‘Western Harbour is marred by a lack of transparency and a sham consultation’

On Tuesday, the mayor of Bristol’s cabinet will rubber stamp “a refresh” for its advisers on developing the land around the Cumberland Basin, the mix of rundown infrastructure and parkland that faces the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the Avon Gorge.

Now with up to £2.5m granted by the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), mayor Marvin Rees can proceed with hiring a masterplanner for his dream of replacing the ageing Plimsoll Bridge and building housing with the best views in the city.

However, progress in achieving that dream has been marred by a lack of transparency about the options for a new road crossing, explosive comments from the mayor criticising the community, an advisory group that was packed with the mayor’s allies but deliberately shut out local councillors, and a sham consultation that blew £150,000 to very little effect.

‘Western Harbour’ encompasses areas of Hotwells, Spike Island and Bedminster – image: Bristol City Council

We only learnt of the mayor’s plans for this piece of land, which takes in Ashton Meadows and the bonded warehouses south of the river and the Plimsoll Bridge and surrounding area in the north, when a sales brochure was shown to potential investors in Asia.

Then, a series of options were published for a road crossing in which a new bridge pushing traffic further into a residential part of the city was favoured.

That got noticed. The failure to lay any groundwork with the community became apparent when the mayor attended a meeting of residents.

Not unnaturally, Rees faced a lot of questions, although a video shows the meeting to have been quite civil. Subsequently, however, the mayor saw it as a “Marvin in the lions’ den” moment (my characterisation).

In an interview with an American university, he mocked residents and offered a narrative – principally that residents were NIMBYs who weren’t prepared to help solve the city’s housing crisis – a narrative that many at the meeting didn’t recognise.

In January 2020, Marvin Rees attended a public meeting organised by the Labour Party to discuss the Western Harbour plans, with the mayor later recalling he had been on stage on his own in front of “really angry” local residents – photo: Martin Booth

So far, not very good. The £150,000 consultation run by a London consultant complete with Plasticine and Post-It notes followed, to much derision. From that came a “vision” which left many people scratching their heads.

This ham-fisted approach was matched with the creation of the Western Harbour Advisory Group, a score of individuals often linked to the mayor but with little local representation. In fact, the mayor shut out local councillors to avoid political “ping-pong”.

The vision for Western Harbour “will become a thread that will inspire and guide changes to the area in the future”, its website reads

It was the perfect recipe for groupthink – an approach that would not pass any corporate governance test. And for the most part, when they turned up, members were just baubles on the Christmas tree.

The group met 15 times and struggled to attract numbers. At its last meeting in March last year only nine out of 20 showed up.

Now the mayor wants a refresh, offering a change of name and 16 places on the group through open application. Except that it is not a refresh. Rees has written to the members and told them that they can reapply if they wish, and, most controversially, he has re-appointed businessman John Savage as chair.

That came as quite a surprise. Last August, South Gloucestershire resident Savage, 78, told Joe Banks of the Bristol Cable: “I’ve got to go, haven’t I? I’m old. And I don’t think – under what will probably be a Green-led council next time – that they’ll carry on with the arrangements we’ve had.”

Now Mr (or Canon Dr, as he styles himself) Savage has been prominent in Bristol. Over the past 30 years, there are few pies that Savage has not had his fingers in – including Canon’s Marsh and Harbourside – and usually in that area between public and private sectors.

In 2050: High in Hope, Savage proposed redeveloping the Cumberland Basin; the book has been seen as deeply influential on the mayor.

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Read more: John Savage: ‘The public have not got realistic expectations about Western Harbour’

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I agree with the Canon Doctor. Yes, the area needs redevelopment, and it should be in consultation with the community. But I also agree that Savage should not return. He is on borrowed time. And why he has agreed to remain is both mystifying and inconsistent.

The mayor insists that consultation should be citywide, which seems fair enough so long as it’s not a vehicle for appointing only the mayor’s yes-people to the advisory group. We don’t want the usual carve-up from a here-today-gone-in-May mayor.

Other questions remain. The mayor wants to build more than 2,000 homes. With the risk of flooding, who knows whether that is possible. He has also said he wants 30 to 40 per cent affordability for the homes. Bearing in mind the fiction of “affordability” and the mayor’s failure ever to achieve such targets, the economics of the development must raise questions.

Why would the finest view in Bristol – and some say, England – be sold off to developers without wanting to extract the highest price for hard-pressed council taxpayers? It’s not difficult to expect an outcome very far removed from any mayoral or community vision.

Which is why I will go to the council to object to the appointment of Savage on Tuesday, at the very least to record in public my disappointment with the way this project has been handled.

Andrew Lynch is a Hotwells resident and former associate business editor of The Sunday Times

All photos: Martin Booth

Read next:

• Search for architect to draw up £5.6m masterplan for Western Harbour redevelopment
• Former electrical power house becomes Bristol’s latest listed building
• Footpath to finally reopen but questions remain why it took three and a half years
• What could the Cumberland Basin look like in the future?

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