greenwash | Steve Woods

Bristol City Council must have a real bullshit crisis

06/08/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

Responses have been received to my recent Freedom of Information Act (FoI) requests requests to Bristol City Council.

These concerned the relative numbers of staff involved in press, PR, etc. and so-called ‘streetscene (i.e. fly-tipping, litter, dog fouling and the like). This is a subject which this blog has tackled previously. However, I felt it necessary to obtain the most up-to-date figures I could.

The FoI request re press, PR and communications officers read as follows:

Dear Bristol City Council,

This is a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act.

Kindly disclose the number of press, public relations and communications staff/officers who are employed at present by Bristol City Council and/or have their place of work in Bristol City Council offices.

Yours etc.

The response to the request reads:

The number of press, public relations and communications staff/officers who are employed at present by Bristol City Council and/or have their place of work in Bristol City Council offices:
(The list below shows the number of full-time equivalent staff)
Service Manager: Corporate Communications x 1
Service Manager: Public Relations x 1
Design Manager x 1
Senior Designer x 1
Designer x 4.49
Assistant Designer x 5
Senior Communications & Marketing Officer x 5.41
Senior Communication Officer – Enterprise Zone x 1
Senior Communication Officer (Corporate Campaigns and Special
Projects Team) x 0.81
Marketing & Communications Officer (Level 1 and 2) x 9.51
Marketing & Communcations Support Officer x 4
Internal Communications Manager x 1
Internal Communications Support Officer x 2.39
Channel Editor (Level 2) x 1
Digital Public Relations Officer x 2
Senior Public Relations Officer x 1.2
Public Relations Officer x 5
Exhibition Designer x 1
Apprentice x 1
Total Full-Time Equivalents: 48.81

The following request was submitted in respect of streetscene enforcement officers.

Dear Bristol City Council,

This is a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act.

Kindly disclose the total number of streetscene officers who are employed at present by Bristol City Council, as well as the total number employed in the last financial year.

I would also be grateful if you would inform me whether the said officers are employed full-time or part-time and how many, if any, are on long-term sick leave.

Yours etc.

This was duly answered as follows:

Our reply to your request is:

In 2014/15 we employed 5.7 full-time equivalent (FTE) Streetscene Enforcement Officers up until November 2014. Since November 2014 we have employed 4.7 FTE. There are four full-time officers and one
part-time officer. Presently, we plan to recruit an additional 1.5 FTE.

There are currently no Streetscene Enforcement Officers on long-term sick leave

The staffing situation is thus more out of kilter than was originally imagined. Bristol City Council is now actually employing more press, PR and communications staff than when examined previously by the Press Gazette in its FoI request.

Bristol City Council priority: weasel words in press releases

Presumably this is due to the additional quantities of bullshit needing to be shovelled out of the Council House due to Bristol’s unwarranted elevation this year to European Green(wash) Capital.

On the other hand, council staffing managers have deemed that the city can get by with a maximum of 6 people chasing fly-tippers and litter droppers for the time being.

Not a council priority: fly-tipping in Woodborough Street, BS5

In my opinion the city would be a tidier and more truthful place if the above numbers were reversed, with the council employing 49 enforcement officers (they’re really needed! Ed.) and under 6 press, PR and communications wonks.

Whether you agree or disagree with my opinion, please feel free to comment below.
On the buses: greenwash

01/07/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Politics

Perhaps the most visible aspect of Bristol’s year as European Green Capital is the year’s sponsorship by local transport monopolists FirstGroup.

As a result, there have been some strange coloured – one might almost say greenwashed – buses thundering through this proud and ancient city, as captured below.

FirstGroup bus in full greenwash livery

However, FirstBus has also been able to buy a ‘greenwash-lite‘ version for its sponsorship that consists of the Bristol Green Capital logo slapped on top of its usual ‘Barbie‘ livery.
The flanks of the Barabie double-deckers now have the Bristol Green Capital logo splashed across their sides, whilst the single-deckers have a smaller version the logo above the driver’s cab.

Barbie meets greenwash

Whilst public transport is a greener option than using a private motor car, emissions from the diesel fuel on which buses run.

According to Wikipedia:

It is reported that emissions from diesel vehicles are significantly more harmful than those from petrol ones.Diesel exhaust contains toxic air contaminants and is listed as carcinogen for humans by the IARC (part of the World Health Organization of the United Nations) in group 1. Diesel exhaust contains fine particles which are harmful. Diesel exhaust pollution was thought to account for around one quarter of the pollution in the air in previous decades, and a high share of sickness caused by automotive pollution.

Any resemblance between the full greenwash livery and the British Racing Green livery of the old Bristol Omnibus Company is purely coincidental.

Whatever would Blakey say? 😉
Coming soon: the Greenwash Capital Awards

24/06/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Oddities, Politics

Awards recognising local people and businesses which support the environment have been launched by the Bristol Post, the rag of that name reports on its website today.

The article continues that the Bristol Post Green Capital Awards will celebrate those people who are making our city a greener, healthier, happier place to live and work.

The article does quote the chairman of Bristol 2015 – a company established by the city council to run this year-long green-tinged public relations exercise – admitting that Green Capital has not reached all parts of Bristol.

That being so, I’d like to see an alternative set of awards that won’t go to the usual suspects amongst Bristol’s great and good and their pet vanity projects. Let’s call them the Greenwash Capital Awards.

Some of these can be awarded already.

For starters, there’s the Green Transport Award, for which there can only be one set of winners, namely the selfish individuals who all drive their vehicles containing just one person into the city from the surrounding areas of South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Bath & North East Somerset, causing congestion, pollution and getting in the way of local bus services.

Selfish commuters clogging Bristol’s M32 inbound

Then there’s the Green Waste Management Award. This prize should I believe be split between the citizens of Bristol who managed to generate 18% more waste for landfill last year, Bristol City Council, which seems to be labouring under the delusion that exporting what would go to landfill to Sweden for incineration in power stations is a good idea and finally the people – both traders and others – who think that the BS5 postcode area is the natural home for the city’s fly-tipping.

One of the regular but ephemeral arts installations on Stapleton Road; is it critiquing the throwaway society?

How about the Habitat and Biodiversity Destruction Award? There’s a clear winner for this one: the four councils making up the West of England Partnership and their ludicrous transport white elephant, the Metrobus scheme.

Finally, for the time being there’s the Green Waste of Money Award. That goes to all the money wasted to date on so-called ‘arts’ projects as part of Green Capital.

If you can think of any further worthy recipients of a Greenwash Capital Award, please add them in the comments below.
The birds are nesting; time to fell more trees

08/04/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Politics

The weather is warming up, summer migrant birds are returning to the UK to breed in the trees, shrubs and other traditional nesting sites; and as regular as clockwork, Bristol City Council sends workmen out to destroy those same traditional nesting sites, as witnessed this morning at the junction of Lawrence Hill and Croydon Street.

During the few minutes it took me to buy a tin of coffee up the road, the two trunks seen standing in the photo had been felled, joining a previously felled companion. All three felled were – as far as I could see – healthy specimens.

As regards protecting breeding birds and mitigating harm during the breeding season, Natural England’s advice (PDF, p. 4) is as follows:

The main mitigation route to reduce the likelihood of harm to breeding birds is to undertake clearance or destruction of any vegetation or structure which may be used as a breeding site outside the bird breeding season when breeding birds are unlikely to be present (based upon habitat features) or where survey work has confirmed their absence. Avoidance of such features is best achieved through timing of work (see below) but may also be possible by temporarily preventing birds from using these features, before they start doing so. Examples include physical exclusion (preventing access to potential nest sites) or use of visual or audible deterrents. Such measures should only be undertaken following the advice of a suitably experienced ecologist, taking account of relevant legislation and welfare considerations.

The bird breeding season will be dependent upon weather conditions and will vary from year to year, but in general is the period between early March and late August.

Natural England acts as an adviser to central government on the natural environment, providing practical science-based advice on how best to safeguard England’s natural wealth for the benefit of all.

By carrying out such works at this time of year, Bristol City Council is not only disregarding the advice given by Natural England, but also its own advice which it gives to community groups (PDF) carrying out conservation works involving trees. Page 2 of this document clearly states in relation to coppicing that this should be carried out between October and February. In the exact words of the guidance (page 2), this

Should be done during the dormant season and outside the bird nesting season.

In another city council document (PDF) entitled Tree Management Standards, page 4 clearly states:

Nesting birds are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (and other related wildlife law).

All this is happening in the year when Bristol is allegedly European Green Capital. However, the city council seems more interested in press stunts than in sound environmental practice that protects the environment and wildlife.

Readers with long-term memories may remember that scrub clearance took place last year nearby at Lawrence Hill roundabout (posts passim).
Homes to let. Resident rats unaffected

26/02/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Politics

Yesterday’s Bristol Post reports on the dire state of rented properties in Morton Street, Barton Hill, just down the road from the Little Russell (posts passim).

One of the problems faced by the tenants in question is that they’re having to share their homes with sitting tenants – resident brown rats. This is hardly a conducive environment to live in, let alone one in which to bring up one’s children.

Landlord or sitting tenant? Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

It’s said that no-one is ever more than a few yards away from a rat and these rodents do have any easy life in today’s cities. Their life is made even easier by the proliferation of fast food outlets in recent years combined with the untidy habits of their patrons.

The report really highlights the fact that Bristol is a divided city. While they city’s great and good are indulging in a year of junketing, mutual backslapping and filling each others’ bank accounts with public money courtesy of Bristol Green Capital, its poor are enduring infestations of vermin, plus the seemingly insurmountable inner-city blights of litter and fly-tipping.

Well done to ward councillors Marg Hickman and Hibaq Jama for highlighting this problem and taking up the tenants’ plight.
We’re European Green Capital, let’s fell some trees

13/02/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

It’s only February and Bristol’s year as European Green Capital is already deeply mired in controversy and hypocrisy.

While the city’s great and good gush praise for an art installation shrouding Pero’s Bridge in fog, ostensibly to draw attention to climate change (how wreathing a bridge heavily used by pedestrians and cyclists does that, I fail to see. Ed.), habitat destruction is happening in parts of the city well removed from rarefied confines in which city elite’s generally move.

Firstly, there’s the destruction of mature trees in Stapleton that’ll be taking place as part of the Metrobus project – a £100 mn. white elephant of a scheme that’ll knock a mere three and a half minutes off the journey time across the city (according to p.85 of Appendix 6 of the Metrobus Planning Statement. Ed.). The trees will be felled as soon as the protesters currently occupying them are finally evicted by the council’s bailiffs.

Allied to the Metrobus project, there’s the South Bristol Link Road project. This will result in a loss of environmental amenity for many south Bristol residents in its path. It was announced today that work on this £44 mn. act of environmental vandalism will start at Easter. Presumably more trees will be felled in the process.

Finally, work has started in the Easton area of the city alongside Easton Way to put in a new cycle facility alongside the dual carriageway. Below is a photograph of the progress of these works to date.

At this point an explanation of what can – and cannot – be seen is advisable.

The works are to provide a new cycle route alongside the dual carriageway.

The digger is sitting atop the remains of a berm originally built to provide a noise barrier to the maisonettes alongside the dual carriageway.

Over the years the berm had become covered with mature London plane trees and scrub, providing some much-needed inner city greenery and a valuable habitat for urban wildlife.

Both the trees and the berm are being removed to provide the above-mentioned cycle facility.

Being a local, I’m surprised the council has not simply adapted the footpath running alongside the foot of the now vanished berm to shared use.

That would have been the simplest and least destructive option.

I can imagine the dialogue down at the ~~Counts Louse~~ City Hall: “What do a few trees and a bit of scrub matter in the inner city? Nobody will notice!” “After all, it is for a cycle facility, so that makes everything all right!”

As this year’s European Green Capital, doesn’t Bristol City Council’s putting the environment at the bottom of its list of priorities positively reek of greenwash?

Answers, if any, below please!
Greenwash Capital moves to non-existent website

01/02/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Tech

In a new move Bristol City Council has started advertising websites for non-existent domains as part of its tenure as European Green Capital 2015.

I’m indebted to Redvee for the photograph below.

Not only does the solar park itself not exist, neither does the domain shown on the sign, as a simple whois search reveals.

I wonder how much money has been wasted on the publicity for a non-existent solar park and its accompanying (and equally non-existent) website.

Would anyone from Bristol City Council care to comment?

Update 02/02/2015: a subsequent whois search today revealed that the domain in question was registered by a PR person working for Bristol City Council this morning and that the registrant contact details are currently awaiting validation.
Bristol – European fly-tipping capital?

11/01/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Politics

In the world of the city’s great and good, Bristol is off to a flying start celebrating its year as European Green Capital.

Plans are already well advanced to spend thousands on spurious ‘green‘ arts projects, such as dumping a load of old boats in picturesque Leigh Woods.

According to the blurb on the European Green Capital website, the “European Green Capital Award (EGCA) has been conceived to recognise and reward local efforts to improve the environment, the economy and the quality of life in cities.”

However, it would appear that there’s been little local effort – apart from protests by local residents and councillors – to improve the environment and quality of life in inner city areas such as Easton, Lawrence Hill and St Pauls, judging by the amount of fly-tipping that still goes on daily on our streets with no sign of a slackening or any meaningful enforcement efforts or action by Bristol’s seemingly impotent or uninterested city council.

The photographs below were taken this morning by local resident Hannah Crudgington and are typical of the grottiness we inner city residents have to endure every day. All the photographs were taken within a couple of hundred metres of each other in the BS5 postcode area.

Was Bristol awarded the European Green Capital award on false premises? Some in the city believe that to be the case. Judging the evidence of my own eyes, awarding Bristol with the European Green Capital award would have been more appropriate.

Do you agree? Please feel free to comment.
Talking rubbish

03/07/2014 Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Politics, Social Media

One perennial problem in the Easton district of Bristol where I live is fly-tipping, the illegal dumping of waste.

Disgraceful! Trade & other waste dumped by communal bin for household waste in Stapleton Road, Easton

Some areas – such as Stapleton Road (see above picture) – have persistent problems and last night I gave a short presentation at the latest Easton & Lawrence Hill Neighbourhood Forum meeting to try and encourage other residents and those who work in the area to get involved and make Easton a tidier place.

I’m pleased to say I received whole-hearted support from local councillor Marg Hickman, who is equally concerned about the amount of litter on the streets (are fly-tipping and littering related; does one attract the other? Ed.).

Flytipping can be reported online using the council’s dedicated report form. Some people use Twitter to do so too, whilst for those with a smartphone various third party applications are available, such as My Council.

If anyone does draw attention to fly-tipping or litter on Twitter, you might like to add the hashtag #tidybs5. If you live elsewhere in Bristol you might like to adapt the #tidybs* hashtag, replacing the asterisk with the first figure of your postcode.

Yesterday I did learn prior to the Neighbourhood Forum meeting that persistence pays off: via an email from the city council I learnt that several traders on Stapleton Road are or have been served with fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping by enforcement officers. It’s a start, but I get the impression that fly-tipping will be as hard to eradicate as a Hammer horror film vampire.

Bristol will be European Green Capital in 2015. Unless it sorts out fly-tipping and other environmental problems in Easton and the city’s other less prosperous areas (like the plague of flies, dust and other industrial pollution in Avonmouth. Ed.), the accolade should be amended to read European Greenwash Capital.
Greenwash: Bristol City Council’s favourite paint

01/06/2014 Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Politics

2015 sees the city of Bristol wearing the crown of European Green Capital.

This award of European Green Capital is allegedly bestowed in recognition of the important role that local authorities play in improving the environment and their high level of commitment to genuine progress.

However, is it deserved in the case of Bristol City Council?

I have my doubts.

Earlier today I discovered tree felling, thinning and scrub clearance had been going on within the last few days at Lawrence Hill roundabout.

This is the middle of the main bird nesting season in the British Isles.

As regards protecting breeding birds and mitigating harm during the breeding season, Natural England’s advice (PDF, p. 4) is as follows:

The main mitigation route to reduce the likelihood of harm to breeding birds is to undertake clearance or destruction of any vegetation or structure which may be used as a breeding site outside the bird breeding season when breeding birds are unlikely to be present (based upon habitat features) or where survey work has confirmed their absence. Avoidance of such features is best achieved through timing of work (see below) but may also be possible by temporarily preventing birds from using these features, before they start doing so. Examples include physical exclusion (preventing access to potential nest sites) or use of visual or audible deterrents. Such measures should only be undertaken following the advice of a suitably experienced ecologist, taking account of relevant legislation and welfare considerations.

The bird breeding season will be dependent upon weather conditions and will vary from year to year, but in general is the period between early March and late August.

Natural England is the government’s advisor on the natural environment, providing practical advice, grounded in science, on how best to safeguard England’s natural wealth for the benefit of everyone.

Furthermore, a quick search of the city council’s website for scrub clearance bird nesting season returns 29,400 hits, with the first page seeming to consist of the council pontificating that no such works should be undertaken when birds are on the nest.

However, it is clear from the pictures above that Bristol City Council’s clear modus operandi is “do as I say, not as I do“.

The English language has a term for such an attitude: hypocrisy.

There’s also a splendid fairly new English word specifically for a superficial or insincere display of concern for the environment shown by organisations: greenwash.

Next year, Bristolians can bet their city will be coated in greenwash, liberally applied with big brushes and rollers by the city council, given its apparent hypocrisy when it comes to nature conservation.

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