Plans to name Bristol street after cigarette brand vetoed

Plans to name the street Navy Cut Road have been blocked

Plans to name a new road after a cigarette brand have been cancelled following objections from health campaigners.

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees has vetoed the city council's proposals to call a development Navy Cut Road.

The name relates to a product manufactured at the Imperial Group tobacco factory, which used to stand on the Bishopsworth site.

Mr Rees said the administration "will not name streets after tobacco brands".

The council's street-naming team had originally put forward the name Crox View due to the 70-home development's proximity to woodland known was Crox Bottom.

Conservative ward councillor Richard Eddy objected to the "ridiculous" idea because views of the woodland would be blocked by the Imperial Park retail centre.

Reflect industrial heritage

He said the council should come up with a more "gritty" name reflecting its industrial heritage and the council then proposed four alternatives, all based on Imperial tobacco products, with Navy Cut Road agreed by all.

However, cancer charities and campaigners including Action on Smoking and Health called the name "morally unacceptable" and Mr Rees has since stepped in to block, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

He explained that while naming roads after tobacco brands was "questionable", all four suggestions - Strand Road, Passing Clouds Road, Gold Flake Road, and Navy Cut Road - would "contravene the street-naming policy due to 'current commercial connections".

'Perplexed'

Mr Eddy said he was "perplexed" by the reasons given, adding: "Surely the street-naming team knew their own policies, so why would they propose four names [which are] not acceptable?"

In response, deputy mayor Craig Cheney said: "Politically we struggle to support street names that endorse smoking, which is perhaps separate to the policy around the links to existing commercial brands."

The council said the new name of the road will be announced in "due course".