When interviewing councillors on Bristol Unpacked, we often quiz them on their connections to their ward, and how important they feel it is to be part of that community.
It’s not unusual for our political representatives to come from outside Bristol – which has always been, and maybe is now more than ever, a city of changing populations and demographics. But this week’s guest, Kirsty Tait, one of three Labour councillors for Hartcliffe and Withywood, bucks that trend having grown up in the area she now represents – and still lives in.
Kirsty is the climate action manager at Heart of BS13, having only formally entered local politics at the local elections in May 2024 (although, as you’ll find out if you listen right through, she certainly seems to have a taste for it now!). This episode, we ask her about what people in power should be doing differently, or better, to involve working-class voices in taking action on global heating.
More than most people in Bristol, she’s been at the centre of such conversations, having also been one of the authors of Bristol’s declaration in support of the Just Transition – which is about how we can make climate policies fair for everyone, and especially people most likely to be negatively impacted by them.
Just Transition principles have been part been a hot topic, no pun intended, over the last year or two here with all the controversy about the Clean Air Zone and the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood. With class divisions emerging along environmental issues – and being stoked by the populist right – it is more important than ever for politicians, both in Bristol and beyond, to be working with communities and foregrounding their perspectives rather than taking a top-down approach.
Nor is the environment the only current issue where community perspectives from Hartcliffe are going to be much-needed. In the last couple of weeks the government has announced that the neighbourhood will be getting £20m as part of a national ‘trailblazer’ scheme to ‘support communities to drive changes they want to see – making sure that places that have been too easily left behind are no longer ignored. ’
What’s that about then? How should that money be spent? And what are the most important things that need to happen to make sure that the people it will affect most feel like it has been spent wisely?
Join Neil Maggs in conversation with Kirsty Tait as Unpacked gets on with doing what it does best – chewing on some of the biggest issues, while keeping a firmly Bristolian flavour…
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