Voting in Bristol

I know it's not election time. But I was interested to note the turnout at Thursday's Presidential election in Kenya. I have seen estimates of between 70 and 85% turnout. I decided to compare this with the UK and with Bristol's figures for recent general elections.

The trend in voter turnout has generally been downward in the last 60 years, from a high point of 83.9% for the 1950 poll, which resulted in Labour's Clement Attlee forming a government with a majority of only five seats. The 1997 election saw the lowest post-war turnout, with only 59.4% of the electorate casting their vote. population. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Tony Blair was elected Prime Minister with a record number of Labour Parliamentary seats (418).

Bristol North West and its previous equivalent constituencies tends to see a higher-than-average voter turnout at general elections. The UK average in 2010, for instance, was 65.1% of the electorate, whereas Bristol North West saw a 68.5 % turnout. 

With participation in elections very uneven across age bands, the higher turnout locally might reflect the age demographic of Bristol North West. Nationally, for instance, only 44% of 18-24 year-olds voted in 2010, compared with 76% of those aged 65 and above.

Within the greater Bristol area, the highest turnout in 2010 was in the Kingswood constituency, where Chris Skidmore (Conservative) was elected in place of Labour's Roger Berry. Turnout was 72.19%. The lowest turnout locally was in Bristol South at 61.56%. Dawn Primarolo (Labour) is the MP, and also Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.

Kenya's Presidential election has been affected by a computer bug in the ballot casting software, resulting in the votes needing to be counted by hand. Electoral administration remains the unglamorous but vital ingredient in the democratic process.

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Spoiled Ballot Papers in the Avon and Somerset PCC Elections

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One aspect of last week's elections for Police Commissioners that has received limited attention is the high number of spoiled ballot papers.

Figures released on the Bristol City Council website reveal that of 244,042 ballot papers counted, 9,190 were rejected by the returning officer. This means that 3.77 % of those who went into the polling booth last Thursday spoiled their voting papers for Police and Crime Commissioner in Avon and Somerset. 

Alan Renwick from the University of Reading has calculated that nationally, spoiled ballots in the recent PCC elections made up 2.9% of votes cast. This compares with an average of 0.3% at recent general elections. Last week's poll clearly represented a massive increase in spoiled papers.

If we look more closely at the figures for Bristol itself (one of the nine local authorities that make up the Avon and Somerset Police Authority) a hefty 6.35% of all ballot papers were rejected/spoiled - 5,645 in total. 

How can we explain the fact that Bristol voters spoiled their PCC ballots at more than double the national rate? Or that over 20 times more voters in Bristol chose to spoil their ballots than is typically the case for general elections nationally? If we look at spoiled ballots for the mayoral referendum in May this year, by contrast, only 264 papers were rejected out of 76,000 votes cast. And for the mayoral election itself last week, only 1.24% of papers were spoiled. It was the PCC ballots that were targeted in vast numbers by thousands of the electorate.

Alan Renwick suggests that the voting papers themselves may have been one factor nationally, with their supplementary vote system causing confusion to some. Though this was undoubtedly a factor, it surely cannot fully explain the massive incidence in ballot spoiling in Bristol. If this were the case, we would expect to see a much higher incidence of rejected papers for the mayoral election, with its eclectic mix of 15 colourful candidates, compared with only four nominees for the PCC role.

More probable is that large numbers of Bristol voters were unhappy with the whole idea of elected Police and Crime Commissioners. Renwick's analysis of the national scene is again relevant:

"The perception is that some voters expressed their disagreement with the idea of politicising the police by deliberately casting an invalid vote"  

Anecdotally, Renwick also notes that

"Many observers at the 41 counts around England and Wales saw ballots with mini-essays on them."

Turnout locally was 27.9% for the mayoral vote and 19.59% for the PCC poll. The election of an Independent Mayor and an Independent Police Commissioner suggests that those who did vote last week used the opportunity to register their preference for a change of direction in Bristol's politics. This independent-mindedness also found expression in the massive number of spoiled ballots in the city itself. 

And quite what the implications of this might be for future city council elections and the next national poll is, frankly, anyone's guess. A national party that promised to abolish the PCC role might pick up floating voters at the next general election. 

At the very least, it's probably not a bad time to be an independent.

 

 

 

 

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Cabinet Meets in Bristol

Grant Shapps MP, Conservative Party Chairman and minister without portfolio, has revealed that the government is holding its cabinet meeting today at the John Cabot Academy in east Bristol. The above photo was tweeted by him earlier this morning.

The habit of holding Cabinet meetings in the regions, away from Westminster, has been a feature of the coalition government since 2010.

Left to right are (I think) Maria Miller (Culture, Media and Sport), Justine Greening (International Development), Vince Cable (Business and Skills). I can't make out the next guy (sorry!) before getting to the Prime Minister. I think that's Philip Hammond (Defence) to the left of the PM. Any suggestions for the rest?

The Prime Minister, after the meeting had adjourned, announced that his government intends to ensure that a further 400 struggling state primary schools become academies by the end of 2013 This policy of creating so-called "forced academies" has been criticised in some quarters. Paradoxically, it may actually work against the principle of parent choice, which the academy model is supposedly based upon, with several parent groups at such schools now actively protesting and taking legal action to ensure that their children's school remains under local authority control. 

I hope the pupils at Cabot are behaving well for the government. 

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Will Westbury's Geoff Gollop be the Surprise (S)tory of Bristol's Mayoral Election?

Bristol Harbourside (Photo credit: James F Clay)

 With the ballot for Bristol's first elected mayor only weeks away, Labour Party sources are expressing concern about the low key tactics of Conservative Party candidate and Westbury-on-Trym Councillor Geoff Gollop.

Writing in the influential website Labour List, Bristol Labour leader Peter Hammond acknowledges the "logic" of what he calls the "below the radar" campaign being run by the Conservative candidate. 

By campaigning in their traditional strongholds, including Westbury on Trym, and avoiding major media appearances, Hammond claims that the Conservative strategy is to try and get out its core vote on the day and hope for a low turnout elsewhere:

"The Tories want Labour voters to stay at home. A low turn-out suits them. They do not want to alarm Labour voters that there is a chance of a strong Tory showing or even the election of a Tory mayor."

History shows that the Tory strategy makes some sense. The referendum in May as to whether Bristol should have an elected mayor at all received vastly different levels of participation across the city. Council wards which had two Labour seats at the time experienced a voter turnout of only 14% for the mayoral referendum, while in Conservative wards, the average turnout was 21%. 

The diverse range of candidates - eleven so far - and the timing of the vote at a time in the year when elections rarely happen, may contribute to a fractured vote and a low turn out. 

If Peter Hammond is right, this would then leave the door open for Geoff Gollop to be elected. Certainly in BS9, his campaign is well underway, with the former Lord Mayor portraying himself as the candidate most likely to fix Bristol's broken transport system. He has pledged, for instance, to re-open former rail stations at Henbury, Horfield and Portishead.

Meanwhile at the other end of the political spectrum, Respect MP George Galloway will be speaking at a public meeting in Bristol next Tuesday (October 16th) in support of mayoral candidate Neil Maggs. Maggs is the only candidate from a Parliamentary Party to have pledged to be paid "an average wage" if elected, instead of the anticipated £65,000 wage payable to the winning candidate. The meeting with George Galloway will take place the the Malcolm X Centre in St Pauls, starting at 7.30 pm.

The mayoral election takes place in Bristol on Thursday 15th November.

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Publishing Projects Update

In January, I mentioned that I would be publishing a series of essays this year under the working title of Understanding the Times: Essays in Christian Engagement.

The second essay has been published today, a mere ten thousand worder with the alliterative title of Pursuing Peaceful Societies in a Post-Democratic Age.

Enjoy it here.

The photo is the front cover of the essay, The Treaty of Penn with the Indians by Benjamin West, 1772.







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Charlotte Leslie to Debate Public Spending Cuts with Unison Representative

Westbury On Trym People | Westbury-on-Trym MP and union rep to debate public spending cuts

Charlotte Leslie debates the issues with Huw Williams on Friday 11 March, 7.30 pm at the United Reformed Church Hall on Muller Road.






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An Intelligent Discussion About England

Image via Wikipedia

With the rise if the English Defence League and other English nationalist movements, those interested in issues of identity, Englishness and the politics of devolution are often reluctant to enter the debate for fear of being associated with these right wing groups, both their ideology and methods.

It was a welcome relief, therefore, to discover this article, reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence from Open Democracy. The Bristol angle is noted in the list of participants.

"Debates about the status of England and surrounding constitution and parliament have gradually gained momentum after 1997 but were (and are) linked to a critical understanding of the way that the union of the United Kingdom functions, or fails to function, as a nation-state. As well as attracting bemusement in recent years, the ‘English Problem’ has been over-shadowed, at least in the mainstream media, by conservative and pro-British assumptions about a narrow, nostalgic and fundamentally ‘ethnic’ England, and has been emptied of all political content.

This Saturday, 6th November, the University of Warwick are hosting a one day interdisciplinary conference entitled ‘Literature of an Independent England’, organized by Dr Michael Gardiner and Dr Claire Westall and supported by Warwick’s Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies and Humanities Research Council.

The conference will draw together academics, writers and commentators working within this burgeoning area to clarify the current position and future potentiality of England as an independent nation and as a nation with an independent literature which as yet has no agreed shape. It will draw on Britain’s imperial history and the postcolonial and nationalist concerns which have sought to address this legacy. It will specifically look at how patterns of cultural, political and literary thought have changed after the ideological fall of the United Kingdom, as well as addressing questions about the form, purpose and future of the British discipline known as English Literature. The conference aims to ask, most importantly, how cultural, literary, and academic producers can become active in shaping the values of a post-British England.

The Keynote Address will be provided by Professor Arthur Aughey (University of Ulster), authors of The Politics of Englishness (MUP, 2007) who will be speaking under the title ‘Citizens of Nowhere? Reflections on a very English Anxiety’. Anthony Barnett will be outlining the need to ‘Take England Back’ and Dr Michael Gardiner will be explicitly linking these political questions to the discipline of English Literature in his paper ‘English Literature as Ideology’. Issues of canonicity within and beyond literature will be explored by Dr Jo Carruthers (University of Bristol) and Dr Simon Featherstone (De Montfort University), author of Englishness (EUP, 2009), will be linking literary regionalism with questions of the nation. Dr Christine Berberich (University of Portsmouth) will be examining the ‘problem’ of England in recent dystopian novels while Dr James Hawes will be reading from his novel Speak for England (2005).

Other speakers and papers will add to the vibrant, interdisciplinary coverage of the day helping to ensure that the political nuances of England’s current political landscape are tired to, and read through, the history of England as a nation typically conflated with the imperially determined state structure of Britain. Key topics for the day include:

• The Politics of England and Englishness
• Nation Theory
• Literary History
• Canonicity and the Disciplinarity of English Literature,
• Empire and Postcolonialism
• England after Devolution

For more information on the programme, speakers and papers please see the conference website."

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A Tale of One City and Two Demos

Image by sea turtle via Flickr

Arriving in central Brighton yesterday, on family business, I was greeted by the sight of several hundred protesters demonstrating against the government's planned cuts to public services. Organisers claim about 900 took part in the march, and judging from the banners visible from my vantage point, the crowd included a mix of trade unions, labour party members, socialist workers, public sector workers and a small contingent of anarchists.

On my departure - about four hours later - I witnessed another march on exactly the same road. This time, Queens' Road was overrun by at least as many people as the lunchtime demo, for the annual Brighton Zombie March. With about 2,000 people signed up on facebook, the march was a riot of white face make up, fake blood and theatrical gore. At least one rubber severed limb was flung in the direction I was facing by an enthusiastic zombie.

Apart from the obvious opportunity for some witty puns around the theme of "cuts", the presence of the two marches so close together left me with a couple of initial impressions:

• the traditional political parties have not for some time engaged significant numbers of the under-25s, whose political activity is more likely to be around multiple single issues (if that makes sense) than through association with mainstream parties.

• 2010 will be looked back on as the year in which Halloween went mainstream in the UK. Although some may see this as symbolic in a rise in pagan consciousness, my own view is that upturn owes more to targeted and systematic attempts by businesses to make money. Halloween has always been much bigger in the US than here, until now, when yet another aspect of British life has been successfully Americanized (or should that be -ised?)
  

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Voting in Bristol North West

Just back from casting my very precious votes in the general and local elections.

This election seems to have captured the public imagination in a way I cannot remember since 1997.

Walking to the Library on Falcondale Road, our nearest polling station, it was obvious that turnout has been high, in Bristol at least. Reports of queues in polling stations in Bishopston have been circulating this afternoon and the banter from the rather tired-looking electoral staff at the Library was that numbers arriving to vote here in Westbury had been "very high". This was certainly the first time I have ever had to queue to vote.

This was also the first election in which my two daughters were able to take part and I felt strangely proud arriving at the polling station as a family. Between us, we gave our support to several of the major and one of the minor parties, which is all the information I intend to share about my personal vote this year, beyond saying that, to me, every vote is tactical.

There were other obvious first-time voters present when we arrived, and word from the college dining hall is that many 18-20 year olds in Bristol are very positive about taking part in this election and having their say in choosing the next government.

It's worth sparing a thought for the army of electoral staff and volunteers who make this great democratic event possible. Despite the odd murmur about fraudulent postal ballots, the reality is that British general elections are renowned for being fair and transparent. That great anti -democrat Josef Stalin once commented that elections are not decided by voters but by vote counters. It's something to be proud of that, unlike elections in some parts of the world, in Britain we are justly confident in the integrity of the rather unglamorous system of electoral administration that means our vote will be counted accurately and, therefore, will count.

Hung Parliament or not, we can also celebrate the fact that whatever the outcome of the election, as the votes are counted overnight, the losers will recognise the result and accept it. One of the factors that contributes to the strengthening of democratic institutions in younger nations around the world is the simple fact of the losing candidate accepting defeat at election time. Where this does not happen, instability rules, in the worst cases even precipitating armed conflict and civil war.

Call me an anorak (as I settle down with my nachos for the BBC's election special) but I actually love British general elections.

As for the result in Bristol North West? High turn outs and dry weather have historically been regarded by political scientists as beneficial to Labour, but it is less likely that leafy Westbury on Trym will reflect this trend. Anyway, what do I know? My predictions of last June's council elections were less than impressive.

What is more certain is, that since October 1974 (the year of the last hung Parliament) Bristol North West has always returned an MP belonging to the party that went on to form the winning government. The final word from the staff at the polling station was that , because of the high turnout, the counters of the Bristol North West votes (at the Bristol City football ground) would be up all night.

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Poll of Bristol North West - Vote Early

Have just set up a poll (top right corner) inviting residents of Bristol North West to answer one simple question: who do they intend to vote for on May 6th?

Results of the poll, which will close on midnight on May 5th, will be compared (or contrasted) with the official election result.




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Westbury on Trym Goes Global

Pensioner Grace (aged 84) puts Westbury on Trym on the map during the pary leaders' debate on Sky.

Go Grace!

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Bristol North West: Electioneering Begins

Was relieved, interested and amused all at once by the arrival of Paul Harrod's non-election magazine through my door this afternoon.

It's interesting to see how the Lib Dems aim to win Bristol North West at next year's general election. Judging by the design of Bristol Voice! (which bears more than a passing resemblance to the edition of Hello! magazine which featured Prince William on the front cover) the orangey-yellow party aims to focus its efforts on tabloid readers and draw them away from the other two parties. Bristol Voice! carries a story about equipment shortages for troops in Afghanistan, a quote from Prince Charles and a photo of Joanna Lumley on the front cover. All themes, presumably, designed to resonate with a particular strata of the electorate.




The ubiquitous Charlotte Leslie, meanwhile, has been smiling up at me for some time from the latest edition of Bristol Living - more Tattler than Hello! as far as design is concerned. Ms Leslie's campaign to have yet another secondary school built in north Bristol (not a chance) leads the magazine. The cover (in front of a straw roof) creates the impression that the former Badminton School girl has been spreading charitable largesse in Malawi or Bukina Faso in between attending fun days in Henbury and Shirehampton. On closer examination, however, the aforementioned straw appears to be located closer to home. Unless I am mistaken, the Conservative Party candidate is standing in front of one of the thatched cottages in Blasie Hamlet.

In summary, the Lib Dem subtext seems to be "We are the voice of patriotic working people" and that of the local Conservatives is "We are the voice of educated suburban parents." Actually, Leslie's tendency to lean to her left in all her official photos, may reveal an even more subtle message on the part of a political party whose last stint in office featured the decimation of the trades union movement, the de-regulation of the financial sector and the creation of the Poll Tax.



The sub text of the Labour Party is harder to discern as I do not recall yet receiving a mailshot from candidate Sam Townend. Which is surprising and may also carry its own subtle meaning. Like Vigo County in the United States, which has elected the winning Presidential candidate every time since 1956, Bristol North West has a reputation for reflecting the national mood at election time. Since 1974, the constituency has elected the candidate from the winning party at every general election.

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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 participants 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 question in large numbers, thereby pouring scorn on the Mail's perceived 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 gypsies 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 xenophobia in Belfast.

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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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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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Stephen Williams in Punch Up?

I was bemused this morning to receive the latest email from the web site of Stephen Williams, my local MP, which informed me of two recent developments:

1. Lib Dems Hit Out Over Post Office Closures

2. Stephen Williams Slams Regional Housing Policy


The headings struck me (boom, boom!) as a little pugilistic.

Must politics always be about fighting?

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Tiblisi, Georgia and Bristol

As events unfold in the Caucuses, Bristol residents may be unaware of the link that has existed for 20 years between their city and Tiblisi, the capital of the now war-torn nation of Georgia.

2008 is the 20th anniversary of the Bristol Tiblisi Association and a variety of events are being held to mark the fact, including The Falcon and the Unicorn - a cultural and literary exhibition currently running till October at the Central Library.

Stoke Bishop Councillor and former Lord Mayor of Bristol Peter Abraham made an official visit to Tiblisi in 2007 where he was hosted by the city's first elected mayor, Gigi Ugulava, tipped by some as the next President of Georgia (Russian invasions notwithstanding.)

It seems a timely opportunity to become better informed about the links between the two cities.

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Bristol Cycling City

Thank goodness for the independent media.

Without such robust reporting and campaigning as that evidenced by Trym Tales (if clicking a mouse may be considered a political act) Bristolians might still be choking in their own traffic fumes.

Thankfully, the powers that be - including the Department for Transport, Sustrans and Bristol City Council - have clearly been reading this blog and have responded promptly to a post this February calling for a bike sharing scheme to be implemented in the city.

In fact, they have gone a stage further and designated Bristol as England's first cycling city, a move which will see over £20 million spent on bike-related infrastructure.

In happily wallowing in its own self-congratulation at this impressive result, Trym Tales would like to make clear that at no time did it call for either of the following related cycling initiatives to be implemented, both of which are apparently part of the grand scheme:

• Cycling buddies assigned to help novices
• Door-to-door, one-on-one advice in some areas
  

On the latter issue, I was somewhat perplexed to read that, according to the BBC, this advice will involve Council officials going "door to door in low income areas evangelizing about the benefits of cycling." I wonder why Lawrence Hill rather than Sneyd Park will be targeted in this way, the former having far fewer cars per head than the latter.

Political correctness not withstanding, the scheme is of course welcomed. At its best, it has the potential to effect a significant and positive shift in the Bristol traffic scene.

Since Trym Tales is clearly punching above its weight in this area, I will offer my additional contributions to the debate, safe in the knowledge that they will become public policy within months. The question is, what would cause a flabby, middle-aged suburbanite (not thinking of anyone in particular) to cycle more in Bristol? Two factors would be decisive:

Secure, monitored cycle lock up areas

I hate having stuff stolen. Having lost numerous children's bikes, scooters and a moped from my property over the years, I just hate being the victim of this kind of crime.

Bike repair shacks located throughout the network

It's no use telling me it's easy to learn - people have tried with me for decades. Fixing things, including repairing tires, is a life skill that has sadly passed me by. A shed where I can get my puncture fixed on demand at a reasonable price would make a difference between using or not using a bike.

Right, campaigning done. Back to the football.

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Redland Green School - Elmlea Parents Protest

As Westbury on Trym and Stoke Bishop parents learn this week which secondary school their children have been allocated for the coming academic year, parents at Elmlea Junior School have presented a petition to Bristol City Council urging them to rethink their planned changes to the Redland Green catchment area.

The new catchment area would result in most Westbury on Trym children being offered secondary school places at Henbury School.

Trym Tales is actively following the Redland Green story and all posts on the subject can be found here.

Also, the reader poll in the top right hand corner of this blog asks "What school would you choose if not Redland Green." All answers are anonymous.

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