Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commission Clare Moody has said she is “investigating” the heavy police presence which descended on Barton Hill at 3am on Thursday to install the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood.
Council contractors were accompanied by private security and police as they arrived in the working class neighbourhood under cover of darkness to install planters and “modal filters” to the ends of four streets and a bus gate on the junction of Avonvale Road and Marsh Lane. One local compared it to a “war zone.”
Ms Moody, whose role is to oversee and scrutinise the police, said on Friday March 14: “It is something I am aware of and it is something I am investigating and it is something I will be following up.”
The Green leader of Bristol City Council, Tony Dyer, added: “I think it is very clear there are some very strong feelings about this process and therefore know we do take those seriously.”
The politicians were speaking at a meeting of the committee of the West of England Combined Authority — which provided Bristol City Council with the funding for the liveable neighbourhood — on March 14, the day after the dramatic morning in Barton Hill. Members of the public had attended the committee to urge it to investigate and review how Bristol City Council was spending the funds.
Stuart Phelps told the committee: “It’s almost impossible to explain how it felt to many of the residents on Barton Hill when 60 odd police officers and contractors started putting in planters.” He said that a Somali woman in the community described the chaos on Thursday morning as “a war zone on her own back door.”
He said: “Our community is being split on race and class lines by the actions of the city council for the third time in a row and each time that split occurs we have greater and greater problems trying to bring the community back together. You are all aware that at the moment there are extremists on all sides trying to find ways of talking to people who are disaffected. […] This process is feeding it.”
Melissa Topping, who was almost reduced to tears while speaking, said: “Yesterday, council contracts ETM arrived at 3am to block our roads off with police, security, and drones with very heavy handed tactics. This has now left me without my large disabled vehicle access home. And with future fears for our safety and lives ahead.”
She urged the West of England Combined Authority to launch an immediate review of the East Bristol Neighbourhood trial and freeze funding for schemes that had not been requested by residents. West of England Metro Mayor Dan Norris said he would speak with her after the meeting.
She said: “Our community deserves a transparent and inclusive process that addresses our needs and concerns. We have attempted to work with councillors and the LN team but have been ignored. We ask for your intervention to ensure that our voices are heard and our communities are not further harmed by this poorly implemented scheme.”
Mr Dyer said: “I have listened to the statements. […] I will feed them back to the transport and connectivity chair.
“If there is an urge on the part of the West of England Combined Authority to review the consultation that has been done in the past, I am happy to work with whether it be the current mayor or any future mayor to look at how this has been implemented.”
Previous attempts to complete the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood have been blocked by protests in the area. A group of women began protesting and attempting to stop the work on Avonvale Road from 4.30am on Thursday, but the work was largely completed — although council contractors left before completing the final letter “E” on one bus gate.