I’m writing to provide residents with an update on the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood pilot and introduce our second Liveable Neighbourhood trial, which officers are at the very earliest stages of planning.

An update on the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood project

People will be aware that we temporarily moved tenants from Barton House on Tuesday 14 November, following a survey which showed that if there was a fire, explosion or large impact then the structure of the building would be at risk. 

We are awaiting the results of an in-depth building survey so we can make a long-term decision about the future of Barton House and how this might impact the people who live there.

It was originally our plan to run a statutory Traffic Regulation Order consultation before Christmas, as part of the co-design approach, to get further feedback on the proposals.

However, while we – along with community groups, agencies, and volunteers in the area – continue to work to support Barton House residents through this difficult and unsettling time, we have pushed back consultation on the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood project until we have more clarity for a long-term decision on Barton House.

Barton House is in a key area within the Liveable Neighbourhood’s proposed boundary. Residents would be impacted by the proposals for trial measures on nearby streets, including two bus gates on Avonvale Road and Marsh Lane.

We appreciate that this will be disappointing to many of the residents and organisations who have suggested changes and improvements to the area, but we know that they will be understanding given these unique circumstances. In the meantime, we will continue to work with residents across east Bristol to finalise where to install around 10 new cycle hangars. More details on the cycle hangars will follow in the new year.

South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood: early work

While sharing this update, I also want to take this opportunity to let you know about our initial work for the South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood pilot.

At the moment, we are in the evidence gathering phase and are collecting traffic, air quality and noise data, as well as analysing the ward profiles. This information will help us form initial proposals for wider discussion through plenty of local engagement, before local councillors make final decisions on the scope of the scheme. While our administration would not support the inclusion of Ashton Gate Stadium in the scheme area, we of course want to engage with the stadium and fans of its sports clubs to ensure the continued development of this world-class venue for entertainment and sport. This includes the new home that’s due to be built for the Bristol Flyers basketball team.

Early in 2024 we will begin our programme of engagement with key stakeholders, including local community leaders and organisations, to find out what issues and challenges their communities face. We will use this information, along with our local data, to co-develop early proposals to further collaborate and consult on.  We will also ask people who live in or travel through south Bristol for their views and ideas.

We will be keen to talk to residents across much of the BS3 area of south Bristol, including parts of Southville, Windmill Hill and Bedminster. This engagement will be crucial to confirming the area for potential interventions, which will only be finalised through collaboration with local stakeholders and community groups.

We will be working closely with local communities to co-create a network of safer and quieter streets to encourage people to walk, cycle, and wheel for shorter journeys; improve air quality; enhance the public realm and green spaces; and improve access to local high streets and culture.  

I look forward to updating you when we have more news to share. In the meantime, if you are interested in receiving news and updates about the South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood pilot, please visit www.bristol.gov.uk/sbln and sign up to receive news about the project as it progresses.  

To keep up to date with the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood pilot, you can sign up for project news at www.bristol.gov.uk/eastbristolliveableneighbourhood.

For an overview of design and engagement principles of Bristol Liveable Neighbourhoods, check out our Liveable Neighbourhoods Handbook.

If you are a Barton House resident, you can find information on our dedicated Barton House web page.

UK Disability History Month takes place from 16 November to 16 December, with International Day of Disabled People taking place today. One of the aims of the month is to raise awareness of Disabled people in society and to advocate for disability equality.

Disabled people have intersecting identities with other characteristics that shape their lived experience. Some Disabled people are creatives whose work has been under-represented in museums throughout history and still is today. Representation matters; it changes people’s lives and can only benefit everyone – now and in the future. Cultural and creative spaces are a great place to celebrate diversity. Historically, museums and galleries will, of course, have displayed creations by Disabled people. However, their experience of being a Disabled creative and how this may have informed their work, is seldom-heard. Their stories often remain hidden. This exclusion not only deprives these individuals of opportunities, but also robs society of a richer, more diverse understanding of lived experiences.

Curating for Change, a project exploring museum collections for overlooked stories from Disabled people’s histories and creating events and exhibitions, seeks to uncover and celebrate these stories. Bristol Museums is one of the 20 museums involved in this project. Curatorial Fellow, Jo Barlow, and Curatorial Fellowship Assistant, Freya Purcell, have been busy finding, researching and celebrating disabled Bristolians throughout history.

This has resulted in the ‘Concealed/Reveal: Disabled, D/deaf and neurodivergent artists driving creativity’ exhibition running at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery until 24 April 2024.

Throughout the exhibition some of Bristol’s own artists and creatives are represented, including painters such as Anthony Rossiter or Bertram Hiles.

One of curatorial assistant Freya Purcell’s favourite figures from the exhibition started life 341 miles from Bristol but came to call the city his home. Standing at 8 feet 3.5 inches, Patrick Cotter O’Brien made a living in the 18th century as a performer. It was in Bristol that he was first recorded performing at the Full Moon tavern in Stokes Croft. Evidence suggests that while Cotter’s size brought him financial freedom, it also brought challenges within a society that often looked unkindly on physical differences. He avoided going out during the day, likely to avoid the unwelcome attention he often received. Like other noted people who were unusually short or tall at the time, he was afraid his body would be seized by scientists once he died. But in Bristol he found solace and friendship. Indeed, it was one such friend who saved the items the museum now displays in celebration of this canny showman. 

In addition to the exhibition and wider ranging work to discover and showcase creatives with disability in our collections and our city, Bristol Museums’ Learning team is developing teaching and learning resources that explore the work of creative practitioners from diverse backgrounds: Creative Bristol. The Learning team offers a wide range of workshops, resources and support to schools, colleges, and home educators both on site and online. Last year, they commissioned three films about Black Bristol Creatives, kickstarted by a donation from a Bristol resident who wanted to make a positive contribution to young black people being able to see themselves in creative careers.

Following on from this the Learning team has recently commissioned four more films to showcase underrepresented creative practitioners that celebrate the talent of neurodivergent and Disabled professional artists in Bristol today. 

These four short films will be available soon at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery and on Bristol Museums’ website. They feature a dancer, photographer, artist, and illustrator (tattooist), providing a small insight into the work of each practitioner, what motivates them, and what they gain from their craft.

The aim of these resources is to showcase the diversity of our creative city and show children and young people the wide range of creative activities taking place across Bristol. At a time when provision in schools in music, arts, and cultural programmes is increasingly limited, there is a fear that fewer young people will consider careers in the arts. We hope that these resources inspire children, young people and teachers to engage in more creative activities and broaden their ideas about possible career pathways. If young people are inspired by the success stories of a wide variety of artists and professionals, they are more likely to consider the arts as a viable and fulfilling career choice.

Including under-represented creative practitioners in our Learning resources, and highlighting the work and stories of Disabled, D/deaf and neurodivergent artists in the Revealed/Conceal exhibition, also means children and young people can explore the lived experience of disability, the diversity of disability and the accommodations that disability sometimes requires.

Everyone, including Disabled people, can participate in and contribute to the arts.

Last night, Councillor Craig Cheney, Deputy Mayor for City Economy, Finance, and Performance, reopened the Bristol Beacon after major investment, particularly from Bristol City Council. His speech can be found below.

Last week, I joined Craig; Councillor Asher Craig, Deputy Mayor for Children’s Services, Education, and Equalities; and Louise Mitchell, CEO of the Bristol Beacon/Bristol Music Trust, to unveil a plaque ahead of a soft opening.

“I just want to start by saying that I am so proud to be here this evening. As an 11 year old boy I came to see Gary Numan here, my first ever gig and it stoked a love of live music in me that continues to this day. 

“I want to say a massive thank you to the teams of people who made this possible.  Louise for her vision and drive and all the Bristol Music Trust team, all the project and programme managers, planners and other staff at the council who supported this development, the architects, acoustician and the other technical experts responsible for much of what you see. And finally to the amazing work of Wilmott Dixon in delivering on that vision and those technical requirements.

“Unlike Gary Numan I won’t be singing or whipping out a synth but I do want to blow my own trumpet a little and recognise what a long and difficult journey we have all been on to get here.  

“Not only was the building in bad shape, but we uncovered things like Elizabethan wells and Victorian ranges, we had to overcome Brexit supply issues, a global pandemic and the resulting tough economic headwinds. 

“In the face of opposition, cynicism, and budget pressures, we’ve stayed the course and delivered for Bristol. The Council, the Trust and the project took criticism at times, but I hope you can agree as we stand here now that by remaining determined throughout all of that we made the right decision; an international standard venue, here in the centre of Bristol.  A building in which people will laugh and cry and be carried away by music. 

“And, as a Bristolian, it’s amazing to think that this building has been providing entertainment for Bristolians for a 150 years, and that we have just put it on a path for the next 150.

“By making this investment, and by changing the name, we have made it a physical place for all of Bristol to enjoy, use and be proud of.

“Of course, this is hasn’t just been an investment in this building. This in an investment into the ecosystem of the Bristol music scene, an investment in Bristol’s talent, an investment in Bristol’s diversity, an investment in a city which over the years has seen us produce huge global acts and world class musicians. 

“Punching well above our own weight. (I should insert a joke about the boxing being held here in the past but…)

“I’m excited to think that the next big thing from Bristol could start their journey in the studios below, perform in the Lantern and end up selling out the main hall.  And whilst no one but the artists can take the credit for that, we can say that we played a part by creating this. 

“An exciting evening, more to come and so it just remains for me to thank you for being here and I hope you enjoy the evening.”

The Government has published its HIV Action Plan, laying out their plan to end new HIV diagnoses by 2030. That’s just over 6 years from now.

I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that this is impossible and that those of us in the HIV sector are dreaming.  However, we do have all the tools that we need to end HIV transmissions. Today, on World AIDS Day, we are standing up for those impacted by HIV, past and present, and calling for a better future.

Let Communities Lead

Communities which are on the front line, need to lead the HIV response. Communities use person-centred approaches to connect people with public health services, build trust, innovate, and hold providers accountable. Community organisations know their communities best and if we are truly going to reach everyone, leaving no-one behind, we must invest.

Communities are being held back. Funding shortages, policy and regulatory hurdles, capacity constraints, and crackdowns on civil society and marginalised communities’ human rights are obstructing the progress of HIV prevention and treatment services.

Organisations and their communities need to be central in all HIV plans and programmes. They need to be adequately and reliably funded to enable the required scale up and all existing and future barriers need to be removed.

Remember:

• Nothing about us without us.
• Not ending HIV is more expensive than ending it.
• Remove laws that harm; create laws that empower.
• Communities are and always have been leading World AIDS Day.

Common Ambition Bristol

Common Ambition Bristol (CAB) is a co-produced project bringing together people of African and Caribbean heritage and professionals working in partnership to:

• Increase HIV testing
• Reduce HIV stigma
• Reduce HIV late diagnosis
• Increase uptake of sexual health services

Community members are integral to CAB.  They have been involved in the design and delivery from the very beginning and throughout the project. THE most important part of CAB has been sharing power and building trust with community members.

Community outreach includes partnership with over 30 black owned or black frequented businesses, having conversations, providing free condoms, and holding events. We have also opened the only two walk in sexual health clinics for people of African & Caribbean heritage in the South West. They happen on the first Thursday of every month at Montpelier Health Centre and the last Thursday of every month at Charlotte Keel Medical Practice. The clinics are free and confidential and offer full sexual health screening, free condoms or PrEP (pre exposure prophylaxis) initiation.  This is one way Bristol is letting communities lead.  Involving communities in the design and delivery of services needs to be adopted and spread across all underserved communities.

Opt-Out Testing in A&E

After years of work going into the 2020 HIV Commission report and 18 months of a very successful pilot, we are now able to say with pride that the Government has confirmed expansion of opt-out testing in Emergency Departments to cover all areas of high prevalence. This will be a year long programme led by the National Institute for Health Research. For Bristol, this means opt-out testing will be carried out at the BRI and Weston General Hospital.

In the first year, 569 people have been diagnosed with HIV and even more with Hepatitis B and C.

This also means that more people will be diagnosed with HIV faster, and will be able to access lifesaving treatment which will also stop the virus being passed on. With HIV diagnoses rising among women, and over half of new diagnoses in the city being diagnosed late we warmly welcome this announcement.

If we are serious about achieving the 2030 target of no new HIV diagnoses it is vital we do not miss any opportunity to test and engage people into HIV care.

Starting or reinitiating these individuals on treatment means they cannot pass HIV onto sexual partners. Undetectable = Untransmittable. People living with HIV on effective medication have ZERO risk of transmission.

We thank Marvin for his continued support in lobbying the Government to roll this out.

Get Involved

If you or someone you know is living with or affected by HIV, or you would like further information please take a look at our website: Brigstowe or call us on 0117 955 5038.

Wear your red ribbon with pride. Come along to our annual World AIDS Day Celebration event on Saturday 2^nd December from 6pm at the Watershed: https://worldaidsday2023.eventbrite.co.uk

When I was growing up in Bristol, my family was supported by Council Tax Benefit. It was a real lifeline for us.

Since 2016, our Labour administration has protected our Council Tax Reduction Scheme, which replaced the benefit and is one of the last full schemes in the country. This means that up to 100% of a household’s council tax bill can be paid for through the scheme, with 75% of eligible low-income households currently having their bills paid in full.

We have been proud to provide over £325 million of support to families across Bristol since taking office. This achievement has been without the support of other parties locally, and despite more than a decade of national government austerity.

Our Council, like local authorities across the country, including Nottingham, continues to face a challenging financial position after thirteen years of national government austerity. With rising costs and rising demands for services, this has meant – and will continue to mean – difficult choices. And the Chancellor’s recent Autumn Statement only added further pressure, with councils having to wait until Christmas for the Local Government Finance Settlement.

In February, Full Council approved a £3 million saving from the Council Tax Reduction scheme for the upcoming financial year. The Council has since consulted on a number of potential options to deliver that saving, while asking people who want to keep the scheme in its current form to suggest how to do that while balancing the budget.

Opposition councillors did not suggest alternative savings at Full Council, and have not been forthcoming since then in suggesting alternative budget savings. Ultimately, if councillors choose not to have a balanced budget, commissioners appointed by the Tory government will do it for us – with the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, along with the frontline services we’ve protected, first on the chopping block.

While the consultation results show that the majority of respondent would support changes to the scheme, now is not the time. Today, we will publish a paper to come to cabinet next week, recommending that our Council Tax Reduction Scheme continues in its current form.

This is of course welcome news for families, but it does mean that next year’s budget requires another £3 million of savings. There are no easy decisions left, no efficiencies to make, and no fat to trim.

More difficult decisions lie ahead. They cannot be ducked.

It will be incumbent on all councillors to come together and pick from the least-bad options left to balance Bristol’s budget for an eighth consecutive year, including an alternative £3 million of savings with our Council Tax Reduction Scheme staying in place for 2024/25.

Bristol’s high streets are diverse and independent centres of retail, entertainment and culture. With Christmas fast approaching, and Small Business Saturday taking place this weekend, now is the perfect time to explore them and find some of the hidden gems on your doorstep. With 47 high streets across our city, there are plenty of places to discover and uncover what’s on offer.

High street businesses have been hard hit over the last few years due to the pandemic and the ongoing national cost of living crisis, so it is encouraging to see the latest figures showing an increase in visitor numbers across many areas of our city over the last year. The continued support of residents is needed to build stronger, resilient independent businesses that are supported by their own communities.

Shop local, support your community

Shopping local is also a great way to shop more sustainably and ethically without needing to jump in the car or buy from giant corporate organisations.

For inspiration, the Where’s it to? Bristol campaign celebrates some of the brilliant businesses on Bristol’s high streets and the diversity that’s on offer. With over 400 traders featured on the website you can quickly see what’s in your local area.

Bristol Shopping Quarter sits in the heart of our city. Central to Broadmead, The Galleries, The Arcade, Cabot Circus and Quakers Friars you’ll find well-known brands and an abundance of independent retailers, cafes and restaurants to chose from.

Visit Bristol provide information on a wide range of businesses, days out and shopping destinations to suit every need, including restaurants, bars, tea rooms and delis.

The traditional indoor market at St Nick’s Market is now open every day until Christmas Eve. Inside the Covered Market, Glass Arcade and Exchange Hall, the market houses 60 stalls selling a range of gifts, including fashion, accessories, books, records and food.

The Christmas themed outdoor markets are a family friendly place to discover handmade crafts and enjoy delicious street food. Open every day from Monday 11 December until Christmas Eve.

Taking place this weekend, Small Business Saturday is a grassroots non-commercial campaign, which highlights small business success and encourages consumers to support small businesses in their communities by shopping locally. Many independent businesses take an active role in promoting the day by hosting events and offering promotions. Shoppers can click on the Small Business Finder to search for local businesses taking part.

If you’re not sure what gift to give this year, the Love Bristol Gift Card is a great way to help support local businesses. The gift card is aimed at encouraging local spend in Bristol’s city centre and can be used at over 160 retailers, from independents to well-known brands, including shops, hotels, and restaurants.

Ways to be more sustainable

Sparks Bristol offers a shopping experience and creative workshops with a difference. Step into Sparks and shop local to put your hard-earned money back into your community and support Bristol’s independent businesses, artists and makers.

For those looking to repair items, rather than buy new, Sparks offer a range of services to help you repair damaged clothes, electricals, bikes and more, to give your well-loved items a new lease of life and help save you money. Dr Bike drop-in sessions are also available where a mechanic will be on hand to carry out bike maintenance checks, free of charge, helping you get your bike ready for winter.

Bristol’s Repair Cafés were set up to help reduce the environmental impact of repairable items being thrown away. Running throughout the year, repair cafés have been set up across Bristol, where you can bring items in to be repaired. Staffed by volunteers like Nobby and Jim, the repairs are free, but donations are appreciated to help keep the venues running.

For those looking for good condition reconditioned items, Bristol Waste run three reuse shops from their Avonmouth, Hartcliffe Way and St Philips recycling centres. The shops sell a wide range of reused products, from furniture and electrical products to DIY materials and bric-a-brac.

Christmas and the festive period can be an expensive time for many, and the rising cost of living is affecting everybody in the city in different ways. Our Cost of Living hub looks to support the people most impacted, including those who have not faced financial challenge before. The hub provides advice and guidance on topics including housing, help with fuel bills, benefits and associated financial help, employment and skills, mental health and wellbeing, and provides links to useful websites and community organisations.

On Carers Rights Day last week, the charity Carers Support Centre hosted an event for local carers and policy makers to celebrate the contribution that unpaid carers make to both the economy and society and to discuss ways to improve support for carers locally.

According to the latest census in 2021, in Bristol there are 33,973 people looking after someone without being paid. Of those 9,318 were providing over 50 hours a week unpaid care.

The impact that unpaid carers have on the economy is significant. It is estimated that the 5.7 million unpaid carers in the UK contribute £162 billion to the economy every year. That is equivalent to the cost of the NHS. Without unpaid carers we would need to fund the NHS twice.

However the support that unpaid carers receive in return for that contribution is negligible. A carer-contributor to the Carers Trust’s latest report described the state of caring in the UK: “Unpaid carers are not unsung heroes. We are forgotten, neglected and burnt out”

The main benefit for carers, Carers Allowance, is still a paltry sum both in comparison with other UK benefits and payments made to unpaid carers in many other countries in Europe. Local carer Mandie highlights that “There’s no sick pay, no annual leave, no bank holidays, no minimum rest breaks between “shifts”. It’s constant, and all for less than £2 an hour”.

Through Carers Support Centre, local carers are demanding more adequate financial support and improved rights, as John says: “We are not asking for the world or millions. We are asking to be recognised and get rights as carers. At the moment we are paid £1.85 an hour to look after our loved ones. We are not after loads; we just want to be paid the same wage (living wage) as most other people in the areas we live in”.

The more you care, the more difficult it becomes to hold down a job to supplement or replace benefits. A certain amount of work and you risk your entitlement to Carers Allowance, and the more you work the less time you’ve got to care.  

If you can work, rights to protect carers in the workplace are inadequate. For instance, while the Carers Leave Act coming into force next year is welcome, it will give carers a right to carer’s leave, this leave will be unpaid.

Being an unpaid carer also often means an increased reliance on both health and social services, both of which are struggling to cope with demand.

For many the pressures of caring continue to mount. Overall, carers are having to do more with less, resulting in detrimental effects on the health and well-being of carers themselves. This, in turn, can then have a negative effect on their ability to care for others:

“Caring is about love, but it is also hard work. It can be stressful and joyful, depressing and empowering, painful and fun, bonding and binding, creative and boring, upsetting and rewarding”.  

Indeed, ample evidence shows that caring can increase isolation, poverty and make you ill. Carers UK report:

• 79% of carers feel stressed or anxious
• 50% of carers said their physical health had deteriorated
• 50% said they had to put off health treatment because of their caring role.

Carers need and are demanding the right to more and regular breaks from caring to take care of their own well-being:

• 61% of carers responding to Carers UK’s State of Caring Survey 2023 said they need more support to look after their health and wellbeing
• 78% were worried about being unable to provide care in the future as a result.

Carers Support Centre’s Carers Rights Day event enables carers to find out more about their current rights and inform national and local government about the needs of local carers. It is just one of the ways that the charity is caring for the carers.

At Carers Support Centre we provide support, information and advice to unpaid carers living in the Bristol and South Gloucestershire. You can find out more about our services for carers at www.carerssupportcentre.org.uk

Since Bristol became a Living Wage City in 2019, we’ve been on a journey towards achieving fair pay for local people. Pay has a huge impact on people’s lives and affects everything from housing to mental wellbeing.

According to research by TUC, last year was the worst year on record for real terms wage growth and on average, people were £85 a month worse off than they were in 2008. This pay squeeze coupled with significant rises in the cost of living mean that having a job no longer guarantees being able to afford basic necessities. 

The Living Wage is the only UK wage rate that is based on the actual cost of living and it increases every year. Employers who sign up to the Living Wage are making sure their workers’ wages meet the cost of their everyday needs.

On 24 October this year, it was announced that the UK Living Wage would rise to £12 an hour, representing an increase of 10 percent. With inflation and interest rates still remaining high, this will come as a welcome and timely pay boost for many people. I do recognise that this rise may present a challenge to some organisations, but in tough times such as these, it’s more important than ever that workers are paid a fair wage that covers basic living costs. 

My first pledge as Mayoral candidate back in 2012 was to make Bristol City Council a Living Wage accredited employer, and I am proud that we have now paid our staff a Living Wage since 2014 and we achieved official accredited status 4 years later. 

The council has led the way for other organisations in Bristol and we’ve since made great progress in raising awareness of the Living Wage movement across the city. I’m delighted that since taking office in 2016, the number of Living Wage accredited employers has increased more than tenfold. We now have 247 accredited Living Wage employers who are based in Bristol and this means that over 3,900 people have seen a wage increase since we became a Living Wage City. Thanks to Living Wage employers, almost 44,000 people in Bristol are now guaranteed to earn at least the real Living Wage.

This week we hosted our annual Living Wage Week event, bringing together employers from across the city to celebrate progress and discuss how we can continue to advocate for fair pay across all sectors. We were joined by fantastic speakers from Babbasa, Watershed and Visit West who shared why they decided to commit to the Living Wage, and speakers from the Resolution Foundation and South West TUC on the impact this could make on the city.

Paying a Living Wage can be good for business as well as people. According to research by the Living Wage Foundation, 94% of accredited employers said they benefited from their accreditation. Paying a Living Wage can help organisations build a stronger reputation, retain staff and increase motivation and productivity. It demonstrates that an organisation truly values the wellbeing of their staff.

The One City Plan sets out a shared vision for how partners can work together to create a fair, healthy and sustainable city. Bristol Living Wage City will play an important part of this strategy and will help to build a successful and inclusive local economy that allows people to thrive. There’s still much work to be done and we are now working towards a number of goals to achieve between January 2023 and January 2025:

• increase the numbers of real Living Wage accredited employers headquartered in Bristol by a further 120
• uplift the wages of 1,200 more employees in Bristol to at least the real Living Wage
• ensure 12,000 additional people are working for real Living Wage accredited employers in the city.

All organisations, big or small, can make a difference. If you are interested in becoming an accredited real Living Wage employer visit the Living Wage Foundation website to find out more or contact our Living Wage team at livingwage@bristol.gov.uk

You can watch Kat Lyons’ poem above from 0:13:15

To Bristol in Autumn (a gold-plated shovel* after ‘To Autumn’ by John Keates’)

If the year was a digestive biscuit we’d only have a mouthful left, barely enough to dunk. We’re down to crumbs and frankly, this season

has been cooked too long. Now change hums loud as bees. Wasps argue in your alleys, drunk on rot and last year’s crop of

students spread their leaves and watch the seedlings sway. Yes, you can be beautiful. We’ve watched the silvered mists

festoon your bridges, Sunday-walked beneath crisp skies studded with balloons. But this is no pastoral; and

these days, we bring the bins in, not the sheaves. Your squirrels look stressed and clutch their nuts protectively, and it’s hard to feel mellow

when so many harvests are so lean. But we are gleaners, plucking treasure from the winnowed husks of shops. We find fruitfulness

in decay, kindle Sparks behind locked shutters and light up your streets again. Winter is a stranger sitting too close

on the train. Our rent and fuel bills creep but we hold tight to possibilities, to the spring inside the soil, the friend

we don’t yet know. We don’t stand still. We stream through brand new stations, eddy around closed bridges. Map the flow of

our migrations, how the marks of our desire lines shift and fade. Your pavements are grazed by flocks of scooters now, your soundtrack scored by the

rattle as we race them up your hills. Bristol, do you remember horse-drawn carriages? Your roads unpaved, unlit? You’re still maturing—

at 650 years old you’re not exactly young but you carry your centuries lightly. You’ve grown stylish as you’ve aged; today you wear the sun

low and casual, tugged across your greying sky. Sit down, let’s talk about nothing very important, let’s watch the gulls conspiring

with the pigeons to steal crisps, let’s make a list of all the little movements in your symphony. As days sigh with

relief and sink into your harbour let’s speak of legacy, of how a Black child living in a city built by slavers learns to see him-

-self reflected in the face of his elected mayor. How he slips on that knowledge each morning with his school shoes and walks it into

his future. We mulch our present, use it to fertilise our tomorrows.  And despite the rutted tarmac, the withered bus routes, the loads

too heavy to lift sometimes; we’re still here. Whether blitzed or burnt or battered by inflation, we determined pips shelter in your core and

wait for the weather to turn. Sometimes we step up, break new ground then step away. Sometimes we lie fallow, bless

the quiet earth whispering promises as we unspool. We dug ourselves from lockdown’s rubble, filled our hearts’ echoing vaults with

golden-hour chat with pixelated friends, families origamied into screens. But chaos scatters unknown fruit,

some fires leave us standing amid shoots of unexpected green. Planted in our gardens of solitude, the 

chatgroups flourished, tendrils reaching through concrete into silent flats, neighbours’ voices carried on their laden vines.

Your streets are still entwined, our conversations glow like fireflies in our cupped hands. We know that

no harvest is certain. We know the year will call last orders soon; that soon we’ll have to stretch, prepare for action, for another waltz around

the sun but don’t clear our plates just yet. Let’s taste this windfall moment, listen to life ricochet from rented bedroom windows, scratch with sparrows in the eves

drip from broken gutters. Fill us with your music Bristol, give us space to come undone. Then wind our clockwork up again, set us on your streets and watch us run.

* A golden shovel is a poetic form created by Terrance Hayes in 2010 in homage to the US poet Gwendolyn Brooks.   The golden shovel poem takes an excerpt from a pre-existing poem/text and uses each word in that excerpt as the end word of each line in a new poem. This new poem usually reflects on or alludes to the themes of the original text used. I think of golden shovels as being a bit like a puzzle box with a bonus poem hidden inside, although their secrets are only discoverable via reading them, not by listening to them being read.

Here, I’ve used the words of the first eight lines of Keates’ ‘To Autumn’ as the end word in each couplet, as well as borrowing some of the pastoral imagery and romantic language of the original. I’ve played a little loose with the form as, strictly speaking, a donated word should end each line, not each couplet. I’ve also changed ‘the thatch-eves’ to ‘the eves’ (because I can only think of one thatched house in Bristol), stuck the ‘the’ in front of ‘eves’ instead of letting it have its own couplet, and changed ‘bosom-friend’ to ‘friend’ (because I couldn’t find a way of shoehorning ‘bosom’ into a poem without it feeling weird and uncomfortable for everyone). This makes it more of a gold-plated shovel rather than a pure golden shovel but given the cost-of-living crisis we’re currently suffering under, the budget version seems rather appropriate.

If you’re interested, the Poetry Foundation website has more info about the form and its origins, as well as Hayes’ original Golden Shovel and Brooks’ incredible poem ‘We Real Cool’ which started it all off.