Bristol City Council
Listen: Bristol Unpacked with ACORN’s Wesley Bear on activism, the Barton House evacuation, and frosty relations with the council
Relations between Bristol City Council and community union ACORN have become increasingly fractious, with recent clashes over council tax and the evacuation of a Barton Hill tower block. Neil asks Wesley why, and whether there's a way back.
Transparency matters: why is Bristol City Council failing on freedom of information?
Cable research shows that Bristol is worse than many other major cities at handling citizens’ FOI requests. Why is this a problem – and will the end of the mayoral system next year bring more open local government in the city?
Exclusive: Council denies structural issues identified four years ago are root cause of tower block evacuation
Bristol City Council says 'new and intrusive' surveys raised questions over whether it could rely on its own records about Barton House, whose residents have been left temporarily homeless after the building was deemed unsafe.
Racial justice charity handed lease to create ‘new kind of community space’ in St Paul’s
Black South West Network successfully secured the long-term management of the Coach House, near Brunswick Square, via a community asset transfer. Now it can raise funds for an ambitious plan to turn it into a ‘centre for Black enterprise and culture’.
Four years on from booting out bailiffs, is Bristol’s ‘ethical’ council tax debt collection working?
Bristol City Council's 2018 vow to stop using bailiffs to collect unpaid council tax, after a Cable campaign, appears to be giving vulnerable people breathing space. But Covid and the cost of living crisis have seen debt levels spike.
