Bristol City Council’s contractors abandoned an attempt to alter the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood this morning after a small group of local residents blockaded the road to prevent the work.
After a brief stand-off, council contractors ETM gave up and left Avonvale Road, in the face of a small group of protesters led by Redfield resident Melissa Topping.
The man in charge of Bristol City Council‘s roads and transport said the blockade action was ‘really disappointing’. The council want to move a ‘modal filter’ and bus gate from the west side of the Avonvale Road junction with Marsh Lane to the east side, and say they are doing so after local residents in Barton Hill suggested doing that to allow greater access for drivers into the Barton Hill area.
But there are many living within the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood area who want the bus gates and ‘modal filters’ – planters across the road that stop four-wheel traffic but allow two wheels through – to be removed completely.
The local residents watched the council contractors remove the bus gate from the west side of the junction yesterday, Thursday, but when ETM arrived to paint the road and finish the work to install a new bus gate on the east side of the junction this morning, Friday, they were prevented from doing so.
“There’s now no bus gate at all. The old one doesn’t have signage and the new one isn’t installed,” explained Ms Topping. “This is what the community wants, and this is why we took action this morning.”
Local residents opposed to a new bus gate block the road in Barton Hill Bristol early this morning, Friday 17 April 2026, where ETM contractors working on behalf of Bristol City Council have been stopped from working. Plans are in place to move the existing bus gate to the other side of Avondale Road at Marsh Lane(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach Plc)
There is controversy over the plan to tweak the Marsh Lane-Avonvale Road junction, because of the impact on local businesses, and the council is investigating damage and defacing of signage on Avonvale Road in the past few days.
The new location for the bus gate is right outside Hamblins fish and chip shop. Owner Armin Amadi has long complained that blocking the road at the junction next to his chippy had devastated trade, and now the bus gate was being moved to be right outside his door.
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“We’re just here trying to stop them doing this because business is already being killed,” said Melissa Topping, who parked her disability scooter on the part of the road earmarked for the new bus gate.
“He does not want to sit there and look at those signs from across the other side of his counter, when he knows that’s killing his business – what kind of malevolence is that?” she added.
It’s created a whole new set of problems. We had a whole set of problems before, and this is creating a whole new set. Just to put it right outside a business that’s failing is just disgusting,” she said.
Local residents opposed to a new bus gate block the road in Barton Hill Bristol early this morning, Friday 17 April 2026, where ETM contractors working on behalf of Bristol City Council have been stopped from working. Plans are in place to move the existing bus gate to the other side of Avondale Road at Marsh Lane(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach Plc)
The city council said it was acting to tweak the junction after the huge consultation on the effects of the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood, which has been in place just over a year now.
Back in the spring of 2025, in the face of months of direct action protests and blockades, the city council hired security and were accompanied by around 60 police officers who arrived at 3am to install the bus gates at this junction.
That action stunned the community, and led to apologies from both police and the council about its heavy-handed approach. After a year, the council has agreed to move the bus gate so drivers can go into Barton Hill from Marsh Lane into the west side of Avonvale Road.
But a new set of consultations on the proposals have been controversial too – with campaigners against the EBLN wanting it removed completely.
“There were 243 objections to their proposal to change it and 23 in support, the community want this gone altogether,” added Melissa Topping. “It’s built on lies and fabricated data.”
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)
Cllr Ed Plowden, Chair of the Transport and Connectivity Committee, said: “It’s really disappointing that crews have been blocked from doing their work to introduce changes to the EBLN trial measures, which directly responds to the feedback received from the community.
“Moving the bus gate on Avonvale Road to the east of its junction with Mildred Street will allow traffic to turn left from Marsh Lane onto Avonvale Road and will improve access to the Wellspring Centre and Days Road. To allow this to happen, we need to close Mildred Street at one end to through-traffic.
“This, along with a series of other changes, reflect what people have told us and it is frustrating to see a very small group of people acting in direct opposition to what their neighbours have told us they want to see happen,” he added.
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