Bulletin No. 8, February 2020

From Andrew Waller

Hello, everyone. This newsletter is coming to you a bit later than intended, because of the developments highlighted below. There are now almost 280 people on this list.

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In this issue:

• UoB’s shock decision to abandon its community liaison meetings
• Major developments regarding HMOs
• Operation Beech update
• An appeal to residents in Manor Park and the Waverley / Ravenswood areas

Community Liaison Group, RIP?

I had expected to write in January with news from the Community Liaison Group (CLG) meeting that’s normally held in December. This is where the University of Bristol tells residents’ groups what it’s doing to mitigate noise and other problems.

Well, it didn’t happen—not, as I initially assumed, because a general election got in the way, but because UoB decided, without consultation or even a courtesy email, that it didn’t want to have a CLG any more.

I learned of this on Dec 17 in an email exchange with UoB. Due to the Christmas holidays, any reaction had to wait until January. To cut to the chase, as things stand, the CLG appears dead. UoB is promising to meet residents’ groups individually, but that’s far short of a forum that brings groups together. It’s also trying to revive something called the Bristol Student Community Partnership, but it looks like residents won’t be at the table.

This decision, and the way it was done, is bad news for the future of relations between residents and the university. It suggests a complacent UoB regarded the CLG as entirely its own creature, and saw no need to consult on its future. Not the way to build trust.

I and others think this move should be rolled back. To that end:

• I submitted questions to UoB on Jan 6 and posted an article the same day
• I sent an email alert to residents’ groups and councillors on Jan. 7
• Two groups, Chandos and RCAS, expressed concern to UoB
• Having received no reply to my questions, I wrote to the Vice Chancellor, Prof Hugh Brady, on Jan 28. I’ve been told to expect a reply from the Registrar, Lucinda Parr (as has CNA, which also wrote to the VC).

I’ve suggested to UoB that, at minimum, they should convene a meeting of residents’ groups and explain what they’re trying to achieve. There are also some topics that we on the residents’ side want to discuss as soon as possible, including the future for Operation Beech and what UoB is doing to improve its messaging to students about “living out”.

My view is that, if UoB's reply doesn't offer a CLG-style meeting with residents' groups, then the groups should jointly request one. I think it would be hard for the university to refuse.

In the meantime, if you represent a residents’ group, please let me know your views (if you haven’t already). We need to see how much support we can count on. 

Noise Pages complaints data for term one suggest things were a bit quieter this year. (They have livened up again in the past week.) See article here.

A Push to Halt the Tide of HMOs

Bristol City Council is making a new attempt to bring in tougher rules that will limit the creation of new Houses of Multiple Occupation. It has just (today) published the proposals, which will be going out to public consultation in the next few weeks. This is in the form of a Supplementary Planning Document, available here.

This is a crucial document. It won’t do anything to reduce the number of HMOs we already have, but it could be vital in preventing their numbers rising further. With the University of Bristol planning to bring thousands of additional students into the city in the next few years, already-overburdened areas could see more HMO conversions if the new rules don’t gain approval.

I posted an article on this on Jan 15, highlighting the role of local councillors Clive Stevens and Anthony Negus, and I expect there will be more to come, including (shortly) details of a local consultation meeting.

To give you a taste of what’s at stake, also read my article on the efforts of residents in Cotham Vale to resist a retrospective planning application in their street—where 40% of houses already are HMOs. (You might imagine the strong opposition to this proposal will guarantee rejection, but a similar application in All Saint’s Road, west of Whiteladies Road, was granted despite strong opposition, so there’s no room for complacency.)

Other aspects of the student housing issue were covered in a Bristol Post online article (also citing Cllrs Stevens and Negus) on Jan 30.

Lastly, I recently joined Cllr Stevens and others in discussing “premises management plans”. The city’s planners are looking at possibly making HMO planning approvals conditional on the landlord submitting such a plan, which would stipulate how an HMO is managed. (This is separate from HMO licensing.) There are a lot of potential obstacles to this, so there’s no official proposal to show at the moment.

Media Interest

My only media appearance these past few weeks was a blink-and-you-missed-it spot on The Jeremy Vine Show, BBC Radio 2, matched against Danny Shaw, a UoB student who edits The Tab, Bristol, an online newspaper. We managed to keep it friendly. Which is just as well, since we were sat side by side in an unsupervised, sound-proofed interview room in the BBC studios on Whiteladies Road.

United We Stand?

We have a patchwork quilt of residents’ groups, with both overlaps and some notable gaps. Redland & Cotham Amenity Society has members spread across the district, but some areas also have their own groups, such as Chandos Neighbourhood Association.

Two areas which have lots of students don’t have their own groups, as far as I know.

My contact list contains 7 people who’ve declared they live in Manor Park, and 20-plus in the Waverley-Ravenswood area. However, there are probably more than this, because many of you joined before I put a ‘Street Name’ option on my sign-up form.

Are any of you interested in forming your own residents’ group? If so, let me know, and I will put you in touch with each other. Likewise, if there’s interest from other areas, I will happily look through the list and try to find others nearby..

Finally

If you have any ideas about what is, or isn't, in these bulletins or the website itself, feel free to email me (see the links below). As a parting gift, here is an article from the Epigram student newspaper by a student who welcomes Operation Beech and says loud parties affect students as well as residents. (Yes, really.)

Thanks for reading. ‘Bye for now, Andrew

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