Just back from the BERATE public meeting and impressed to see a full house (well church) with around 200 people attending the meeting. Shame it wasn't 202 people but our MP, Dawn Primarolo and Bristol City Chief Executive, Colin Sexstone, couldn't make it!Although the meeting was open to pro and anti Tesco supporters, during the hour-and-a-half meeting not one person stood up in favour of the development. Even with the assurance of two police officers in the room!
The BERATE campaign refreshed its arguments against the store, which I won't repeat here ( see previous posts on Simply Southville or visit the BERATE website). However, Simply Southville did find out some of the interesting new facts and news. These are:
- The traffic assessment provided for the application by BCFC looks a bit shaky and nobody has done any work on what a new 30,000 stadium at Ashton Vale and a Tesco store would mean on match days in the future.
- As well as the 900+ e-signatures on the petition on the council's website there are a further 1,200 on a paper petition.
- George Ferguson announced that he and a fellow architect are going to donate time from their respective practices to provide an alternative sustainable vision for the Ashton Gate site. This will be complete with a proposed commercial value for such a development.
- City and its spin doctors are offering pre-paid letters for people to sign and send in to support the development.
- The Tesco proposal is an 'enabling' application, meaning that it is formally linked to the stadium development.
I believe (but not 100 per cent sure) Southville's two city councillors were in the audience, but neither decided to make a comment or ask a question. Strange for politicians!?!
So the fight continues and it was good to see new people coming along tonight to join the campaign. It's not too late to write in and oppose this application.
Posts
Evening Post covers the meeting on page 2 and 3 of today's paper. Not quite so impressive online http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/homepage/United-Bristol-Tesco-store-plan/article-1349936-detail/article.html .
ReplyDeleteBoth councillors were there, as was Mark Bradshaw.
ReplyDeleteI didn't comment because I agreed with the presentation by BERATE, because I thought the purpose of the meeting was more for people to express their views, and I was a bit knackered.
Charlie Bolton
Charlie
ReplyDeleteFair enough. You have been consitent and open about your view all along. Perhaps Sean Beynon could be more public about his view, especially now we know all the details.