We now have a shortlist for this award: Plonker/s of the year? 10.11.23 https://stirfrombelow.substack.com/p/plonkers-of-the-year This is the rationale for making it:
'Calling truth to power' is the fundamental mission for this blog. More often than not, it's a serious and sometimes grim business. However, what authority hates above anything else is becoming an object of ridicule when a fed up populace takes the piss out of their arrogance and pretensions. That's the motive for having the 'plonker/s of the year' award - to rip the piss out of the arrogant (and all too often, inept) bastards who presume to rule over us.
The candidates were the local and regional authorities that hold power over us in the Avon region alongside public transport operators and utility providers and, last but by no means least, commercial concerns whose level of arrogance and tone deafness is off the scale. From a very wide field, we've now narrowed down the list of candidates to the following, presented in alphabetical order:
THE SHORTLIST
a) Bristol City Council
There's so much about Bristol City Council that makes them an eminently suitable candidate for the Plonker/s of the year award, it was hard to know where to make a start. Events over the last two months have effectively made that decision for us. The events in question both relate to the council's lamentable record in maintaining its social housing stock.
Barton House
Firstly, we have the saga of Barton House, a social housing block in the east of Bristol that had to be evacuated because of concerns about its structural integrity. As things stand, after extensive surveying work on the block, it looks as though residents will eventually be able to return to their homes but, not until early spring. The way this saga has unfolded is a sorry tale of warnings about possible structural issues in the block not being acted upon, through to piss poor communication between the council and the evacuated residents. Here are just two of the many posts we have made about the issues at Barton House:
Possibly a small step in the right direction, but... 20.12.23
The residents of Barton House should never have found themselves in this situation in the first place. Had the current and previous administrations at Bristol City Council been on top of their jobs and taken note of timely warnings about potential safety issues, the whole issue could have been much better handled than the shambles that has ensued.
The continuing saga of Barton House 25.11.23
You seriously couldn't make this up could you? From the abysmal treatment of the evacuated residents through to the confusion over who, if anyone, saw the warning letter from the government back in 2017, the situation can only be described as one massive clusterf**k. Issues that should be a matter of routine to deal with by mature processes and protocols are all too frequently turning into major dramas.
Gilton House
Secondly, we have a botched refurbishment programme at Gilton House, a social housing block in Brislington on the south eastern fringes of Bristol. The refurbishment involves the replacement of the windows in the block and the replacement of the external cladding. The new cladding can't go on until the windows have been replaced. There were delays in getting the work on the windows underway. Meanwhile, the old external cladding had been stripped off the block. With the delays to the replacement of the windows plus unanticipated issues with shortages of the required materials, there's no cladding on the building.
No external cladding means massively higher energy bills to keep the flats warm. Most of the residents are pensioners, some of who may struggle to find the money to pay these bills. Not being able to find the money means struggling to live in a freezing cold flat. For someone who's elderly and vulnerable, that will potentially have a serious impact upon their health. In the 21st century, this is not acceptable in any way.
Systemic neglect 23.12.23
This is leaving residents with the option of having to find alternative accommodation or jack the heating up and face astronomical bills as a consequence. Most of the residents of Gilton House are pensioners who may face problems paying massively inflated energy bills just to keep warm. If they can't afford the cost of heating their homes, they have to endure levels of cold that will threaten their health. Because of the botched management of the windows and cladding re-fit of the block, there's now a situation where people's health and possibly lives are at risk. In the 21st century, this should not be acceptable.
b) Marvin Rees
Marvin Rees is the mayor of Bristol. A role whose future was put to a referendum. The citizens of Bristol voted to end the role of mayor and instead, opt for a committee system to run the city. This becomes effective from May 2024 when the next local elections are due. The referendum was ostensibly about the role of a mayor. However, given the arrogance and hubris exhibited by Rees during his term in office, it can be argued that the referendum result was in effect, the verdict of Bristolians on how Rees has performed as the city's mayor.
Despite the role of the mayor being brought to an end, Rees still ended up as a finalist in the World Mayor Awards 2023. It seems like all of the globe trotting Rees does to ostensibly 'promote' Bristol paid off for him to become a finalist. As for the promotional globe trotting, given that the role of the mayor is ending this coming May, many people understandably think that his jetting off around to globe to 'promote' Bristol is more about him boosting his career prospects once he ceases to be mayor.
Flying round the globe while Bristol crumbles 23.11.23
The gap between the gritty reality of life in Bristol where it feels like the place is crumbling away and nothing works as it should on the one hand, and on the other, the hot air Rees spouts as he jets off to conferences around the world is so vast, you can't see one side from the other. The people of Bristol by and large aren't interested in any grand vision for the future, all they want is a city that works and is a decent place to live. In other words, they want Bristol City Council to get the basics of their job right without the dramas they're getting now. In other words, what they want is less spin and more delivery.
Seriously?! 3.11.23
Most people judge the performance of their city leaders by their day to day experiences of living, working, shopping and leisure. Talk to any Bristolian and you'll hear a long list of issues that make living in the city a difficult experience. These range from a chronic shortage of genuinely affordable housing through to a public transport system, buses in particular, that's not fit for purpose. The long running spat between Marvin Rees and Dan Norris, the metro mayor for the West of England Combined Authority, over the future direction of public transportation in Bristol and the surrounding areas is one example of grandstanding and point scoring that's seriously holding things back.
c) Roots Allotments
Roots are a commercial allotment provider (backed by venture capital), operating and developing a number of sites. The first one they opened up was at Tuckers Meadow in the countryside outside of Bath. As a result of friction with residents at the new site they're 'developing' near Abbots Leigh Wood in North Somerset, just south of Bristol, they've deservedly acquired a reputation for arrogance and tone deafness.
As well as blithely ignoring the concerns of local residents about the levels of traffic a site that's difficult to reach by public transport will generate, Roots have paid no regard to the ecology of the site they're 'developing'. Which is (now former) grazing land frequented by deer living in the neighbouring Abbots Leigh Wood. That means care needs to be exercised as to what kind of fencing (if any) is used on the site. Roots picked the kind of fencing that isn't compatible with free roaming deer. Sadly a deer trying to cross over the fence became trapped and died, despite efforts to rescue it. This is what happens when the concerns of residents are either dismissed out of hand or ignored.
A few thoughts on allotment provision and guerilla gardening 9.12.23
After a long battle with local residents, Roots have started to develop a site at Abbots Leigh Wood near Bristol. It should be noted that Roots have generated controversy with the way they conduct their operations - Roots Allotments uncovered. The site they're now finally opening up at Abbots Leigh Wood ran into opposition from local residents pretty much as soon as Roots announced their plans over a year ago: Allotment plan is 'blot on the landscape' says village near Bristol 10.11.22. The concerns of residents range from the loss of meadow habitat for wildlife through to an increase in vehicle movements in the area.
d) West of England Combined Authority (WECA)
WECA is comprised of the local authorities of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset. The mayor of WECA, Dan Norris, is directly elected by the public. The meetings of WECA are made up of the mayor and the leaders (or replacement delegates) of the aforementioned local authorities. Essentially, WECA is supposed to take a more strategic view of what happens in the region. This takes in transport and planning amongst other matters.
WECA is renowned for being dysfunctional with meetings becoming somewhat fractious and tetchy. The heated and acrimonious meetings are just one symptom of an authority that struggles to have a clear sense of direction and has some very poor decision making processes. Here are a couple of examples of this:
Those bus decals
This is about decals that were produced and applied to the side of a bus. The decals were intended to promote two initiatives. One was to entice more people to use the bus network across the region with the offer of free bus travel in the month of their birthday. The other was to recruit more drivers that would make the bus services more reliable. Both very much needed. The problem was that the decals that were produced featured a massive image of Dan Norris and his dog. So massive that they detracted attention away from the initiatives they were supposed to be promoting. Also, they could be seen as promoting Dan Norris as opposed to the free bus travel and the driver recruitment.
This was only spotted after the decals had been produced and applied to the bus which was about to out on the road. The officer who saw this immediately withdrew the bus from operation until the decals could be removed because, going out as they were would have been unlawful. Which begs this question - why the f**k were these decals allowed to go all the way from the initial design stage to being applied to the side of the bus before someone realised they were illegal?!
It's not about you Dan, okay? 15.12.23
In a report, WECA's top legal and financial officers concluded that the expenditure of £10,000 on the bus promotion was unlawful because it looked like a promotional for Dan Norris rather than the initiatives it was supposed to promote. Which still begs the unanswered question which is the massive elephant in the room in this fiasco - why the f**k wasn't the design pictured above checked for compliance before the decals went into production and were then placed on the side of the bus? Someone should have reviewed those designs and told Dan Norris in no uncertain terms, 'it's not about you Dan, okay?'
£10,000 - the cost of hubris 24.11.23
You couldn't make this up could you? If you propose to blow £10,000 on plastering a bus with promotional decals, isn't it a good idea to run the mock ups of how it will look past a few people for their opinions? I used to work as a finished artworker in the packaging industry and nothing ever got produced without mock ups being subjected to some very close and critical scrutiny. In this instance with the bus decals, it would appear that the most basic checks were simply not undertaken before the decals were produced and applied to the bus in question. That's just unprofessional, full stop...
A lack of joined up thinking
WECA are supposed to take a strategic overview of transport, public and road, across the region. Which sounds great in theory. In practice, what we're getting are piecemeal initiatives here and there which don't really seem to link up into anything cohesive.
Here's one example of this. WECA have access to a pot of money from the government to make improvements along the route of the A4 from Bristol to Bath. WECA have accepted the offer of this money to come up with a series of proposals aimed at enticing motorists out of their cars and instead, using the buses, cycling or walking. These proposals include bus lanes and cycle paths along various sections of the route.
The thinking behind this appears to be 'build it and they will come'. The aim of building bus lanes is to hope that the bus operators will step up to the plate and run more services. Here's the kicker, the pot of government money is for infrastructure only, it cannot be used to subsidise bus services. So, WECA could spend a fortune on providing bus lanes and not one single extra bus would run along them.
Anyone with any common sense knows that the real game changer in enticing people to leave the car at home would be a massively enhanced rail service between Bath and Bristol and the re-opening of the railway stations at St. Anne's and Saltford. That most definitely isn't covered by the pot of money on offer from the government. So WECA, rather than turning the pot of money down because there are too many strings attached, accepted it and came up with proposals that have been widely derided by Bristolians, Bathonians and those of us in between.
Joined up thinking? Anyone? 21.11.23
As the title of this piece suggests, the proposals from WECA to spend a pot of government money with strings attached is a classic example of a dearth of joined up thinking from those who presume to rule over us. It takes the residents living along the Bristol to Bath corridor to point out the numerous flaws in the proposals and say that unless an enhanced rail service is in the mix, WECA's aim of traffic reduction will never be realised. All of which goes to show just how out of touch WECA are with reality...
So there we have it, the shortlist for the Plonker/s of the year award. This is something you can discuss over your Christmas lunch - just don't let it descend into a major row! We won't be making our final decision until New Year's Eve so there's still a bit of time for you to comment on the above list. We're now going to be taking a few days away from blogging but will resume by the latter half of this week. Season's greetings to all of our followers:)
Not sure what a plonker is, but I think there are thousands and thousands here across the pond. The fact that authority hates being questioned or ridiculed proves to me that they are not really authorities, but scardy cats afraid of being exposed for the plonkers they truly are.
True authority, if there be such an animal, would graciously accept any and all ridicule as being positive feedback. Who else knows better than the slaves to authority how they should be dictated to?