Knowle Community Party

Bad Behaviour

Well, as expected we got behaviour from Ms Chapman and her anti
Broadwalk colleagues that could in the kindest description be called
extremely disappointing.
They are trying to prevent Knowle residents getting their new shopping
centre by use of the courts.
There are very close links between some in this group and the Lib
Dem’s, but they claimed to be non-aligned when setting up a debate.
The group knowingly displayed posters and delivered leaflets that
contained false information.
The advert placed in the South Bristol voice was illegal as were the
posters put up in the Redcatch park notice boards used by the friends of
Redcatch park, as were the fly posted notices. When I see Lib Dem’s
applauding this sort of behaviour, I am glad we are well distanced, and
you can understand why senior Lib Dem’s were happy to endorse us
sacrificing years of party membership. They have standards. The
experienced Labour candidate described Ms Chapmans
correspondence as threatening.
This sort of behaviour has no place in Knowle. No wonder the local
government association is warning that 82% of cllrs are receiving abuse
for doing their job and they are worried that in particular female cllrs are
not restanding.

KCP support from former Lib Dem councillors

Letters of endorsement for Gary and Ghislaine from former Liberal Democrat Bristol councillors

Letter from Mark Bailey

My name is Mark Bailey and I was the Lib Dem Councillor for Windmill Hill from 2003 for 12 years. I was party group whip for 11 of those 12 years and I am currently a Lib Dem Alderman.

As the councillor for the adjoining ward, I worked closely with Gary and Chris both at ward level and within the council. They were two of the most hard working and conscientious councillors I had the pleasure to work with over the 12 years. The fruits of their hard work can be seen across the Knowle ward, including the improvements to Redcatch Park, numerous road safety schemes and thriving community groups such as the Community Garden and Jubilee Pool etc.

I stood down from the council and stepped back from local politics in 2015, when my wife became ill, so I am therefore not privy to what went on between Gary, Chris and the Lib Dems. Although I am saddened that Chris and Gary have left the party, I know they would have only taken this action if they were absolutely convinced that the interest of their constituents was best served by leaving as they have always put the people they represent ahead of any party politics.

I notice that the Lib Dems are canvassing in Knowle ahead of the May elections. The Lib Dems only have 5 councillors, representing two wards, and I would imagine limited resources and personnel to fight the upcoming election. I am therefore struggling to understand why they have decided to target Knowle where they have very little chance of winning. The most likely outcome is, in my opinion, that voting Lib Dem will split the vote, possibly unseating Gary and Chris, and then allowing one of the other parties to win by default, depriving Knowle of two excellent councillors. I would therefore urge you to continue to support Gary and Ghislaine in the May election so they can continue their work in Knowle.

Letter from Steve Comer

Steve Comer is a former Councillor and Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Bristol City Council. He was also a member of the Liberal Democrat Group on the Local Government Association. Steve worked with Gary Hopkins for 8 years as a Councillor and spoke to Focus recently:

“I’ve known Gary Hopkins for about 40 years, and we worked closely together during the time we were both on the Council. Gary is someone who was always a source of ideas and was determined to do everything he could to make the Council deliver for local people.

Gary has never been someone who would just appear at election times, as the Labour Party used to do when they had Councillors here. Along with Chris Davies he has been a committed campaigner for all the people of Knowle for over 20 years.

He fought with local residents to save Jubilee pool, and succeeded against the odds. He worked to get a sustainable development of the Broadwalk centre, and on many other issues that affect local people including public safety, local parks, traffic and transport issues, road and pavement repairs and much more. He and Chris always kept in touch and reported back through their regular FOCUS newsletters delivered to every house by local volunteers.

Good Liberal Democrat Councillors are always committed to their ward and independently minded, and this can sometimes lead to 'local difficulties' in Council Groups. I know from my experience at national level that most groups handle issues like this in a constructive and tolerant way by reaching agreement with leavers as well as addressing their genuine concerns. It is a shame this did not happen in Bristol.

Gary's values and beliefs are the same as they were when he was first elected to serve the people of Knowle two decades ago. It is clear is that if you elect Gary and Ghislaine on May 2^nd you will get a good team of Councillors who will keep in touch and work for you all year round.

If Gary and Ghislaine win – you win!, so please support the Knowle Community Party Focus team in the election on Thursday May 2^nd”

Redcatch Tennis Courts

Well here is the sad picture that confirms that fun loving tennis players are now locked out of Redcatch park tennis courts. These courts were refurbished 10 years ago with an a locally obtained grant. The team that we supported were led by youth worker Dave Wherrett.

A condition of the grant was that the courts remain free access. Although the legal power of that agreement for free access has expired the moral position still remains and the council decision is shameful. The grant also paid for the MUGA and other improvements. They have taken preemptive action, spending many thousands of pounds on the locking system, before hearing the result of the local government ombudsman decision on the saga.

The repainting is necessary work done every 7 years and is being paid for from a fund set up by Gary, pre mayor, to help sport in parks. We have the funds to pay for this repainting locally. The new payment and membership system will suit some but the large majority who responded to the rigged consultation, including the membership of the friends of Redcatch park, rejected the plan. We have a very good local tennis club very close by for those who want and can afford to pay.

We are pledged to reintroduce free tennis access and this is important not only for the freedom that it gives but also for the retired users who will be excluded from the online booking system but also by youngsters from poorer households.

Disgracefully the notice put up by council officers, the same team that tried to close Jubilee, boasts of free tennis still being available. There is a theoretical scheme that has resulted in less than 0.5% court time, and that having to be through an organised group, being available free on the sets of courts already in the scheme. Gary made the officers aware of the actual figures that they had not considered.

We had originally intervened to ask for an open and honest consultation which was refused but conversations with players and the local public showed us the importance of what was being lost and the problems with the councils model.

Well the mayor could not close Jubilee but in the dying weeks of his administration he has managed to lock out our tennis players - FOR NOW.

https://twitter.com/char1iewatts/status/1679099868663488512?s=46__;!!KUx...$

New number 90 bus

Gary and Ghislaine are pictured with Simon Newport (managing director Transpora group) and helpers who have come especially to launch the number 90 service which starts in a weeks time and runs through Knowle. From town, Bedminster, Axbridge Road, Daventry Road, Imperial Park and down to the South Bristol Hospital. It will run every 30 minutes . There will also be a night bus that runs up Wedmore Vale and on through Knowle. It was good to meet up with old friends and we will do everything we can to promote this service which is being run without subsidy . We discussed local variations on the route which have good possibilities but are on hold until the legal intervention stopping Broadwalk redevelopment is defeated or withdrawn.
Gary intervened with council officers to get help with the CAZ and we both agreed that it was a badly designed scheme with the same treatment for modern busses that were a fraction outside the requirements and a filthy old belcher.
We will keep you updated but please use the service.

Redcatch community garden

Gary and Ghislaine had a catch up with Kate and Mike off the community garden. With regard to the parks department that you would expect to help the best to expect at the moment is preventing them doing too much harm. They even caused problems when they were installing the locking system for the next door tennis courts. It is bad enough that money is being wasted on the Mayor's fun prevention police prior to the ombudsman ruling but trying to interfere with important work is inexcusable.
The work that the garden do is tremendous and it was interesting how much overlap there was with the work that Ghislaine does. Useful data and ideas were exchanged.
We were outraged to find that funds reclaimed by us in last years budget and set aside for the garden are being potentially grabbed by parks staff without proper authority.
I am afraid that the whole department is in a state of chaos as was evident from the allotments fiasco. We now have to chase these funds to ensure that the garden can get the resurfacing work done that the funds were set aside for by us.

Allotments Chaos

After months of chaos Gary was sitting on the judging panel on the process which 5 cllrs had objected to. Discussions between panel members and council lawyers had taken place in a pre meeting and although no formal decision could be taken until the public meeting it was clear that the decision was extremely unlikely to be waived through.
Then an e-mail arrived from cabinet member Ellie King who was responsible for the allotments strategy and the consultation. She said officers would withdraw the action until the new committee formed after the mayor goes in May could take the decisions. This climbdown we were minded to accept (not before time) but of course we had to pay attention to the members of the public who had turned up for the meeting. We asked that the letter be read out but instead Ms King started into a self justifying speech which did not go down well. Even though we had effectively taken our decision by accepting the climbdown we wanted the public, many of whom were justifiably angry ,to have their say. So after an hour the meeting finished with decisions held over until the new committees can examine all the evidence afresh.

Jubilee Pool Update

Gary and Ghislaine have met again with Jules Laming the chair of Jubilee pool.
Membership is up, new sessions have been introduced , a warm welcome greets everyone and trading is profitable.
An important milestone is near as almost enough funds have been gathered to install the vital air handling unit which will improve air quality and save running costs and energy. The gym is now fully modernised and unrecognisable from even a year ago.
Ghislaine and Julie discussed NHS referrals for NHS social prescribing which can be immensely beneficial to patients. The community garden already participate.
With an impressive track record the pool is now looking at potentially larger corporate sponsorship to boost facilities still further.
It was less than 2 years ago that we shamed the mayor into completing the handing over to local control and he tried to set it up to fail and has thrown every obstacle in the way since but brilliant local management are seeing him leaving and not them. He managed to block government funding ,blocked local CIL funding and in an infamous episode last year leaned on the Green Party to drop their support for our budget amendment which would have provided investment funds at zero net cost to the council. The Green Party ,with a couple of exceptions changed their vote to oppose and changed their speaker to one who came up with pathetic justifications.
Before sending in 2 youngsters from outside to get Knowle votes the green party should have apologised to the pool and knowle residents for their actions.
Now that the mayor is going we will look to remove the unfair terms in this lease and we will be leading the council change in attitude that will value an effective community sector in general.

We ARE attending!

Here is an advert placed in the south Bristol voice by Laura Chapman (and associates?). This is the person taking the council to court and opposing the development at Broadwalk. Pity about our apparent rebranding of colour but there you go. The information is unfortunately also not accurate. We do not know if the conservatives were invited.
I will be taking part but Ghislaine, on the date picked, is away on a pre booked family holiday.
I did offer a local replacement with local knowledge but that was declined. At no time did i decline.
I would encourage you to turn up and send in questions in advance this weekend and keep a note of them. I expect some have been planning for some while and a good variety of questions would be welcome.

LET'S GET ON WITH IT!

So we have a semi derelict shopping centre that can only get worse as the cash put aside to cover the losses until redevelopment drains away. Having been a shopkeeper (butcher and greengrocer) in the centre for many years and first worked there in 1983, I know the shocking state the building is in after many years of neglect and it going bust 7 years ago under previous owners.
The developers have got £200M to invest, plans that have been approved by council planning officers, the planning committee and even central government. The overwhelming majority of residents want the new shopping centre and have a realistic view of what is needed to deliver it. Concentrating development in the one place has helped to get all of our excellent green spaces protected.

So what is stopping things and prolonging the agony? There is a legal action against the council claiming that they have not followed proper procedures. Whilst the challenge is in place the development cannot proceed and there is no viable plan B so we will be left with the present mess for some time.
The council do a good survey every year of peoples opinion called the quality of life survey. It has just been published. The results are broken down by ward and are very detailed. For some years knowle has shown as much better than the average for Bristol on a huge number of the quality of life indicators but this year as well as those nice measures there is one glaring complaint as we have a record unhappiness rating for the city for our shopping centre.

The detailed plans for the development of the mainstream supermarket, 30 other shops, new library and cinema, specialist flats with underground parking and building can begin within months as soon as this legal challenge is dropped.
As well as the sheer difficulties, particularly to our elderly and those without cars, that are being caused we should not forget the detrimental affects of the anti-social behaviour that has already started. The depleted security team cannot cope. I together with a large number of others have property close by which has appreciated even more quickly than the Bristol average over recent years. If this delay lasts for up to 2 years, which is possible then that will all go into reverse.

Gary and Chris have done a wonderful job for Knowle over the years and now that Chris is retiring Gary is being joined by long term local resident Ghislaine Swinburn who is 100% committed to protecting and supporting Knowle.

Letter from a former councillor

If Gary and Ghislaine win – you win!, so please support the Knowle Community Party Focus team in the election on Thursday May 2^nd”