Tag: Bristol

If where you live matters, join the #WEbuildourfuture conversation

WEbuildourfuture images

A big conversation is happening around Bristol that could shape local housing and transport for decades to come.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been working with colleagues to get ready for a major consultation which could map where thousands of new homes are built across the West of England over the next 20 years.

The phrase ‘West of England Joint Spatial Plan and Transport Study‘ won’t set pulses racing. But the issues it covers should interest anyone who has views about where they live, how they get to work or school or whether they will be able to keep a roof over the heads in future.

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Three reasons why I’ll champion the HCA’s work

Five years, one month and a day after joining the HCA, I departed last Thursday to take up a new job.

I’m returning to agency life at JBP, an extremely well-respected company which specialises in PR (in all its forms) consultation and public affairs. From tomorrow, I’ll be a senior account director in its Bristol office and I am hugely looking forward to the opportunity.

That’s not to say that it was an easy decision to leave the HCA. After all, I was able to influence discussion around a hugely important area of government work. I had a flexible and fair employer and I enjoyed what I did. In the end, I moved because it offers me an opportunity to progress my career in areas that are most important to me.

I will still champion the HCA though and there are many reasons for this. Three of them have stood out in recent conversations.

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Traffic tweets make the news

I was one of a group of commuters who took to Twitter after being held up in traffic caused by a survey on the way into Bristol this week. I set off early yesterday to start a busy week and hit an hour-long crawl coming off Wells Road as drivers were ushered onto the roadside and asked to complete a census.

I was late, and not happy, and my tweet said as much.

I wasn’t the only one to do this, as the Western Daily Press and Bristol Post reported today.

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Bristol’s ‘pop up’ creative hub starts with a bang

Bristol

I attended the launch last night of a creative venture which has transformed a former car park near Bristol Temple Meads and was blown away by the results.

Nine months’ of live entertainment has kicked off in a big tent near where I work in Temple Quay, led by Creative Common and attended by hundreds of Bristolians last night.

They were invited into the tent on Plot 3 to stand and watch BIANCO, a fast-moving two hour display of high wire-walking, trapeze swinging, fire eating and live music.

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City Deals: big news outside London

An aerial shot of housing in Bristol, with views of the cityscape and the River Avon

I’ve been following the news in my car and online today for reaction to the Government’s City Deals announcement, which hands more powers to some of England’s largest metropolitan areas outside London.

These deals for Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester will see them take on new responsibilities and, in some cases, form new bodies which aim to drive growth and create thousands of new jobs in their areas.

If the recent mayoral referenda acts as any yardstick, then a story about boosting city economies does not excite the London-centric media, despite the fact that England’s eight core cities have more than 17m residents and generate around 25% of the country’s wealth.

And, true to form, the response from the national media seems to have been to play it straight or not at all (I had to dig around some websites amongst stories about Bob Diamond and cuts to the Army, also announced today, to find any coverage on this).

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Hanham Hall visit caps hell of a year

Hanham Hall, near Bristol

My first year at the Homes and Communities Agency passed today with the visit of its chief executive Pat Richie to the South West. It was a day of two parts.

Firstly, and most importantly, she was in Bristol to talk to colleagues about the ongoing restructure of the HCA. The agency is consulting staff (myself included) on proposed changes which will see us reduce in size by 50% over two years.

After the two-hour briefing, we visited Hanham Hall, one of the most exciting housing developments in the country on the outskirts of the city. 

The site is to host more than 180 ‘carbon neutral’ houses, built to Level 6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes. I’ve visited this scheme a couple of times. I’m fascinated by the progress made on the proud Grade II listed former hospital building, which Barratt is converting to high environmental standards. Hats off to them.

It’s easy to forget that I have been in Bristol for 12 months. But seeing the progress on this development and hearing about the agency’s plans for the future brought that fact home today. 

Some pictures from the visit can be seen below.

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