‘We have an opportunity to make a real difference to BS3’

Over the last nine months, councillors in Southville, Windmill Hill and Bedminster have been working with Action Greater Bedminster and the council to engage with the community about increased development in the area.

Namely, a 40 per cent potential increase in housing and the associated additional demand for services that comes with this.

The purpose of the ‘BS3 Beyond 2025’ programme, as this series of public events has been known, is to hear local people’s hopes and fears from right across the three wards and consider how communities can respond.

It’s important to remember that change is nothing new for the BS3 community. The population increased by 16-fold during the industrial growth of the 19th century, and has further changed since then as the area has moved to a more service led economy.

However, with the prospect of another period of significant change on the horizon, there is a shared desire to learn from previous mistakes.

There is also an opportunity for councillors, community groups, council officers, local businesses and, above all, residents to work together to tackle both the challenges and opportunities that will inevitably arise.

Throughout the ‘BS3 Beyond 2025’ programme, we have kept track of what topics were most frequently mentioned. Parking has consistently been top of the list, as well as other traffic issues.

As a councillor, I know that parking and rat-running has been an issue in BS3, and the community has responded to this.

It is no coincidence that Playing Out, the charity dedicated to providing space for children to play in the street, started here.

Despite this, only two residents parking schemes were rolled out in Southville, despite multiple surveys demonstrating public support, and the discussion has moved on to the wider issue of traffic management.

Hamilton Road in Southville looking towards Littlecross House – photo: Martin Booth

In June 2022, I chaired a Liveable Neighbourhoods Inquiry Day with a cross party steering group, which included fellow BS3 councillor Mark Bradshaw.

This day took evidence from Bristol City Council officers, transport practitioners and representatives from other authorities that have implemented liveable neighbourhoods.

All the other Green BS3 councillors attended and made key contributions. We heard of the transformational changes that well planned traffic calming measures can have on personal and public health and wellbeing, and that the majority of initial concerns tend to dissipate when the schemes are completed, and people experienced the range of benefits for themselves.

Following this, I submitted an amendment to the outgoing mayor’s 2023/2024 budget earlier this year, proposing to allocate funds to set up an outline business case for a liveable neighbourhood in the BS3 area.

The amendment to fund the first part of the scheme received cross party support and was subsequently included in the proposed budget.

The council has now published the early plans for the South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood, which will be funded by City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement funds as well as local developments.

The first phase, proposed for January 2024, will focus on collecting evidence and data on traffic, air quality and noise, as well as analysing ward profiles to further inform early proposals for the scheme.

This data will then be made available for wider discussions throughout the engagement process.

The next stage, proposed for after the council elections in May, will involve engagement with all stakeholders, including local communities and organisations, to find out what issues and challenges their communities face.

This will then be used to co-develop early proposals to further collaborate and consult on.

So much work from the community has already gone into making streets safer and more liveable, and now we have an opportunity to make a real difference to BS3 and all future residents.

However, this is not going to be an overnight process.

As local councillors, we are keen to ensure that the community is fully engaged and has an active input into how any resulting scheme is rolled out.

This is an opinion piece by Tony Dyer, a Green Party councillor for Southville

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read next:

• South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood pilot scheme moves closer
• East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood plans pushed back again
• Tony Dyer: ‘Tackling the housing crisis and climate crisis are not mutually exclusive’
  

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