When authorities make plans that affect people’s lives, what do they often get wrong – and how can they do better at working with communities?
These are pertinent questions in Bristol just now, where a trial scheme to close off a series of roads across St George, Redfield and Barton Hill has got many residents up in arms.
The Cable has been reporting on the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood project for a couple of years now, hearing from people on the ground who are both for and against it.
This week Neil Maggs sits down with Samira Musse – the director of Barton Hill Activity Project, a prominent local community activist and opponent of the liveable neighbourhood scheme – to understand more about what’s gone wrong with the council’s consultation efforts.
Why are some sections of the local community still so upset? How could things be made to work better for all parties in east Bristol?
And importantly, based on Samira’s experience working with many different public bodies, what can those in power do more generally to ensure people get a real stake in decision-making, rather than feeling ‘done to’?
On the subject of communities being short-changed, we also get into the subject of youth services, which have been decimated in the last decade.
What effect have these cuts have had on inner-city communities in the (good few) years since Neil started working in youth services? Why can projects like Samira’s have such an important impact on kids’ lives? And with inequality of opportunity, child exploitation and violence huge concerns right now, what should the Labour government be doing to set things right for young people after years of neglect by the state?
Join us for another essential hour of Bristol Unpacked, getting deep into the issues that matter in our city.
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To be honest I’m getting a bit bored with the old ‘they wouldn’t try this in Clifton’ line. Do you not recall the protests and petitions against road closures up there, the tank rolling down Park Street? Then there were the protests against all the RPZs across prosperous parts of North Bristol, including vandalism of the planters and ticket machines. They are pretty upset in Westbury on Trym right now.
The fact is any change that inconveniences car drivers anywhere will provoke an angry reaction, but a couple of years later everyone usually agrees it was for the best.