Local residents who say their lives have been transformed for the better by the controversial East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood have described their frustration after a group of protesters halted work to install a new bus gate.
Bristol Live broke the news last week that protesters had stopped council contractors from creating a new bus gate on Avonvale Road in Barton Hill last week, citing opposition to the scheme, which they said has also put the future of the Hamblins fish and chip shop at risk.
But one resident of Avonvale Road said he was left frustrated by the protests, and called for the council to make the scheme permanent.
Peter Brooks lives on Avonvale Road close to the site of the bus gate junction with Marsh Lane, which has proved possibly the most controversial of all the traffic control measures.
He said the protesters who stopped council contractors ETM from working on Friday were ‘acting in bad faith or out of spite’, because the changes the council were implementing came after consulting with local residents.
The council announced at the start of this year it would be tweaking the Liveable Neighbourhood measures after getting feedback from local residents and drivers – and that included moving the bus gate from the west side of the junction to the east side. That now enables drivers to travel between Avonvale Road and Marsh Lane, giving access into Barton Hill from the Feeder.
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Protesters said they stopped the work to install the new bus gate after allowing ETM to remove the old one – because they didn’t want any bus gates at all.
The leaders of the ‘East Bristol Open Roads’ campaign have long called for all of the Liveable Neighbourhood measures to be scrapped.
“It’s really frustrating to see four protestors block work that the council arranged in order to implement resident’s feedback – trialling more and easier vehicle access routes to Barton Hill,” said Peter Brooks.
“It feels like they are acting in bad faith or out of spite that they won’t even let changes that residents here have called for happen,” he added.
Installation of the bus gates on the Marsh Lane-Avonvale Road junction were regularly blocked by protesters over the winter of 2024-25, and eventually council teams, security and as many as 60 police officers descended on Barton Hill at 3am one morning in March last year to ensure that the bus gates could be installed properly.
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 bus gates were the last measure of the trial to be implemented, due to protest delays, which meant we saw how a lack of bus gates impacted traffic on Avonvale Road,” said Mr Brooks.
“In the period where the trial infrastructure was in place, but the bus gates were not, there was heavy traffic and lots of jams on Avonvale Road.
“Buses got stuck repeatedly throughout the day because of the volume of car traffic and individual drivers refusing to give way. Drivers get more aggressive when there are jams, and I don’t want to see a return to this situation, it felt unsafe as a cyclist, and just crossing the road to get to the local park.
“The bus gates are what allow the new bus route and increased bus services to run smoothly on Avonvale Road. Now just four protesters will cause issues and delays to many more people’s bus journeys until the bus gates can be re-installed.
“Personally, I know of a lot more than four people that support the EBLN scheme – the four protestors do not represent the whole community,” he added.
The bus gates that were installed last March during the controversial ‘dawn raid’ lasted little more than a year before the council came to move them.
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But Mr Brooks said the traffic scheme had benefitted his mental health. “The EBLN scheme has been transformational for my mental health – I feel so safe cycling around and I can sleep through the night.
“Previously we would wake up to noisy, and horn-honking, commuting traffic in the morning and be woken up after midnight by boy racers. I’ve not had any bad experiences cycling since the scheme started – before aggressive drivers were a weekly occurrence.
“The BCC EBLN monitoring report, which was authored by external consultants, found that walking and cycling have increased, traffic has reduced, and main roads have not been significantly slowed down,” he added.
Transport chief Cllr Ed Plowden (Green, Windmill Hill) said he echoed Mr Brooks’ frustration.
“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.
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)
“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.