SBLN: The Fundamental Lie
A Statement by Matt Sanders to the West of England Combined Authority Joint Committee Meeting, 27th March 2026
Matt Sanders lives in the area designated for the ‘South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhoods’. He is an art director who has designed scenery for many well-known TV shows and films, including Wallace & Gromit and Doctor Who.
During the past year Matt has become a familiar face at Bristol City Council public forum sessions, where he has been doggedly pursuing an admission from the Council that the bus gate signage on Cumberland Road completely fails to meet the required standards.
In recent weeks he has turned his attention to the lack of evidence for the alleged justification for the SBLN - the justification on which the funding from WECA relies.
Please read below his recent crystal clear public statement to the Combined Authority, together with the visuals he used to illustrate his points.
1. The SBLN Modal Filters
Bristol City Council is currently developing proposals for the South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood.
But funding from WECA (West of England Combined Authority) is ONLY available for a liveable neighbourhood, if it eliminates “through traffic” by installing modal filters.
The design proposal for Southville does indeed consist of dividing this area into four “zones”, separated by modal filters, as shown by plans on the Council Website, here.
(Click the tab for “Phase 1 neighbourhoods: Southville”)
2. The Council Website Claim
This page of the Council Website says:
“Traffic data show that high numbers of vehicles from outside the area use residential streets in Southville as a cut-through to other destinations.”
But WHAT specific “Traffic data” actually PROVES this claim…?
When we ask this question, we are directed to this Council webpage.
This has a link to download “Traffic Survey Results” from June 2024, here:
SBLN Traffic survey results 2024 (zip folder, 129.8mb) (zip, 126.71 MB)
And this consists of 94 complex spreadsheets, each with dozens of pages.
However — when we ask WHICH specific spreadsheets support the website’s claim — no answer is ever forthcoming.
3. ANPR Camera Sites
The only way to demonstrate that vehicles are “cutting through” — rather than driving to or from destinations within this area — is to have Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras throughout the streets of Southville — and — simultaneously — more cameras on all the perimeter roads.
Six of the 94 spreadsheets relate to ANPR data, and have this link to a map of camera locations.
This Map reveals that — in June 2024 — there were 25 Cameras in South Bristol — shown by the red and blue tabs.
But NONE of these cameras were WITHIN the “Southville Zone”.
Though TWO cameras were on Southville’s perimeter roads…
4. Southville Camera Sites
This Map has an enlarged view of the Cameras around Southville:
Camera 14 was on Coronation Road, at the top of this map.
Camera 16 was on North Street, at the bottom of this map.
The ANPR spreadsheets show that, on 11th June 2024, each of these cameras saw more than 1,000 vehicles, which were also detected by other cameras within the same 15 minutes.
But only FOUR of those vehicles were detected by BOTH of these cameras.
And there is no way of knowing if they drove around the PERIMETER of the Southville zone, or cut through the middle — as there were NO cameras WITHIN the zone, to identify any “cutting through”.
The vast majority of matching detections related to Camera 1 — at Clift House Road, on the left of this map —
— as the vehicles seen by Camera 14 drove along Coronation Road — the NORTHERN PERIMETER of the Southville Zone —
— while those seen by Camera 16 drove along North Street — the SOUTHERN PERIMETER —
— all WITHOUT “cutting through” the Southville Zone.
5. The Fundamental Lie
So, no — Bristol City Council has NO “Traffic Data”, to prove this claim on its website:
“Traffic data show that high numbers of vehicles from outside the area use residential streets in Southville as a cut-through to other destinations.”
Yet this false claim is being used, to garner public support for the scheme.
And — based upon claims like this — at February’s Transport and Connectivity Policy Committee, a slim 5:4 majority of Councillors were persuaded to approve a £1.32m increase to the then-current allocation of £0.6m, for development of the SBLN Full Business Case.
But without coherent Traffic data, there is NO JUSTIFICATION for imposing modal filters, with the colossal disruption they would cause.
The design has clearly been reverse-engineered — to “solve” a problem which does not really exist — in order to access the WECA funding package.
So the entire South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood scheme is nothing more than a house of cards — proposed on the basis of this Fundamental LIE.
Matt Sanders
And here is the video of last Friday’s meeting, set so that clicking on it will take you straight to Matt’s presentation. It did not escape him that both Cllr Tony Dyer (Leader of the Council, and Southville Councillor) and Cllr David Wilcox (member of the Transport & Connectivity Policy Committee) both appeared to studiously ignore him.
What a brilliant piece of evidence; he's nailed it with this one!
I echo Megs Smith comment below a fantastic piece of in-depth analysis journalism. Well done Matt Sanders. The fact of the matter is Bristol City Council just on the issue of drivers' rights, have zero justification to prevent, restrict, deny, deprive ANY driver of their right to drive on roads, roads built for cars and all kinds of motoring transport, roads that are publicly funded and belong to the people of Bristol. BCC are fully aware of all the numerous complaints of EBLN where the enforced EBLN began as a trial and now about to be made permanent, at one stage in the early hours with the aid of A&S Police, caused the EBLN to become an UN-LIVEABLE NIGHTMARE for local residents, SMEs, the vulnerable, families, All three of the emergency services, an unmitigated failure and a total waste of public tax-payers' funds! I accuse BCC of deliberately imposing these anti-car anti-driver schemes on spurious and false claims of "high numbers of traffic from outside the area" (excuse me I am not aware of a law that says drivers from outside an area are barred from driving into EB OR SB or any area), because they have been working under Orders from above and to stop people from DRIVING, cause maximum motoring misery, road rage, massive congestions and delay simply because they can. BCC have a totall disregard for the concerns and complaints of all Bristolians and instead of working FOR its tax-payers is working actively AGAINST all Bristolians, as they have a hidden agenda, an ulterior motive that of the Globalists-led 15-minute cities etc. BCC should be held accountable for its unlawful actions and sued to the hilt.