{"id":101941,"date":"2025-05-14T22:42:29","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T22:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/101941\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T22:42:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T22:42:29","slug":"council-boss-regrets-how-low-traffic-neighbourhood-was-rolled-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/101941\/","title":{"rendered":"Council boss ‘regrets’ how low traffic neighbourhood was rolled out"},"content":{"rendered":"

It sparked protest and controversyPete Gavan<\/strong><\/a> Senior Editor and SWNSFilipaGaspar (Filipa Gaspar)<\/strong><\/p>\n

14:00, 14 May 2025<\/p>\n

Campaigners fighting the EBLN<\/p>\n

A council boss says he ‘regrets’ how the rollout of a suburb’s liveable neighbourhood has been handled.<\/p>\n

Leader of Bristol City Council<\/a> Tony Dyer said he thinks “there are definitely lessons to be learned” about the process.<\/p>\n

This comes after angry residents were seen protesting after council contractors tried to complete the controversial scheme in Barton Hill at 3am.<\/p>\n

A six-month trial of the scheme is now under way and involves a variety of measures intended to calm traffic – including bus gates and cycle lanes.<\/p>\n

A sign for the controversial LTN<\/p>\n

The improvements in a liveable neighbourhood, according to the council, aim to make it easier to catch a bus and to walk or cycle, with less through traffic.<\/p>\n

But campaigners state that the scheme has ‘gridlocked the area, creating unsafe roads and increased pollution’.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Politics West, council leader Tony Dyer said: “Do I personally regret? Yes, I do. You never like to be in the situation where you are coming into conflict with people.<\/p>\n

Council leader Tony Dyer(Image: PAUL GILLIS \/ Reach PLC)<\/p>\n

“You often have valid concerns. However, I don’t think that we are ever going to please everybody with everything we do.”<\/p>\n

Dyer said that the new Green-led administration should have looked more closely at whether “everyone who needed to be involved had been involved”.<\/p>\n

“You never like to be in a situation where you are coming into conflict with people who often have valid concerns, and you want to try to find a way to address those.<\/p>\n

“Liveable neighbourhoods are a controversial topic. Some people are very much supportive, other people are very much anti.”<\/p>\n

Part of the EBLN<\/p>\n

In response to Dyer, Barton Hill resident Melissa Topping tweeted: “Great, admitting it is one thing, now get rid of it please!<\/p>\n

“East Bristol deserves better than to be left with a mistake. We are not here to be lessons learnt. These are our lives and livelihoods you’re putting at stake!”<\/p>\n

Previously Melissa claimed that the new liveable neighbourhood infrastructure means that larger emergency service vehicles, or any trader with a larger van, cannot access several roads across Barton Hill, Redfield and St George.<\/p>\n

The resident who lives with a disability said her independence has been taken away.<\/p>\n

Since 2010, she has been using a wheelchair and mobility scooter to access areas that she cannot on foot.<\/p>\n

A new bus gate on Avonvale Road, Bris., now limits Melissa’s access to her own home on Victoria Avenue.<\/p>\n

The account of the Bristol Somali Community Association tweeted that “regret isn’t enough for the residents of Barton Hill”.<\/p>\n

“The leader of @BristolCouncil knew the problem. We explained to him as soon as he became the leader of the city.<\/p>\n

“Like (the) previous leader, he’s pushing this scheme against the will of the residents.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It sparked protest and controversyPete Gavan Senior Editor and SWNSFilipaGaspar (Filipa Gaspar) 14:00, 14 May 2025 Campaigners fighting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,3893,748,393,4884,285,10298,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-101941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-council","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-st-george","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114508605032229516","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}