Latest news with #TonyDyer
BBC News
22-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Council says deal to sell Bottle Yard Studios 'not possible'
Plans to sell a council-owned TV and film studio are on hold after the potential purchase of the site City Council voted to explore plans to sell the Bottle Yard Studios in Hengrove in October a statement, the council has now confirmed that it has "not been possible to conclude an agreement" for the sale of the leasehold of the studios to an unknown buyer."This has been a necessarily lengthy process to ensure all possible factors are considered and that an extensive level of due diligence is carried out throughout," said councillor Tony Dyer, leader and chair of its strategy and resources committee. "We entered into this process with the objective of securing a sustainable future for the studios and the opportunity to grow into its huge potential," he added."Those aims remain the same, as does our determination to ensure that one of our city's most successful regeneration projects continues an upward trajectory to deliver more jobs and more investment for Bristol."The council said that the sale of the site had been under an exclusivity agreement to the preferred bidder for three time was to allow for "detailed negotiations and the drawing up of fuller proposals for the potential sale." Bottle Yard Studios is the largest film and TV facility in the West of England, with shows such as The Outlaws, Rivals and Boarders filmed potential sale had drawn criticism from a performing arts and entertainment trade union over concerns around job losses."Bristol's film and TV sector forms a critical part of our local economy, providing a catalyst for new jobs, new investment and bolstering our city's reputation at home and abroad," said councillor Ani Townsend, co-chair of the Bristol One City Culture Board."I can say with confidence that a key element of the growth seen in the sector over the past decade and a half has been the role played by The Bottle Yard Studios in providing a home for Bristol-based productions," she studios will continue to operate as normal but the council said it had not ruled out selling them in the future and that officers would "now assess the various options open to us".The film and TV industry was worth approximately £55m to the local economy in 2024, according to Bristol Film Office.
BBC News
04-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Clifton Down vans 'not acceptable,' says Bristol North West MP
The Bristol MP representing people living around Clifton Down has said the situation with caravans and vehicles in the area is "not acceptable for anyone involved".Darren Jones, Labour MP for Bristol North West, met city council leader Tony Dyer, of the Green Party, at city hall as he called on the local authority to told the BBC the meeting had been "reassuring", but that he felt the current timescales for dealing with the issue "feel a bit slow".The council, which is no overall control, says it has begun meetings with those affected, as it seeks to develop a new policy supporting both people living in vans and the surrounding communities. It says this is "not a process we can rush". In recent months, tensions have been rising on the Downs, where more than 100 vehicles are inhabited."This situation has rumbled on too long, the council should have acted sooner," Jones said. "I've been reassured today that they have a plan in place that's coming forward after the summer and I expect action to be taken quickly after that."One of his requests is for Bristol City Council to collect data from people living in vans on the Downs, in order to better understand their motivations and work out how best to offer campaign group Protect the Downs has repeatedly criticised the local authority for not holding this information. Council sources suggest it can be challenging to monitor, as some of the population is transient while others may be reluctant to engage. Jones is also asking the council to create more appropriate temporary accommodation sites, similar to the modular homes recently created in Fishponds for people who are for People, which runs the scheme, is seeking to expand across the city, and said their units could go from design to completion within a year if they had the necessary Brown, of the social enterprise, said Bristol City Council had been "very supportive" of its work, as it sought to set up small developments with 10-15 units around the city."This could be done all over Bristol. We are looking at what land is available, and what we can do to procure that land. Obviously that is difficult." Increase since pandemic Across the whole of Bristol, the city council estimates there are about 650 lived-in vehicles, up from about 150 before the vast majority of the increase happened during the tenure of Labour mayor Marvin Rees, before he left the post in 2024 and it was whether Labour should take some responsibility for the rise in numbers, Jones pointed to a report published by the city council in February 2024, which made several recommendations."This became a really big issue towards the back-end of the last Labour [mayoral] administration," Jones said. "Action was not taken off the back of that report and that's what we're pushing for."The council says it is taking a "proactive stance on addressing the issues that have been allowed to get progressively worse over the last several years".The issue is due to be discussed at a meeting of Bristol City Council on Tuesday, after more than 4,000 Bristol residents signed a petition calling for the authority to stop people living in and around the area.
BBC News
12-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Regrets over how Bristol liveable neighbourhood was rolled out
A city leader has admitted he regrets how the rollout of a suburb's liveable neighbourhood was City Council leader Tony Dyer said there were "definitely lessons to be learned" about the process, which saw residents in Barton Hill protesting against council contractors as they closed some side-roads to vehicles."Do I personally regret, I think yes I do," he Dyer inherited a consultation about the scheme from the previous Labour administration. He suggested that he should have looked more closely at whether "everyone who needed to be involved had been involved". A six-month trial of the scheme is now under way and involves a variety of measures intended to calm traffic, including bus gates and cycle improvements in a liveable neighbourhood, according to the council, aim to make it easier to catch a bus and to walk or cycle, with less through traffic. Mr Dyer acknowledged the protests had been "uncomfortable" for his party, the Greens, but said: "I don't think that we're ever going to please everybody with everything we do."You never like to be in a situation where you are coming into conflict with people who often have valid concerns, and you want to try to find a way to address those."Liveable neighbourhoods are controversial topic – some people are very much supportive, other people are very much anti."Mr Dyer was speaking to Politics West to mark a year since the Greens started running the party does not have a majority; the Liberal Democrats hold some committee council leader said the biggest achievement of his first year in office was "delivering a balanced budget", adding that had involved difficult decisions."If you haven't got the money coming in, if you're not getting funded to do the things that we want to do, then regardless of what colour rosette you wear, you are going to have to make tough choices," he said.
Telegraph
17-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Councils begging for your savings isn't a net zero innovation – it's an embarrassment
In an attempt to plug the ever-increasing funding gap, bankrupt-adjacent local councils have dusted off the begging bowl and covered it in tinsel. Under the guise of investment, Green-led Bristol has become the latest council to offer what smells like a voluntary council tax to fund responsibilities that should be met from their existing budgets. Considering the rise in council tax may as well be an annual guarantee – with Bristol one of many councils this year imposing the maximum 4.99pc increase that can be demanded without triggering a referendum – one might argue residents should expect the LED lighting budget across council offices to be met by the thousands of pounds a year they pump into these coffers. But in a demonstration of phenomenal gall these local bodies have launched their own Kickstarter for Councils, asking not only their residents, but anyone across the country, to foot the net zero bill – in exchange for below-market returns. These green bonds can be found on Abundance Investment, a platform that facilitates these loans for a slice of the pie – 0.75pc of the total sum raised alongside an annual 0.2pc fee. The website proudly declares that it offers investments with councils 'in a solid financial position', despite Bristol councillors declaring just two months ago that the body faced bankruptcy if it can't close its £52m funding gap. But Abundance also notes that councils can't go bankrupt, and that's just misinformation spread by 'the media'; councils only issue a Section 114 and may possibly delay your repayments. Technically true, but it doesn't entirely reassure when Tony Dyer, leader of Bristol City Council, himself used the word 'bankruptcy' multiple times in his statement on the matter in January. But if this unique set-up means investing in councils has a significantly low risk, as the platform claims, why has it confirmed it prevented several councils from issuing these sorts of loans? More unsettling still, buried in the small print is the revelation that none of this is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, meaning if Abundance goes bust, hey ho, there goes all your cash. Understandably, you might be getting cold feet by now and thankfully Abundance offers a resale platform. They won't buy it off you, but you can put the bond up for sale on a peer-to-peer marketplace in the hopes somebody will take your poor-paying investment off your hands. How many are currently available for purchase? 13. Not exactly a vibrant community. Okay, James, but these are one-off investments used to fund the future. Once repaid they'll certainly be consigned to history. Hammersmith & Fulham is on its third round of fundraising via this platform. Government doesn't have a great track record of abandoning forms of taxation once proven to work. Now, despite all this, I do have sympathy with the council funding issue. They have been forced to take onto their books enormous swathes of spending that should be budgeted by central government, with care costs swallowing up gigantic sums of money before the local bodies are able to allocate a penny to collecting your bins. But the answer cannot and must not be begging residents within and without their borders to add just a little more money for a little more time (you can 'invest' from as little as £5) and then once that cash has been returned, to ask for just a little more again for just a little longer. The platform even confirms that some investors have been generous enough to donate their interest payments back to the councils. Right now you can find five-year cash Isa bonds paying more than the 4.2pc interest on offer from these green bonds, without any of the uncertainty – and coming with valuable FSCS protection. Innovation means deterioration. So wrote The Telegraph's own Patrick Hutber decades ago, and the once-City editor's words ring as true as ever. This latest in a long line of papering over the cracks with something shiny stands as one of the most embarrassing.
BBC News
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The Longest Johns to headline Bristol Harbour Festival 2025
Folk band The Longest Johns will be the main act at their home city's biggest festival this band, who became famous for their viral video of 'Wellerman', a 150 year-old sea shanty, during the "Shanty Tok" craze of 2021, will headline the Bristol Harbour festival, which will run from Friday 18 to Sunday 20 July and is one of the country's largest free cultural Longest Johns will headline the Harbour View stage on the Sunday night after returning from a tour of North America and Europe. The free festival, founded more than 50 years ago, will also feature a large food market and multiple stages where many performers from the city will play live or stage theatre City Council leader Tony Dyer said: "The Bristol Harbour Festival is a true celebration of the city - its creativity, diversity, and rich musical talent."It's fantastic to see Bristol artists like The Longest Johns making a global impact and then bringing that success back home to share with festival audiences."
