The Bristol Drop - Tuesday, June 24
SS Great Britain car park could be turned into flats, rogue kitchen fitter jailed, Bristol City striker says goodbye and pupil power wins 'skirt row'.
Good Morning. Music fans will be frequently checking their weather apps and looking to the skies with a series of big outdoor gigs in Bristol this week and the small matter of the Glastonbury Festival down the road in Somerset opening its gates tomorrow morning. At the time of writing the forecast is slightly mixed, so fingers crossed. Check out the city’s headlines below.
Bristol news
Spaced out: The car park at one of Bristol’s most popular visitor attractions - the SS Great Britain - could be given over to housing, with the Harbourside site potentially in line for 150 flats. (Alex Seabrook, LDR - via Bristol Live)
Rogue fitter: A kitchen fitter from Longwell Green in South Gloucestershire has been jailed after conning 19 families by ripping out their kitchens and walking away with their money. (Tristan Cork - Bristol Live)
First class: Postie Malcolm Beedle can hang up his mail bag after retiring from the job that saw him deliver to the same Bishopston street for more than 45 years. When he started a 1st class stamp was 9p, compared to today’s £1.70. (Ellie Kendall - Bristol Live)
Emergency rally: More than 100 people gathered in central Bristol yesterday evening calling for peace in Iran and Palestine. (Karen Johnson - Bristol 24/7)
It followed the Bristol We Demand Change summit at the Malcolm X Centre in St Pauls on Sunday. (Camilla Royle - Socialist Worker)
Group faces ban: Palestine Action, which has carried out more than 20 protests of various types in Bristol, faces being proscribed by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper under anti-terrorism legislation. The group’s supporters have described the move as ‘authoritarian’ and ‘unhinged’. (Bristol Post and Haroon Siddique - Guardian)
Girl orphaned: Friends of a family that lost three members in a fatal crash on the M5 near Michaelwood services in South Gloucestershire last month are raising funds to help relatives look after the surviving eight-year-old girl who was seriously injured and lost her parents and brother. (Ben Endley - Mail Online)
Top marks: The headteacher of what was Bristol’s ‘worst school’ has spoken of the turnaround of Merchant’s Academy in Withywood. (Tristan Cork - Bristol Live)
‘Gardening rock star’: Moving tributes have been paid to Sara Venn, founder of Edible Bristol, following the announcement of her death. (Martin Booth - Bristol 24/7)
Retail robberies: A 25-year-old man from Southmead has admitted a string of offences, including robbery, against retail premises across Bristol. (Annette Belcher - Bristol Live)
Skirt the issue: Pupil power has seemingly won the day at Cotham School after a ‘free the knee’ campaign run by female pupils has seen plans for a new uniform policy featuring ankle length skirts dropped. (Martin Booth - Bristol 24/7)
Climbing tragedy: An inquest at Flax Bourton yesterday heard that Zachary Cook, 22, from Winterbourne in South Gloucestershire, was climbing with his dad on holiday near Malaga in Spain last December when he fell 20 metres to his death. (BBC Bristol)
Market success: Nice TV report from Windmill Hill Market which is now weekly rather than monthly at Windmill Hill City Farm due to growing demand. (ITV West Country)
En Vogue: The founder of a start-up Bristol beauty business which has featured in Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines and has a shop in Winford has spoken about House of Amor’s continued growth. (Colette Flowerdew-Kincaid - Insider Media)
Sounds good: The annual Bristol Sounds event kicks off tomorrow night with Supergrass playing at the Canons Marsh Amphitheatre as the biggest week of the West’s musical year kicks off.
It is impossible to quantify how many people from Bristol go to the Glastonbury Festival each year, but substantial numbers of the city’s vibrant creative sector will have already been on site, for weeks in some cases, getting it ready for the hordes of paying festivalgoers. Traffic advice for those heading to Worthy Farm tomorrow is here. (Jamie Hawkins - Bristol Live)
News in numbers
525: How many homes South Gloucestershire councillors are being recommended to approve in the village of Charfield, which could see its population increase by about 50 per cent. (Adam Postans, LDR - via Bristol Live)
Today’s newspapers
Sport
Fare-Wells: Striker Nahki Wells has thanked Bristol City fans as he says goodbye to the club after five-and-a-half years at the end of the month. (Tristan Cork - Bristol Live)
Wider West
Pentagon funding: A small aerospace company based at Frome in Somerset and run by a former Royal Navy pilot is carrying out trials for an unmanned helicopter, which is part funded by the Pentagon. (Ross Pollard - BBC Somerset)
Not small potatoes: A Somerset farm has been fined £40,000 after allowing a silt, soil and potato mudslide pollute a river during heavy rainfall. (Bea Swallow - BBC Somerset)
Definitely not small potatoes: Glastonbury Festival founder and farmer Sir Michael Eavis has transferred most of his financial interest in the event to daughter Emily and this report, described as ‘wildly speculative’ by Glastonbury, suggests it could have potential inheritance tax implications of tens of millions of pounds. (Andrew Ellson - The Times)
Motorway death: A woman in her 40s died in a crash that saw nine others injured late on Sunday night on the M4 between Swindon and Chippenham. (Sarah Turnnidge - BBC Wiltshire)
Community noticeboard
Paint and pint: A painting workshop in a brewery taproom sounds the ideal way to get the creative juices flowing. Wiper and True brewery is hosting Lovely Brushly’s Sip and Paint - Pink Lagoon event at its Old Market taproom tomorrow night. Details here. (Wiper and True)
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The Bristol Drop is curated by Western Daily Press editor Richard Bache. Subscribe to start the day with a brief digest of the morning’s essential news.