News / Edward Colston
Plaque plinth palaver
Bristol councillors have refused to accept the suggested wording for a new plaque on the empty Colston statue plinth for a second time.
Members of the development control committee voted 3-2 against approving the text because it said 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston’s monument was originally unveiled “celebrating him as a city benefactor”.
The exact same wording was again presented to members on Thursday deste the fact that they rejected it as unacceptable at their last meeting in February and were promised they could help to rewrite it.
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The only difference this time was that it came with an explanation from We Are Bristol History Commission chairman Tim Cole about why the words were chosen and that it would now be accompanied with a QR code next to the plinth to provide people with much more information and historical context.
Committee chair, Ani Stafford-Townsend, said members had expected constructive discussions when they met planning officers, Cole and Bristol deputy mayor, Asher Craig, cabinet member for equalities, after February’s meeting.
But Green councillor Stafford-Townsend told councillors on Thursday that the meeting had been “terse” and accused Craig of not acting in good faith because she refused to accept any changes.
None of Craig’s Labour colleagues attended the meeting in City Hall due to their continued boycott of this particular planning committee.If they had attended, it is likely that the plaque’s text would have been apoproved.
Green councillor, Guy Poultney, said: “It is to be regretted that the applicant (Bristol City Council) felt they couldn’t compromise, that they couldn’t deviate from the wording the committee saw last time.
“Given the committee made it very clear the wording as proposed was unacceptable, I don’t see how it has become more acceptable now.”
He said the changes suggested by the committee included removing the references to Colston being celebrated as a benefactor and also to Black Lives Matter because those could not be considered purely factual or neutral.
Poultney added: “The wording can’t be seen as a simple factual statement – it ignores large chunks of history while making assertions.
“The mention of Colston being celebrated as a city benefactor isn’t placed there in context. I appreciate this might reflect what someone’s idea of neutral is but I don’t see it that way.
“I agree with the notion of something short and factual but that isn’t what we’ve got here and I’m baffled as to where the pushback is coming from in the council to reduce the wording that’s proposed down to something less controversial.
“It seems relatively uncontroversial to cut it down. I don’t know why the (Labour) administration won’t compromise but I don’t think we should either.”
The Colston statue is now on display in a permanent exhibition at M Shed – photo: Martin Booth
Stafford-Townsend said: “Part of the concern is the use of the word ‘benefactor’. It’s a particularly sticky word for a lot of people who have an objection to it.”
Green councillor Lorraine Francis said: “We were tasked with reviewing what was said. We reviewed it but it wasn’t changed at all because there was a reluctance to change the original statement.
“I’m left at an impasse because I get that uncomfortable feeling of being told ‘this is what it is, you need to accept it’.”
Francis said her preference would be the simple statement: ‘The statue of Edward Colston once stood here, 1895-2020.’
Lesley Alexander, a Tory councillor, said the wording needed to be as simple and factual as possible and that the proposed text was exactly that.
She said: “The average tourist is not looking for a history lesson, he wants to know why we’ve got an empty plinth, and if he wants more information, it says it can be viewed at the museum and more information given, so it’s fine as it is.”
Lib Dem Andrew Varney said: “The wording is factual, it is neutral, it will serve hopefully to bring this city together, and with the addition of the QR code, that will provide further information and more nuanced understanding of what has gone on at that site and who that person was.
“So I have no hesitation in supporting this application.”
Colston’s statue was toppled during a Black Lives Matter march on June 7 2020 – photo: Martin Booth
After voting against the officers’ recommendation to approve the wording, the committee decided unanimously to defer the application until their next meeting on June 5.
The proposed plaque would have said: ‘On November 13, 1895, a statue of Edward Colston (1636–1721) was unveiled here celebrating him as a city benefactor.
‘In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, the celebration of Colston was increasingly challenged given his prominent role in the enslavement of African people.
‘On June 7, 2020, the statue was pulled down during Black Lives Matter protests and rolled into the harbour.
‘Following consultation with the city in 2021, the statue entered the collections of Bristol City Council’s museums.’
The toppled statue is on display at the M Shed in an exhibition on protest.
Main photo: Martin Booth
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