Features / Local Elections 2021
Ward profiles 2021: Ashley – ‘We need housing for our young people’
It’s delivery day at Malcolm X Community Centre, where volunteers have been loading up boxes of essential supplies for people in the neighbourhood.
There are no complaints from the women heading out to the car park on Thursday afternoon as they cheerfully make sure others are not forgotten and look forward to the day when elders can return to the building in the heart of St Paul’s.
Politics is perhaps not at the forefront of people’s minds as communities continue to deal with the consequences of a global pandemic, but views on what is needed in the area are clear.
is needed now More than ever
“Housing for our younger people, there are not enough houses,” says Beverley Brown-salmon, the finance manager at the Malcolm X Community Centre.
“There are so many new buildings but it’s all for students. We need it for people in the neighbourhood.”
“And clubs for young ones,” she adds.
Beverley Brown-salmon of the Malcolm X Community Centre says housing is a huge issue in the area
Glen Crooks of Glen’s Kitchen would like to see more for young people in the area
Down at St Paul’s Learning Centre, Glen Crooks, busy in his kitchen which has been offering takeaway throughout lockdown, agrees more youth centres and activities for children would be good for the area, which has a thriving and active community.
By late afternoon, traffic is streaming steadily down Lower Ashley Road, where only two weeks ago the last of the M32 Maples was felled following a long-running battle to save them.
Spanning St Paul’s, Montpelier and St Werburgh’s, Ashley ward has a diverse population of 19,100 people. Within it are neighbourhoods with some of the highest levels of deprivation, according to the 2019 national deprivation indices, as well as those relatively well off.
Air pollution is a major concern for people in Ashley ward – map courtesy of Ordnance Survey/Bristol City Council
One issue that is a concern for almost everyone in the ward is air quality and traffic pollution – with 98 per cent of people stating these are a problem locally, compared to a citywide average of 77 per cent, according to Bristol City Council’s Quality of Life survey 2019-20.
97 per cent of people in Ashley ward stated they were concerned about climate change, compared to a citywide average of 88 per cent.
Over in St Werburgh’s, a piece of guerrilla advertising on a James Street billboard calls for ‘community care, not climate colonialism’. Here, the strip of independent businesses are working hard to adapt to the challenges posed by the pandemic, while the historic Ashley Vale allotments beyond look down over the The Yard, a community-built housing project and St Werburgh’s City Farm.
Closer to the M32, St Werburgh’s Community Centre stands quiet on Thursday afternoon, but signs on the railings direct people to the community food share collections point. Just a stone’s throw away, on Newfoundland Road in St Paul’s, work on the new ‘futuristic’ homes and nearby boutique hotel are signs of changes in the area.
Guerilla advertising billboard in St Werburgh’s
There are a number of developments underway just down the road from St Paul’s Adventure Playground
St Andrew’s Park looks over the city below. Here, as across the ward, focus is more on the immediate daily pressures and the kids return to school than the impending local elections on May 6.
On Picton Street, debates are ongoing about possible plans to pedestrianise the narrow road but the sense of pride in the local independents remains strong throughout.
“There’s definitely a good sense of community and local support,” says Jonny Fisher, working in Radford Mill Farm Shop.
Should Picton Street be closed to through traffic?
The independent spirit in Montpelier is strong
Ashley ward is currently represented by Labour councillors Mike Davies and Carole Johnson and Green councillor Jude English. The area saw a turnout of 51.38 per cent in the 2016 local elections.
Bristol voters will head to the polls on May 6 to elect ward councillors across the city, as well as the Bristol mayor, regional mayor and police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Avon and Somerset.
The Greens are the only party so far to confirm all candidates. Jude English will stand again in Ashley for the Greens, alongside Will Mountford and Tim Wye. Bristol24/7 will update this article as other candidates are confirmed.
All photos by Ellie Pipe
Read more: One-way polling station, postal voting and proxy voting to make May’s local elections fair and safe
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