Sad, but true

Bob Dylan dreamed he saw St. Augustine.

Last night, I dreamed I was on a camping holiday with my sister, brother-in-law, and the Bristol Blogger.

Our reactions were not dissimilar, but Bob puts it a bit more poetically:

"I awoke in anger,
So alone and terrified,
I put my fingers against the glass
And bowed my head and cried."

Bristol's leading investigative blogger at work..

Gary Hopkins, England Manager

Things are hotting up on the Bristol-Bath railway path.

The petition is now heading for 7000 signatures.

The Evening Post, until now an enthusiastic supporter of the crackpot BRT plans, is apparently preparing a"major feature" about wildlife on the path. You can email j.hunter@bepp.co.uk with your tales of newts, bats and frogs. Could this be a start of a u-turn?

There are also signs of growing cross-party opposition.

Paul "Mr Bean" Smith has come good on his promise to oppose the plans, although Bristol East MP Kerry McCarthy seems to be mainting her silence on the issue.

Meanwhile, we are promised that a LibDem statement on the issue is imminent. While we await this, I'd like to invite readers to reflect on another uncanny similarity.

Could Bristol's former waste supremo and the hapless England manager have been separated at birth? I think we should be told.

Railway path meeting - change of venue

Bristol Cycling Campaign's public meeting about the Railway Path will now take place in Easton Community Centre, not the Cornubia as previously advertised. Same day, same time: February 5, 7.30pm.

BRT: Bus Rapid Transit? Or Bristol's Rubbish Transport?

My fellow footsoldiers in Bristol East Green Party have been wading through the plans to transform the Bristol-Bath railway path into a bus superhighway and have come up with some searching questions for Mark Bradshaw and his merry band of unelected fools.

It seems extraordinary that in months of under-the-boardroom-table scheming, the question of where and how pedestrians might cross the bus route has not even been considered.

Interestingly enough, it seems Bristol Labour Party may not be lining up behind Mark Bradshaw to support this one. Paul Smith, Labour candidate for Bristol West, has come out against it over at the Bristol Blogger. (I am working on the assumption that no-one is sad enough to go round the Internet impersonating Paul Smith.)

The Mr. Bean lookalike is the only mainstream politician to stick his head about the parapet so far. Local residents won't be expecting a statement any time soon from absentee Labour councillor for Easton, Hotwells resident Faruk Choudhury, who might struggle to find the railway path (or his own ward) on a map. And so far, there's been a resounding silence from the Lib Dem councillors for Easton, Lawrence Hill, and Eastville.

Luckily, thanks to the efforts of the Bristol Cycling Campaign, popular resistance to this idiotic scheme is snowballing. (See the Green Party's statement here.) Over 3200 signatures in less than a week is quite something. At this rate, they won't even need a consultation.

Latest from the railway path campaign

The campaign to save the Bristol-Bath railway path from the clutches of Worst Bus plc is really gathering momentum. As well as the public meeting on February 5 (see below), there is also a petition, which has already got 1350 signatures in less than 48 hours.

Sustrans have come out strongly against the scheme. Bristol Cycling Campaign have managed to get hold of numerous documents under the Freedom of Information Act, which are available here.

Shockingly, three out of the four planned Bus Rapid Transit routes will use existing cyclepaths, even though other alternatives are available (e.g. the hard shoulder of the M32 rather than the cyclepath).

Please sign the petition, and email your local incompetents councillors to let them know your opposition to this scheme, and why you think the railway path is important. It's particularly important to show how many non-cyclists use the path: to walk to work, get kids to school, take the dog out, and so on.

Hostile Takeovers

Hold on to your hats East Bristol.

As if rising flood waters, looming recession and the norovirus weren't enough, it seems that 2008 will feature yet more attempts to wrest public spaces out of public control.

This week alone:

1. Let's hand the Bristol-Bath cyclepath over to First Bus!

So that they can transport people to the airport!
Pushing cyclists and pedestrians out of the way!
Removing one of the only green spaces accessible to people in Easton!
But let's not put any plans in the public domain, because then people might be able to make up their own minds!

(There is more sense in the readers' comments on this story than there is in the last 10 years of transport planning in Bristol. There is also a public meeting in the Cornubia at 7.30 on February 5. More details below.)

2. Let's hand two local schools over to Ray Priest and his pals at the City Academy!

To play at "all through schools"! Even though they are totally unproven, have been rejected twice in Bristol, and nobody in the leafy suburbs of West Bristol would dream of sending their child to one!

Even though the City Academy is only able to get 22% of its own pupils to the required standards of English and Maths at GCSE!

But let's not put any plans in the public domain, because then people might be able to make up their own minds!

3. Let's sell off large swathes of the city's green space!

Oops, we already consulted on this one, so let's change the plans at the last minute! So that nobody really has a clue what and when their local park might disappear!

Happy New Year!

**************************************************

Save the cyclepath!
The Bristol to Bath cyclepath is under threat. The West of England Partnership, composed of local councillors, are submitting plans to Whitehall for funding to use it for a rapid transit bus route from Emersons Green to Ashton Vale, one of three in the scheme. The Bath end of the path is under similar threat.

This is the most popular cycleroute in the UK with 2.4 million journeys per year. The timing of the bus route plan is particularly ironic at a time when Sustrans have just won £50 million for cycling improvements nationwide!

It is a busy commuter route for cyclists and at weekends is popular with families and less confident cyclists.
Although a narrow corridor for cyclists is planned, installation of the bus route will require using most of the path width for an ugly concrete track and consequent removal of all vegetation, destroying the path as a pleasant, green, quiet and ‘fume free’ multiuse facility….diesel buses will destroy that.

The path, sometimes called a ‘linear park’ is also used extensively by local people for journeys on foot to school, to walk the dog, to allotments and other local amenities. People with disability vehicles use it. It will not be possible to maintain this diversity of use on a narrow, fenced in path beside a bus track.

We believe that this plan would significantly reduce the quality of life for many residents of East Bristol, in addition to those from further afield who enjoy this path. We don’t oppose bus rapid transit schemes in principle but it should use roadspace, not space allocated to the most vulnerable and least powerful groups - pedestrians, cyclists and children.

We need to stop this proposal now. To wait until West of England Partnership declare that public consultation may begin, would leave little time to mount a campaign.

Come to the meeting at the Cornubia Pub, Temple St BS1
Tuesday 5^th February 2008 at 7.30 – upstairs meeting room.
Directions: http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubmap/308/
In the meantime, to register your interest, contact savethecyclepath@bristolcyclingcampaign.org.uk

Hawaii Oh-Oh

I thought we'd seen it all, but this weekend's Guardian takes the biscuit with its recommendation of a "green" cycling and permaculture holiday in.....



....Hawaii.*


"Our sustainability tour is unlike any other", burbles Responsible Travel, who operate under the slogan "Holidays to give the world a break".

"Intrinsically political, it nourishes a fire of hope, inspiring riders to work towards making their own communities thrive. Many of our past riders have called the experience 'sacred'."

And who could blame them:

"Our riders quickly form an impromptu on-the-road intentional community... an incredible dynamic usually ensues together with campfire discussions where one is just as likely to hear about permaculture as a chat about situation in middle east or about the advantages of solar and wind energy....The group quickly comes to function as a self-sustaining pod on wheels seeking higher meaning, authenticity and community, as the ropes are learned."

And lest you scoffers out there think it's all just talk, the section "How this holiday makes a difference" helpfully explains:

"We believe that in order to affect sustainable changes, we must integrate our ideals into our daily lives. On this sustainable tour, by exploring Hawaii on our bicycles, we will be demonstrating the use of the bike as a sustainable transportation alternative, while pedal-powering ourselves to communities that are actively living, breathing, and teaching viable solutions to environmentally degrading lifestyles."

Thank goodness for plucky Guardian readers and their willingness to demonstrate that a bicycle can actually be used as a means of transport! Less hardy holiday makers need not fear though: this is very much sustainable travel in the David Cameron mode, with a van following our "self sustaining pod" of cyclists to transport their bags, tents, and (locally-sourced, organic, vegan) food.

Let's hope those campfire chats also cover the ethics of travelling 14,000 miles to learn how to compost.

*A return flight from Heathrow to Honolulu will produce about 3.5 tonnes of carbon.