Conservative Councillor Bador Uddin has tabled a motion and formal questions backing residents in East Bristol who want to put a stop to the first liveable neighbourhood scheme in their part of the city.
Work on the pilot began in October and is due to be completed by January. However, the significant disruption this is already causing to people living in Barton Hill, areas of Redfield, and St George, has generated a huge amount of local opposition.
Promoted by the last Labour Administration as a means of improving road safety and air quality, the liveable neighbourhood concept aims to achieve this by radically restricting motor vehicle access to residential streets.
However, critics of the current plans point out that this will seriously harm local businesses by reducing accessibility and the loss of passing trade, increase congestion by displacing road traffic onto less suitable roads, result in poorer air quality from the rerouting of vehicles, and potentially waste scarce public resources.
Over the weekend, an online petition has reached the trigger point for a formal Council debate (3,500 verifiable signatures), and it is expected to be added to the Agenda of the next meeting.
Now, Conservative Councillors are taking up this issue with a tabled resolution on this issue, and questions for the preceding Members Forum session, on Tuesday, 10th December.
Cllr Uddin (Henbury & Brentry) said: “I am very concerned that once the installation is finished, it will be too late to make any changes to this imposed experimental project.
“Judging from the amount of hostility to these plans, the previous public consultation conducted was either defective in not adequately capturing these views, or its opponents were simply ignored.
“As such, the Green-led City Council should now re-think its approach to this controversial issue and the merits of foisting such innovations on to unsuspecting communities.
“My Group has always been somewhat sceptical about introducing these kinds of contentious road demand-management measures.
“In any event, it is vital that any future roll-out or expansion of liveable neighbourhoods must always command the support of a majority of people who actually live within the boundaries of any proposed new scheme.”
