Blame game row erupts over delayed liveable neighbourhood plan

A row has broken out over a planned liveable neighbourhood in east Bristol with Labour and the Greens blaming each other for problems with the plan.

Bristol City Council is planning to consult the public again this autumn on installing planters and bollards on several residential streets.

Labour has claimed a local Green councillor is “not supporting” their plans, while the Green party hit back and said this was “cowardly and hypocritical”.

After controversy about the plans this summer, the council is planning to measure the level of public support for the restrictions.

Bristol City Council is planning to close off many roads in St George, Barton Hill and Redfield in a trial – image: Bristol City Council

The East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood will cover a wide area including Barton Hill and St George with new restrictions for motor traffic, to stop cars from driving through the area and using its residential streets as a “rat run”. But the plans have faced some public opposition.

An engineering firm warned that vehicles would be diverted through the Barton Hill trading estate, during a council meeting this week, while a “keen cyclist” also questioned whether the restrictions were the best way to address the issue.

Speaking during a member forum meeting on Tuesday, mayor Marvin Rees said: “It’s one of those areas that would be interesting to explore: whether you [the Greens] do actually support liveable neighbourhoods.

“We can’t quite work out your current positioning in Barton Hill, you seem to be supporting it and not supporting it. Just like housing delivery where you’re supporting houses but not supporting houses.”

Green councillor Yassin Mohamud said this was a “false accusation”. But his opposition was also hinted at by Labour councillor Don Alexander, cabinet member for transport.

Please inspire your councillors to support Liveable Neighbourhoods. https://t.co/1cQ0z5VmdU

— Cllr Don Alexander (@BristolDon) September 13, 2023

Earlier this week, Alexander tweeted: “The nice thing so many of us would like is a liveable neighbourhood in east Bristol but unfortunately there are councillors from Bristol Greens who don’t agree with us.”

Responding to the criticism, the Green party released a statement on Thursday which said Mohamud “supported the process”.

The party claimed Labour had repeatedly delayed the scheme and was “setting it up to fail”.

The statement said: “Bristol’s Green councillors fully support the concept of liveable neighbourhoods and specifically the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood (EBLN) trial scheme.

“We believe in bringing everybody in the community with us and there are some residents in Barton Hill that are not behind the current plans.

“The Labour administration agreed to changes in design in July and has not published them. Requests by residents for a workshop to fully co-design the scheme have been dismissed as impractical.

“Our local councillor Yassin Mohamud has been working hard for months to support the process, holding meetings and ensuring residents’ views are heard. Meanwhile, Lawrence Hill’s Labour councillor has been missing in action — absent from the entire process.

“It’s the Labour administration which is in charge of this process. They have repeatedly delayed their own scheme and failed to follow up on promises. For them to try and blame a local councillor for their mismanagement is cowardly and hypocritical. We want the EBLN to succeed, but currently Bristol’s Labour administration appears to be setting it up to fail.”

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Read more: Residents of major rat-run show support for liveable neighbourhood plans

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Labour was asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service whether Hibaq Jama, who represents Lawrence Hill, had publicly supported the liveable neighbourhood plans or attended any public meetings on the issue. The party claimed that Mohamud had not “taken a position on the proposed changes or the project as a whole”, while all other ward councillors supported proposed mitigations.

Alexander, cabinet member for transport, said: “We are continuing to work cooperatively with residents around the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood pilot, considering changes to the proposals.

“This is case in point of what the Bristol Green party are about: supporting the concept of everything, but the delivery of nothing. What they say they stand for and what they actually do are worlds apart. Cllr Mohamud is the only councillor in the area not to have clearly set out a position in response to the consultation. He should get off the fence.”

Meanwhile, councillors were warned during a full council meeting on Tuesday, September 12, that the plans would have “severe safety ramifications” for staff at the Barton Hill trading estate. Current plans would block motor traffic from using Avonvale Road and Marsh Lane to get to the Feeder Road, diverting vehicles instead down Maze Street and through the estate.

Stephanie Richmond said: “I work for Rank Engineering, and as shareholders of Barton Hill Estate Management Ltd, we think it’s categorically unacceptable to implement this scheme whereby traffic is diverted through the Barton Hill trading estate as a cut-through, resulting in severe detrimental health and safety ramifications for Barton Hill trading estate employees and customers.”

The council is due to hold a public consultation this autumn, although it’s unclear exactly when this will launch.

After that, the restrictions are due to be installed this winter, initially as a pilot phase, and then the council will assess the feedback on the scheme, before potentially moving to more permanent restrictions in future.

Critics of the plans who also attended the council meeting questioned previous public consultations and the potential for alternative policies which were “less blunt”.

Helen Hughes said: “I’m a very keen cyclist. I cycle everywhere in Bristol, even up the hills and down the hills.

“There are many strategies for making the air cleaner, for making areas more pleasant to live in, which don’t involve quite so blunt tools as just preventing people from driving. There needs to be more consideration of why people are driving through these areas, and for businesses that will be affected by this.”

Alex Seabrook is a local democracy reporter for Bristol

Main photo: Betty Woolerton

Read next:

• Second liveable neighbourhood paused after opposition to east Bristol plan
• Dozens join anti-liveable neighbourhood meeting in Bristol
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