The year opened and closed with some of the coldest weather recorded in these parts for decades. 

Cold snaps saw temperatures in BS3 regularly drop below minus 5 degrees C in January and lower again in November and December. The icy weather wreaked havoc with our roads, transport and houses – did anyone else lose large chunks of masonry from their house this year?! – but on the bright side, our parks looked ‘picture perfect’ in the snow and we had an unofficial white Christmas.

Bristol’s biggest cannabis factory to date was discovered in the former NatWest Bank building on East Street in February.  The seemingly-empty building had been transformed as part of an illegal enterprise growing as many as 2,000 plants, which police believed could have produced drugs worth well in excess of £1 million on the city’s streets.

Long-awaited repairs to Bristol South Pool, which at one point had been threatened with closure, finally got underway in March, with Bristol City Council having agreed to spend £200,000 on the refurbishment of the historic pool. The works had been held up due to delays in the planning process for the Grade II listed building.

In April, Gordon Brown called a General Election, and Bedminster People asked the candidates for Bristol South to respond to our questions about how their policies would affect us in Bedminster – and almost all of them took the time and trouble to respond, with the exception of our MP of 20 years’ standing, Dawn Primarolo. The election in May saw her majority reduced to just 4,734 votes. The turnout was 61.6 per cent, up 2.6 per cent, and voters were queuing out of the doors at the polling stations.

In June, it was the turn of the local Lib Dems to be embarrassed, as Cllr Gary Hopkins, its transport supremo, was photographed parking on double yellow lines in a bus stop by eagle-eyed drinkers in the Robert Fitzharding pub on Cannon Street.

Possibly the most bizarre story to hit the local headlines this year was the news in July that Keith Nicholas, a 56-year-old disabled man from Bedminster, had been (wrongly) accused of killing a herd of goats in Spain, and beating up their owners.

Another surprise that month was delivered by the council’s planning department, when it refused planning permission to Sainsbury’s to build at Ashton Gate.  Arguments against Sainsbury’s proposal on grounds of sustainability were raised repeatedly at the planning meeting and, in the end, it was on those grounds that the application was refused, with committee members voicing concerns that the ‘out-of-town’ location would mean that people would be dependent on their cars to shop at the store.  They turned the plan down by four votes to two, with two abstentions.

And Bristol City FC’s plans to build a new stadium at Ashton Vale were dealt another blow in September, when an independent inspector designated the entire 42-acre site as a town village green.

Something that 2011 might have in store for us is a resolution to this saga. Sainsbury’s has submitted revised plans for a superstore at the Ashton Gate site, with additional sustainability features included and support promised for local traders on East Street and North Street. And Bristol City FC and local residents are being consulted about the possibility of entering ‘mediation’ over the Ashton Vale site, which is yet to be ratified as a town village green by the council.

There were plenty of community celebrations to enjoy throughout the year, with art trails across the BS3 area in May (South Bank), October (Art on the Hill) and November (Front Room); the Best of Bedminster show in September, and family fun days and Bonfire Night celebrations in our local parks. Improvements are set to continue in our parks in 2011, with schemes underway in all of them.

East Street also had a £400,000 face-lift in 2010, with the street being officially re-opened for business by Bristol City’s captain Louis Carey in May and culminating in the planting of trees along the street in December. Local traders and community representatives hope the works will provide the impetus for further improvements in 2011.

What have been the local highlights of 2010 for you and what would you like to see 2011 bring to Bedminster?