‘Liveable neighbourhoods will improve the lives of Bristol’s children’

Making the most of where we live has become an important topic for towns and cities since Covid took over our lives.

One of the ways which local authorities up and down the country have been delivering a better quality of life has been through ‘liveable (or low traffic) neighbourhoods; these are essentially residential areas where walking, wheeling, scooting and cycling are encouraged, and ‘through’ motor traffic restricted.

The campaign group Liveable Neighbourhoods for Bristol was formed in 2020 to ask for these important interventions here with a range of groups pledging their support.

What has happened since then?

Nationally, Liveable Neighbourhoods have been tried out in London, Manchester and Birmingham. These trials are now bearing fruit, with Hackney, Lewisham and Lambeth councils in London recently announcing the changes have been so successful, they are making them permanent.

The trial findings are incredibly positive, with one neighbourhood reporting a 310 per cent increase in cycling, and another showing that residents were 21 per cent more likely to walk or cycle more. This is translating into less car journeys – a 25% reduction in Lambeth alone.

We’ve also seen Birmingham commit to creating a ‘giant Low Traffic Neighbourhood’ by preventing through traffic passing through the city centre with the cabinet member for transport in Birmingham, Waseem Zaffar highlighting the importance of this plan as a key health intervention for the city.

In Bristol, we have also seen positive moves towards our own Liveable Neighbourhood dream.

The Citizens Assembly recommended that the city implement five pilot schemes in the most deprived neighbourhoods by the end of 2021.

In the May 2021 local elections, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens all spoke about Liveable Neighbourhoods in their manifestos, with Marvin Rees committing to two pilot liveable neighbourhoods by 2024.

However, the push towards our liveable future seems to be running out of steam.

Having spent thousands of pounds tasking consultants and officers to work across a range of council departments to create a Liveable Neighbourhoods Strategy for early 2022, cabinet member for transport, Don Alexander, announced to a scrutiny committee in November 2021 that this has been indefinitely delayed.

He went on to say that the strategy will be replaced with a ‘handbook’ that will provide councillors and community groups with the tools they need to develop Liveable Neighbourhoods.

With a pilot Liveable Neighbourhood also planned for St George and Barton Hill, there is still reason to be hopeful that we’ll see a demonstration of the benefits close to home soon.

Our supporters and residents, especially our city’s children, are relying on the pilot to be a huge success to help the council move forward with its target of two Liveable Neighbourhoods by 2024 (and hopefully many more to follow with a much faster rollout).

A possible future for Redcliffe Way – image: LDA Design

We are calling on the administration to put their full weight behind the Liveable Neighbourhoods pilot for St George and help show the rest of the city this is something worth progressing with.

How can you help? Here’s two simple actions:

1) Email your councillor and the cabinet member for transport, Don Alexander, to ask Bristol City Council to develop a Liveable Neighbourhood plan for your area.

2) Set up a Playing Out session for your street. The council are really supportive of Playing Out and it is a fantastic way of seeing your street through new eyes, and talk to your neighbours about Liveable Neighbourhoods.

We’ve got eight years to meet our net zero targets, but probably more important to the average Bristolian, our children are more in-active than ever.

Let’s create streets for our children to enjoy. Let’s create Liveable Neighbourhoods.

Liveable Neighbourhoods for Bristol are hosting a webinar on Birmingham’s Liveable Neighbourhood strategy with Waseem Zaffar on February 15 vat 1pm. Sign up here.

Lyndsey Melling is a Liveable Neighbourhoods for Bristol volunteer

Main image: Liveable Neighbourhoods for Bristol

Read more: ‘Traffic filters will create more liveable neighbourhoods’

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