NO MORE DAYS TO GO!

Our local election is on the 3rd of May! TODAY!!! I am proud to be your Conservative Candidate for St George West.

I have lived here since 2000 and although there have been many improvements, I believe there is still so much that could be done to put our vibrant Bristol village on the map.

Some of you may already know me through my work, running my own local small business as an electrician and as I am often in our park with my two young sons. Many of you have already spoken to me about issues that concern you and the way the city council is being run. I can assure you that I am here to campaign for all St. George West residents regardless of your politics, so please do not hesitate to contact me.

As well as being a father of two young children who go to Greek school in Easton, I have campaigned at a national level for human rights and the opening up of the family courts. I have a personal knowledge of the conflict in the middle east at the moment as although I was born in England I still do have family in Cyprus. I am dismayed by the hostilities and the massive loss of and disruption of life regarding the current conflict in that region and would welcome your opinions.


YOUR CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE.
I am very pleased to have been chosen by the local conservatives to stand for St. George West in next years local election. The history of this party which I personally connect with does, given that it has been the most prolific, neceserily include some of the greatest achievements of our country including interestingly the abolition of slavery.

There are clearly perceptions of the shades of issues of decades past regarding our party. I also know that the adult life that has lead me here has not found the answers to the issues its has encountered in the government that has been in power for the large part of it.

I see the conservative party as, less bureaucracy, lower council tax, greater faith in the judgement of the individual and the pushing back of the nanny state and I think these are aspects of the party legacy that we can all live with. David Cameron clinched it for me basically because I feel that he has the potential to represent me. I feel connected with what I perceive to be, finally, the correct personality to go with the legacy.

I need to mention my strong support for the party's stance regarding the rights of children and their fathers. It is a stark reality for fathers that no other party is even contemplating validating the equality of fatherhood to motherhood using, in essence, the same sexist arguments used against women in the past. The deceptively widespread misery caused is a gaping wound at the heart of our nation. Emmeline Pankhurst is a hero of mine and I am proud to be a modern conservative. Interestingly, so was she!

Campaigning over the last year in St George has been an eye opener. Local issues are practical and concern the quality of our daily lives. They include problems with parking, rodents, dissatisfaction with council action and inaction and concerns about the rising rate of crime in our area (among many, many, other things).

I have fought hard for our local issues whilst our current councillors have been silent when it mattered. Vote for me this May 3rd and let us make St George ship shape and Bristol fashion again.

Because St George West is not just a fringe to Easton or a through route for busses from the outskirts. Because on these and many other issues I think St George West and its residents matter!

Angelo Agathangelou

Budget Success!

Conservatives WIN £250,000 for City Parks

On Tuesday 27th of February my Conservative colleagues on Bristol City Council won an extra £250,000 for our City Parks in the budget debate.


This is to be targeted at parks development and children’s/young peoples play areas.

I instructed our spokesman Cllr. Ashley Fox (Conservative) that among many things we need in St Georges Park, he should ask for the following improvements.

A manned first aid post
Safety surfacing on little kids areas and an extended play area
Many more benches for their parents
Toilets that are open
A full time warden

Cllr. Fox reported to me that our local Labour councillor spoke against our proposals for more spending on parks and play areas!

I find this extraordinary. When we met this January along with residents on a guided tour of our park to look at the tree-felling program, I thought that they were just as keen to see improvements in the park as the rest of us are. We shook hands on this issue.

If elected on May the 3rd I fully intend to work with anyone regardless of political party who is serious about improving our facilities and quality of life in St George West.

Bus Route Consultation Shambles

Update: August 29th 2007
The council Finally publish the new Traffic Regulation Order for the new bus lanes through St George. Here it is for your information.

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

UPDATE: 31st July 2007. More traders in Old Market say they may have to close because of the bus route. See also 'TAKE FIVE' for the opinions of traders in Old Market and Beyond.

After 2 years of so called 'consultation' (so our MP Kerry McArthy claims) the residents of Barton Hill are still unhappy about the no right turn into Ducie Road. I recently delivered the information leaflet below to residents and traders in the area. I understand that the Barton hill settlement have stated in the press that they will support any protest about this 'Traffic Regulation Order' which effectively cuts off Barton Hill and I hope that they will 'put their money where their mouth is!'

NO RIGHT TURN into DUCIE ROAD from Lawrence Hill, from Aug 17th ~ TRO published in Bristol Evening Post July 23rd ~ Anyone objecting to this order has until AUGUST 30th 2007 to apply to the High Court. ~ “The residents of Barton Hill are still unhappy about this change, which proves that the 2 years of so-called consultation have been an expensive sham.” ~
Angelo Agathangelou, St. George West Conservatives ~ to see the history of the campaign against the worst aspects of the bus route by residents and traders, visit: wwwstgeorgewest.blogspot.com

The Original Post:

http://www.bristol.gov.uk/item/epetition.html

MAKE YOUR VIEWS KNOWN ON CONGESTION CHARGING FOR BRISTOL!

SEE ALSO "MONITERING THE SITUATION"

These were the questions I presented to the councils planning department on January 30th regarding the general feeling towards the so-called consultation about their proposed changes to our existing bus route.

I will keep you posted with their replies!

1. We (over 2000 residents and traders who took part in the consultation) feel that the consultation has been a whitewash. What exactly did you mean by consultation bearing in mind that your ‘statement of community involvement’ is supposed to state that ‘the community must have confidence that its views will influence planning decisions, from the very beginning of the process, right through to the end.’ (Quote, the civic society bulletin April 2006)

2. Do you accept that your own summary of the first phase of consultation clearly shows that 90% of the respondees were objecting to your plans and should this not influence at least 90% changes in the direction of views and comments?

3. Did any one else bother to quantify the loss of residents parking and if so, what figure did they come up with and for which specific area?

4. (Personal allegations against council officers.)
5. (Personal allegations against council officers.)

6. Why was St George East not consulted nor furnished with a map showing their portion of the bus route?

7. Why did the map that was published not show the new proposed double yellow lines and build outs at Kensington Road and Glen Park Road? And do you accept that this means that the residents of these streets were not consulted?

8. (Personal allegations against council officers.)
9. (Personal allegations against council officers.)

10. Why has the City Academy never been consulted about the HGV diversion past its gates, (clearly stated as answers in the councils own report to questions by local businesses)?

Summary: Given the overwhelming evidence in your own report, given the overwhelming evidence of the massive public opposition, will you not just go ahead with the changes we all welcome such as better bus shelters with electronic information, build ups, pedestrian crossings, improvements to traffic lights and car parks and scrap plans for ANY loss of residents parking, dedicated bus lanes, no turning orders and further speed restrictions through the area from Lawrence Hill through St George to the borders of St George East?

I am the only candidate in this election that has spoken out against the detrimental effects to our residents and traders, indeed ironically (but standard as far as I am concerned) I have been told that I am the only candidate who has supported the 'Labour Club' on Church Road over the loss of most of their parking.

FOR THE CHOP

There was more than one thing for the chop in St Georges Park this week. Photos by Tim Hughes.

The Gentlemen responsible for felling from our city council were kind enough to explain in some detail their reasons and future plans.

It is clear on close inspection how diseased many of our parks trees are. Our recent blustery spell resulted in much damage to many of these trees and the national news report that a fallen tree had killed a man only adds weight to their arguments about public safety.

Some residents were very distressed by the proposals and worried about the loss of the protective canopy offered as well as the blight this might mean while we wait 30 years to see the benefits of the replacements. I agree particularly with the second sentiment and believe this is our lesson for the future.

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN STAGGERED!

We could have understood a plan to replace various trees over 10 or 20 years. The residents and I are shocked at the sheer number of mature trees that are to go in one fell swoop!

Thank goodness for and let us keep our fingers crossed for success in the future for 'The Friends of St Georges Park". Perhaps then we may ensure such calamities do not blight our lovely park in the future. (Keep an eye on our blog, friends of the park steering group and any new people who want to be involved welcome meeting expected at the end of January.)

The second thing for the chop was more metaphorical. At the party in the park last year, which we helped to promote, the kids had a graffiti competition. They also graffitied some of the new ramps that the organiser body English raised funds to install. Grateful for the props, the kids’ graffitied our blog address on one of the ramps. The council saw fit to over paint this in a rather nice blue in the new year. Did they run out of paint? No they recon our blog is getting too political. At last, RECOGNITION! (check the party post Sept 2nd 2006)

They rolled out the BIG GUN!

So, we get together as a community, produce a petition and put over 1200 of our names on it, not to mention many other great local individuals like Steve of ‘Stuff’ who has made enough publicity for all of us and Paulette of ‘Jones the Bread’ who collected another 500 signatures herself and so on and so forth.

Despite the overwhelming public opposition, our MP Kerry McCarthy chose to attack our campaign in print in the Evening Post. Shame!

You can read her letter and my ‘right of reply’ that was published a few days later in the comments section of this post, for those of you who only read the EP for the football!

We presume that bearing in mind that she is our MP and that our current local councillors are also labour party and profess they care, that our area will NOT be blighted with some of these calamitous proposed changes!

Oh but of course, let us not forget this whole thing was planned and funded by them in the first place. Well that’s labour spin for you.

Physical Environment Scrutiny Commission on 30th of January

Re: The so-called showcase bus route.

Just to let you know that the ‘Physical Environment Scrutiny Commission on 30th of January’ is our next step and the appropriate forum to help our City Cabinet to recognise some of the shortcomings of their so-called consultation that seemed to us more like a white wash.

Please feel free to write your statements ‘for the attention of the Clerk of the Physical Environment Scrutiny Commission'. Thanks to those of you who have already done this (check this postings comments section). Please e-mail your comments to me at angelo@stgeorgewest.com

Our comments will be submitted with a new 5 min video. All suggestions are welcome.

Would you like to make a comment on our video?

We will update with the address of the venue for the commission soon. Check for future updates as this issue is live!

Update: 31st January
Click on the PLAY button to see the video part of our presentation to the Physical Environment Scrutiny Commission.

'TAKE FIVE'

UPDATE: 14th of December 2006
To see some of the statements that we presented to the council on December the 5thand our summary of the loss of parking as a result of the proposed changes to our existing bus route please read the comments section below this story.

UPDATE: 28th of November 2006
We love Bristol, we love Star 107.2. A big thank you to Bristol’s ‘STAR FM’ for their excellent report on our local issue.

Fair is fair, the Evening Post has also listened and reported on the issue. We have been in touch and I shall pay them a personal visit.

Did we miss anyone? Let us know.

Watch this blog for our new u-tube 'TAKE FIVE'.

PUT UP OUR POSTERS AND JOIN US ON TUESDAY THE 5th OF DECEMBER IN THE ENTRANCE TO THE COUNCIL HOUSE ON COLLEGE GREEN TO FIGHT FOR YOUR PARKING AND HIGH STREET!

SIGN THE PETITION (in the following shops)
At Church Road:
STUFF
At Summerhill Road
JONES THE BREAD bakery and The Pied Horse Pub.


Previously, 18th of November 2006:WE STILL HAVE A CHANCE TO STOP THE RED DEDICATED BUS LANE STRIPS, EXTENDED, ENHANCED PARKING RESTRICTIONS AND NO TURNING RESTRICTIONS.
The Evening Post and its local supplement the Observer have finally caught up with our news even though we posted on the 11th of October. What saddens us the most is that we only have one newspaper and the news we report always seems to end up as a watered down hybrid following the council line.

Steve of ‘STUFF’ centre in the recent EP and Observer photo above has complained bitterly of his objections, praised our support and spoke of over 1000 signatures collected in only a couple of weeks many at his own store.

St George Library

St George Library is closing for refurbishment from November the 15th to February the 19th 2007 (provided that the work goes according to schedule).

During this period the library service will be operating from ‘Summerhill Senior Citizens Club’ (opposite St George Baptist Church, Summerhill Road).

Opening Hours for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday are 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 4 pm and on Fridays 10am to 1pm only. Please support the library while it’s at the SSCC.

The 'A' List

Known as ‘The Black Farmer’ a title he himself espouses, google it and see, Wilfred had many interesting things to say about his humble origins and the courage and tenacity needed to succeed.

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones came with his family from Jamaica when he was 4 years old. In his early teens, as the oldest child, whilst working on his father’s allotment in Birmingham, he dreamed of becoming a farmer to escape the concrete jungle and the two up two down in which he lived with his rather large family. After a lucky chance due to some tenacity resulting in a career in television working on programs such as ‘Food and Drink’ he finally achieved his early goal.

I empathise with the perspectives that make this man an excellent conservative ‘A’ list choice, a man that like myself was a young rebel and can therefore understand many of the issues confronting some of our disaffected youth but also a successful business man from scratch. We may be looking at the future party chairman and I for one wish him good luck.

Talk of the importance of the family and the extended family young and old was a hot topic and in this regard I reiterate the message that we need generally champion the whole family, grandparents, parents and children in equal measure and reverse the trend and the parameters that exist and are causing its current disintegration.

Regarding the family I declare a personal interest. The abolition of slavery and votes for women were both great Conservative achievements. The present human rights movement concerns the disenfranchisement of men from the family. (Click on Sir Bob Geldof FNF Insight for more.) I hope that equality for fathers, an issue that our conservative party has recognized and put on our agenda for change is realized if not in the next parliament, sooner, to stop the tragedy facing over 150,000 children and their fathers every year!

Furthermore, people, men and women should not be made to feel inadequate because they want to raise their children and not hand them over to our nation of underpaid nannies and find this untenable whilst simultaneously working. Money is not everything, it should be about choice and quality of life! ‘The traditional family’ is statistically by far the best environment for children, it should not be considered a dirty phrase and above all there should be equality between mothers and fathers, the foundation stone for a new golden era.

(Alderman Gwyneth Hebblethwaite between Wilfred and myself in the lead caption reminded us not to forget the needs of her peers. I explained that culturally, to me at least, this notion was anathema.)

'R.E.S.T.' The New Traders Association for St George

The proposed alterations to our bus route were the trigger.

We did not realize the severity to the traders of the effects until we began to enquire and found out how many were planning to close down with the resulting losses in both jobs and local services.

At the B.E.S.T. (Bristol East Side Traders) meeting in the ‘Old Bank’ on October the 11th (see previous post) we found certain things difficult to stomach, e.g. Redfield traders told us that they have been blackmailed by council officials with the backing of the ruling Liberal Democrat cabinet on the council.

They have been told that they will not get ‘matched funding’ to renovate their shop fronts unless the so-called showcase bus route goes ahead. This was to keep them quiet about the detrimental effects that they could see would obviously result to businesses along Church Road and Summerhill Road.

As we go to press some shops on Church Road have reported to us that they have had intimidation from people claiming to be officials, to take down posters in their windows protesting against the dedicated bus lane. Posters that they have a perfect right to display, after all this is supposed to be a free country. I am outraged by this incident!
It was all giving me a headache until I suggested to our traders that we form our own association. Let us not forget that B.E.S.T’s (who refused to comment about the meeting to the Evening Post) remit falls into a geographical area that excludes St George completely and anyway only includes part of the bus route.

I propose ‘R.E.S.T.’ as our title, this stands for Real East Side Traders and the real is for the point of view it will give, It voice will certainly be uncensored and hopefully independent of local bureaucratic sanctions. On a lighter note another suggestion has been B.R.A.T. ‘bus route association of traders, ha, ha, ;-)

Please post your ideas for this new association. If you own a business in St George West or St George East and would like to join, please contact either Nik Jethwa on 07909570919 or myself on 01179736812.

Friends of St Georges Parks 1st Meeting

Update: 9th of November 2006.

A big thank you to all who attended the meeting. As I entered the hall I was taken aback by the enormous support shown for our Parks. The Beehive Centre was literally packed and as I found, broadly representative.

I found the advice by our council officers very useful and the positive comments made by the majority extremely helpful.

We were told of the many other parks that had organised themselves and found sources of funds ranging up to £100,000 in one year.

My special thanks to Stella, who organised the exhibit featuring the history of our park, Grenville, our esteemed retired local headmaster who I think spoke very eloquently about the park, helping us younger ‘folk’ (as he would say) to get some perspective on its heyday and our aspirations and thanks to our ‘tea ladies and gentleman’. Oh yes, and to the majority who offered their support either to steer or to help practically.

Mr Ben Sullivan our community beat officer sent his apologies as he was away training and filled in our survey on which he ticked every box and stated his full support.

We now have a rather healthy database and with the other identified groups that I shall contact we are on our way.

I do ask that we all spread the word and for all interested parties to get in touch.

Please post your comments. I will keep this blog up to date with our progress. I hope to have compiled the data and organised the interested parties within two weeks.


31st of October 2006
As we go to press we have organised the first meeting of a new "Friends of St Georges Parks" group for November 9th at the Beehive centre. This is in response to the large numbers of people willing to be involved and help look after our parks and green spaces as a result of our on going survey.

The council the police and local experts are all supporting this new group which we hope will not just sit around for years begging for money but organise practical things in our parks such as regular litter pick-ups, community events, campaign for improvements, liaise with schools and other community groups as well as take action to see that these services are supported by our council in the future. Already several local people have made suggestions of the kinds of activities and campaigns that the group could organize. Please contact me if you want to become involved, have your own expertise to offer or would like a copy of our survey.

Kensington Road Residents Association & Neighbourhood Watch

The association was formed two years ago with the aim of supporting and celebrating our community. We have our own mission statement that aims to address any issues that affect our community and the residents who live in the road. The overall aim is to support each other and improve the quality of life and our environment.

We maintain the timeless values of being friendly, polite and being good neighbours. We meet regularly to discuss any issues that arise and aim to work in close partnership with the Police, the Council and any other relevant agencies, in order to represent the needs of all the residents who make up our lively and diverse community. All meetings are informal, but we take minutes and maintain an agenda. I regularly produce news letters which are circulated to all the residents to keep everyone up to date.

Earlier this year in 2006 we were awarded the Neighbourhood Watch Award from Avon & Somerset Constabulary, (Urban category) and I was awarded the coordinators award. When I received the award from the Chief Constable I was proud to do so on behalf of the whole community, as it recognised our team efforts.

We are currently addressing two main issues of concern, our connecting footpath and the replanting of the trees on our road. (Please check the comments attached to this post for more information.)

On a personal level, (and the following views are not intended to reflect those of our residents group,) what is now evident to me is that the councillors are refusing to work cooperatively and collaboratively for the sake of our city and its residents. There seems to be a total lack of vision for Bristol and our area. Bristol council in my view needs a good shake up, and the councillors and officers need to realise that they are working for the city and its citizens, and that they are charged with considerable responsibilities, but are privileged to represent such a lovely city. Sadly, it is declining rapidly and they need a wake up call.

I was born 57 years ago and raised in St. George, and have lived in the area and worked in Bristol all my life. Until my retirement two years ago I was a Primary Head teacher. I have seen our city and St George decline over many years. It has fantastic potential, but needs the support of a Councillor with vision and a dynamic approach to tackling the issues of concern that affect us as residents in this area of St. George.

For me, it is so refreshing to hear from Angelo, and his vision for the area. As an addition, he lives in St. George and really knows the area and has clearly demonstrated that he wants real changes and positive improvements but also he takes a "hands-on" approach.

We rarely see or hear from our elected Councillors (except when elections are on the agenda or when we contact them with concerns) and they are certainly not high profile in my view.

Come on Bristol we can do it!

The motto for the city used to be "Ship - shape and Bristol fashion " Its time to clear the decks of Bristol City Councils clutter and sail with real pride and vision.

Other cities are leaving us in the docks!!

Grenville Johnson. Secretary Kensington Road Residents Association & Neighbourhood Watch.