“This is really bad, many of the people employed as extras (background and minor acting roles) - including myself -, get most of their jobs from Casualty, Being Human and the few things left in Bristol (as most shoots tend to be in London)...Casualty is now gone and with Being Human leaving us, it is really a blow to any acting jobs left in Bristol...what a pity...”

“Tell you what. Perhaps the writers could branch the story into 2. Swansea can have the werewolf & ghost & we'll keep the sexy vampire. Honours even.”

“''Can you substantiate this figures of Cardiff receiving 8 times more public funding than Bristol. I know you can't, because its a made up figure.''
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The £1 spent in Bristol quote comes from SWRDA spokesman and head of the Bristol Head of operations Ian Knight.”

“You should try getting out more then love!”

“I've never met anyone who claims to watch Casualty or Being Human.”

“"the loss of Casualty alone costing Bristol an estimated £25m " How? Please provide the breakdown for these figures. That sounds remarkably like a made up, unsupported, plucked out of the ether means nothing load of old tosh to me. Bit like the viewing figures.”

“Why are some people debating the quality of life in the cities? What has that go to do with it? The debate should be about suitability and frankly BBC Wales should be using all of the locations around it, but you can't have all of your programmes with obviously Welsh settings. Bristol is often chosen for its unique buildings.
What unites these three cities is that they all three of them seem to have their fair share of petty spiteful introspective people.
As a Welshman living in Bristol, I've done my bit for Severnside relations by marrying one of the locals. Now do yours!”

“With the loss of Casualty alone costing Bristol an estimated £25m alone, others moving like Being Human, reduction in funding for Natural BBC programs therefore could close in the future then add on top of this the traffic problems, Bristol isn't a great place to live at times.

I love being a staunch Bristolian, but like Bob de Bilde says, lack of funding and loss of income is damaging the City's economy.

With such poor public transport, how can the government expect us to build 10's of thousands of new homes in Ashton?”

“Very good, well articulated comments Bob de Bilde.

I do disagree that bristol has a significantly more interesting atmosphere or culture than Cardiff-theres an astonishing diversity here, but thats all personal opinion. Everyone sees things differently!

I'm born and bred Bristolian. I'm proud to be from there, and I agree that it does seem to miss out on things some times. However, it has done very well from government offices moving out of London. My brother works in one, and the view is that the city has done very well in that regard, when things could easily have gone to other cities.

I hate this city v city argument. It's absurd, and quite offensive (I showed this thread to a friend earlier, and it didn't improve his opinion of Bristol!) and fundementally its only right that 5% of BBC output is based in Wales, because Welsh people pay 5% of the funding.

there is a niche here for Bristol. Being in between two major media centres (London of course being by far the bigger) while also retaining a healthy media presence itself will be attractive to companies.”

“Jim,

You¿re right ¿ this shouldn¿t descend into a silly Cardiff v Bristol shouting match, as I do agree that Cardiff is a decent place and not the dump that some posters have suggested. I¿ve also lived in both and while Cardiff is great and a good place to live and in many ways has better facilities, it has nowhere near the history, culture and atmosphere of Bristol

However, I do completely understand Bristolians¿ frustrations. The possible relocation of Being Human (great 1st series ¿ I¿m looking forward to the 2nd) is yet another example of major organisations ¿ this time the BBC ¿ disadvantaging Bristol over other cities. The BBC is currently removing most of BBC Bristol¿s drama output whilst simultaneously slashing the Natural History budget.

Meanwhile, the Government ¿ through their Regional Development Agencies ¿ are more than happy to fund Liverpool and Leed¿s new Arenas but Bristol¿s Arena, despite loads of preparatory work and much popular support got a big fat no.

We all know that our public transport system is the worst in the UK and has been starved of investment for decades. Other cities get trams, extensions to their rail networks, electric trolleybuses ¿ the Government¿s penny pinching solution to Bristol is more ruddy First buses.

We still don¿t have a 50m swimming pool, and the rest of our sports and leisure facilities are lamentable (or rather non-existent) for a city of the size of Bristol.

When Wildwalk and the IMAX closed after just 4 years of operation, Cardiff¿s very similar Technoquest centre was being propped up with Welsh Assembly (read central Government) money.

Even our junkies get less funding per head than other comparable cities in the UK.

All of the above is a direct result of Government policy to prop up their vote in Northern cities and the devolved administrations such as Cardiff and to close the wealth gap between such cities and the South of England. Perfectly ok to invest in these places, but why is it always at the expense of Bristol?

Why are we always the bridesmaid when in comes to Government investment. Bristol has always had a strong trading and entrepreneurial spirit and has been a very successful city. However, the chronic lack of funding over the last 20 years now means that we have an enormous infrastructure deficit compared to other major UK cities.

It¿s not just my opinion. I recently corresponded with Ian Knight, head of operations for the South West Regional Development Agency. He told me that Bristol¿s infrastructure deficit now runs into the billions of pounds compared to other UK cities and is now unlikely to be able to catch up.

I don't begrudge these cities their funding, but I do begrudge the fact that Bristol have been treated so unequally.

This chronic inequality has to stop. Bristol now desperately needs direct funding into our urban infrastructure to give us the facilities that a city of our size deserves.

The relocation of some of the best national TV production to Cardiff must also stop. Our creative and media industries are some of the best in the country outside of London ¿ its artificial destruction by the Government and the BBC is unnacceptable.”