Bristol's Got Talons

Westbury Park resident and local solicitor Stuart Urquhart has suffered head injuries after being attacked by a falcon while jogging on holiday in Cornwall.

The bird swooped on the 36-year old while he was on a morning run near the Helford River in south Cornwall and drew blood, resulting in him needing treatment at the local hospital in Falmouth.

Mr Urquhart, who works as a commercial lawyer for TLT Solicitors based in Redcliff Street in Bristol, is quoted by the BBC as saying that "I have brown hair and I wasn't sure if the buzzard had mistaken me for a big, slow rabbit."


source

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Local Media: Sleep at Your Peril

Reports of the death of Trym Tales have, like those of Mark Twain's alleged demise in 1897, been greatly exaggerated. A combination of busyness and a family holiday to the English Riviera's spotty cousin (Exmouth) have resulted in the longest publishing gap in the history of Trym Tales since its inception in August 2006.

Barely had Westbury on Trym's leading online independent media outlet started its brief summer lull when, somnambulant on the beach under a Kagool, it found itself facing the launch of a rival local media site serving the news-hungry residents of BS9.

Westbury on Trym People is the local expression of a major initiative in locally-driven media by Northcliffe Media, who bring us the Evening Post and Western Daily News as well as the This is Bristol site. Building on their history of delivering local media (Northcliffe currently publish over 150 separate local papers and magazines in the UK in addition to several hundred web sites), Northcliffe have gone "hyper-local" in a big way through their creation of 23 (soon to be 33) local sites with "People" in the title across the west of England and South Wales.

This is Bristol journalist Marc Cooper, one of the key contributors to the new local sites, explains via his blog that "the most striking thing about hyper local websites is that the usual top down delivery of news ... is gone. What appears top of hyper local websites is whatever the people who use them are talking about. " Northcliffe describes the sites - which are being piloted in the southwest - as "combining news writing with social networking", as all stories on the site are generated by local users rather than traditional journalists. Let's throw the word wiki in as well, to make the description complete.

The arrival of Westbury on Trym People and its sister sites is a local outworking of a global revolution currently underway in traditional print-based media previously noted in this blog. Locally, this revolution, largely influenced by the Internet, has seen 45 journalism jobs cut at the Evening Post this year.

One of those made redundant in the recent cuts is Chris Brown who has responded by launching in June his own Bristol-wide news site Bristol 24-7, a site which more obviously compares with This is Bristol than with a hyper-local site such as Westbury on Trym People, or indeed with Trym Tales.

While we're on the subject of local media, Guide2Bristol has also been quietly establishing itself as an additional source of local news and features. I have also been known to contribute the occasional blog post to the site.

Wired Bristol is yet another new media source for the city. Can't really say much about it except that it looks a little bare at present and that the link to its RSS feed does not work.

In summary, the future of online media is up in the air, Bristol has some new news sites and Trym Tales (which will seek to actively participate in Westbury on Trym People) will continue to produce regular news and views from north Bristol's urban village, without taking itself too seriously.

Thank you very much and best wishes to all newcomers.

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Twitter Power Takes on the Daily Mail

Am sitting in my office chuckling to myself as I watch a conspiracy take place in the Twittersphere.

Tweets have been appearing all afternoon inviting particpants to vote in a Daily Mail online poll which asks one of the more obnoxious questions I have seen in a national newspaper for some time: Should the NHS allow gipsies to jump the queue?

The poll follows a rather unpleasant article from man-of-the-people Richard Littlejohn in which he reports on and then criticises an apparent NHS policy to allow members of the "mobile community" (caravans, not phones) to receive priority appointments at GP clinics.

Tweeters have been seeking to skew the results of the poll by exhorting each other to vote "yes" to the queston in large numbers, thereby pouring scorn on the Mail's percieved populist fear-mongering.

The original tweet seems to track back as far as the enigmatic Infobunny, a London-based law librarian who keeps her tweets private, and the campaign has gathered momentum throughout the day as twitter-ers have encouraged each other to use different browsers in order to cast more votes.

By 3 pm, 92% of the pollsters had voted "yes", that they did in fact want gipsies to be allowed to jump the queue in doctor's surgeries, a result that may come as something of a surprise to the Daily Mail editorial board.

Although it is comforting to know that it is not only Iranians who can influence politics through twitter, this very British piece of jolly good fun should also be a rebuke to the Mail about the dangers of stirring up communal jealousies - especially in a week which has seen 100 Roma forcibly removed from their homes in a wave of xenephobia in Belfast.

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Drugs Raid in Bradley Stoke?

Reports are emerging of a police operation in the Baileys Court area of Bradley Stoke with neighbours reporting a police van, uniformed and plain clothes police and a dog unit on site since this morning.

Speculation is over a possible drugs raid.

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Canford Lane Incident Tuesday

Two ambulances and three police cars in attendance at 07.30 this morning at Canford Lane in Westbury on Trym.

Young-ish looking man sitting on pavement outside Halifax, opposite Somerfield.

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Food, Glorious Food

At 30 pages, it's not a quick read and I I certainly haven't read it all yet, but intend doing so.

If you are remotely interested in the issue of local food, its role in reducing environmental damage and in contributing to healthy communities, the draft Sustainable Food Strategy for Bristol is an important document.

The following statement from the document is one I wholeheartedly agree with:

"in the context of peak oil (and fossil depletion more generally) and climate change - global sustainability rests on the re-localisation and de-industrialisation of our food system."

Happy reading. Let me know if you finish it before I do.

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Not All Bells And Smells

Without making much of a fuss about its existence, a new church has sprung up in Westbury on Trym in the last year or so. Meeting at Badminton School on Sunday afternoons, Emmanuel is a spin-off of Christ Church Clifton and part of the Anglican diocese of Bristol.

As the following video reveals, however, the new church does not look like many Anglican churches you or I might have experienced in our childhood.

Interested to spot Bristol University's Professor of Jurisprudence, Julian Rivers in the video ,who also features on Trym Tales here.

The first half of the video features another new Anglican church in Clifton, Crossnet, currently meeting in homes and at the Boston Tea Party on Whiteladies Road.

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Kumon Moves From Cambridge Crescent

It's been there about ten years but today the Kumon Educational regional office in Westbury on Trym will be moving to new premises in Bradley Stoke's Willow Brook Centre.



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Kumon centres provide individualised maths and English programmes for children of all ages and abilities after school. There are currently seven Kumon centres in Bristol. The centre in Westbury on Trym, which is attended by about 60 students, operates from the Methodist Church Hall on Westbury Hill, and is unaffected by the move of the regional office.

The Bristol regional team (currently numbering six people) provides education and business support to about 100 Kumon study centres across the south west and south Wales and is one of a number of regional offices that serve about 600 local Kumon study centres in the UK and Ireland.

No news yet on who will be moving into the vacant office suite on Cambridge Crescent.

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Bristol Council Elections: Predicted Results

As polls have closed across Bristol, Trym Tales is pleased to announce its predictions for the results of the city council elections held today, Thursday June 4th.

Actual results will be updated throughout Friday. By the weekend, once all results are announced, readers will be able to make their own assessments about the skill (or lack thereof) of the political science department within Westbury on Trym's leading independent online media outlet. The ward, predicted result and actual result are as follows:

Ashley	Green (just)							LibDem (Greens 2nd)
Avonmouth	Con							Con
Bishopston	LibDem							LibDem
Cabot	LibDem							LibDem
Clifton	Libem							LibDem
Clifton East	Con							LibDem
Cotham	LibDem							LibDem
Easton	LibDem							LibDem
Eastville	LibDem							LibDem
Frome Vale	Con							Con
Henbury	Con (just)							Con
Henleaze	LibDem							LibDem
Hillfields	LibDem							LibDem
Horfield	LibDem							LibDem
Kingsweston	LibDem							LibDem
Lawrence Hill	Lab							Lab (by maj of 9 votes)
Lockleaze	Respect							LibDem
Redland	LibDem							LibDem
Southmead	Con							LibDem
St George East	BNP							Con
St George West	Con							Lab
Stoke Bishop	Con							Con
Westbury-on-Trym	Con							Con

So, results in and Trym Tales got 18 of 23 predictions correct. I think Nick Robinson can rest easy in the knowledge that he does not have a serious rival yet.

The story in Bristol seems to be one of LibDem and Conservative gains at the expense of Labour and the failure of the minority parties to see significant electoral breakthroughs despite the public anger at the issue of MP's expenses.

Turnout was also higher than expected.

Full results ward by ward can be found on the City Council web site here.

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It's All Happening in the Village

Right.

There's quite a lot going on in Westbury on Trym over the coming days. Here are some highlights:

• the Rockleaze Rangers Invitational Football Tournament, Sunday 14th June at the Coombe Dingle Sports Complex. It never fails to amaze me how many people turn up for this massive end of season tournament which sees dozens of teams from across the region compete in age groups from 7-11. Great family entertainment with the usual array of bouncy castles, bar b q and candy floss, not to mention high-energy football from Westbury's premier club. It runs all day and there is, I believe, no admission fee unless you're parking on site.

• Saturday 27th June, 9.00 - 1.00, local produce market in the medical centre car park on Westbury Hill. The home made chicken pies are a particular favourite.

• Village Hall Anniversary Fayre. It's 140 years, no less, since local benefactor Henry St. Vincent Ames built the village hall on Eastfield Road for "lectures, readings, music, exhibitions of art, science, industry, agriculture, horticulture and public instruction, and generally with a view to the promotion of innocent recreation and social and moral improvement." Good for him and good for us in Westbury on Trym who can go along on Saturday June 6th between 12 and 5 for a bit of a celebration fayre (with obligatory "yre" to signify the historic resonance of the event.)

• I believe there are also elections taking place on Thursday June 4th. Polling stations in the Westbury-on-Trym ward are located at the Library on Falcondale Road, the Methodist Church Hall on Westbury Hill and the Scout Hut in the Baptist Church car park on the corner of Reedley Road and Bransfield - which, due to the wonders of Google Street Map can now be seen below in all its glory.

View Larger Map





The results of the last local elections in Westbury on Trym on May 4th 2006 were as follows. Turnout was 54%.

Candidate	Party		Votes	%
Ashley Peter Fox	The Conservative Party Candidate		2319	52.01
Michael Henry Popham	Liberal Democrat		1505	33.75
John Alexander (commonly known as Alex) Dunn	The Green Party		331	7.42
Annia Summers	The Labour Party Candidate		304	6.82

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Making Twitter Bristol-Friendly

With several thousand twitter accounts now registered to local users in and around Bristol, I've been pondering how the site can be used on a local, community-based level.

Some thoughts here.







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Rev Billy Comes to Bristol

How on earth could I have missed it?

I refer of course to the visit to Bristol of the legendary Rev Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping bringing their gospel of freedom from consumrism to Cabot Circus and Broadmead.

What was I thinking of by missing the show?

Photos here .

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Single Parents' Fair

The Community Church - formerly Henleaze and Westbury Community Church - held its first Single Parents' Fair on May 16th at the Greenway Centre in Southmead.

Over 125 single parents plus about 240 children came to the event and were treated to a range of free events and services.

While mums enjoyed free hairstyling, manicures, and family photos and left with a free goody bag, the kids enjoyed pony rides, face painting, bouncy castle, basketball coaching, break dancing and video games.

Advice agencies were also present giving help on housing, money management, jobs and health.

Church leader Tim Dobson says that several single parent support groups are likely to start as a result of the fair and that the church anticipates running a follow up event in November. "Everything was free, people felt valued and it was lots of fun!"

The Community Church has a long history of practical community action. A large number of its members took part in the recent Bristol 10K run under the Love Running team banner. Love Running raised a remarkable £62,000 as part of the 10K run, the amount being divided equally between its three nominated charities: St Peter's Hospice, One25 and World Vision (Zimbabwe Partnership).

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That's a Lot of Plastic

I couldn't believe it.

The Somerfield shop and petrol station on Falcondale Road claims that in the last 12 months it gave away 434,000 free plastic bags to customers.

I nearly dropped my discounted croissant when I read that notice in the window and as I started to multiply that statistic by the number of supermarkets in Bristol and then the UK....

It's obviously going to save Somerfieled money if they don't give them away in the future, but the environmental case for using only reusable bags is surely overwhelming.

China has done it - and claims to have reduced oil consumption ( a key element in bag production) by 1.6 million tonnes.

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I Bet I Know Where William Hill is Heading

If my memory serves me right, the recently closed betting shop next to the Chinese takeaway on Westbury on Trym High Street will be moving up the hill to the site of the former Haart estate agency on Westbury Hill - next to Oxfam.

It's interesting to see how, even though the car park has been on Westbury Hill for years, that end of the village seems to be benefiting from the presence of the doctor's surgery and the tidy up that has taken place around the car park in the last few years.

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Bristol Uni Professor Hits Nail on Head

Regular readers of Westbury on Trym's leading online independent blog will know that many items posted here celebrate the trivial and mundane - those everyday occurrences that reinforce a sense of belonging and a sense of place.

This approach, however, should not be mistaken for an indifference to more weighty matters and the following video by Bristol University's Professor of Jurisprudence, Julian Rivers, is submitted in that spirit.

Comments, as always, are welcome.

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Tall Pines Update

Was interested to note that Westbury's unsold mansion - the 6-bedroomed Tall Pines on Henbury Road - has just been turned into a luxury office rental location. Paramount Offices provides serviced offices for terms of betwen thirty days and two years.

Paramount does, of course, face significant competition from the well-established Trym Lodge located a mere wireless network's length from the new facility.

Mind you, Paramount seems to definitely be wining the Search Engine Optimization battle so far. I had to look for ages to find a link to Trym Lodge.

I guess the presence of not one but two upmarket office buildings in Westbury on Trym represents good news for the village's restaurants and coffee shops.

The background to the Tall Pines story can be flound here.

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Trading Places

So, the former Intoto Kitchens on the corner of Westbury Hill and Cambridge Crescent (map here) has ceased to be a franchise and has become an owner-operated business Kitchens by Design.

As I was busy recovering from the exertions of changing a light bulb at the time (and fusing the entire upstairs lighting ring in the process), I missed the grand opening of the new business which took place yesterday afternoon and which was attended by ITV presenter Peter Rowell (pictured).

Inspired by the fact that the above local media personality (Trym Tales has learned) charges between £1,000 and £3,000 for his services, I've decided to enter the world of after dinner speaking and opening of village fetes.

Trym Tales can therefore exclusively reveal that Westbury on Tyrm's leading independent online media outlet would like to offer the services of yours truely to cut ribbons, present oversize cheques and smile at the camera for your local community or business event.

£50 per event (plus a pie and chips) is all I charge to add that unique combination of transatlantic charm and sophistication to your event.

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New Local Food Initiative

The Story Community Farm is a new member-owned company aiming to provide members and the wider public with locally grown farm produce.

Operating from land in Chew Valley, the Farm aims to encourage locals to become members, contributing finance and labour in return for food and other benefits. Membership starts at £25 per annum.

As I've been saying on this blog for some time, local food is the future. More on the initiative here.

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My Plan? Maplin!

Despite the underlying misanthropic tendencies that more discerning readers of Trym Tales may have picked up from time to time, this blog, let it be said, is more than happy to give praise where it is due and today I am happy to commend the virtues of a new store at Cribbs Causeway.

Not being technically minded, I always dread going into electrical stores in case I get the Rowen Atkinson treatment.



Thankfully, I have found the staff at the new Maplin (located on the site of the old B and Q) much more helpful. First, they know what things are, what they do and how they work - always a great help when I arrive and say what I want to achieve not how I want to achieve it.

Secondly, they do not sell me things I don't need or want - a practice which in my case reduces the likelihood that I will return to a store.

Thirdly, the staff at Maplin Cribbs Causeway have never placed a paper bag upon my head - again, a definite plus when it comes to good customer service.

And finally, the staff do not have that terribly off-putting habit of wearing shiny ties and enquiring as to my emotional well being when I walk in the door. Instead, they have lots of useful stuff, they know what it does and they answer questions simply and clearly, leaving me to buy or not as I see fit.

Which is what I think a shop should be like.

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Find Hannah Saaf

Police have named the owner of the white Ford Focus estate that crashed into a group of children last Friday night, killing 11-year old Sam Riddall.

Police are searching for the owner, Hannah Saaf of Kingsdown, who also goes by the name of Hannah Jewell.

A woman described as white, with blonde hair and in her mid-30s was seen running from the scene of the crash in Eastfield Road.

Hannah's photo can be seen on the Evening Post website here and anyone with information on her whereabouts is urged to contact crimestoppers immediately on 0800 555 111.

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Bristol Graffiti Map Launched

Neil Clark from the University of the West of England has just launched a "definitive" street map of Bristol's graffiti.

Here is is.






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Today in Westbury

Badminton School has an Open Day this morning for prospective families.

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Bristol's Got Talent

The fact that not one but two of the finalists of the BBC show The Speaker attend the same Bristol secondary school is a credit to the school and the city.

Series winner Duncan Harrison and runner-up Irene Carter both attend St Mary Redcliffe School, the Church of England secondary currently undergoing a major rebuild on its small city centre campus.

The prestigious national competition, which ran over eight episodes and saw thousands of initial applicants whittled down to a final three, was judged by entertainer Jo Brand, speaker and broadcaster John Amaechi and actor/director Jeremy Stockwell. The series of challenges competitors went through were designed to test their verbal communication and improvisation skills across a range of disciplines.

Sucess in the competition has resulted in a series of interviews and media opportunities for 15-year old Duncan, including, it is rumoured, the offer of his own radio show on Star FM. Duncan's brother Angus, a student at the North Bristol Post-16 Centre, is a part-time actor and appears in a major role alongside Mel Smith in the British film Halo Boy.

Runner-up Irene Carter, meanwhile, was mentored over part of the series by news broadcaster Kate Silverton who, Trym Tales understands, took quite a shine to the 17-year old and has urged the Bristol sixth former to stay in touch in order to develop her career as a news reporter.

BS9 is already the sector the the city which sends the largest number of students to St Mary Redcliffe School and there is every possibility that The Speaker will have increased interest in what the specialist humanities school has to offer.

As a voluntary-aided Church of England School, Redcliffe, is permitted to set its own faith-based admissions criteria which gives priority to familes who are regular and long-term committed members of a Christian church. The policy also provides for a specific number of places to be allocated to children of other faiths and to children in the immediate parish of St Mary Redcliffe. In a typical year, the school receives three times as many applications as it has places.

The Redcliffe Sixth Form centre has no faith-based admission requirement.

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Boy Killed in Hit and Run in Westbury on Trym

An 11-year old boy has been struck by a car and killed in Eastfield Road in Westbury on Trym.

The female driver - described as white, in her mid-30s and with long blonde hair - fled the scene and is being sought by the police in connection with the incident, which is the second fatal hit and run event in Bristol this week, following the death of Troy Atkinson near Cabot Circus seven days ago.

The Westbury on Trym incident occured around 9.15 last night (Friday) and the Evening Post has more details of the tragedy here.

The victim has been named by the police as 11-year old Sam Riddall of Westbury Park.

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Ten Things to do on a Sunny Day in Bristol

You'll have to read my latest post on Guide2Bristol in order to find out what they are. Prepare for a few surprises....

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Flying the Flag for Westbury

Spotted just the one flag of St George today in Westbury on Trym - flying prominently from a pole in the front garden of a house on Falcondale Road, near the junction with Abbey Road.

Anyone see any others?

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The S Factor

Just posted an item over on Guide2Bristol on Bristol's Somali community, in light of the news that a Somali-born candidate will be standing for election in the local elections in June.

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Undressed Roads in Westbury

Reports of the preemptive surface dressing of Hilsdon and Southdown Roads have, like those of Mark Twain's death in the 19th century, been greatly exaggerated.

Barely had the wide-bellied construction workers unloaded their signs and road closure barriers than they were gone, leaving Westbury's favourite cut-through (with the possible exception of Chock Lane) once again open to non-residents and - more to the point - undressed.

We the people can only speculate as to the meaning of this week's strange events. One theory exercising the men folk of the neighbourhood as they debate the great matters of state at the Prince of Wales on Stoke Lane is that the crew who arrived and disapeared wtihin 48 hours at the start of the week were in fact not the surface dressing team but the surface measuring team.

If so, we can presumably expect the surface dressing team to arrive and dress the surfaces sometime between May and September - the time frame stated on the original yellow signs whose appearance this week casued such a stir among the local citzens.

All is clear. Stay tuned for further deveopments.

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Council Finishes Project Before Starting it

Last week, without warning, the gentle folk of the Hillsdon and Southdown Road areas of Westbury on Trym, were all astir at the arrival of bright yellow signs on lampposts informing residents that the two roads would be "surface dressed" (whatever that means) between May and September.

Excellent, I thought as I surveyed these well-placed and colourful signs. If I were ever going to surface dress a road (whatever that means), I also would do so during the summer months when the weather is fine.

Happy, though slightly surprised, at receiving such advanced notice, my fellow citizens and I went about our business for several days, secure in the knowledge that the inevitable upheaval of local road works would not begin for at least a few weeks, possibly months.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when on waking this morning I heard not the cooing of the wood pigeon but the thumping of the petrol generator, signaling the start of major surface dressing (ibid) in the road.

The workers had arrived and by this evening they had placed barriers and no entry signs willy nilly around Westbury on Trym's favourite cut-through (with the possible exception of Chock Lane).

It appears that our local streets will have their surfaces dressed (ad nauseam) before the planned start date of the project - an achievement for which the city council planning and surface dressing department should be applauded.

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Fun for the Weekend

Just when I was unsure of how to spend my leisure time this weekend, the answer has fallen into my lap.

In celebration of the removal of the traffic lights from the junction of Westbury Hill and Falcondale Road, I will be driving back and forth like a madman between Texaco and White Tree roundabout, no longer playing my little game of count-the-twentieth-car- in-anticipation-of-an-amber light.

Just watch me.

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Bristol Credit Union Gets Council Cash

Was interested to see that the city council has invested £30,000 into Bristol's Credit Union, which recently relocated to a prominant position in Stoke's Croft.

Credit Unions are co-operatives which provide many traditional banking services to their members.

I think they are an idea whose time has come and that, as the global financial crises causes many to question the traditional institutions we have used up to now, we will see increasing numbers of individuals using credit unions for some or all of their financial needs.

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