Thousands of petitioners demand halt to £6m 'liveable neighbourhood trial' | SWNS

Описание: Thousands of residents are demanding a £6M 'liveable neighbourhood trial' is stopped - as it has gridlocked the area.

The traffic project has been designed to reduce rat running and promote active travel in St George, Redfield and Barton Hill in Bristol.

But campaigners states that the scheme has 'gridlocked the area, creating unsafe roads and increased pollution'.

The trial is said to have increased levels of congestion on the nearby roads and delays - and even stopped disabled people being able to get to their homes.

And others said it was 'killing' the area and potentially destroying local businesses.

Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) involves different traffic calming measures including bus gates, cycle lanes, with bollards and planters blocking through traffic.

Bristol City Council has urged people to assess the impact once the trial had been completed next year.

The temporary scheme is closing some through roads in East Bristol and results will be evaluated next year.

But a petition created anonymously blasted the scheme as a “waste of taxpayers’ money that could be better spent on solutions that genuinely benefit East Bristol” and a “threat” to the community and the local economy.

The thousands of signatures amounted from the petition have led to a debate among councillors during a council meeting.

Melissa Topping, 54, is a disabled and a wheelchair user living in Redfield.

She is amongst those who have signed the petition and is part of the Facebook group ‘STOP The East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood Road Closures’.

Melissa said that her main issue is that she won't be able to use her disabled vehicle.

She said: "They are blocking off my disabled vehicle access completely.

"They are leaving only side streets to access my street and my vehicle is too large to go down those side streets.

"They have created a complete maze for all the disabled people to try to negotiate their way through to get to the doctors, sending people on major routes to get to the doctors which is within their neighbourhood.

"This is affecting so many disabled and elderly in so many different ways. My stairlift engineer as said he won't be able to get to me down via Byron Street.

"My mobility scooter recovery won't be able to get me home should I break down and my vehicle recovery as got no hope because that is a 10 tone vehicle - all of those services are now gone."

Other residents claim that the trial is affecting local and small businesses.

Deniece Dixon, 47, who owns Cafe Conscious on Barton Hill, said that the road closures are "killing" her community cafe.

She said: "This place here on a Friday prime time every single seat would have been taken up.

"We rely on passing trade, on builders - none of them have come in since the road closures.

"We have been here over 10 years and it has never been like this. The people here are volunteers.

"There's a lot of taxi and Uber drivers around here and what they are saying is because traffic is that bad it is not even worth them going out anymore."

Another worry from the group is the impact the road closures are having on the response of emergency services.

Resident Ben Staples, 32, said they have collected evidence based on the changes made by the council.

He added: "There's multiple incidents where police, fire and ambulances are all just stuck in traffic because all of the traffic has been forced onto roads that can't cope with that level of traffic which means people can't pass - they physically cannot move out of the way for these vehicles."

East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood trial scheme has been taking place in November and December 2024 - with some preparatory works taking place ahead of this.

Cllr Plowden added: "We know these sorts of schemes have been controversial up and down the country - we knew that before we started and despite that the Green and Labour parties supported this scheme in May's elections.

"And we remained resolute to stand by that pledge. To keep listening but also to act on evidence not emotion both here and in south Bristol."

To visit the petition go to https://www.change.org/p/halt-the-eas...

Please subscribe for daily viral videos and check out all our social channels here: https://linktr.ee/swns

To license this video for editorial or commercial use please contact [email protected]