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Avon Gorge Goats!

Goats to keep scrub under control in Avon Gorge - reports the Bristol Evening Press

Well it’s not quite a done deal as reported, it is one of a measure of conservation proposals put forward for public consultation due to begin this Friday (17th) and continue until 29th of May. There is a public display at the Downs Tea Room on Stoke Rd, though you will have to be quick as it is for this weekend only!

The consultation will be available for the public to comment on via the council website from the 17th of April until 29th May.

The draft proposals were drawn up by The Avon Gorge & Downs Wildlife Project. Not much info about these proposals appears to be in the public domain at the time of writing, so the Evening must be working from a press release. The AGDWP was formed in 1999 and is a partnership of Bristol City Council, Bristol Zoo Gardens, Natural England (formally English Nature), Society of Merchant Venturers, University of Bristol and the Downs Committee. In 2003 The National Trust joined the project steering committee due to their ownership and management of part of Leigh Woods.

Due to the wealth of experience in having drawn up the proposals it could be said that the Goat Grazing could well be the final outcome of the consultation, though as only 6 goats grazing a very small area for the needs of conservation is a very different animal compared with the recent proposal to graze beef cattle on council owned land which  was recently approved!

Bristol Green Bloggers

As my blogging about green issues in Bristol is only occasional I thought it would be good to devote a post to other bloggers in the Bristol area who also publish blogs on green issues.

• Vowles The Green in Knowle – Green Campaigner Glen Vowles writes regularly about Green Issues in Bristol. Glen is an Associate Lecturer in Environmental Science and Technology with the Open University, and has stood for parlimentary elections and local elections.
• Green Bristol Blog is written by Chris Hutt, cycle campaigner. This blog covers broader green issues though has a definite focus on Cycling in Bristol and exposing local council greenwash.
• Bristol Traffic Blog concentrates on car, and particularly parking, issues in the city. Often highlighting the selfishness of car owners in their choice of parking locations. It does also cover cycling issues and wider green and political issues as well.
• Stockwood Pete writes about Stockwood and Bristol issues, mostly from a green perspective.

There are quite a few bloggers in Bristol that ocassionally cover Green Issues but the ones listed above appear to be the ones concentrating on the Green message and doing so regularly. I will be happy to consider other blogs for inclusion, though have omitted some ‘green blogs’ due to length of time since their last posting. The Bristol Evening Post recently published a list of Bristol Bloggers you may also wish to have a look at.

20’s Plenty For Us – Vowles The Green Blogged

The other day Green Campaigner, Glenn Vowles, Blogged about a new(ish) campaign to cut speed limits on urban roads: 20’s Plenty For Us: Cutting speeds with no speed bumps. An article well worth reading and pausing to consider the impact traffic has on our urban environment and the benefits realised in other countries and cities in having a lower speed limit on urban roads.

The first benefit that springs to mind is the lower death toll and accident rate due to lower speeds. Social degradation is also examined, as well as improving fitness and health of children and adults as the streets become a safer place to walk and cycle.

Many thanks to Glen for highlighting this campaign and writing so well on the subject.

Useful Links
http://www.20splentyforus.org.uk/

http://www.20splentyforbristol.org.uk/

Bristol Green Energy Confusion

Three weeks ago a BBC news story drew my attention to plans for £2bn to be spent on Green Energy projects in the Avonmouth area. The press report gave little info on the details or proposals so I decided to investigate and report on my findings. Unfortunately little information was actually available at the time, so I wrote and published an optimistic post about this – Bristol Invests In Green Energy – with a promise to search a little harder for the missing projects and planned spendings as the figures available just didn’t add up!

I have only recently received adequate information to show how the figure of £2 billion was arrived at, though disappointed, I wasn’t shocked to learn that the actual figure for Green Energy Projects is well under £1 billion, with the rest being various projects that have little to do with Green Energy, and so may  say aren’t actually even green projects. This may just be a question of poor reporting or semantics, but this resulted in a misleading news report that was circulated, published and broadcast without comment or correction by the relevant authorities (BCC & in particular Alan Bailey, Bristol’s Environmental Technology and Services Sector chairman). Was this an attempt to mislead or allow the public to be mislead on green energy plans for the Bristol area.

In summary my investigation, assisted by Cllr. Mark Bailey via email enquiries, showed the following figures used to create the figure of £2billion.

• £850 million in high capacity biomass CHP (Combined Heat and Power) stations by Eon UK and Helius Energy on the Port estate.
• up to £90 million in the commissioning of wind energy generation and municipal waste processing facilities by BCC/WEP.
• Total = £940 million

The remaining £1 billon+ remaining was stated as being divided between “potential £600 million investment by Bristol Port Company to develop a Deep Sea Container Terminal at Avonmouth Docks” and the remainder being the estimated investment in the area by attracting ‘green collar’ industries.

Total of the proposed projects now equal approx £2 Billion. Though without even going into whether the proposed dock development is green, you will have to admit that these latter two proposals are not Green Energy projects. If the original report had not included energy in the title we could, perhaps, accept that the report was not misleading. As there has been no attempt in the last 3 weeks to correct or ask for the report to be amended I can only conclude that the council is content to mislead the public on green issues – A practice often referred to as ‘Greenwashing’.

The £600 million port development that has been included here, it seems, to bolster the figures somewhat. Although many also may wonder how the proposed Deep Sea Container Terminal could be classed as a Green Project. Bristol Port is one of the most environmentally progressive commercial ports in the UK, operating wind turbines to provide 75% of the ports current energy requirement amongst other measures.  Proposals for this new development do appear to contain lots of Green ‘measures’ such as wildlife corridors, conservation projects and a policy of sustainable development. There is also mention of 2 further wind turbines, though it is unclear if these are the ones planned by BCC or additional to them. Further information is available from the Port Company Website, though how a container port can be classed as a Green project is something that is certainly open to debate no matter how many green measures are included. Perhaps next we can look forward to the proposed development at Bristol Airport being called a Green Project as it includes a number of Green Measures!

I woud like to thank Councillor Mark Bailey for his assistance in researching and providing some of the above information.

Bristol Lights Switched Off!

Earth Hour 2009 – 28th March 8.30pm – 9.30pm – saw Bristol go a little darker than normal. Many council owned buildings descended into darkness and they were joined by many others in the city. The landmark Clifton Suspension Bridge went dark, possibly making some people think how much it costs to light it in the first place*, and if this is were most of their Toll money is being spent!

This Bristol City Council supported event has been running now for only a couple of years and is being supported in 82 countries and more than 2100 cities.

The council has pledged to show its support by switching off lights at a number of buildings including The Council House, Central Library, City Museum and Art Gallery, Brunel House offices and the new Colston Hall foyer building.

Other Bristol-based organisations known to have pledged their support at the time of writing include Clifton Suspension Bridge, The Watershed Media Centre, Bristol Zoo, The Soil Association, The Folk House, The Pierian Centre, Brislington Enterprise College, Avon Wildlife Trust, ss Great Britain, Bordeaux Quay restaurant, Osborne Clarke solicitors, Icon Films and Bristol Rovers FC …with more signing up every day.

Bristol City Council Website

Many would regard this gesture as ‘tokenism’ as this is only a short term measure, and is barely a spit in the ocean in it’s effectiveness to cut global carbon emissions. The reality is that this is raising awareness of the issue of thousands of lights being left on overnight with little or no actual benefit. If this then draws the attention of the public to why are so many things lit up at night anyway it has to be a positive event.

Clifton Suspension Bridge and the SS. Great Britain do look fantastic lit up at night, and they are both major landmarks in this city so not having them lit up at all would be shameful to any tourists out and about in the evening. Both also do make use of low-energy LED lighting. But, do the few people who are actually around the city in the small hours after midnight**, really benefit at all from this wasteful use of electricity, and is  it really worth the cost, both financial and environmental?

How about all those advertising billboards, shop displays and architectural floodlights that are so unnecessarily illuminating the night for the few people who might pause about their night time business to admire them? The costs of fitting timers to these would be minimal and the saving on electricity would repay this investment within months if not weeks.

While Bristol City Council may be proud of it’s green record, and it’s participation in ‘Earth Hour’, to be truly classed as a leader in the race for the next Green Capital award it needs to lead, not just follow. I’d suggest that they lead by example – ensuring that all council maintained properties were not floodlit between 1am & 6am and they worked with retailers, businesses and advertisers to follow their lead.

*Full details of the running costs of the bridges lighting are not available readily, though their website quotes 3,000 one watt LED’s and mentions fluorescent and other lighting but does not mention exact wattage or number of these other lights. A conservative estimate would put in a figure of approx 10KWh as a minimum. Shutting the lights off between 1am and 6am (in winter, in summer there would be no need to switch back on!) could save 350KWh a week just on these estimated figures! Some would actually avoid publicising the cost of lighting the bridge from their slightly evasive answer on their FAQ’s page, hopefully a response to an email enquiry will allow me to add exact figures for lighting. (edited due to response received)

** Updated/edited 30th March Bridgemaster David Anderson replied very swiftly to my email. Stating the bridge illuminations are switched off at midnight, only safety lights remaining on, corrected the figure of 3,000 LED’s to 2,250 and that these are ran at 60% power, equaling consumption of  1.3KWh.  No mention was made of the other architectural lighting in the email though. I’m pleased to offer an apology for my earlier assumptions and delighted to discover that they do not light the bridge after midnight!

Bristol Invests In Green Energy

It was good to read that Bristol isn’t letting the setback of losing out in the European Green Capital Awards halt further green plans for the city.  A story on the BBC website yesterday featured Cllr Alan Bailey, chair of Environmental Technology and Services Sector, who said nine different green energy projects were proposed in and around Avonmouth to be funded by the commercial sector to a tune of £2billion!

Great news for Bristolians, this may well help Bristol lead the rest of the country in becoming greener. There are already 3 wind turbines at Avonmouth owned and operated by Ecotricity and Bristol City Coucil are proposing another 2 turbines which will provide enough power for over 2,000 homes and prevent the emission of 8,000 tonnes of CO₂.

Though scanning the council website does not reveal any further information on the proposed 9 projects mentioned by Cllr. Bailey. I have made an enquiry to discover the other proposed projects and will post again when I receive further information.

Bristol is already working on Biomass Heating Systems and has installed these on 2 sites already, neither are in the Avonmouth area. Other plans include installing solar energy devices on council housing  stock and council buildings. Again, not confined to Avonmouth.

Currently also under proposal in the West Country Waste Strategy is a major ‘Recycling Center/Energy Recovery Center’ and Avonmouth is listed as being a site on all current proposals. You could possibly speculate that one of these green energy proposals could feasibly be some form of incinerator that can be classed by some as green as it recovers energy from waste….

….We’ll be watching how these plans progress!

West Country Waste Consultation

The closing date for the west country waste strategy consultation approaches. 3plans are being put forward to cope with the area’s waste. Bristol Friends of the Earth are asking for people to support option B, and oppose options A &  C.

A is to provide 2 x 400,000 tonne facilities – this would result in waste being transported further adding to costs, as well as more vehicles on  the road and more co2 produced.

B is to provide 8 x 100,000 tonne waste facilities – smaller facilities provide more connection to the producer so more awareness of waste produced. Also adding this cuts traffic and emissions.

C is to provide 1 x 400,000 + 4 x approx. 100,000 tonne facilities – this is neither one nor the other, they may as well have given the option – None of the above!

If you are going to  do one green thing for the your community  this weekend, register and make the green choice! Go to the West of  England Partnership website and register to complete the online consultation. Questions 9, 10 & 11 being the relevant questions to answer.

Also, be grateful that you are not being subjected to making choices about experimental incinerators such as those that are now being forced on our neighbors in Wells!

consultation closes on 12 March

Book Barns – Recycling or Flytipping?

Free for all @ The Book Barns, Bath Rd.

This Week Bristol saw the biggest ever giveaway of free books. A massive book warehouse off the Bath Rd (A4) was opened to the public and everyone was invited to help themselves to as much as could be carried away. The giveaway was so popular that this outstanding act of generosity by  the owners is being continued for another week.

Confusion and rumour surround the reasons for the giveaway. The Book Barns are one of the countries largest sellers of second hand books, selling direct to the public through their own website and selling on Amazon. Their warehouses, one by the riverside in Bristol on the site of the old Paintworks, the others a couple of newer barns down the A37 a few miles with room for far more books and also possible room to expand further into the neighbouring green fields. In total it is estimated they stock over 5million titles. It has been reported that the reason for the giveaway was that  the lease they held on the paintworks site is expiring so all stock must  go. Though overall reporting has obviously been done quite lazily by the press, with The Sun reporting that the bookbarns are the UK’s largets seller of secondhand books on amazon. They even state that there are 5 million books available for free! Another report read that they were a ‘supplier of amazon’!

So where does reality kick in? Well, it’s a genuine story with thousands of books scattered over the warehouse floor and the public is free to help themselves. The Sun article states “not linked to BookBarn International at Hallatrow, Somerset” and that the giveaway is being arranged by the Ashley Nicholson, Director of The Paint Works, not staff of the Book Barns. Unusually for the Daily Mail they do seem to have reported much better than others. - Director of the industrial estate Ashley Nicholson said: ‘We asked Bookbarn to clear the books and they got rid of some of them but there is still a huge, huge number inside the warehouse.’ Rumours that the giveaway was as a result of the company going into administration have strangely not been denied by the ‘other’ book barns, only that they are not associated with them, when only the slightest bit of research shows that the two companies were extremely closely connected only a couple of years ago. Why not simply state that the lease had expired and that the public were invited to collect as much as they could carry as it was not economic to move the remaining, mainly worthless, stock?

On a blog post BookBarns Closing, a Peter Tyson leaves a comment stressing that the companies are not connected in quite an official manner. So, whats the catch? Well, it seems as though Bookbarns set up a new company to run the business on the new site and are now distancing themselves from the expired lease and disposal costs of tons of worthless books they left behind as it was not worth their while transferring this stock to the A37 site.

Worthless books? Some would say it’s a crime to destroy/pulp/burn a book and all books have some value, but how many copies of the 1937 Encyclopedia Britannica are going to be needed, or even bought  in the future? The same can be said for thousands of other titles, how many different editions of Dickens have been published, many still exist that  are over 100years old, but as they are not first editions they are worth little even in pristine condition. Similair could be said for more modern authors such as Wilbur Smith and Jeffrey Archer, who had hundreds of thousands of copies published, few of which are worth the trouble of storing for the professional bookseller, and even the part-timer with some experience would avoid such titles unless they were a fan of the author. Many book prospectors, or scavengers if you prefer, will be leaving the Book Barns weighed down with books they hope to resell, they may even have used a smart phone to search on amazon to find out prices of books before selecting them. When they get home they’ll be overjoyed to list their box of books on amazon and ‘value’ them at incredibly unrealistic prices due to their rarity or pricematching dodgy american dropshippers that price books at 10x the price of the book available on another website (making profit off gullible customers who only look at one site and do not shop around when buying books). It’s also unlikely they will have checked the amazon  sales rank to see if any copies have actually sold. So they may then expect to be storing  them until they eventually realise they  are storing worthless books that have little to no hope of selling.

Well, I wish them luck, as it is likely that all the stock there was classified as worthless by the owners and this ‘stunt’ was a clever way of them not having to pay for the disposal costs themselves and flooding the already crowded shelves of part-time amazon sellers with even more overpriced yet  worthless, stock. But with lots of reporting directly connecting bookbarns the ‘amazon supplier’ with the business that did not clear it’s building of waste at the expiry of it’s lease I imagine a lot more statements trying to create distance between the two ‘separate’ businesses. The only differences I see between  this and flytippping is that it was under a roof and people were fooled into believing that the scrap stock had some value.

Latest news is that they will be open for a  further week, though as the story has now made the national press it’s likely that hopeful people will be arriving from even further a field to fill their cars full of tatty books.

Photo of the new bookbarns warehouse

BBC article – very  short article, again disassociating the currently trading Bookbarns with the stock disposal.

BBC Video of the Bookbarns clearance

ABE Books entry for The Book Barns, showing email address for current business with the address for the old business at the paintworks – Obviously  no connection between the 2 businesses!

More pictures of the Biggest Ever Pile of Books on Flickr

Bristol Fairtrade Fortnight Events

As a FairTrade City Bristol has  a number of events to promote and celebrate Fairtrade in the next 2 weeks.

Fairtrade Fashion Show
Friday 27th February6.30pm – 8.30pm.
Bristol Cathedral, College Green, BS1 5TJ
Tickets £5/£3 (conc) Available from: Oxfam 1 Queens Road, Bishopston Trading Co. 193 Gloucester Road, Bristol Ticket Shop 0870 44 44 400, www.bristolticketshop.co.uk

Fairtrade Films
Tuesday 3 March (7pm) Life and Debt (2001)
A stunning documentary that examines the sad state of Jamaica’s economy in the face of “free trade” agreements which were imposed by international economic institutions in exchange for bank loans.Plus discussion
Tuesday 10 March (7pm) The Power of Community (2006)
Cuba is the first country to experience Peak Oil. This fascinating documentary charts Cuba’s transition from a fossil fuel mechanised agricultural system to organic farming methods following the collapse of the Soviet Union.Plus discussion
Backwell Fairtrade Cafe at Backwell Parish Hall. Entry: £1, with free tea or coffee

Fairtrade Flashmob
Tuesday March 3rd 1pm – to protest against a leading UK supermarket’s refusal to stop selling non-Fair Trade bananas. Further details of the event please email Bristol to flash@ctrlaltshift.co.uk or sign up to the Facebook event

See if you can give some extra support to Fairtrade, whether it’s buying the office some fairtrade coffee, buying Fairtrade greeting cards, wearing some Fairtrade Fashion or even order some fairtrade easter eggs!