it's great that progess is being made.

Secondly, the latest figures are showing that the usage of the Severn Beach Line has risen again in 2008/09, by around 40%. For example, the number of journeys running through Clifton Down station has risen from 204,397 in 2007/08 to 284,220 in the year just gone. This is a real success story for the more frequent services and it follows a similarly impressive growth the year before. I'm sure that the figures would be even higher still if First Great Western actually sold tickets properly. The last two times I've used the line I've had to queue for ages at Temple Meads to get a ticket, nearly missing my connecting train - they really must sort this! Thanks to the folks at FoSBR for circulating the figures.

I would be catching a train from Clifton Down to get to London tomorrow (for a Friends of the Earth summit with the top green cities), but it doesn't coincide with the 8am out of Temple Meads - I can either get there an hour early or two minutes early! I guess I'll have to guess the bus out and the train back. Still plenty of scope to improve the service, but it's great that people are using it more every year.

HMO 'use class' comes into effect

As I blogged back in January, the government has taken the very welcome move of introducing a new planning 'use class' for 'houses in multiple occupation' (HMOs). Use classes define what activity a building will be used for, so, for example, A1 is retail, A4 are bars and C4 will now be HMOs. An HMO will be defined as a house in which three or more unrelated people are living.

This is important as it enables the Council and residents to work together to regulate the HMO market which is currently almost entirely unregulated. What it means is that landlords would have to apply for planning permission to create a new HMO. This would enable local people to have a say about the impact on the local area (e.g. on parking or waste) and the Council to ensure that the building is up to scratch and meeting quality standards. At the moment, anyone can pile as many people as they like into a house without any real control. (Remember, Labour and the Green Party opposed these changes in Bristol!)

The new C4 use class comes into effect on 6th April 2010. Any house which is already an HMO with people in it will be considered to have an established use and they won't have to apply retrospectively, though the Council will be encouraging them to get a certificate to prove this. Any new conversions from that date will have to get planning permission before they are brought into use.

There is an interesting grey area around those houses that are being converted at the moment, but which don't have people in them yet. It appears that the legal situation is that it is the act of having people living in the house that makes it an HMO, so vacant houses, even if they have been converted prior to 6th April, will need to get planning permission before they can move people in. Of course, this is significantly more than a formality and some people might get slightly caught out by this.

It's going to be interesting how this all pans out. As with all new laws, it is only experience and precedent that is going to build up how the law is applied and there will doubtlessly be appeals against it. One of the things that the C4 use class in intended to prevent or slow down is the process of areas becoming dominated by HMOs, which can have very negative impacts on local communities. However, it isn't clear yet how this will happen - the Council is going away to do some research about the legal framework.

Cumulative Impact on Gloucester Road

I did a public talk last night for the Bishopston Society about the proposed Cumulative Impact Area (CIA) for Gloucester Road. There were about 40 people there and I did a pretty good double-act with Bob Chambers from the St John's Residents Association about how the CIA for Whiteladies Road works.

Cumulative Impact Areas are ones where licensed premises (pub, bars, clubs and so on, plus late night food outlets and various others) are more tightly regulated due to the concentration and the public nuisance and crime implications. The idea is that the concentration has reached saturation point and that adding more licenses in (or extending the existing ones) would add to the existing problems.

On Whiteladies Road, the CIA has allowed local residents and councillors to vigorously oppose applications which would cause more nusiance (in the form of litter, noise, brawling, vomit, vandalism and similar), such that we effectively have a moratorium on alcohol sales beyond midnight outside of two premises. In a heavily residential area, this is very important to ensure that working people and families can get a reasonable amount of sleep and that no-one has to contend with some of the worst forms of behaviour.

I am therefore a fan of the concept of CIAs, although there are still weaknesses that I am pursuing with the Council and Police. They help to restore a sense of balance in local communities, trading off some people's desire for entertainment with other people's desire for relaxation and a pleasant environment - a good liberal principle!

The proposed Gloucester Road CIA would run from Ashley Down Road down to just past the Arches, including part of Zetland Road too (see map - click to enlarge). The latter end is in Cotham Ward, so I am backing the proposals. There is currently a consultation period in effect, ending on the 30th April. If you would like to express a view, you can e-mail Nick.Carter@bristol.gov.uk. Nick is the Council's Licensing Manager. There is also more information on the Council website.

Sad news

I just heard the sad news that Chris Hutt who ran the Green Bristol Blog has died. I can't claim to have known Chris very well at all, but he was a regular commenter on this blog and a much appreciated critic (in the good sense of the word). I will certainly miss having him around, taking me to task and asking awkward questions!

Saying 'goodbye' to potholes

As most people will be aware, the cold snap back in January and February has done quite a bit of damage to the road surface and some quite nasty potholes have opened up. Now it looks like spring has sprung, the Council is going about fixing up the problems.

I've been busy reporting ones that I've come across - like the one in the picture (left) on the Hampton Road crossing near Chandos Road (the yellow blob is my highlighting). I've been really impressed by the speed at which they are getting dealt with. Every one that I've called in thus far has been filled up within two days. I'm not too impressed by the standard of some of the work, so I've had a little moan about that. However, I can't fault the speed of response.

Clearly things like this are being prioritised, so it is larger roads that get done first and the largest potholes - I think it's something like 4cm deep to be a top priority. The ones I've been reporting have been biggies, so it's good that they are getting seen to quickly.

At the last Full Council meeting, the Tories kept bleating on about how the roads were falling to bits and that we needed to plough tens of thousands of extra pounds into potholes (instead of carbon reduction work) and that the Council couldn't keep up. Not my experience - perhaps they just need better councillors in those wards... 8-)

(If you know of any potholes that need attention, let me know and I'll report them. I hope I'm not setting myself up for a fall!)

Government response on biofuels

The Government has finally responded to Council Leader Barbara Janke's letter of 1st February about the issue of tropical biofuels and (a) the lack of reliable sustainability standards, and (b) the lack of meaningful and current planning guidance to allow local people to challenge applications to build them.

I've not had a chance to analyse closely yet, but my initial reaction is broadly positive, in that the Government is clearly aware of the issues and shares many of the concerns that Bristol raised with them. They accept that there is a planning hole and that it is difficult to assess sustainability for tropical biofuels, despite this being a key plank of why they get hefty government subsidies.

However, we need to remember that the Government could make all this go away simply by changing the ROC system that makes tropical biofuel plants financially viable. Also, the letter doesn't really give a strong timetable for when the planning vacuum will be filled by something meaningful.

I will be talking to Barbara about a possible response - any thoughts to feed in at this stage would be very welcome.

Close The Door campaign

A quick plug for some excellent work being undertaken by members of my local sustainability group (Sustainable Redland) and the university sustainability group (BUST). They are setting up a Bristol branch of the Close The Door campaign to encourage local shops to, well, close their doors in order to conserve energy and carbon - and cut their heating bills too!

They have already done an audit of shops in the local area to see which keep their doors open at the moment. Apparently, open doors encourage more customers in, so they have this daft situation of superheated shops with most of it shooting straight out the doors. The next stage is to try to persuade the managers to do the sensible thing, while providing stickers and stuff for the doors to make a virtue out of having them closed.

There is a meeting for new volunteers on Thursday 25th March at 19:45 at the University of Bristol Students' Union (Queens Road), Room M6. Or you can contact the local campaigners at bristol@closethedoor.org.uk.

Hydrogen-powered ferry for the harbour?

The Council has, this week, published an invitation-to-tender document for a demonstration project of hydrogen fuel cell technology. This will (hopefully!) take the form of the conversion of one the existing passenger or tourist ferries in the Floating Harbour to run on hydrogen for up to six months.

This is something that I've been working on for a couple of years now, since I chaired the Sustainable Travel Select Committee, and I'm delighted that we've finally got this moving. The idea is to showcase emerging hydrogen fuel cell technology in a way which respects and celebrates Bristol's waterbourne heritage.

Hydrogen has a massive potential as a clean fuel. (Here comes the science bit...) Fuel cells use a reverse electrolysis process to combine hydrogen with oxygen from the air to provide only water and electricity. There are therefore no pollutants and a waterbourne application means that the waste is simply tipped over board. Also, full life running costs are generally lower than for conventional engines due to their longer life. Hydrogen also has potential as a 'load balancer' for renewable energy, so that when your turbines/barrage/panels/etc aren't needed, they produce hydrogen through electrolysis, which can then be used to produce electricity back when needed.

Fuel cell technology isn't particularly new, but it is starting to knock on the doors of mainstream transport applications due to its cleanliness. There has been a large project around hydrogen-powered buses in a number of major global cities, including London, which is now being rolled out. Even hydrogen powered boats are not unique (see picture left), with Hamburg already operating a passenger ferry (see above) and Amsterdam having one on the way. The University of Birmingham has converted a canal barge with a hydrogen fuel cell, but I believe that the Bristol ferry would be the first in the UK.

The invitation-to-tender runs until the 15th April and we are hoping that a consortium of companies (ferry owner, fuel cell fitter, hydrogen supplier) will come forwards with a plan. There is a budget set aside, so, if the plan is viable, work should be able to start pretty soon.

UPDATE : did interviews today with Heart FM and BBC Radio Bristol. Rather strange exchange on the latter with Rob Salvidge from Bristol Ferry Boat company when he wanted to talk about tidal turbines rather than ferries!

Nick and Vince speak!

I thought I'd pop up linked video clips of Nick Clegg and Vince Cable's speeches to Lib Dem spring conference in Birmingham the weekend just gone. Poor Nick did really rather well considering his sore throat, though he is a little croaky in places, while Vince was on form as always!

Renewable Heat Incentive

At a RegenSW event this morning about the proposed Renewable Heat Incentive. This is new government subsidy scheduled for implementation in April 2011. It is a sister scheme to the Feed-In Tariff (which is for electricity production), providing cashback for projects that produce domestic or commercial heating from renewable sources, like biomass boilers, solar thermal and heat pumps.

Unlike the Feed-In Tariff, where the UK is lagging behind the rest of the world, the Renewable Heat Incentive is the first of its type in the world (I am told). So, due credit to the government, although it is does fit into my general criticism of too-little-too-late on renewables, where the UK lags near the bottom of the EU league table. I suppose that there is a danger that the Tories might ditch it.

The RHI provides the Council with lots of opportunities. It makes school biomass boilers far more viable, with schools getting a subsidy on top of the reduced running costs. It makes solar thermal more attractive for a range of Council buildings.

Perhaps most importantly for me, it helps with the creation of district heating and combined heat and power schemes. One of the schemes that I and Mark Wright are pushing forwards with is for a showpiece new housing project in Lockleaze, with new council homes built to the highest environmental standards. Using the FIT and RHI, we have the potential to offer the homes with free (or almost free) heat and power, running from a biomass district heating scheme. Dejargonising this... there would be one boiler running on wood chippings for every 30 houses, instead of one gas boiler per house. A new way of living!

Hearing about existing schemes in Dorset which are a close match to what we have in mind for Bristol. Going to try to grab the speaker later to see what they have to say about our plans. Very exciting!

Now listening to a chap talking about energy from waste, but have lost him in the jargon and death by Powerpoint...

Carbon-free Britain by 2050

Still at Lib Dem conference... I'm just about to vote for our policy motion for 'Growth That Lasts: A Fair, Green and Sustainable Economy'. The centrepiece of this is to commit the country to being carbon-free by 2050.

It's a very ambitious piece of policy, which would see the creation of an Infrastructure Bank to finance large-scale renewable energy projects, public transport links, new approaches to carbon capture and storage and a UK-wide insulation programme. This would create ten of thousands of new jobs in the green economy, addressing both the current recession and climate change and energy security. Part of the funding will come from dropping Trident.

Great stuff and far more radical than what the other parties are proposing. Labour have done too little too late, while Tory candidates rated the environment as the lowest priority and it doesn't appear at all in their list of reasons to vote for them!

Right - vote done. Leader's speech in a few minutes...

Conservation and sustainability

I'm currently sitting in the climate change debate at Lib Dem conference. Have been very interested to hear about the work that Birmingham has been doing on district heating and electric vehicles.

The most compelling speech so far, though, was from a women running a social enterprise in a pretty Scottish village. Her organisation is designed to move the village to a carbon neutral position, despite the fact that their footprint is currently twice the national average.

The point that she made was that planning officers were opposing their plans for a community-owned wind turbine. Apparently the 'conservation' of the local area outranks its sustainability. They are pressing forward, but have been told they should apply for planning permission for tiny turbine in a dip in the land that can't be seen by humans - nor presumably by the wind!

I have written on this blog before about the craziness of the planning system in relation to sustainability and renewable energy - there can be no better example than this! Oh, Simon Hughes now, so best concentrate...

Why Lib Dem conferences are different

I'm off to Lib Dem Spring Conference later today in Birmingham - a city where we are hopeful of picking up some new MPs later this year. In the conference pack is a piece by Guardian political journalist Martin Kettle about why he likes Lib Dem conferences the most - I thought it was really spot-on and so I've attached it below :

"Like all political journalists, I go to a lot of party conferences. The three main autumn conferences, of course. Sometimes, especially in election years, the spring conferences too.

A few of us anoraks even make a point of sometimes taking in the conferences of the nationalists and the minor parties too. Mind you, the UKIP spring conference? I think even I would draw the line there.

If the only party conferences you have ever attended are Liberal Democrat conferences, you would get a shock if you ventured into a Labour or a Conservative one. Not just a political shock, but a procedural one too.

Nowadays, Labour and Conservative conferences have become little more than rallies, strictly controlled by the party leaderships. Everything is focused round the party leader and the main party spokespeople. Except when big names are making set speeches, not much of interest goes on in the conference hall. When delegates speak from the floor they are almost always heavily vetted and coached, especially at Conservative conferences.

Labour still has vestiges of the old rumbustuous relationship between the floor and the platform — much of which it is well rid of — but the control freaks took over long ago.

That doesn’t mean these conferences are a waste of time — far from it — but they are very much top-down affairs. Delegates go to listen, applaud and defer, but rarely to debate.

Let’s be honest, Liberal Democrat conferences have moved a long way in that direction too, as the party has grown and become more important. Control, deference and promotion of the leader all play their part here too.

But the reason I feel more at home in Liberal Democrat conferences is that, in spite of the modernisers and the strategists, they have always been and still remain argumentative and independent-minded affairs.

It’s only at the Liberal Democrat conference that you can sit in the hall for a debate and sometimes get a story, or simply learn about a policy perspective you hadn’t thought about. There are proper motions, and amendments. People debate the wording in the resolutions and reports. Nowadays, many of the delegates speak from experience too — it wasn’t like that in the not-so-good old days.

I don’t want to flatter you more than you deserve. Too many delegates wear suits and ties, even here. And the Liberal Democrats are not the only party that actually debates things.

The best party conference debate I heard last autumn was at the SNP conference in Inverness, where delegates argued over which currency they should adopt in an independent Scotland. Should it be the pound, or the euro, or perhaps the Norwegian krone or the Scots groat? Each position had its supporters.

Among the main UK-wide parties, however, Liberal Democrats are the only ones whose conference is not from beginning to end a stitch-up.

Call it the luxury of permanent opposition if you will. But I call it democracy and I hope you will never let it go."

A new blogger on the block

My girlfriend Nat has just started a blog. It's about being a vegan in Bristol and her experiences of eating out. She spent a couple of hours yesterday getting it together - I hope she finds the time to keep it going.

I'm not a vegan myself (or even vegetarian), but thanks to Nat, I probably eat vegan twice a week or more. I always makes me laugh/cringe when meat-eaters say things like "it's not a proper meal". This is so plainly rubbish, even if veganism makes things a little more tricky from time to time. Nat's just got back from the shops triumphantly clutching vegan burgers and sausages!

I certainly eat a lot less meat than I used, which is probably good for my health and the planet. It a really good example of somewhere where small changes in behaviour can have a positive impact, without taking a massive leap into the unknown. I don't think I could ever give up meat or animal products (no cheese - argh!!) myself, but I can certainly eat less and care more about where it comes from.

Surprise backing for Tories

In a lovely piece of news that brightened my morning, David Cameron and the Conservatives have been given backing from a well-known international figure. Perhaps notorious would be a better word.

Yes, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe would like to see a Conservative government in the UK! Mugabe, who is known for his collegial approach, international diplomacy and respect for those who disagree with him, says that the Conservatives "know how to relate to others".

If this is linked to the Mugabe approach to relating to others, should we be expecting to see electoral fraud, open nepotism and punishment beatings introduced under a Conservative government...?

Bristol submits recycling rebate plan

There's coverage on the BBC website today of the Council's bid for funding to launch a rebate scheme for people who recycle regularly. This would be a pilot scheme and after some pretty hefty lobbying, the area covered will include Cotham, along with Redland and Bishopston. These areas have some of the highest recycling rates in the city (and the country, in fact), so they're a natural place to trial this.

The scheme would work on by weight, with households getting a cash rebate on a per kilogram basis for their recycling, weighed by special bins. It will be completely voluntary, with no penalties for people who don't take part or who don't recycle. It follows a number of models that already operate very successfully on the Continent, but it would be one of the first schemes of its kind in the UK.

The maximum rebate would work out at something like £17.50 per year - not big bucks, but a little 'thank you' and encouragement to others. I have suggested that residents should be able to automatically donate their rebate to an environmental charity of their choice.

Whether this goes ahead depends on whether DEFRA will fund it. They were all keen about this sort of thing until there was a tabloid witch-hunt about council staff hiding in wheelie bins or something; a witch-hunt by the same tabloids (i.e. the Daily Mail) that moan if Council Tax rises are too high! Now DEFRA have cooled off a bit, but as this scheme is completely voluntary, hopefully they will take the opportunity to try something new.

This is all part of the Lib Dem pledge to get recycling rates in Bristol up to 50% by the end of 2010. Other parts of the city are getting kerbside plastic recycling collections or extra effort to promote food waste recycling.

Mark's sleep-rough night

Colleague and friend Councillor Mark Wright did a charity sleep-out on Friday night to raise awareness of homelessness in the city and raise a bit of money in the process.

So... (woolly) hats off to Mark and congratulations for the £600 he raised for the Julian Trust. His involvement also meant that there was media interest too. Having shared a tent with him at Glastonbury Festival, I feel very sorry for the people who had to sleep near him!

(I was going to join Mark, but I wimped out!! I had some surgery before Christmas and I wasn't sure how my foot would cope with a cold, damp night - it's still pretty sore and I can't afford to do it any more damage. I will try to do it next year instead.)

I've copied below Mark's short account of his night of rough sleeping. I couldn't agree with the last sentence more...

"On a relatively unusual day in my life I’m going to be sleeping rough for charity, to raise the profile of homelessness in the city. After the usual day’s work, at 9.30pm I head on down to a churchyard in the city centre. The weather is clear and cold, and I glance at the forecast, which isn’t good: heavy rain at 3am. I’m a bit nervous."

"I arrive at 10.30pm, and people are milling around, setting down bedding places. I only know three people at the event, but fortunately one of them rings me at exactly that moment to find me. I feel happier and set up my bed next to his in a sheltered spot by a wall."

"I’ve been told to wear many layers of clothes, and I’ve got a sleeping bag, a big plastic bag to go around it, and a strip of foam to sleep on. I decided that a pillow was a bit of a luxury, so I just brought an old teddy bear called ‘Bear’ to rest my head on."

"With all my layers I’m not cold, and I feel fairly confident. At the last minute I spot that my site is sited in a dip in the flagstones so I move along. At 11.45pm I climb into the sleeping bag to sleep. With all the streetlights around it is quite bright, so I pull my hat down over my eyes as a mask. But I quickly discover that the noise in the city centre is overpowering - there is a constant sound of traffic and sirens." "At 1.30am the rain arrives. It’s pretty heavy, and it makes a huge noise on everyone’s plastic sheets. The stone floor is taking its toll - my arms and legs are getting a bit sore. I’m a bit despondent but I finally drift off to sleep at about 2am."

"At 3am I’m woken by more heavy rain. I also realise that although Bear is a great bear, he’s not a good pillow, and I’m getting a sore face and neck. Then: horror! I notice that one of my legs is cold and damp. I rummage around the sleeping bag and find that part of it is wet. There must be a hole in the plastic bag. I’m starting to get cold, and realising that water will further sap my warmth I’m worried now about the leak, but drift off again after half an hour."

"4.30am and I’m woken by the sound of a driver maxing the revs on his motorbike and roaring past. It’s still raining. I feel my legs and am pleased to find only general dampness, so the leak must be minor. Although I ache and feel stiff and a bit cold, I realise that there’s only 90 minutes left. I feel a bit better and drift off again."

"At 5.30am I’m woken by voices, as people start getting up. I get up and see my original spot, which is now a puddle an inch deep. People start to leave, so I grab my wet plastic bag and say my goodbyes."

"My lift arrives and I head home to my wife and warm dry bed. I’ve never been happier to have both of those, and this is the bit where my one-night experience departs utterly from that of the homeless. On the way home to bed I start to think on what extra we can do to help the homeless. Nobody should have to sleep rough in the modern world."