New Liveable Neighbourhood Council bosses say lessons have been learned

COUNCIL bosses say they have learned lessons from the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood and the city’s second scheme will be different.

- Alex SEABROOK Local democracy reporter [e-mail]

A fortnight is left of the public consultation into the South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood, including plans for parking permits and bollards.

The leader of Bristol City Council Green councillor Tony Dyer said there “hopefully won't” be police on the streets at 3am again, as happened in March earlier this year when contractors installed bus gates in Barton Hill. There will also be a focus on smaller areas with more public support for potential changes.

Other lessons include clearer communication with the public and installing “quick wins” early. In a wide-ranging interview, two of Bristol’s leading politicians spoke about the ambitious but controversial South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood.

Green councillor Ed Plowden, chair of the transport policy committee, said: “The South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood area is even bigger than East Bristol, so one of the things we've learned is to turn that into smaller pockets. Where originally it was going to be a very large liveable neighbourhood, we're now going to make residents’ parking a cornerstone across the area.

“We're not committed to doing it everywhere, but we're asking people what they think. The other thing we're doing is we looked at the results from the initial engagement and we found three areas that had more appetite for change. Rather than doing the whole thing at once, one of the big learnings was ‘let’s pick off those areas and then work incrementally”.