Southville

 

 

Southville returns two councillors to the Bristol City Council - one of whom has, since 2006, been a Green Party councillor.  We're hoping to make it two in 2011!

Charlie Bolton returns as our candidate for the election on May 5th .  Charlie was Bristol's first Green councillor until he stood down a year ago, Tess Green taking his place.

 

About Charlie Bolton.......
Charlie has lived in Southville since 1991. He has seen the area change profoundly in that time with the re-population of the area by many middle-class people who see the benefits in living somewhere close to the centre of the city, and also close to the countryside. The last decade has also seen changes in the retail mix of the area, with the development of one end of North St to become a relatively thriving area, the increase in restaurants, and the Tobacco Factory theatre.

Charlie has stood in elections over a number of years - going back to the days when Labour used to weigh their votes (there were so many!) to now when the Greens have won two of the last three elections (and lost the third by just 6 votes!).

He has worked as a systems analyst in the city, and now works for a small local cycling charity. He set up the market at the Tobacco Factory, and was a founder member of the Sustainable Southville project. And he became the first Green Councillor on 2006.

As councillor, as well as helping many individuals across the ward, he also

• Initiated and vice chaired the climate change select committee which resulted in over 40 policies being adopted by the council
• Initiated and chaired the sustainable transport select committee which also had many policies adopted by Bristol City Council
• Submitted the motion which led to the saving of the Bristol-Bath railway path
• Tried to get Bristol councillors to be eligible for ‘recall’ ie giving people a way to get rid of them! (The other councillors didn’t agree!)
• Put a policy motion to the council aimed at saving residential caretakers
• Gained extra money for energy efficiency measures
• Proposed a motion to decentralise the distribution of Section 106 money. This has now been taken up by the council.

Tess Green is our current Green councillor, she was elected in May 2010 and taking over from Charlie Bolton.

Tess Green (seen, right, planting a hornbeam in East Street) lives in the ward, just off North Street. She's lived and worked in South Bristol for 25 years.

As a Green Party activist she is keen to protect local open spaces from over development, believing that ready access to green space is vital for our physical and mental well being.   She's a community activist too, including playing a part in Friends of Avon New Cut (FRANC), Sustainable Southville, and Friends of Bristol South Pool.

Until 2010 Tess helped to run a small West Country brewery. She believes that local businesses are the key to thriving communities and is keen to ensure that businesses in Southville are not put at a disadvantage by BCC decisions.

Tess also believes that citizens should have control locally over the decisions which affect their daily lives such as public transport, education, health and leisure services, and that they should be able to recall politicians who are not working fully in the interests of the electorate.

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The ward

Southville electoral ward is more than what most of us know as Southville - the area bounded by Asda, Coronation Road, North Street down to about the Tobacco Factory.

The ward is bigger. It stretches from the City ground and Bower Ashton to the Bath Road, bordered by the river to the north and, to the south, a bureaucrat's line drawn along the railway, North Street, Blyth Road, and Winterstoke Road.

Need to check whether you live in this ward? Click on Bristol City Council's ward finder.

The Greens' Progress

We are pleased that the 20mph zone first proposed by the GP in 1992 is in place in Southville. The public has shown majority support for this initiative although it is not clear as yet how well it is working. Greens will continue to work to make sure that 20 mph on residential streets becomes a reality to deliver the calmer, safer streets which most people want.

The Greater Bedminster Community Partnership is now well established and is increasingly helping local people to become involved in decision making about their locality )

The ward faces huge uncertainty at present with the twin threats of a new football stadium on Green Belt land at Ashton Vale and a huge Sainsbury's store at Ashton Gate. Both developments threaten to degrade the environment and bring traffic chaos.  A new superstore, the largest Sainsbury's in the South West, will undermine the local shops of the area and the hard won sustainabilty of Southville. Green activists have been heavily involved in opposing these developments, arguing that any new stadium should not be at such a high cost to the local community