The controversial South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood has moved a step nearer realitySBLN Concerns group march on City Hall
As many as 80 people have marched on City Hall from Ashton Gate, Bedminster and Southville to voice their opposition to plans for a new ‘South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood’.
The march on Thursday evening (February 5) began at Aldi at the Ashton Gate end of North Street, and went along North Street – which will be designated as a main road to take even more traffic from side roads – before heading into the city centre and the council offices on College Green.
The marchers grew in number as they headed east in the rain, buoyed by the supporting beeps of passing motorists, and applause from shopkeepers in the stores along North Street.
At City Hall, they were told a decision on the final plans for the SBLN won’t be made until September, and Bristol City Council is pressing ahead with plans to divide Southville up into traffic zones with modal filters, create one-way systems around Pylle Hill in Totterdown and impose residents’ parking schemes across Bedminster.
The aim is to stop drivers cutting through residential roads, although many locals say this isn’t an issue where they live.
The marchers were heading to the council’s transport policy committee, where they saw councillors vote to approve spending an extra £1.32 million on writing up the full business case. Council staff are carrying out more detailed design work, after hearing extensive feedback from local residents about the comprehensive road changes.
Elizabeth Newton, a Southville resident who organised the march, told the councillors: “We are already a neighbourhood who is active. People who can already walk and cycle, even in this morning’s drizzle. We can’t see that there is a problem that needs solving by blocking off our roads. We don’t want our neighbourhood divided up.”
Residents of Southville march from Aldi at Ashton Gate to City Hall in protest at plans for the ‘South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood’, on Thursday, February 5, 2026(Image: Bristol Post)
Earlier, on North Street, she and her neighbours think the SBLN proposals are the wrong solution. “We do not want our area cut up,” she said. “We do not feel there is a need for it, and so we are opposing it.
“Firstly, I don’t think there is a problem here, but secondly, I just don’t think there is a need to divide our area up and to push us out onto what they are calling ‘connector roads’. We’ve just walked along North Street, prior to that there were loads of secondary school kids walking down there, there are primary schools along there – this is where the traffic is going to be pushed.
“It’s already busy – there’s going to be more traffic and more pollution. This is not solving what is wanted. People were asked in 2024 what the problems were, and cycling was an issue that they raised, but this is not going to make it safer for cyclists on North Street or on Coronation Road, which is our other main connector road,” she added.
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The recent fatality on North Street, which saw keen cyclist Alan Hydes tragically killed by an alleged hit-and-run driver in January, looms large over the South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood, and at City Hall.
It’s unclear how North Street will feature in the final plans, but this could include new trees, benches and wider pavements.
“The recent death of an experienced cyclist on North Street has shaken my community,” said Amanda Edmondson, one local resident, at the council meeting. “It could have been me or anyone who that tragic incident happened to that day. I have an 80-year-old neighbour who walks daily to North Street. She’s now terrified of going there, despite needing to, to do her shopping.
Protestors against the South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood scheme arrive at City Hall in Bristol tonight, Thursday 5 February 2026 after a march starting from Southville.(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach Plc)
“The idea that Bedminster is already a low-traffic neighbourhood is far from the truth. I’ve been previously hit and injured by a car on North Street. North Street has no cycle provision, the pavements are narrow, crossing points far and few between, few dropped kerbs, and the vast majority of space is given over to people driving cars and parking cars.
“Are they more important? I can only hope that the tragic event acts as a wake-up call to decision-makers that North Street and surrounding areas need an ambitious and radical change, to prioritise walking, cycling and public transport, to stop this ever happening again. SBLN is an important lever in starting to make this change,” she added.
The SBLN proposals that were consulted on by the council last year contain no plans for segregated cycle lanes along North Street, and the council chiefs admit themselves that it would mean even more traffic along the route that is the heart of the BS3 community.
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One of the local residents who rushed to the aid of Mr Hydes launched a petition last month pointing out that the SBLN would make North Street worse for cyclists rather than better, and called for a rethink in the SBLN approach.
The council meeting heard that several thousand people responded to the council’s survey about its initial plans. These responses are being analysed, including 16,000 free text responses. “A lot” of council staff are working on the project, with engineers carrying out detailed designs out the individual changes.
Green Councillor Ed Plowden, committee chair, said: “We’re making sure that we’re making changes on what we initially consulted on. We’re listening, we’re taking all of that engagement and responses, and we’re trying to make the scheme better, by listening and an iterative process — rather than simply saying ‘you’ve had your say, now we’re going to do it anyway’.”
Cllr Ed Plowden (Green, Windmill Hill) the chair of the city council’s transport committee, outside the South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood consultation event in Totterdown(Image: Bristol Post)
The transport committee is aiming to decide on the final plans in September, but this could slip.
After the full business case is approved by councillors, this also needs to be approved by the West of England Combined Authority.
Then the changes could be rolled out towards the end of the year and next year. A response to the previous engagement will also be published soon.
Some local residents are concerned that the council is only now carrying out detailed traffic monitoring in affected areas. The reason behind this is because the plans have been narrowed down to three specific neighbourhoods, and the monitoring costs a lot of money to do. So council bosses said this was a “better use of public funds”, once the plans were more detailed.
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Cllr Plowden added: “There were 11 different areas identified by the project team initially. One of the learnings we took from the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood was that we weren’t going to roll out a scheme across all of those 11 all in one go. “We’ve focused on three of those areas where there’s the greatest appetite for change. So rather than doing extensive, expensive monitoring across all 11, we’ve listened to the initial engagement, worked out where there’s the greatest appetite for change, and that’s where we’re focusing it.”
Extra air quality monitors have been installed, including on Coronation Road, to measure the impact on pollution. Green and Liberal Democrat councillors on the committee voted in favour of the extra spending, while Labour and Conservative councillors voted against.