News / Transport
Public feedback fuels changes to liveable neighbourhood plans
Changes are already planned for the controversial South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood (SBLN) scheme after feedback from members of the public.
Bristol City Council is currently consulting the public about its transport proposals covering Bedminster, Southville and Totterdown.
The public consultation ends on October 30 but has already sparked “a lot of strong feeling”. Southville is the most affected neighbourhood, with a series of bollards, planters and bus gates dividing the area into four separate zones — with a particular problem in one of the zones.
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The proposed plan includes “modal filters” being installed on Raleigh Road
People will still be able to move between the four zones, but drivers will have to go a long way round via North Street or Coronation Road to get from one zone to another. Pedestrians, cyclists and moped riders can still travel between the individual zones.
The orange zone includes Leighton Road, Beauley Road, Stackpool Road, Osborne Road, Allington Road and Camden Road. To leave the zone, drivers would have to go onto the busy and congested Coronation Road, which is also the boundary of the Clean Air Zone. This means that drivers with non-compliant vehicles would be forced to pay the £9 fee for every journey.
Green councillor Tony Dyer is the leader of the council and also the ward councillor representing Southville. Speaking at the West of England Combined Authority committee meeting on Friday, he promised that the council would change its plans, including how the orange zone would be set up. Although any details of the changes are not yet clear.
Councillor Dyer said: “I’m aware there’s a lot of strong feeling about it and we do need to capture that. I don’t want to pre-empt the outcome of the consultation but it’s clear that there are already some things that we need to change.
“For example it’s clear that the orange zone set up at the moment isn’t going to be something that’s supported going forward. We need to look at a few other areas but we’re waiting before we get all the responses to the consultation.”
At the moment, the plans involve installing “modal filters” such as bollards or planters on Raleigh Road and Stackpool Road. This would stop drivers getting through to Dean Lane and Merrywood Road.
Local residents are concerned that driving within Southville would become much harder, for example with parents on the school run dropping off children and their classmates in different zones, or elderly residents who rely on driving short distances. The combined authority heard that the plan to prevent drivers cutting through the area was akin to treating locals like “livestock”.
Satyjen Joshi, who lives in Southville, said: “The Southville community is being divided by a hugely controversial imposition. It’s not underpinned by any tangible, real, unambiguous clear evidence that a problem exists. We have a lot of problems that will be created by the current design if it were to be initiated.
“The plan is subdividing residents into four zones, like livestock. I’m not convinced that is the way we should be conducting ourselves in this day and age. Let’s take a rain check on this. Do not release the funding until a community-led plan has been put into place, a plan that residents have had a chance to fully consider and where no physical roadblocks have been initiated.”
This is the second liveable neighbourhood planned for Bristol. The first one has been installed in a trial in Barton Hill, Redfield and St George and has proved similarly controversial with supporters praising safer streets and critics complaining of worsening congestion on Church Road and longer car journeys.
More than 2,000 petitioners have called on the council to “stop Southville roadblocks”. The petition claims that dead-end roads would be unsafe, there would be less parking available, and getting to the shops and schools would be harder. 100 members of the public submitted questions to the combined authority, and they were encouraged to fill out the consultation.
Helen Godwin, the Labour mayor of the West of England, said: “We had an extraordinary number of questions received from members of the public ahead of this meeting. There were 119 questions and I understand this is the most we have ever received. I’ll take it as a win and we are genuinely grateful for everyone who is engaging with the democratic process.
“Around 100 of those questions relate to the South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood proposals. I want to please encourage everyone to respond to Bristol City Council’s consultation by October 30. That’s the best way for your views to be heard and considered.”
After the consultation, transport planners at the council will assess the feedback and amend the plans, before applying to the combined authority with a full business case. This will then be looked at by staff at the West of England, who would then provide the council with the funding.
All photos: Karen Johnson
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