'Changes don't go far enough'

Residents react to traffic trial tweaks

- Tristan CORK

PEOPLE living inside the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood have welcomed the changes to the scheme announced by the city council last week but said they will continue to campaign for the entire project to be scrapped.

Members of the East Bristol Open Roads campaign have said the changes don’t go far enough, and people living in Barton Hill and Redfield who drive will still be inconvenienced. On Thursday, Bristol City Council announced some tweaks to the existing layout of bus gates, bollards, cameras and ‘modal filter’ planters which have effectively created six different ‘no-through-road’ zones from the residential roads of Barton Hill, Redfield, Netham Park and St George.

The no-through zones remain intact, almost all of the modal filters and bus gates remain and the council is continuing with the Liveable Neighbourhood as a trial well into 2026.

But a number of bus gates are being removed or moved to allow drivers better access into Barton Hill, and a modal filter at the end of one road in the heart of Redfield is being removed too.

Melissa Topping, a disabled woman from Redfield who has been one of the most vocal campaigners against the EBLN, said the changes showed the Green Party running the council were ‘pretending to listen, because they are continuing with the trial into late 2026.