The six month trial begins when the bus gate cameras are activated
The installation of a bus gate on Marsh Lane in Barton Hill has been completed, from 6am on April 11(Image: Bristol Post submitted)
The installation of the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood – which has been delayed for almost six months by residents’ direct action protests to stop it – is now complete, after council contractors came again at 6am this morning to finish the job.
The final bus gate has been created on Marsh Lane in Barton Hill, with planters and signage across the road for vehicles approaching from the north and Avonvale Road.
The council now has to complete the painting of road markings indicating the presence of a bus gate – a previous attempt to paint the road was left half-completed last week when a small group of local residents stood in the way.
The East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood is a six-month trial project, with an assessment at the end of that six months to decide if it stays, is changed or scrapped completely. That trial period has not yet begun, and won’t until the bus gates go ‘live’ and the cameras to catch drivers going through the gate are switched on.
Council chiefs have said drivers won’t be fined immediately and will receive a warning letter the first time they drive through the gate.
There are exemptions to the new Marsh Lane bus gate. The emergency services, Bristol Waste bin and recycling lorries, professional carers providing care in the community, parents with children attending special needs schools, taxis and disability vehicles, as well as bikes and scooters can all be driven or ridden through the bus gate.
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“The exemptions in these locations mean that car journeys would be simpler for anyone providing professional care or who have challenging and time constrained journeys associated with care,” said a council spokesperson. “The taxi and private hire exemption provides more flexibility for people working in the taxi trade and makes the area more accessible for people who rely on taxis.
“The bus gate would also be enforced with cameras rather than a bollard, which means that emergency services would not have to remove a bollard during emergencies.
“The bus gate futureproofs the scheme for a potential bus route connecting Barton Hill and Redfield to Temple Meads, the new university campus, and the city centre via Avonvale Road and Feeder Road,” they added.
The installation of a bus gate on Marsh Lane in Barton Hill has been completed, from 6am on April 11(Image: Bristol Post submitted)
Local residents said they felt the scheme had been done ‘to them’ rather than ‘with them’. Fadumo Farah, who was one of the residents of nearby Barton House who came out when contractors initially started installing the bus gates last month at 3am, said many residents have been left ‘feeling excluded’.
“Today’s scheme completion highlights what’s been missing all along: genuine community involvement,” she said.
“Many residents hoped to help shape decisions, particularly around traffic calming and access. But for many, the process felt like it happened to them, rather than with them. That lack of collaboration has led to frustration not because residents are anti-environment or anti-progress, but because they were ready and willing to co-design something better,” she added.
Since the project’s conception back in 2023, through to the start of work last autumn, and the controversies, campaigns and protests in the five months since, no news media in Bristol has reported more on the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood controversy than Bristol Live. Here is a timeline of what’s happened since work first began in October: