Tesco Stokes Croft Protest

Spent the morning in a professional capacity covering the attempted eviction of a group of squatters from the former Jesters Comedy Club on Cheltenham Road.

They are protesting about the building's planned development into a Tesco store.

You can read about what happened here, see a selection of photos I took here and see the entire set of over 100 images at the Redland People facebook page here.

On a related note, I am surprised that on the official press release by Avon and Somerset Constabulary announcing the eviction (here) the force find it necessary to assist Tescos in their PR campaign by quoting a Tesco spokesman uncritically in connection with the company's desire to open the controversial store.

The police press release included the following:

A Tesco Spokesperson said: "We're keen to invest in the area. Many local people we've spoken to tell us they are eager to see a Tesco Express at this site. Our store will create approximately 20 new jobs and provide shopping facilities for hundreds of local residents."

It's one thing for the police to enforce the decision of a court (which is part of their job); when they act as a mouthpiece for a huge company which is widely disliked and criticised by people from a range of social and economic backgrounds, it seems to me that the force has stepped over the wrong side of a line and manifested a poitical bias.

If in doubt, ask yourself when it was that you last heard a saw a police statement uncritically quoting Friends of the Earth.

Examples of law-abiding middle class people opposing Tescos can be found here and here.

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Urban Farming: a Working Model

I've been convinced of the need for urban farms for some time - as a response to the environmental crisis which is fueled in part by the long supply chains between field and table which are characteristic of factory food and the supermarket business model - but I have limited experience in how they might work in practice.

Which is why the following site was a wonderful eye opener. The photos say it all - a community food growing project on a council estate in north Paddington based on growing crops in builders' grow bags.

Check out the site.

This project will be national news by the autumn and everyone will be talking about it.

How about here?

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Fat Boy Sim

Making my way to work yesterday on the number 1 bus from Somerfield in Westbury on Trym to Whiteladies Road, I found myself sitting just behind two passengers who were having a disagreement.

The larger of the two was waiting at the bus stop on Canford Road and boarded the bus with his mobile firmly placed to the side of his head. His conversation continued from entering the bus through to his departure on Blackboy Hill.

Tension arose when the gentlemen, who was of some girth, adjusted his position in order to fit more comfortably onto the double bus seat he had occupied. The woman next to him - well spoken and silver haired - clearly felt inconvenienced by this movement and proceeded to adjust her own position in such a way as to communicate her displeasure at being in quite such close proximity to her fellow passenger.

The phone man, who was continuing his conversation uninterrupted, expressed surprise through his facial expression at the movement of the senior citizen next to him. This gesture afforded his neighbour the opportunity to make her feelings more explicit:

"You're taking up too much of the seat. I don't want to move for you. You've got a problem," were, I think, her exact words.

Clearly surprised, her fellow traveller proceeded to explain to his mobile what was happening.

After an uncomfortable few minutes, during which my fellow passengers stared hard into their copies of The Metro in that way that made it obvious they were not reading them but were listening intently for the drama to develop, the two passengers exchanged unflattering opinions about one another while the larger (and younger) of the two provided a running commentary on the proceedings to his Motorola.

Although I was not able to catch every word, I do recall him explaining to his friend on the other end of the phone that he was required, among other things, to attend the local police station that day in order to register his whereabouts with the officers - a detail which sent a frisson of nervous excitement through the attentive passenger body, who had now lowered their Metros and were fully attentive to the proceedings unfolding in suburbia.

The culmination of the discussion was when the portly passenger made his exit from the bus. Both travellers had clearly been preparing their final salvos for just this event. Hers consisted of, "You're a very rude and unpleasant person." His was more double-edged: "Have a nice day; though with a face like that I'm surprised you had the courage to come out."

A murmur of low level conversation around the bus followed the conclusion of these proceedings, during which time the senior citizen explained to a woman behind her that her former travelling companion had announced into his phone that he was suffering from a sexually transmitted disease - a claim I did not hear myself, but one which afforded me just that bit too much detail at that time of the morning.

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Ramadan Meets Asda

Was fascinated while wandering the aisles of Asda Cribbs Causeway this afternoon to notice an end-of-aisle display containing what at first sight looked like Advent calendars.

On closer examination, the thin rectangular packets did, indeed, contain small chocolates - one behind each door which was opened daily for a month.

The occasion, however, was not Advent but the Muslim month of Ramadan, when practicing Muslims fast during daylight hours, breaking their fast after the fourth prayer of the day at sunset. Now, thanks to the supermarket giant, the fast can be broken with a small piece of chocolate.

What will the enterprising retailers think of next? Eid eggs?

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Tesco Targets North Street

Charlie Bolton, Bristol's only Green Party Councillor, is attempting to prevent the opening of a Tesco store on North Street, Ashton (or is it Southville?)

His reasons are coherent and sensible and can be read on his blog here.

They are also unlikely to succeed - unless there is a massive movement from grass roots consumers to (a) oppose the plan and (b) to refuse to use the store if it does open.

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Drinks Cartons Can Now be Recycled in Bristol

Bristol residents keen to recycle have historically been frustrated by the problem of waxed drinks cartons, which have been rejected from black box collections as unsuitable for recycling.

Bristol City Council's announcement that 5 collection points for drinks cartons have been installed is therefore welcome news.

The new sites are at:

• Asda Bedminster (East Street)
• Asda Whitchurch (Oatlands Avenue)
• Tesco Eastville (Eastgate Centre)
• Tesco Brislington (Callington Road)
• Tesco Golden Hill (Kellaway Avenue)

Drinks cartons are typically made of 74% paper, 22% polythene and 4% aluminium and have traditionally been regarded as difficult to recycle.

The new sites are the result of a partnership between the Council and Tatra Pak, one of the largest suppliers of waxed drinks cartons. All bands of cartons are accepted at the new facilities.

The announcement comes at the start of National Recycling Week when WRAP (the Waste and Recycling Action Programme) are urging households and businesses to think about "one more thing" that they could add to their recycling box on a regular basis. While kitchen recycling is high in most households, items from bedrooms and bathrooms are routinely overlooked.

WRAP's research has revealed the top five items that could but are generally not recycled:

1. aerosol containers for deodorant, air freshener or polish
2. biscuit and sweet tins
3. plastic shampoo and toiletry bottles
4. plastic bottles of cleaning products, eg bleach, cleaner or disinfectants
5. glass jars, such as those for cooking sauces

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Do Not Panic!

Plenty of petrol to go round for everyone.

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Co-op, Somerfield and the Future of Food in Westbury

If, as the Evening Post has confirmed, the Co-op is attempting to buy the Somerfield chain, the future for food shopping in Westbury on Trym looks, well, interesting to say the least.

When the new Somerfield convenience store opened on Falcondale Road earlier this year, I asked the duty manager whether the old Somerfield in the village could survive. She gave me one of those scripted answers that we all know have come from head office when asked an awkward question - which confirmed my view that the Canford Road Somerfield was under threat.

Now, with the Co-op interested in taking over Somerfield, things look even more complex. Co-op have, of course, a successful store on Stoke Lane. Will they really want two others within a mile of that one?

Beyond these economic and business issues, however, is the more fundamental question: how will we continue to feed ourselves if our strategy for doing so is so dependent on oil? From the use of intensive farming methods to the transportation of food around the world, to the industrial processing methods, the plastic packaging, the congestion on our roads from supermarket lorries and the drive to the supermarket to buy increasingly expensive food carried home in plastic bags, the whole way we feed ourselves is increasingly being seen for what it is: unsustainable.

There is an alternative: eating locally grown food in season.

The monthly farmers' market at Westbury on Trym Primary School is a small step towards that model. The next step is to grow some of our own.

I know it sounds crazy but that's how good ideas often start - at the fringe of society. Eventually they appear obvious solutions and everyone takes them for granted.

At least, that's how I see it.

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Westbury Residents Divided Over New Texaco Somerfield

Westbury on Trym has been split apart by the opening of the new Texaco Somerfield on Falcondale Road.

The divisions - exclusively revealed on Trym Tales following an exhaustive poll of blog readers - cast doubt on the suburb's ability to remain united in the wake of the supermarket's latest development in the heart of the community.

"The village feels like Mitovica," said one Westbury resident who wished to remain anonymous. "We all used to get on happily until the petrol station was bulldozed."

Key survey findings reveal:

• 33% of residents describe the petrol station as "the source of all evil"
• an identical percentage accept that "it's got to go somewhere"
• a staggering 22% claim the new mart means that "all my shopping needs are met at last"
• a mere 11% describe the dadaist building as "a wonder of design and innovation"

With opinion so sharply divided, community leaders on both sides of the River Trym (which flows symbolically underneath the re-built petrol station) have appealed for calm in light of the shock survey.

"We appeal for calm," said one community leader on the north pro-Somerfield bank who wished to remain anonymous.

"So do we," replied a south-bank leader, "though we do have grave concerns for the long-term viability of the Canford Road Somerfield."



Editor's notes:

The Trym Tales survey was conducted over a 28 day period in Jan-Feb 2008. The nine votes cast represent the lowest turn out for a local survey since records began.

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Hartcliffe is Changing

The transformation in the physical environment of Hartcliffe is remarkable.

The Symes Avenue shops were, in recent years, a symbol of urban decay with barely a shop open and with the apartments above derelict and vandalized. It was a bleak and depressing site.

Symes Avenue is now no more, replaced by a brand new retail centre with a new Morrison's at its heart.

The latest changes, which include a face lift to the library and the creation of a playground adjacent to the new shopping centre, follow on from renovations to the tower blocks and the construction of several new homes in the area.

The brand new River of Life Christian Centre also spoke of changing times and was a positive addition to the community.

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Somerfield Falcondale Road - A Triumph of Convenience over Aesthetics

Fanfares, balloons, bunting and celebrities were conspicuously absent this morning when, a little after 9.00 a.m. the new Somerfield/Texaco petrol station and convenience store in Westbury on Trym opened its automatic doors and switched on its pumps for the general public.

The low-key opening (which I must confess looked touch and go at 11.00 last night when the men in hi-visibility jackets and hard hats were still rushing around) has followed months of demolishing, cutting, digging and re-building.

The new store, rising phoenix-like from the petrochemical fumes, looks, well... new. Beyond that, I am puzzled as to the branding and design issues involved.

Somerfield's buy out of Texaco forecourts happened several years ago and there seems to have been confusion over the branding policy ever since. Here in Westbury (as in Shirerhampton) we have red and black Texaco petrol pumps juxtaposed with a blue and yellow Somerfield store front.

This may work for Esso/Tesco on Henleaze Road where the two companies' blue, white and red blend in with each other. With Texaco/Somerfield, by contrast, the final product puts me in mind of art class in nursery school where the four year-olds are given free rein with the paint pots.

The colour clash is the more perplexing when considering that Bristol's other new Somerfield petrol station (opposite Hengrove Leisure Centre in the south of the City) is branded entirely in Somerfield colours - including the pumps.

Is there something we're not being told here or are different parts of Bristol managed by different teams of PR people?

Whatever, at least I won't have to walk so far for my milk and papers.

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McColl Booze Buster

Residents and visitors to Westbury on Trym High Street will have noticed the latest addition to the store front at the new McColl shop in the village, a development described earlier in Trym Tales.

As well as its usual supply of newspapers, bread and processed food, the convenience store is now describing itself as a "Booze Buster" after having entered into a franchise arrangement with the north-west based supplier of cut price alcohol.

With the corner store already having an existing licence to sell alcohol off the premises, the new arrangement is an attempt to capitalise on this through a partnership that aims to take on the might of the supermarkets.

As a piece of trivia, readers might be interested to know that the Booze Buster chain is owned by Iranian entrepreneur Nader Haghighi, owner of the Wine Cellar chain of stores, who following the death of his father in Iran became the family bread winner at the age of nine. Arriving in the UK in 1979, he worked part-time at Pizzaland and later at Thresher where he eventually became Operations Director responsible for 1,000 stores.

Meanwhile, residents of the village of Trimbsbury in BANES have successfully campaigned for the removal of the Booze Buster sign from their local village store, describing it as "inappropriate" for the area.

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Shopping for Greener Food in Bristol - part 3

Back in the car and on to Gloucester Road in Bishopston where I parked next to the old swimming baths and visited Gardeners Patch for locally-sourced vegetables and fruit and Scoopaway for fun. If you’ve never scooped, you'll find your visit there a little different from Tesco. Most of the products are in large bins; shoppers scoop what they want into plastic bags and take it to the checkout to be weighed. Today’s haul included hot chocolate, rice and dry veggie mince along with a bag of fruit and nuts for good measure.

Having not fully weaned myself off supermarket fare yet, I did end up next door in Somerfield for orange juice (sorry, I’m not paying 1.95 a litre even if it is good for me), margarine, rolls and croissants.

My bill? Slightly cheaper than my weekly food bill before starting on this journey. All in all, a reasonable start on the path of not-buying-food-that-has-been-flown-a-long-way-produced-with-lots-of-chemicals-
and-sold-by-retail-giants-that-destroy-local-communities.