Olympic Torch Touches Westbury

Remarkable scenes have greeted the arrival of the London 2012 Olympic Torch as it passed close to Westbury on Trym during this morning's rush hour, cheered by vast crowds of would-be commuters and enthusiastic school children.

"The gods have come to us in petrochemical form," shouted Daisy Cutter, as she gazed across Westbury Road at the angelic-looking torch bearer, skateboarder Tony Cruiser, one of twenty locals chosen to carry the torch on its morning journey across the city. Tony, a former ASBO holder and son of a chiropodist, was turned off tagging and onto tailsliding by a McDonalds outreach programme that targets disaffected middle-class youths and works with them to re-engage with the professional aspirations of their peers. "I was really fed up with education, but after I read about the programme on a cheeseburger wrapper, I got myself sorted, and now I can't believe I've been chosen at random to carry the torch through my own hood."

Henleaze businessman Ivor Profit of TV Now was equally enthusiastic about the torch's journey through BS9. "It's great to see so many people out on the High Street so early, not only to greet the torch but to make the subliminal connection between sporting success and Panasonic televisions. It's amazing!"

As the torch made its way northward across the downs, reports began to filter through of the wider social effects that the Olympic spirit was starting to have on the Bristol region. A spokesman for Bristol City Council confirmed that a solution had been found to the Bristol City stadium re-building saga which has dragged on for several years. "I can confirm," announced spokesman Arthur Truth, "that all parties have agreed to abandon the judicial and democratic process and have agreed to the new stadium being built at Ashton Vale. We are grateful to our Olympic sponsors for lending their support to the process and can announce that the new stadium will be named the Cola Bowl."

Thousands of local residents rose early to catch a glimpse of the sacred flame, lit on the actual site of the ancient Olympics in Visa-soaked Greece by a solar ignition system specially designed for the event by General Electric. GE will be hoping to improve its public perception following its long association with Japan's Fukishima Nuclear Plant, whose six reactors were built by GE.

Southmead housewife Eva Ho noted that, despite a global profit of $14.2 billion, and GE having paid no US Federal taxes in 2010, she was pleased that the manufacturing giant was behind the torch relay. "If the flame goes out, you want to know that a big company can get it lit again."  The back-up to the sacred flame is carried throughout its journey in a support vehicle, guarded by 20 members of the Metropolitan Police's elite Sport Sponsorship Squad. Emergency legislation brought in by the last Labour government allow the squad to shove members of the public out of the way of the flame in the event that they err too close to the holy fire. "Good thing too," declared Ms Ho, whose eleven children were wildly waving union flags supplied by Visa as they awaited the flame's arrival

The flame was enthusiastically welcomed to the City of Bristol on Tuesday night and will start the next stage of its nationwide journey in Cheltenham. The flame's journey can be followed on its way to London here.

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Growing Local Food in Westbury and Henleaze

Image via Wikipedia Know any land suitable for growing food on in the area?

The Council's Land Use Consultation comes to BS9 this month with an open event at Trinity Henleaze United Reform Church, Bradbury Hall on 20th September. Members of the public with an interest in seeing more land released for local food production are invited to drop in any time between 12.00 noon and 8.00 pm.


An identical event for Henbury & Southmead will run on September 27th at the Greenway Centre, Doncaster Road, Southmead.

Information and opinions gleaned during this city-wide consultation will, apparently, help to inform decisions on land use in the city for the coming decades.

Here's my off-the-top-of-my head list of possible food growing sites in the area:

• the Dairy Garden at Blaise Castle Estate
• part of the Arnall Drive Open Space at Henbury
• a corner of the field at Henbury School
• the front garden at Elmlea Junior School and the back garden at the Infants' School
• the grounds of the former Elmfield School on Greystoke Avenue
• the hidden valley between Channell's Hill and Bowness Gardens (might be a bit steep?)
• the small plot adjacent to the Westbury on Trym surgery
• a slice of the Coombe Dingle Sports Centre field

Where have I missed?

For an introduction to the rationale of growing and consuming locally produced food, there's a short introductory article here.

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A Late Summer Night's Dream

Image via WikipediaSabbath last, as Mrs Trym and I were taking our weekly constitutional through Blaise Castle Estate, I was struck by the presence of several hand written posters attached to successive trees near the Henbury Road entrance:

Missing: African Grey Parrot. Answers to name of FRANK. Tel. 0117....

"Won't last long here," I mumbled to no-one in particular, while peering hopefully into the August gloom in search of the missing bird.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when a few days later, I found myself at the market at Southmead Hospital, having been tasked with the purchase of cheap minced beef and ripe satsumas, standing next to one of the market's pet supply stalls. Beyond the rows of dog collars and biscuits, I was struck to discover a live caged bird hoping about its small enclosure.

Despite the numerous breaches in health and safety legislation represented by the sale of this feathered fowl, my primary concern was over the content of the angst-filled poster at Blaise Castle. Putting two and two together, the question hit me with the force of a train: Is this Frank?

Initial appearances could easily have lead me to a different conclusion. The bright yellow colour of the bird before me was, of course in stark contrast to the natural hue of the appropriately-named African Grey. Bird bleaching being a surprisingly widespread (though little-reported) practice, I determined to see beyond the superficial and investigate further.

Under pretence of inspecting the rubber chewing toys, I slid innocuously towards the hanging cage and, while idly fumbling a puppy tug and ball, calmly let out a growl: "Frank!" Despite a flicker of recognition from the peroxide prisoner, I knew I did not yet have enough evidence to affect a citizen's arrest of the heavily tattooed stall holder, whose scrapped-back hair and multiple items of gold jewelery were offset by her black leather waistcoat. Her rippling muscles suggested, moreover, that she might not wait quietly for the arrival of the constabulary.

Undeterred, I continued my idle inspection of rabbit harnesses and, semi-smothered by one of my chronic (though at times useful) nervous coughs, I again uttered the name of the missing African, while running my hand nonchalantly through my hair.

A stare from the adjacent Palestinian stall holder drew unwarranted attention, so I eased my position slightly to enable me to fumble with a set of jump leads set out on his motor accessory stall.

While glancing at the rows of double A batteries to my left, I was suddenly alerted to a squawking sound from the cage behind me. Turning slightly, I was shocked to see the yellow bird pecking the bars of its cage while intoning: "An-drew! An-drew!"

A brief image of Leonardo Di Caprio flashed through my mind as I awoke at home. a reminder of that evening's visit to Orpheus to see Inception. The feeling that someone had been messing with my head was not a pleasant one to wake up to.

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Local Doctor Laid to Rest

The funeral takes place today at Westbury Parish Church of well-known local doctor Alan Otlet, MBE.

Based at the Southmead Health Centre for 40 years, Dr Otlet was responsible for delivering 7,000 Bristol babies.

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North Bristol Burglary Upsurge

A spate of local burglaries has prompted a message from Avon and Somerset Police Inspector Mark Runacres to local neighbourhood watch groups alerting residents to the current problem.

The message reads, "There has been an increase in burglary offences on the Henleaze, Westbury-on-Trym and Southmead beats in recent weeks with offences being committed in the early hours of the morning and access gained to properties via insecure ground floor doors and windows. On some occasions car keys have been taken and vehicles stolen from the driveway. "

Residents are then asked asked to make sure that their homes are secured properly, particularly during hot weather when windows may have been left open during the day.

Trym Tales understands that burglaries have included opportunistic walk-in offenses as well as operations planned to coincide with when householders were known to be away on holiday.

Police patrols have been increased in neighbourhoods that have been targeted, and investigations are on-going to identify and arrest the offenders.

Advice from the Avon and Somerset website on staying secure during the summer are as follows:

• Always secure windows and doors – even in warmer weather and especially at night. If you do want to open a window, never leave it unattended
• Keep small high-value items like your car keys, mobile phone, wallet, handbag and jewellery out of sight, and ensure they can not be seen through cat flaps and letter boxes
• Don't keep pin numbers in your diary, as if your entire handbag and all its contents get stolen criminals know to look for these
• Set light switch timers for when you are out or away on holiday
• Take an interest in the security at the homes of vulnerable family members and look out for your neighbours
• Report any suspicious behaviour. It is common for an offender to checkout a number of properties for entry points before finding a vulnerable home
• Keep photos of your jewellery, take a note of serial numbers and mark your property with a forensic code liquid, like SmartWater.
  

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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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Taxi Swerving in Wellington Hill West

Driving home from some friends' house last night (Sunday) I was concerned to see in my rear view mirror a car driving erratically along Wellington Hill West. It had its lights off, hazard warnings on and was swerving across the road.

Concerned, I pulled over and let it pass, then followed it intending to call the police as it had all the hallmarks of a drink driving incident, although I had the impression that there may have been a struggle going on inside the vehicle as well.

I was surprised, therefore, to see the car (a taxi) swerve into the front driveway of Southmead police station and come to a stop. I was just about to call the police when a marked car, followed quickly by another, drove down Southmead Road and stopped outside the station.

The following news story from the BBC fits the circumstances but not the time, as it was about 10.30 when I witnessed the above incident.

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Bristol Bus Secrets

Returning home by bus this this week, I have twice found myself transported from my place of work by trainee bus drivers and have thus been able to observe (discreetly, from behind my copy of the Metro) part of the process by which a new driver is inducted into the profession, at least as far as employees of First Bus are concerned.

As a result of this eavesdropping, I have discovered the following tricks of the trade, passed on apprentice-like from an experienced driver to a novice:

• the way to remember the correct route when driving the number 20 as it passes through Bishopston is to think of the game of chess - "King ('s Drive), Bishop (Road)"
• when seeking to pull out of a bus stop, the procedure is to indicate right, check the mirror and drive on. Waiting for cars to stop is ineffective, apparently
  
• If your route takes you along a narrow road, indicating right while driving along it raises your profile before oncoming vehicles and encourages them to pull over to their left
• the Lake Road bus stop near the junction of Henleaze Road and Southmead Road is "tricky". Very few passengers there actually wish to board the 20 or 21 and are in fact waiting for another service. Pulling over at this point places your bus in the left hand lane of a short dual carriageway, immediately before you need to be in the right hand lane in order to turn into Eastfield Road for Westbury on Trym village. The policy, therefore, is to ignore the stop unless flagged down.
  

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Hope Springs Eternal for North Bristol Churches

The May Bank Holiday weekend sees hundreds of volunteers from north Bristol churches working in partnership with local residents on a range of community projects and outreach events in Southmead, Manor Farm, Lockleaze and Horfield.

Projects include:

• rubbish and litter clearance in public spaces
• free banquets for over 80 senior citizens on Sunday afternoon
  
• free kids' clubs on Saturday and Monday morning
• sports activities for young people every afternoon in numerous locations
• community fun afternoons on Horfield Common (Saturday), Gainsborough Square (Sunday) and Glencoyne Square (Monday).

Monday afternoon sees an end-of-noise celebration at 4.45 at Glencoyne Square Southmead followed by a Bar-B-Q, which , in keeping with the theme of the weekend, is also free.

Participating churches included the new Community Church, which has recently relocated from Westbury on Trym to the Greenway Centre in Southmead, Ebenezer Church Filton Avenue Avenue, Woodlands Church in Clifton and St Stephen's Southmead.

The Noise is a national initiative which has been running in Bristol for 7 consecutive years. Its website describes the aim of the Noise as "showing God's love in practical ways".

The Noise is part of a wider year-long national project - Hope 08 - which aims to focus hundreds of local churches on outreach and community service in their localities.

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Westbury Church Moves

Eastfield residents will find they have more parking space outside their houses on Sundays from this week as numerical growth has resulted in one of Westbury's popular local churches moving to a larger meeting venue in Southmead.

Henleaze and Westbury Community Church has met for over ten years at the former school building on the corner of Albert Place and Waters Lane, opposite the Westbury Village Hall. The search for a new building to accommodate the 300-strong congregation has been going on for some time and has finally resulted in the move to the Greenway Community Centre on Doncaster Road in Southmead.

The Greenway Centre (pictured) is a former secondary school owned by Bristol City Council and managed by the Southmead Development Trust. The Centre is undergoing major development work to provide upgraded meeting rooms, a sports hall, small business units, a cafe and youth facilities. A new GP facility and Health Centre is also planned for the site. The Centre benefited financially from the sale of part of its grounds in 1999 for the construction of the Next Generation Sports Club.

In a creative partnership between the church and the Development Trust, the congregation is contributing financially to the Centre's renovation costs in return for use of the facilities on Sundays.

The church, meanwhile, has changed its name and is now simply The Community Church. Started in 1993, the church is part of the Woodlands group of churches, with congregations in Clifton and Sea Mills. Church leader Tim Dobson, a former secondary school teacher, is excited about the move and says that "We believe that the church should be actively involved in its community, showing God’s love and concern."

The church will maintain its existing building and will continue to run a large range of mid week activities from it, including its popular IMPS group for parents and carers of pre-school children.

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Stoke Lodge Adult Education Centre at Risk of Closure

On January 17th the Director of Culture and Leisure Services announced (in a low key, internal kind of way) that Bristol's Adult Learning Service would receive no funding in the 2008/9 budget.

Cuts of £180,000 will result in the end of adult education in St. Paul's, Knowle West and Southmead, and will place the continuation of the service at Stoke Lodge at risk.

What do readers of Trym Tales think of this proposal? The proposal to cut provision at St Pauls seems particularly strange considering the brand new community learning centre that has been open less than two years on the corner of Grosvenor Road.

Your councillor would like to hear from you, I'm sure. You can find their contact details here at the City Council website.

If you wish, you can also write a statement for the Bristol City Council Cabinet Meeting of 4th of February. Your statement must be printed and include the meeting date and be sent to or hand delivered to:

Democratic Services Team
Room 220
The Council House
College Green
Bristol BS1 5TR


[All statements must be received no later than 12 noon on the 3rd of February.]

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