I find my city of birth dirtier and more unkempt than ever before

I’M beginning to believe I’m living in a ‘parallel universe’, judging that the Post reports almost weekly that Bristol has attracted some prize from a body such as Visit England or received rave accolades from some trendy magazine I’ve never heard of.

Not that for a moment I’m not immensely proud of what my home city and its inhabitants have achieved, as you would imagine from someone who can trace his male-line ancestry in the city back over 500 years, to before civil registration began in 1537.

We are privileged to boast some truly iconic buildings, from St James Priory to more recent examples and incredibly impressive individuals, including merchants, adventurers and explorers, and engineers such as Brunel and those celebrated at the Aerospace Museum at Filton.

It’s that, environmentally, I find my city of birth dirtier, more unkempt than ever and increasingly prone to fly-tipping and littering. Walking or driving around Bristol, it is evident that our pavements and streets are allowed to sprout vegetation and weeds and our city council is increasingly unwilling or unable to keep up standards.

Of course, no doubt some of your left-wing correspondents might attribute this to ‘austerity’ and socalled ‘Tory-imposed cuts’, but the truth is that Bristol’s Labour-run council chooses to squander taxpayers’ money on bureaucracy and ‘politically correct’ causes.

We also have a council which is determined to penalise motorists, clog up our roads and create congestion, increase air-borne pollution through its own weird policies and stop Bristolians from easily crossing the city to gain access to employment, education, leisure or healthcare. Just witness the recent refusal of much-needed BRI carparking by Labour and Green councillors.

And, intellectually and politically, modern Bristol and its leading politicians seem almost ashamed of its historic figures, such as the great philanthropists Colston, Canynges and Wills.

Is it any wonder that recently my

mother, when planning to celebrate a significant birthday, declared that she didn’t want to expose the visiting family to the ‘New Bristol’ and we opted for a venue in North Somerset instead?

Representing a council seat in the extreme south west of Bristol, I am increasingly tempted to declare ‘UDI’ (Unilateral Declaration of Independence) and join North Somerset as the answer to my frustrations!

Cllr Richard Eddy

Conservative Councillor, Bishopsworth

The end for democracy

✒ WE are being told by the remoaners, who feel that the original People’s Vote was the wrong result, that in order to get out of the mess that THEY have done their best to engineer we should have another referendum. This is, of course, the usual EU answer to a referendum that did not go the way they wanted. Do it again, and keep doing it until you get it right!

We can see quite plainly how the Masters of the EU are trying to punish the UK for daring to leave, but imagine the revenge they would extract from us should we ask to stay. What price would be demanded in order to make a U-turn on the wish of the people?

The shackles of the EU would be tightened to ensure that we pay a price to regret ever wanting to leave.

Democracy in this country would be a thing of the past.

M J Radnedge

Chipping Sodbury

Can they not wash up?

✒ I SEE that plastic, single-use cups have now been banned in the Council House – or the City Hall as the councillors like to call it.

This seems such an obvious thing to do that I am surprised that a council that has twice been named as the greenest city in the country hasn’t done this before.

Two thousand employees are being told they now have to supply their own cups and glasses.

Why haven’t they done this before on a voluntary basis, why does it take a ban to make them do it now?

Can they not think for themselves, or are they afraid of the washing up?

Could the council please tell us how much has been spent each year supplying the cups for two thousand staff to have two or three, perhaps many more, drinks per day and what has happened to the large number of plastic cups, must be thousands, that are discarded each day?

We are always being told how to recycle properly and have the numerous bins provided by the council to do this.

It seems that they are quick to tell others what to do whilst ignoring their own advice.

P Collins

Bristol

Another own goal?

✒ IF Jonson Clarke-Harris’ success continues can we expect Bristol Rovers will sell him for an undisclosed next to nothing as with the last three striking assets? Ted Condon

Hanham