And also the language of people who really want an iPhone and some jewellery.
Nothing on Craigslist in Bristol yet.
Boyfriend cheating on you? Girlfriend didn’t pay back that money she borrowed? Go on - shop one of this lot. Sod civic duty or respect for the law; do it for petty vengeance or spite. No one will ever know it was you.
Click this link for the full gallery of looters.
The Drudge Report links to a Guardian article about a UK city publishing its Zombie Apocalypse response plan, in a response to a Freedom of Information request. I thought to myself “that’s got to be Bristol”. It was. Here it is:
This has probably done more to raise the profile of Bristol than millions of pounds worth of White Elephant Museums, World Cup Bids, Local Partnerships or Burlesque shows (although let’s not be too hasty about ditching that last one). I think we can comfortably say that Bristol is the only International Tourist destination that is prepared for the dead rising (apart from the Vatican).
Well done to Council Communications Director Peter Holt, and his team. According to the document information on the FoI response, it took them 16 minutes of document writing to achieve international awareness of Bristol. Impressive, efficient and cheap.
The 5 minute guide to Bristol City Council Cabinet Business 27 June 2011. See bottom of the post for Crowdsourcing Opportunities
5. FINANCE & PERFORMANCE OUTTURN 2010-11
Last year the Council underspent by £3,100,000. So this year, they propose to keep the money “just in case (nudge, wink)” they overspend this year. £3.1m could be converted into a £23 reduction in Council Tax for a Band D property.
The Council spent £26.6m less on capital programmes than planned. One would think this would be grounds for promotions all round, but actually it’s not the done thing in the public sector; “slippage” as it is known is much worse than overspend, as money that hasn’t been spent yet is always at risk of being taken away from departmental budgets.
A reasonable chunk of the slippage looks it will never need to be spent, thus hopefully the city’s external debt (money borrowed by the council that you have to pay back) will be reported as dropping rapidly.
7. TREASURY MANAGEMENT ANNUAL REPORT 2010/11
The Council still reckons it can get our money back from Iceland (£8m). A recent legal judgement in Iceland has given British local authority debt “Priority Status”. This means that if a bankrupt Icelandic Bank with no assets owes millions to hundreds of organisations, the dozen of so “Priority” creditors get repaid first, after the taxman, the banking regulators, the liquidators, the lawyers and any protected staff pension schemes.
Hypothetically then, instead of getting 0.05% of nothing, Bristol as a priority creditor near the front of the alphabet might get 0.1% of nothing. I wonder how much the Council spent with Bevan Brittan on filing legal papers.
8. KEY ARTS PROVIDERS 2012-2015
A summary of the hoops that need to be jumped through if you want a bit of the Council’s £2.5m budget for social community arts or whatever the current buzz phrase is; should you require any training in jumping through hoops, Bristol has a number of Circus Skills consultants who can assist.
The 2009/11 Key Arts Providers (yep, the usual suspects) are listed here.
9. BRISTOL SCHOOLS PROPOSING TO CONVERT TO ACADEMIES
An Academy is a compromise solution for schools, in which they are not maintained by Local Authorities, but neither are they independent. It’s a more complicated approach to purchasing state education than just giving parents a voucher for education which they can spend where they like, or for that matter just buying education with actual money like most British parents would do if they could afford it.
From the perspective of the swivel chairs in the control room at the Local Education Authority, Academies are awful things because the LEA can do chuff all to them. No guidance notes, no diversity statements, no equalities assessments, no carbon neutrality assessment, no health & safety posters, no memos, no cover sheets, not even a TPS report. This is clearly a problem, and in the absence of any actual means to compel Academies to kow-tow to the Council House, the new plan is a Partnership Agreement. Officers note:
There are risks that an increase in the number of academies could fragment and splinter the school system in ways that could foster competition rather than collaboration. The Partnership Agreement is designed to ameliorate the risk of this occurring in Bristol
Which, frankly, is rather the point; competition amongst service providers (schools) raises standards because customers (parents) can take their business (children) elsewhere.
So, if you’re a school governor, or a parent, and your school is converting to an academy, make sure you let the headmaster and the senior management know that you expect them to do the best they can for your child, and that they should tell the LEA to stick their Partnership Agreement in the nearest recycling box.
Life is too short to spend it reading documents. (I mean my life, not yours). Help me out:
Leave a comment if you find anything.
After the recent rubber-stamp, by the Bristol Council Cabinet, here are the grim details of the new Residents Parking Scheme. Notably absent from all the documention: the word “Pilot”.
The first permit for each household will cost £30 per annum; the second permit will cost £80 per annum. In exceptional cases where a third permit is issued, it will cost £200 per annum.
That’s equivalent to a 7% rise in council tax for a Band D property with two cars, or 4% for a single-mum in a Band A property with one old banger. But if she spends £14,000 on a brand new “low carbon, high smug” Polo, she’s quids in.
The mickey-mouse financial analysis (see Appendix 5) from the council suggests that two-thirds of the running costs will be derived from income other than selling permits. And all of the first 5 years surplus will be used to cover the up-front capital costs (although inflation and the time-value of money don’t rate a mention).
Now I can’t work out how the Parking Services team have arrived at a break-even figure over 5 years, so my official view is that this scheme is “unsustainable” as the bureaucrats say, and exists only as a means to an end; to expand parking control over the rest of Cotham, Redland and Clifton in vainglorious pursuit of the mythical car-free city, so beloved of policy wonks (apart from me).
Bristol City Council continues to build on its reputation as a great place to do business by placing the following constraints on businesses operating in the zone:
- 1.1.Businesses located in the defined Residents’ Parking Scheme area can apply for a business permit.
- 1.2.These permits will only be issued for a vehicle essential to the operation of a business during the course of the working day. Permits will not be issued to vehicles used for commuting to or from work.
- 1.3.Each business can apply for one business permit at a cost of £100 per annum.
- 1.4.A business permit will not be issued if the business has access to off-street parking of any kind.
- 1.5.The applicant will need to provide proof of their business address and a declaration of the use of the vehicle for and in the course of business. A copy of insurance documentation showing that the vehicle is insured for business purposes will also be required.
- 1.6.The applicant must supply the vehicle registration document (V5). If the document is not in the applicant’s name then the applicant must also supply a signed letter from the registered keeper confirming that they are authorised to use the vehicle. If the vehicle is a leased vehicle, then an official letter from the leasing company stating that the vehicle is leased to the applicant’s employer must also be supplied.
- 1.7 Credit will only be given if the applicant is aged over 75 and accompanied by both parents.
One of those is a joke. See if you can guess which one.
Bristol City Council have chosen to deviate somewhat from the Guidance manual for (Acting) Returning Officers at a UK general election for managing the local council election, and adopted what will no doubt be called “The Bristol Method”:
