Sustainable Redland » News

3 min video of Community Farm

Angela — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 02:36:05 +0000

One of our members has made this delightful 3 minute film about The Community Farm. It’s on the ‘People Fund It’ website, but its worth watching even if you are already supporting the farm, and if you haven’t yet got involved then maybe now is the time to do just that!

Community Farm has new website

Angela — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:52:22 +0000

The CSA (community supported agriculture) project that Susred has helped to set up has now got a lovely new website. This makes it easier to keep up with our news, with recipes, with volunteer days, and it makes the veg box ordering even easier. There is still only a cold tap on the field, and the project is still in its infancy, but the progress made is truly impressive.

Bristol Independents prizes

Angela — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:46:40 +0000

Councillor Anthony Negus kindly came along to St Nicholas Market on a crisp cold and sunny morning to present prizes to a bunch of Bristol folks who had nominated their favourite local independent businesses. Our very own Whiteladies Market had donated two vouchers as prizes, along with Absolutely Cakes, Bristol Beer Factory, Better Food Company, Scoopaway, Tobacco Factory and St Nick’s market. The Bristol Independents campaign launched in September and is all about supporting the local economy. You can vote for your favourite out of the nominated independents until the end of February.

Costa, the law, and local jobs

Angela — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:07:19 +0000

Here’s a list of some of the places where Costa has opened without planning permission and has not had to back down; Portishead, Clevedon, Cornwall, Herts, Southend, Thatcham, Crowthorne, Morpeth, Beverley, Cambridge, Barnstaple, Lymington, Havant, Lytham St Annes, Cheltenham, Oxted, Darlington, Glasgow, Trowbridge, Epping, Skipton, Ceredigion, Aberystwyth, Torfaen, Rayleigh…

In fact, in arguing with planners they use this as grounds for why there is no point refusing them permission – they will ignore it. Why does it matter? Because it is puts locally owned and run small independent cafes out of business. These independents are far better for local jobs and the local economy than the chains are.

Next susred meeting

Angela — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 23:56:00 +0000

Our next meeting will be 25 January 7.30 in the Friends Meeting House on Hampton Road, BS6 6JE opposite the Clyde Arms pub. Everyone is welcome. The theme will be urban streets and transport and Steve Melia is giving a talk about the ‘Living Heart of Bristol’ – how we foster multimodal traffic in the City, so that whether we are on foot, on bikes, with children, on buses, or need motorised transport because of disability frailty or heavy stuff to move and deliver, then the whole system works! Please bring £2 – £3 if you can to cover room hire costs.

Vote for your favourite food business

Angela — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:17:13 +0000

The Bristol Independents campaign website is glowing with information about gorgeous Christmas Markets in Bristol, and you can vote for your favourite out of the 42 local food businesses that have been nominated for a Bristol Independents award, by local people. It takes about 10 seconds to do the vote.

Special Christmas Market

Angela — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 02:33:21 +0000

On Thursday 15 December 2pm to 8pm (candlelight) there will be a Special extra Christmas Market, selling local produce and locally made gifts. Same place as the regular Whiteladies Market (corner of Whiteladies Rd and Apsley Rd), and many of our regular stall holders will be there. The event is jointly organised by Keep Whiteladies Local and Sustainable Redland. A number of our Whiteladies Shops will be late evening opening as well, so you can get all your Christmas shopping done.

Whiteladies Costa

Angela — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:43:49 +0000

Another coffee chain has opened without planning permission on Whiteladies Road, putting local jobs in the existing small independent cafes under threat. This is in addition to Costa cafes on Gloucester Road which has had its second enforcement notice served, and on Westbury Hill, both in breach of planning law.

What can we do?

First – support our Bristol Independents and don’t spend your money in a chain. Choose one of the locally owned and run cafes, of which there are many. Here’s a radio piece on the issue 1:38 minutes in on Tues 1 Nov Steve Le Fevre’s 6.30am show .

Second – tell Bristol City Council that you want them to take enforcement action against the Costa cafe.

Why does it matter?

Whiteladies Road and Cotham Hill still have around 30 fantastic locally owned and run businesses. These include cafes, food shops, hardware, gifts, and electricals. The chains and multiples are threatening these local businesses because of their sheer size – it is not a fair fight. Once we lose our independents the knock-on consequences through the supply chain will be really bad for the local economy. Diverse markets are healthy markets, monopolies make the system fragile.

There is a big difference between the independents and the multiples. If you spend your hard earned cash in a local business then this has a positive impact not just for that business, but also for all the other businesses it uses – for supplies, deliveries, advertising, maintenance, accountancy, IT and so on. But if you spend in a chain then around 86% of the money drains straight out of the local economy.

Not only that, but its impossible to establish a relationship with a chain – we know because we’ve tried! The local independent businesses are our friends and allies in tackling all kinds of issues to do with the local area. But with the chains it’s like an absentee landlord, a cuckoo in the nest, or a chair at the table but with the person facing the other way. When the chains want something, then their public relations consultants are very keen to talk with ‘the local community’ but otherwise – forget it. The franchisee for the illegal Costa cafe refused to speak to the local BBC.

Complete the Bristol survey on High Streets

Angela — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:17:03 +0000

In response to concerns about the domination of the Big Four (Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsburys) the City Council is holding an inquiry day into High Streets and how to keep them alive and diverse. To provide evidence for the Inquiry they want to know what residents and businesses experience is. To give your views you can complete this short easy residents survey, or this short easy business survey. It takes about 5 minutes.

Cotham residents parking

Angela — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 20:07:13 +0000

Residents in Cotham are keen to have a residents parking scheme following on from, and extending, the successful scheme introduced for Kingsdown earlier in the year. At the recent Cotham Neighbourhood Forum our Transport officers came and explained how Bristol City Council will be commencing consultation on the fine detail of the scheme from late October. Sustainable Redland has looked carefully at the evidence, the arguments, and the experience in Kingsdown. Our conclusion is that well manged City parking is an essential part of improving congestion (30% to 40% of traffic is people cruising looking for a free space – this melts away once you have permits and meters because spaces are easy to find), walkability, active travel, air quality, childrens’ independence, health, local economy,and of course fuel use and carbon emissions. Fine detail about how much shoppers parking there is, about signage, about which driveways have yellow lines across etc depends on residents and businesses talking to officers as early as possible. So do read our briefing paper susred residents parking briefingOct11 , and keep an eye on this website and the Neighbourhood Partnership website for consultation dates.