News / Western Harbour
John Savage: ‘The public have not got realistic expectations about Western Harbour’
The chair of the Western Harbour Advisory Group admits that he has “got to go” as the major development scheme remains stalled.
John Savage also says that the group needs to be much more diverse, with the pastor from Bristol mayor Marvin Rees’ own church among the members but no elected councillor.
Savage, managing director of Business West and executive chairman of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce, added that he and his colleagues “are really rather a nice bunch of people. And yet people don’t trust us.”
is needed now More than ever
An early image of the proposed Western Harbour bore a striking similarity to Wapping Wharf – image: Bristol City Council
In a wide-ranging interview with the Bristol Cable, the experienced businessman described the Western Harbour Advisory Group as an attempt to “stand between the city council and anybody else and be a sort of neutral exchange”.
But its makeup has been criticised for being too close to Rees, and for some appointed members to have scarcely attended any of its meetings.
The area called ‘Western Harbour’ stretches from Hotwells to Greville Smyth Park – map: Bristol City Council
“I don’t think the council did a very good presentation in the first place because the thing that most people feared was what would happen to the road system,” Savage told the Bristol Cable.
“We’d like to see a low-level road system with a better crossing but none of us, even the experts that give their work to us pro-bono, we haven’t got the answer…
“The council have found the time to do quite a lot of work in exploring what people would like. But I think the general public have not got realistic expectations.
“The fact is, it’s a place where houses need to be built, given the pressure.”
Main photo: Business West
Read next:
- Confusion over ‘insufficient’ Western Harbour vision
- John Savage: ‘My vision for the West of England’
- Western Harbour now expected to be built by 2032
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