Seeds, Flowers, Freeholds & Grass Roots Campaigning

The big news, of course, is that the lap dancing club's licence application for 22 hour-a-day opening has not been granted. Due to the objections raised, it will now go to a hearing of the Licensing Sub-Committee on the 15th October.

The planning application for another lap dancing club next door at the former Ghana Goods shop is still available for objections. The consultation period has been extended until the 14th October, due to BCC's late sending of the notification letters. The Old Market Community Association is urging everyone to 'Object NOW!'

On a brighter note, Old Market Street now has a Florist! Funki Flora has opened, fittingly perhaps, at the former Green Party campaign shop next door to the Stag & Hounds. Apart from employing an apparently dyslexic sign-writer, business is blooming and the shop will be expanding into the realms of fruit and veg in the near future.

The Bristol Genuine Seed Bank has gone up in the world and down the street, moving to very much larger premises at the former Thorne Security shop. In these credit crunch times, it suggests that more people must be turning to growing their own.

Interestingly, Old Market has traditionally had a seed shop. Back in the 1930s, it was at 29 Midland Road, where the entrance to John's Cafe Bar used to be (best wishes to his family).

John's, incidentally, it currently being offered on £19,000 a year leasehold.

Details of this vacant shop, the rest of the building above and behind Funki Flora, and others in Old Market can now be found, collected neatly into one place, on the brand new - not yet officially launched - Old Market Retail website.

This is an initiative by the Old Market Community Association designed to make it easier for anyone seeking to rent a shop to the area, to find one. It's a free service, with agents' and owners' contact details and links back to their websites or ads. Agents and owners can add the details themselves by filling in the 'Add a Property' form on the website.

OMCA, who are strongly focussed on facilitating the regeneration of Old Market, has been contacting owners and agents of empty shops to get the details of the properties. At the same time, it has been encouraging them to display the weekly or monthly rent in the shop windows, in an attempt to let people know how low the rents in Old Market really are.

Regeneration or degeneration?

The lap dancing flesh-peddlars have applied for a new licence to lure like-minded misogynists into the area twenty-four hours a day, while the unlicensed, hence illegal, adult shop in Old Market Street is now flashing its open sign.

With its AGM looming in just over a month, the Old Market Community Association needs to turn its attention to what will be on the agenda.

Regeneration is an obvious candidate.

The ball has started rolling, following the successful OMCA meeting with council Regeneration and Transport officials. Then there's the Love Easton Urban Design Task Group, with its One Vision for Old Market, drop-in consultation day.

So, what does Old Market want for itself?

What do the people of the Old Market Conservation Area really want for their neighbourhood?

Right now, it's an unsustainable and uncomfortable juxtaposition of vacant and specialist shops, charities, gay clubs and bars, porn and massage parlours, friendly and unfriendly pubs, a laundrette and a smattering of food places all side-by-side with around 750 up- and down-market homes containing about 1500 residents.

During the daylight hours there's little vibrancy: little to tempt you into the 'high street' for a stroll.

Attempts to lure a mainstream supermarket chain (and with it some retail confidence in the area) into the gap left by Thorne Security have, so far, failed - blame being laid partly on the local loop-the-loop traffic system.

Attempts to fire-up the area with pavement cafes have been doused by Bristol City Council Licensing officials whose blanket (carpet bombing?) pavement policies seem to be more about their own bureaucratic convenience than the needs of Old Market.

There is no doubt that Old Market has great potential. The question is how to acheive it.

Some envision pavement cafes, trees, benches and pedestrians. They see more specialist shops shoulder to shoulder with butcher, baker and greengrocer.

What would you like to see?