News / Society of Merchant Venturers
Calls to stop Merchant Venturers from managing the Downs
An act of parliament made into law more than 160 years ago ensures that a controversial invite-only organisation jointly owns and takes shared responsibility for managing one of Bristol’s largest green spaces.
The Downs is run by the Downs Committee – a unique body made up of both elected councillors and members of the Society of Merchant Venturers.
One Green councillor who has recently resigned from the Downs Committee says the Merchant Venturers should no longer be involved in running the Downs.
is needed now More than ever
St George West councillor Rob Bryher has not only recently resigned from the committee; he now wants to see the abolition of the Clifton and Durdham Downs (Bristol) Act.
It is this act of parliament from 1861 which gives the Society of Merchant Venturers a share of the ownership and management of the Downs, preserving the Downs “for ever hereafter open and unenclosed”.
Bryher has started a petition to abolish the act in order “to curtail wealthy elites’ power”.
One signatory on the petition has called the current governance arrangement of the Downs “an undemocratic anachronism”.
Until less than a decade ago, the Society of Merchant Venturers kept Edward Colston’s fingernails and hair on display at their headquarters in Clifton – photo: Martin Booth
Bryher said: “I realised in my last meeting of the committee how annoyed I am about all of the ongoing problems we need to solve in St George Park and the lack of resource, capacity and resident voice in decisions in comparison to the Downs, which gets its own committee and its own budget…
“Why shouldn’t all our parks have this? Why should an arcane law from 1861 continue to perpetuate the outsized influence of one wealthy and privileged group?
“Why am I not trying to do something to change this situation and rebalance our precious green spaces more towards our own area?”
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Read more: ‘The Society of Merchant Venturers need to get out of our democracy’
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Bryher added: “When you look at the fact of the Society of Merchant Venturers, it’s pretty wild that they exist at all still, never mind that they get seats within any decision-making body looking at our parks and green public spaces.
“It’s even more wild that they ran schools in Bristol, but thankfully their disastrous tenure doing that is coming to an end.
“I have now met a few Merchant Venturers due to being on the Downs Committee and they’re obviously not evil incarnate as some people like to believe.
“Laughably, one of them commented to me that ‘I’m a Guardian reader, you know’ to try and appease me.
“However, they do hold outsized sway on Bristol’s civic life and I see no need for them to be present in our public decision-making processes, as they have been for centuries.”
What we know as the Downs today is made up of Durdham Down to the north and east, owned by Bristol City Council; and Clifton Down to the south which is owned by the Society of Merchant Venturers – photo: Martin Booth
On the Society of Merchant Venturers website, they say: “The Downs Committee came into being by an Act of Parliament in 1861, which brought together by law the two landowners (SMV and Bristol City Council) to become the joint guardians of this precious space, placing the Downs in safe hands.
“SMV’s members bring to the Downs Committee many years of experience in business and management, as well as a love for Bristol and a commitment to protect the Downs for the long-term.
“The Downs Committee holds regular meetings, details of which can be found here.
“The Committee is supported by the Downs Advisory Panel, a group of volunteers and professionals who assist and advise the Downs Committee on matters of governance.
“The creation of the Panel is one of the reforms introduced following a public consultation held in 2022 focusing on how governance of the Downs could be improved.”
Bristol24/7 has contacted the Society of Merchant Venturers for comment.
To view the petition, visit www.change.org/p/abolish-the-clifton-and-durdham-downs-bristol-act-1861-to-curtail-wealthy-elites-power
Main photo: Martin Booth
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