Christmas Starts Here! Brailsfords light up Brentry

Fireworks go up, as the lights come on

 It's become more traditional than opening your advent calendar; Every year Lee and Paul, the now notorious Brailsford Brothers, light up Christmas for Brentry and Beyond.

Two years ago, they starred in a Channel 4 documentary on Britain's greatest Christmas Lights, and you can read about them this year in our very own Bristol Post.

every year, the Brailsford Bro's add more and more lights!

Very proud. My first Christmas Present. I'm going to wear it in the House of Commons. Shhh...

 I always tell the story of how I  came across Lee in his garage, fiddling around with wires and large snowmen one boiling hot September afternoon, some years ago now, already preparing for Christmas. 

Now the Brailsford Brothers hope to smash the £20,000 mark in raising money for Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal.

Gromit's had a big year, this year. But still found time to support @brailsfordxmas

Each year, the spectacle gets bigger and better -this year it was almost hard to get to see the house for the crowds, and as the count-down went off, the fireworks went up. Amazing!  We are also now lucky to have some really brilliant local talent performing to get us all in the festive mood.

This year was a bit special for me- as Lee and Paul gave me my first Christmas present - my very own Brailsford Lights hoodie which I will wear with pride! I've been dared to wear it in the Chamber at the House of Commons. So shhh... watch this space... and don't tell the Speaker...


If you missed the lights - turn-on, don't worry! You can enjoy the festivities again on Christmas Eve, and the lights are on every day until January 3rd between 5-10pm.

You can also donate online at www.brailsfordlights.co.uk 

Or by texting rixy88 and £1, £5 or £10 to 70070.

Henna-bury Fun Day! (groan)

Henna-bury. Geddit, geddit!  ahem. I'll get my coat.

Amongst many of the highlights at Henbury Funday on Saturday was Pria's (sorry Pria, I have a feeling I've spelt your name wrong) free Henna Tattoos. She's training to do this professionally and she's already a master.

The community of Henbury and Brentry are indefatigable when it comes to putting on events to keep the community together, and it really makes all the difference. I was honoured to open the event and, for once, speechless as I was given flowers to say thank you for work that I've done. All I can say is that whatever I do is a fraction of what people like Rose, Cynthia, Carol and many, many others ( you all know who you are!) do day in, day out, with out fanfare or recognition to make our community a better place. Thank YOU!

Avon Talking Magazines for the Blind - 40th Anniversary!

Drinking tea with Cynthia for a good cause. Yes, tough, I know

The Avon Talking Magazine for the Blind  is one of those unsung, but exceptional charities that makes such a difference to so many peoples' lives on a daily basis.

Cynthia Reynolds has for many years not had to press-gang me into coming to fund raising events - often wonderful teas like this one, to support an incredibly valuable cause.

signing the 'Avon Talking Magazine Tablecloth' (nicely posed)

This year they held a very special event to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the organisation.

Signing the Avon Talking Magazine Tablecloth - in reality

Services like this can make all the difference to those with limited sight and blindness, in a world that can otherwise seem very hostile and self-referential and sufficient.

Star-studded guest list - Our Lord Mayor & Cllr Chris Windows

The hall was packed and we were lucky to welcome the Lord Mayor and other celebs such as the notorious ( in a good way) Cllr. Chris Windows from Henbury, over some excellent cake, and a cup of tea - served impeccably by the superb team from Avon Talking Books for the Blind. 

I got to sign a magnificent table-cloth, with embroidered signatures from many supporters over the years, all beautifully done by Cynthia Reynolds.

Thank you to Cynthia and the whole team not only for a beautiful tea, but for all the extraordinary work you do year in, year out, to change people's worlds. Inspiration.  

The Henbury Loop Line - it CAN happen!

Isambard gave us the Suspension Bridge - surely we can achieve this?!

Can you imagine Isambard Kingdom Brunel planning to build a railway line from Bristol to London now? Or the Clifton Suspension Bridge?  Local authorities would have to agree, there would be an awful lot of very expensive consultants employed, then everyone would suck their teeth, look concerned ,say they were terribly supportive of the idea but of course, it could never be done, would be far too expensive, may require planning permission etc etc etc blah,  and a million reasons 'why not'

Flapjacks- an essential part of any journey

Everyone ready to board the Henbury Loop Special!

That's what's going on with the far more modest proposal to open up a small stretch of existing freight-train track back up to passengers again, as it used to be. The track between Filton, Henbury and Avonmouth already exists. As part of the 'Bristol Metro' plans, most people with any common sense whatsoever think it would be a good idea to use this existing track for passengers to create a real circle line round the city.

All that is needed now is for the good people at the West of England Partnership to agree and put in a 'Henbury Loop' into their bid for Government funding. Yes, we'd need a bit of double-tracking, and perhaps think about some signaling issues. We might even have to think, wait for it, creatively, about ensuring that freight trains are not held up by passenger trains - but this is far from rocket science and other areas of the country seem less squeamish about building new track than we do about using existing track for passengers as we once used to do.

Stephen Williams MP has been a real supporter of this campaign

SO - to prove it's all very doable, I decided not only to talk about it, but to DO it. With the great help of First Great Western, we chartered a train along the Henbury Loop Line. We only had a limited number of tickets, so huge apologies to all those people I had to disappoint.  But the trip was enormous fun and a great success-  from Temple Meads all the way up to Severn Beach and back again in about an hour. Some people told me they'd driven about an hour from Brentry to even get to Temple Meads...

Sue Flint bought flapjacks which we passed round and I chatted with Cllr Mark Bradshaw, Stephen Williams MP, and other cross-party transport campaigners about how we can make this a reality.

If you haven't already, please sign the petition:  www.henburyloop.bristolpetitions.com and forward to all of your friends!

Isambard Gromit Brunel says YES to the Henbury Loop! Don't you, Gromit..

Not all going swimmingly in Bristol - and we need your help

I was one of those who spent most of their teenage years, and those before, ploughing up and down a swimming pool in my bid to become an Olympic Champion. It never happened. The most I ever achieved was a couple of age group National Finals in 200m and 100m backstroke. ( my feet were always too small, was my excuse).
But I spent many hours at Easton swimming pool at silly o' clock in the morning ( breakfast in the car, drying my hair on the car heater-fan, and I kept a sleeping bag in the corner of my classroom where I'd grab a crafty few minutes of kip if I got into school early enough...) and many evenings at the old red brick Barton Hill Pool ( badly run and managed, and filthy towards latter years - with an array of nasty things spotted drifting along the bottom of the pool where Olympians were training. )
I swum first for Thornbury Swimming Club, then Southwold in Yate, then City of Bristol, with a truly brilliant swimming coach, Eric Henderson (who was APPALLINGLY treated by Bristol City Council in the mid-90s as an archive newspaper search will reveal.)

I have always said that my club swimming experience is one of the things that formed my identity as I was growing up, and has contributed so much to my life,taught me so much and given me so many lasting friends.

That is why I am so outraged and concerned that Bristol City Council is currently forcing clubs who are providing excellent beginners swimming lessons to give them up, in order that the council's private provider, SLM, can have a monopoly over beginners swimming.

I am campaigning with Portway Swimming Club to end this disastrous policy - which is bad for children, communities -and ultimately our Olympic Legacy.

Please sign our national petition
www.keepclubswimming.bristolpetitions.com
and please make sure you also sign the link to Portway's own petition, which is linked-to on the site.

And yes, I couldn't resist getting back in the water with Portway's wonderful young swimmers! Please keep their swimming lessons in-club, for them!

Back to the Future for Henbury Rail

There have been a few (not many) doubters about the Henbury Loop Line. But although in so many ways we have progressed in recent decades, in some ways, we've gone backwards. So I'm looking on going on a journey to the past to show that the Henbury Loop Line can indeed exist. Why? Because it has before!

There was a time when Henbury Station was alive, buzzing and steaming and taking people from Henbury over to the Severn Beach
Line and beyond.

We're looking for your recollections, old photos, memories (which we can record) about your (or your parents' or grandparents') recollections of the Henbury Loop.

If you have memories or memorabilia to share, or know anyone who does, drop us a line at henburyloop@charlotteleslie.com or write to us at:

Henbury Loop Campaign
184 Henleaze Road
Bristol BS9 4NE

And let's go back to the future! ( ... Can't promise hover boards.)

The Henbury Loop Line - it's real!

Much excitement as First GW puts on a special train along.. yes, the Henbury Loop Line! see, the route actually ALREADY exists...

Much excitement at the Community Rail Festival as a special train ran from Templemeads, to the Portbury Dock, along much of what would be a Henbury Loop Line, connecting a re-opened Henbury Station to the Severn Beach Line.
Disappointingly, current West of England Partnership Plans, whilst a real step forward in promoting plans for a Bristol Metro - with a Portishead Line, and enhanced local branch line services- stops short at the really vital point: Creating a circuit round the city by joining up the Henbury line with the Severn Beach Line. Current plans make Henbury a cul-de-sac turn-round station. Bonkers! It's like building a circuit board but not completing the last millimeter to get the current running through it.
Great campaign groups like Transport for Greater Bristol Alliance ( TfGB's Ian Crawford here with me in the pink shirt), and Friends of Suburban Bristol Rail  ( FOSBR -spot my yellow fosbr sticker!) and one-man-campaign-army Dave Wood have been superb in keeping the pressure up. I am going to be continuing to make the case for a Henbury Loop, not spur, until I'm blue in the face and everyone's completely bored of hearing about it... (I've already mystified a whole lot of non-Bristol-area MPs during Prime Minister's Questions by raising it...)
 But it's important because this will be the game-changer for Bristol Transport, this is the opportunity of a generation, and we cannot have a situation where we look back in 20 years and say, yet again "what on earth were they thinking?" 
For once, let's have long term vision, be ambitious about our city region, and get it right. 

Brailsford Lights 2011 on national TV!

This year, the epic Brailsford Brothers' Christmas lights switch on in Henbury attracted the attention of national TV. And quite right too. I first met the brothers several years ago now, constructing complex Christmas lights arrangements in their Brentry garage on a baking hot day in September. What they do is amazing - at cost to themselves they put on a Christmas Lights display on their mum's house to rival the very best, raising thousands of pounds for Charity. The annual switch-on also kick-starts Christmas for many ( including me. It was my first mince-pie of the year) and lights up a dark time of year, in what are difficult times.

I have been so struck by the personal effort and sacrifice Lee and Paul have made to bring joy to their community, and to those children for whom their Childrens' Hospital appeal raises money. This is Big Society with bells on. ( Well, lots of lights, at least.)

You can watch a documentary about Paul and Lee Brailsford in mid-December on CH4... look out for it!

Henbury Funday - best ever?

It's hungry work, milling about browsing over stalls, resisting the bungee-run, watching live entertainment and chatting to friends and neighbours - so good thing Nick Merrick's culinary BS10 Youth Forum crew were on hand with succulent hot-dogs, with onions and mushrooms... Cllr. Chris Window's evident enthusiasm only begins to do justice to the cooking...

It was also a good chance to catch up with people you've been meaning to see for ages- and it was good to be able to introduce people with similar interests to each other. ( One family had a daughter who was very keen on dancing, so introducing them to Paul Thompson, who runs Emmanuel Chapel's youth activities and Dance Group was the obvious thing to do...) Families and people of all ages were enjoying themselves and even the weather held out.

But stuff like this doesn't happen by magic. Behind every smooth-running community event, there's a hard working team of individuals who very often give up their own time, completely free of charge.

For the last six years, local lady Chris Pratt, with her brilliant team of helpers, has organised Henbury Funday. This year is her last year of doing it. Everyone thanked Chris at the end of the afternoon, and she was presented with a bouquet of flowers as a gesture of the community's thanks. She's got great successors, but she'll be a hard act to follow - thanks Chris, for all the sterling work you've put into Henbury for so long.

Hidden Gardens of Henbury

It was an absolute pleasure today to take some time out to see a gem of Henbury opened up to the public - at Brook End, Rectory Gardens.

It was a superb fundraising event organised by Sue Parfitt, who also manages to keep the garden so beautifully. The perfect way to start Spring.

We can't give in to crime

On Friday I joined residents who have set up a petition to get bus services back to normal in Henbury following a spate of attacks to the buses.

I have to say, I was outraged that First Bus services should be re-directed and stopped in Henbury becuase of a spate of crime.

Ok, I know that First Bus has a duty to protect its drivers.

Ok, I understand the police are stretched, and too much of their time is still spent on administration not the front line.

But giving into crime like this is not on because it gives out completely the wrong signal to criminals - that civilisation will give into them, and change its behaviour because of what they do.

That's a dangerous precedent; It's unfair on residents whose travel is severely disrupted, and all-too-often have to put up with the kind of crime and disruption that the buses are fleeing day-in, day-out.

It's not a question of 'whose fault' this is. It's about making sure things return to normal ASAP and that this never happens again.

Therefore I am meeting the Police and First Bus to work out how in future its the criminals who suffer for their crimes, not the public, and that it is law and order, not louts and criminals, that calls the shots.

Rovers gives a boost to Henbury Streetz Project

We've come a long way. From an idea I had after seeing a street dance performance at a charity dinner, to getting a new street dance group started at Emmanuel Chapel in Henbury!

The crew at Emmanuel Chapel have been superb in really making it happen, my mum has got involved to raise funds and now we have enough money for street dance every Friday, with beat-box on the cards for the future.

Our new group of talented street dancers and the team all went to the Rovers stadium to collect money. Sporting our new "Henbury Streetz Project" T-Shirts, we raised several hundred pounds on one day, and great fun was had by all. Many thanks to everyone who dug deep: And there was a Rovers victory as well! Thanks to Rovers and our intrepid team of fundraisers and dancers!

Tea(Street)Dance with mum

At the beginning of the year, I brought a Street-Dance team to Henbury's Emmanuel Chapel to start trial street-dance classes for local young people.

The classes were a huge success, and 9 weeks later, a significant group of young people had put together an excellent street-dance routine which they performed in front of the community (including their parents.) And the young people loved it so much that one of them anonymously, and unbeknownst to us, applied for Aspiring Communities funding themselves to continue it.

And my mum ( Who has always had a bit of a thing for street-dance) took it upon herself to fundraise to get enough money to secure the street-dance classes for the future. A few years ago she took up cycling, and recently won the European Triathlon Championships in her age-group - so she decided to do a big sponsored Bike Ride around the Bristol area to raise money for the street dance group.

This is just one of the fundraising events organised around her Big Bike Ride - A beautiful tea put on by Cynthia Reynolds and Carole Lye ( both pictured behind the tea table!) .

If you are interested in sponsoring my mum's bike ride for Henbury Street Dance, email my mum at janeleslie@hotmail.com for more details.

Bristol's Biggest Picnic - depsite dodgy weather!

......I must admit, the day didn't start hopefully. I'd managed to organise Bristol's Biggest Ever Protest Picnic on the same day as The Southmead Festival, St. Bernard's School fete - and the first rainy weekend for ages. "Nice one," I thought. "It's going to be an almighty failure." But how wrong I was. I'd underestimated English sturdiness against the weather, and the strength of feeling residents have for protecting their local green spaces. So the four picnics held across Bristol North West, at The Daisy Field, Okebourne Open Space, Horfield Common (thanks to Friends of Horfield Common!) and Lockleaze Open Space were a roaring success.

Fearful of the weather, and in mild drizzle, I'd moved the picnic at Lockleaze down a bit to the Romney Avenue entrance to make sure people came- but I needn't have bothered -dozens of people turned up to preserve that unique stretch of space just as it is for dog walkers, residents and wildlife.

We distributed a petition - www.savebristolgreenspaces.bristolpetitions.com - as well as encouraging people to write to the Council to register their concerns. This is the first stage of enabling people to make their views heard regarding the future of our community green spaces.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped me organise these picnics - stalwart members of the community ( you know who you are!) and all those who braved the threats of rain to come out for a brilliant day of picnics!

Okebourne Open Space at the heart of Brentry

It's not even a particularly nice day, but wandering past Okebourne Open Space, I came accross this group of residents having a community picnic.

It's a simply beautiful piece of space - with views right out over the estuary towards Wales, on a clearer day. And in the time I was there, children ( ahem, and a few adults) were skootering down the hill, climbing trees and generally running about expending energy in a way that they never would indoors, or even in their own garden.

But the madness is, the Council want to designate this piece of land as 'disposable' and surplus to requirement and build houses on it. This is all part of their Parks and Green Spaces strategy, which in theory sounds fine ( sell off useless land to enhance the good bits) but in practice is proving to be appalling.



There will be more about how to have your say over the Council's parks and green spaces strategy on my website and blog to come; But it's just such a dissappointment that a city like Bristol, which prides itself on being a 'Green City', cannot be more long-sited and see the long-term benefits of preserving space like this that builds ( if you want to use 'council-speak') ' community cohesion' and 'positive activities for young people'.

Mini the dog thinks the space should DEFINITELY be kept. "Hands off" she says to the Council. And she looks like she has a nasty bite...

Henbury Students' community funday sets the standard!

Here I am with the "BS10 Big It Up" crew, at the superb Henbury Community School Funday, organised entirely by Henbury Students. Now one thing about being a candidate or an MP is that you get to go to a lot, and I mean A LOT of events and fairs. And I can honestly say I have never been to one better organised than this one organised by Henbury School Pupils.



There was food cooked by Henbury school pupils, with the help of the indefatigable ( and looking quite hot) Nick Merrick ; ( There was home-cooked curry as well as fat burgers and sausages), and entertainment and performances by Henbury School pupils.

I managed to get ice-cream all over my face and go berserk on the brick-a-brack stall which was selling off old videos for 10p a go. I spent a humongous £1.10 - and have a large bag of videos I intend to watch at some undetermined point. ( Including an old video of Dangermouse! for 10p! How can you say no to that?!)

Head-boy Ryan told me they'd been working to organise this since before Christmas, and having been behind some event organising myself, I know that something that seemingly flows as smoothly as today requires months and months of preparation. I was just delighted for the pupils that the one thing that couldn't be pre-planned came up trumps :- It was gorgeous weather.

Good biofuel, bad biofuel...

Last week, I was in the press for having written to Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, about my concerns over the re-application for a biofuel plant at Avonmouth. With so much going on to try to prevent that plant, which will burn palm oil ( a renewable, but not environmentally sustainable fuel) from being established in Bristol, it is easy to just think of biomass as a bad thing.

So it was really refreshing to be able to visit Blaise Nurseries with Charles Hendry, Minister for Energy and Climate Change and Henbury's Councillor, Chris Windows. At Blaise Nurseries, they put waste wood products in boilers which generates energy. The wood comes from cast-offs from manufacturing ( with strict quality control) and from waste from woodland management; all genuinely sustainable, renewable sources, and turning waste into a source of energy.

There are also a lot of side-benefits: an expansion in woodland planting and woodland managing - which in turn demands new skills and new jobs. Lots of people talk about how climate change can be an opportunity for renewable technology, and how the South West is so well placed to take advantage of this, but it really becomes an exciting and tangible concept when you visit somewhere like Blaise Nurseries. 

We are way behind Europe when it comes to doing this - but it shows that it really can be done and become a mainstream way of generating energy, and of course, we can learn from the mistakes made by our European neighbours without having to make them ourselves! 

Caleb's campaign

Sometimes you come across a person, or an event, that makes you stop and reassess things completely. Shielmor Twomey, the lady pictured next to me here, is one of those people.
When she came to see me, she explained that her son, Caleb, had committed suicide just months earlier, in January of this year. He was a lovely, bright, popular young man, who was pursuing a career in modeling - as you can see from the photo of him on the bench. But he had started taking ketamin, and he reacted so badly to it that in January, he took his own life.

His mum has bravely soldiered on, and is now starting a campaign, which I am helping her with, to raise awareness about the dangers of ketamin. This afternoon, on College Green, we unveiled a bench dedicated to Caleb, and let fly 28 balloons - one for each year of his life - with his family and friends. I've tabled an EDM ( Early Day Motion) and Caleb's mum is launching her campaign to try to prevent anyone else from going through anything like this.

Henbury pulls off a Cracker

Despite the rain and cold, Henbury's Christmas Crackers event on Crow Lane yesterday was a resounding success.

I'm not yet sure how much money was raised, but an array of snowmen, reindeer, christmas trees a- and a Christmas pudding ( seen here with Chris Windows, our Henbury Councillor, looking charming in a hat) , were out shaking buckets and people were giving generously.

Well done and thanks to everyone who braved numb fingers and toes and the damp to put on a really lovely event - which is a reminder again that Crow Lane gets a lot of bad press, but that the huge majority of people are incredibly community minded and put themselves out to make events like this come together.

Brailsford Brothers Christmas Lights finally switched on!

I've got a feeling this isn't the last Christmassy themed post I'm going to write - and it's only the 1st December...

Brentry marked the beginning of advent with the now legendary switch-on of the Brailsford Brothers' Christmas Lights display. This blog has tracked their progress, from when I first came across Lee, taking down the lights one chilly January morning, to putting them back up again on a scorching September day, to the switch-on this evening. Getting anywhere near the house this evening was something of a challenge, due to the crowds of people who had assembled.

I had written to EDF Energy to ask whether they would be able to give the brothers a discount on their electricity bill. They pay for all the lights themselves, out of their own pocket, and this year with the credit crunch, it has been harder for them. Sadly, I was unable to get EDF to help, despite some trenchant pestering, but that didn't stop Lee and Paul from putting on a display bigger and better than ever before, this year.

Wallace and Gromit were there, along with Father Christmas, shaking buckets and raising money for Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal for the Royal Hospital for Children - and the collecting boxes are out throughout the Christmas period for donations from passers-by who enjoy the lights display.

So go along and see what is perhaps Bristol's brightest house on Oakbourne Road, in Brentry. And check out their website at www.brailsfordlights.co.uk, HERE