St Mark’s Road: a community divided over 60 metres of concrete

For the last six months, the question of pedestrianising a short section of St Mark’s Road has caused division within the community.

Bristol24/7 reported in August that Bristol Sweetmart and Pak Butchers would “not be able to work” and would move from the street if the pedestrianisation went ahead; proponents say more foot traffic would strengthen business.

Bristol City Council’s survey of St Mark’s Road ended on Sunday January 17 but a final decision could still be a long way off.

St Mark’s Road Community Group, set up by residents and businesses who are against pedestrianisation, criticised the survey. They say the council’s consultation process excludes the voices of 4,000 people who signed their online and paper-based petitions.

In a recent letter to the council, the group demanded that the council “postpone the consultation until lockdown ends”.

The community kiosk at the Sweetmart had to be closed due to lockdown. Photo by Yvonne Deeney.

The group had set up a community shop where they were planning to help residents with language barriers to fill out the paper-based survey on St Mark’s Road, but were prevented by lockdown restrictions.

Management at prominent businesses on the road, including Bristol Sweetmart and Pak Butchers, have been vocal in their opposition to the plans over the past six months.

Sweetmart owner Rashid Majothi said in a recent video that “not a single business” along the 60 metre stretch of St Marks Road considered for pedestrianisation is in favour of the proposal.

But many residents support pedestrianisation, like Rob Bryher, who set up the Love St Mark’s Road campaign for a liveable neighbourhood. He says he expected the plans to be shut down due to the opposition from the businesses:

“I could see how this would go. They (Bristol Sweetmart and Pak Butchers) would set up this petition and everyone would flock around them because they’re so popular – and that’s fine, I want them to be popular.

“You can’t just close it down like that in a democratic society. It should be the case that we have alternative views on this, and it isn’t the businesses who get to decide on their own what happens with the high street.”

To support their campaign, Love St Mark’s Road has created several videos featuring residents who support a partial road closure.

“It’s not only the businesses who are against this,” explains Stuart Phelps, founding member of Residents Against Dirty Energy (RADE). The environmental campaigner is against the pedestrianisation of St Mark’s Road, because he believes it will mean more cars using the area’s major routes, potentially increasing air pollution.

According to an Easton Safer Streets survey, 2,882 vehicles use St Marks Road as a cut-through daily, to avoid congestion while driving from one end of Stapleton Road to the other.

“The reality is that Greenbank is green, it’s got a very low level of nitrogen dioxide. But critically when people start talking about low traffic neighbourhoods – you drive the traffic out of here onto the very roads that are filled with air pollution.”

Stuart believes that the council should be focusing on neighbouring main roads, like Stapleton Road and Easton Way, where the levels of nitrogen dioxide from traffic fumes are often above the legal limits.

“Poor kids are raised on some of the worst streets for air pollution. There is a lot that could be done to improve Stapleton Road,” says Stuart.

Map of Easton with roads with high levels of air pollution marked in orange. Image from Earth Sense, 2017

Cabinet member for transport, councillor Kye Dudd, explained on the Bristol mayor’s blog that ‘liveable neighbourhoods’ are part of the council’s wider project to reduce air pollution and encourage walking and cycling: “We are working to make our neighbourhoods more people-friendly with less traffic on local streets. Other councils have experimented in making residential roads access only, tackling cut-throughs and rat-runs.”

Though there is worry that the closure of St Mark’s Road could increase congestion on Stapleton Road, Rob says there is evidence that in the long-term, creating liveable neighbourhoods decreases overall traffic as people find alternative methods of transport.

For supporters of pedestrianisation, the proposed changes would mean better air quality but also space for pedestrians, especially those with buggies and wheelchair users.

Rob says that he is keen to discuss the proposals with the businesses and others in opposition to the plans, but has “never been invited to any meetings”.

He adds that the arguments regarding air quality on Stapleton Road are simply a distraction: “We have funding for St Mark’s Road. Let’s focus on getting that right first.”

In December, architecture students from UWE Bristol gave details of a shared space proposal as an alternative to road closure.

St Mark’s Road Community Group are in favour of these proposals and believe that the shared space offers a starting point for discussion with the community. The group say the shared space is a compromise that will provide access for wheelchair users, and a higher priority for pedestrians without negatively impacting on businesses.

However, Rob, who has a background in transport planning, believes that the shared space proposals would not work on St Mark’s Road:

“Everyone else’s use of the road is always going to be constricted if you allow cars to go down there, especially if you’ve still got parking spaces, which is what the businesses want. I understand why they don’t want limited access because it is inconvenient for them, but they need to consider what is inconvenient for the rest of the community.”

Easton’s Labour councillors hope to organise a meeting that can bring the two sides together. “We are going to look at the findings from the survey and talk to the community, businesses and faith leaders,” says cabinet member for climate, ecology and sustainable growth, Afzal Shah.

“We have an opportunity to make St Mark’s Road even better. It’s a great road, famous for the Grand Iftar and a street party capital, but it’s also a concrete jungle – there isn’t much greenery. We need to be open minded and think outside the box.”

Councillor Ruth Pickersgill hopes that by putting together survey responses there will be “lots of exciting ideas” and “a number of options”. “We were never going to impose something that nobody wants,” she says.

“Personally, I don’t think there will be an option to totally pedestrianise it. We’d really just like to get the key people who feel strongly about it and try and work together to find a way through.”

Kye Dudd told Bristol24/7 that Bristol City Council are “still compiling the survey responses” and would like to set up a community meeting “as soon as possible.”

Main image by Yvonne Deeney

Read more: Sweetmart promise to leave St Mark’s Road if street is pedestrianised