Your say / Transport
‘I fear any decision will be seen as illegitimate and deepen polarisation’
The East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood (EBLN) has become one of the more controversial local issues that I have dealt with in my 20 years as MP for Bristol East.
It has, unfortunately, divided the local community and eroded trust in decision-makers.
Some residents are strongly supportive, saying it has greatly improved their lives and achieved its aims of safer, quieter and greener streets.
Others are strongly opposed, saying it has disrupted their lives and made going about their everyday business far more difficult.
And there are many people who want to support the scheme, but say elements of it are just not working.
The East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood is a project by Bristol City Council in areas of Barton Hill, Redfield and St George – photo: Betty Woolerton
Hundreds of constituents have contacted me about the liveable neighbourhood, splitting roughly 43 per cent in favour and 57 per cent against. I don’t pretend this is perfectly representative of local views, but it does demonstrate that opinion is divided.
Navigating this required the council to build trust with the local community. Unfortunately, every action they have taken thus far seems to be aimed at achieving the reverse.
Rather than bringing the community together, they have levered it apart: ignoring feedback; being opaque on timelines; implementing measures before dawn to avoid protests and not acknowledging concerns in their communications.
The final opportunity to address this lack of trust was the ‘engagement process’ around the scheme’s future, which is due to close on November 7.
An open and transparent process that prompted every resident to share their views while amassing detailed data on the scheme’s impacts could have rebuilt trust and restored confidence in the decision-making process.
Instead, the engagement process has been woefully inadequate. I won’t use the term sham, as others have done, because I don’t believe it’s deliberately bad or trying to mislead people, but the council can and must do better.
Residents had been continuously assured they would be able to feed their views into the final decisions via this engagement process.
The chair of the transport committee, Ed Plowden, assured residents that “we want to hear from as many people as possible” and that “this is your chance to shape the future of the liveable neighbourhood”.
The council’s deputy leader, Heather Mack, encouraged everyone to “take part in the survey” so that their views could be heard.
But when the survey arrived, it contained no prompt for people to share their views on the scheme or specific measures – just some questions about behaviour.
The council has also launched engagement hubs for more in-depth feedback and an app, but this has been focused on one area of the scheme and hasn’t reached out to residents in Troopers Hill, Crews Hole and St George.
The council tells us it is conducting polling to get more detailed, representative views, but there has been no information as to how this will be balanced, or what questions will be asked or what weight different types of responses will be given.
No data has been released about the effects of the scheme, and the council has not monitored the impact directly on some key roads.
To the frustration of many, there has been no prompting or opportunity for people who live outside the EBLN area to share their views.
‘No poor people allowed’ – photo: Carla Wakfer
Aside from the metro mayor, I am the only representative of both the EBLN area and the areas around it.
I have received many emails from people whose lives have been affected by the changes, who live in Brislington, Troopers Hill, St George Central or Easton.
People who are struggling to get to work, to attend places of worship, or to get to medical appointments at Wellspring.
The council also owes a responsibility to these people, but has seemingly no interest in their views or feedback. They have not been sent the survey. The engagement hubs and app do not reach out to them. The polling, as far as I’m aware, will not include them.
Far from the council wanting “to hear from as many people as possible”, their views are being ignored.
Throughout the EBLN process, I have attempted to take a pragmatic approach that balances the various views held by my constituents.
I want the EBLN to work and continue to support its core principles and aims. It is working well in some areas, particularly closer to the St George end. I think there are common-sense solutions to many of the challenges elsewhere.
We can find a way forward that brings people together, rather than drives them apart, but this requires the council to rethink its approach.
Some have shown their support for the transport scheme in east Bristol – photo: Carla Wakfer
The council should issue a new survey, which directly asks people for their views on the scheme.
They should reach out to areas on the edge of the scheme that are affected and bring their engagement hubs to a wider variety of locations.
They should poll more widely and release data on the EBLN’s impacts so people can make informed comments.
If they do not, then I fear that any decision made will be seen as illegitimate.
This will further deepen the polarisation within our community and the lack of trust in the council.
It will underline, for many, how ordinary people are ignored by those in power. I would urge councillors to step in and ensure this does not happen.
This is an opinion piece by Kerry McCarthy, Labour MP for Bristol East
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