The Looming EBLN Decision
A Committee Votes...
On Thursday 9th July Bristol City Council’s Transport and Connectivity Committee will vote on whether to make the trial East Bristol ‘Liveable Neighbourhood’ permanent.
The Green committee members will certainly vote for the scheme, leaving the Tories, Labour and Lib Dem to decide the fate of this extremely contentious scheme.
I suggest you check out recent posts on the East Bristol Open Roads Facebook group, particularly Melissa Topping’s Presentation of EBLN Failures and Evidence (which gives an excellent potted history of events since 2022), as well as her link to the response to her Freedom of Information Request regarding the data.
And then crack on with sending in your objections via questions (by Friday) and statements (by Tuesday), using this form. Choose the Transport & Connectivity Committee from the drop down menu.
It really is your last chance. If the scheme goes ahead, only a legal case can stop it, and that will cost everyone money that BCC knows few people in Barton Hill have. It will cost us double, because it will be our money that is used to take the scheme out again.
If you wish to remind yourselves further of aspects of the journey that has led up to this moment, check out some of my previous posts on the EBLN, linked below. There are a lot, so obviously take your pick!
An East Bristolian is basically told to eat cake by her Marie-Antoinette-esque local councillor:
'On yer bike!'
In December 2024 Wendy from East Bristol submitted a statement to a Bristol City Council full council meeting. It was rejected on the grounds that it was a complaint regarding a specific councillor and so not relevant to full council.
BCC refusing to accept feedback in any meaningful way:
Ploughing On Anyway
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For two years now, persistent voices (in particular from communities struggling to get by economically), have been telling Bristol City Council how the East Bristol ‘Liveable Neighbourhood’ scheme will negatively impact them and the city.
The day when the council’s intentions became crystal clear: a nighttime raid to install road blocks, re-traumatising war refugees in the process:
Council Wages War Against East Bristol
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For those not yet in the loop, last week something previously unimaginable happened in East Bristol. In the early hours of Thursday morning, with no official prior warning to the people living in the area, Ed Plowden (Chair of BCC’s Transport and Connectivity Committee) ordered [
Political authorities’ use of the very polarisation the Transport Chair wrings his hands over: so important to remain aware of…
Divide and Rule - duh!
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Since the ‘warzone’ events of 13th March there’s been quite a lot of attention paid to the idea that Bristol City Council’s crazed ‘Liveable Neighbourhood’ activities are having the tragic knock-on effect of dividing East Bristol’s community by race and class.
Reflections from the WECA metro mayor transport hustings. Including how the Transport Chair ignores refugees who are making outstanding contributions to society, and some stats that show there were few problems with road safety and pollution in East Bristol’s residential streets:
Gleanings from an evening at the WECA Metro Mayor Transport Hustings
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Life is certainly not getting boring in Bristol. Just, in these interesting times, predictably weirder. Recent events took a further sour turn on 5th April, with the news of the arrest of out-going WECA ‘metro mayor’ Dan Norris on charges of child sexual assault, child abduction and rape
Council Leader Tony Dyer doesn’t appear to have a clue about, well, anything much to do with the EBLN…
Does Bristol City Council have an 'Understanding Disability'?
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A few days ago, Tony Dyer, Green Party leader of Bristol City Council, was interviewed on the Bristol Cable podcast ‘Bristol Unpacked’. Amongst other matters, he was quizzed on the East Bristol ‘Liveable Neighbourhood’ (timestamp 23:30). When asked by Neil Maggs whether he could hav…
A review of the insanity that is the EBLN:
A distinct lack of ‘traffic evaporation’:
Chaos on East Bristol's Roads
In this post I simply want to highlight what many Bristolians are facing from today for the next two weeks, with the closure of yet another road in East Bristol and the consequent further negative effect on traffic, journey times, e…
One of the most popular posts on this blog so far: the sorry state of the planters and ‘street art’ in the EBLN, concluding with Martin Tancock’s excellent critique of the scheme.
The Pointlessness of Planters
Well, in East Bristol the council’s harebrained scheme to force everyone to become happier, healthier and safer by blocking off their roads and making their lives more difficult, whether they like it or not, appears to have finally limped into its ‘trial phas…
How the EBLN in practice has been failing to square up to its alleged objectives, the abysmal ‘consultation’ process (including a failure to adhere to the Gunning Principles), a look at the use of the Citizens' Assembly to justify the scheme, and how it’s all going to be repeated in South Bristol… There’s a lot in this one so please have a read if you haven’t done so already.
"Here's One I Made Earlier"
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Blue Peter watchers from the old days will recognise the famous quotation in the title of this article. Back then it was an innocent matter of saving time on a telly programme by suddenly producing a half-finished rocket made of cereal packets, pipe cleaners, milk bottle tops and, of course, sticky-backed plastic, from under the table.
What some local people have had to say about the scheme, as well as the local MP:
'East Bristol’s Liveable Neighbourhood Scheme: A Brilliantly Stupid Idea'
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Well, the council isn’t going to do it. Amplify critical local voices, that is. Our political representatives appear unable to comprehend the concept of actively listening to feedback, unless it’s the kind they want to hear. So in this post I’m going to highlight what some of those i…
An examination of the farcical October 2025 EBLN survey:
EBLN Survey: 'Absolute Farce and an Insult to People's Intelligence'
In this post we will be taking a look at the above survey, which Bristol City Council (BCC) made live last week. Further down I’ll be screenshotting most of the questions so you can have a good look first and see if you want to respond (the deadline is midnight on 7th November), which of course particularly applies to you if you live in the EBLN area b…
Starting to connect LNs with the council’s development policy:
“How Bristol’s Liveable Neighbourhoods Became a Development Engine — and Why Residents Are Paying the Price”
This is the second guest piece by the author of The Grave Issues with Bristol City Council's Transport Policy.
Katie Sullivan’s heartfelt critique of the Global Cycling Network video on LNs:
No Democracy in the EBLN's Installation
Below is a comment by East Bristolian Katie Sullivan on the following YouTube video.
And a response to an East Bristol cyclist who didn’t believe Katie’s claims:
Seeking 'Liveable Neighbourhood' Truths
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In February I published a response by Katie Sullivan to the Global Cycling Network’s film on Bristol’s ‘liveable neighbourhoods’:
The council pretend to be listening to residents’ concerns about emergency vehicle access and introduce more cameras instead of bollards:
The New Round of EBLN TRO Consultations
“When I was in justice, my ultimate vision for that part of the criminal justice system was to achieve, by means of AI and technology, what Jeremy Bentham tried to do with his Panopticon. That is that the eyes of the state can be on you at all times.”
And finally, one resident’s extreme frustrations with the consultation process and the failure by the council to be taken seriously:
Have your say – we’ll do it anyway!
The following is a guest post from a member of the Barton Hill community, who reached out to me in frustration through Substack after many failed attempts to communicate their concerns to the Council.
Bristol City Council are thoroughly intending to ‘do it anyway’ - this much is crystal clear. It is harder to do this in the face of massive opposition.
If you haven’t yet written to BCC to register your opposition, now is absolutely the time to do it.
You have more power than you think.
Thanks so much for reading!
For more info on these issues, including local Bristol groups you can join and actions you can take, please see https://kbmsite.carrd.co/
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