East Bristol residents asked to design £6m street project

Areas of St George are included in the 'liveable neighbourhood' scheme

Residents are being invited to help redesign road layouts in part of a city to make their streets safer.

The east Bristol Liveable Neighbourhoods scheme aims to reduce traffic and rat-running in Barton Hill, Redfield and St George.

The scheme, costing £6m, will be paid for by the Department for Transport.

But some residents have raised concerns over the "implications of restricting traffic access to everybody" and a lack of detail on the project.

Bristol City Council said the specific changes will be up to local people to decide but they could include new trees, planters and benches, and restrictions on some drivers passing through certain areas.

The scheme will be implemented in parts of Barton Hill, Redfield and St George

Resident Alex Klaushofer said: "If that would end up restricting everybody's access to the streets, that would be a huge problem.

"There are all sorts of reasons why people cannot always cycle or walk. It would affect family and friend visits, local businesses and self-employed people working from home."

Transport campaigner David Redgewell said access issues for some disabled people need to be taken into account in the design process.

"We've seen the Oxford model, which has been very difficult for some disabled people to access streets - barriers and gates, taxis going round huge journeys to drop off wheelchair users," he said.

'Met every demographic'

Councillor Don Alexander said the project would help cut air pollution, reduce congestion and help get to net zero carbon emissions.

"That's the whole point of the consultation, it's what residents want, that's why we've done enormous amounts of consultation.

"We've met with every demographic of people who live within the proposed area of the liveable neighbourhood. We'll leave it to our residents to decide what their neighbourhood looks like" he added.

The city council plans to host workshops in May and June before a further consultation, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A trial is expected to be launched towards the end of the year in an area south of Lawrence Hill, Church Road and Summerhill Road.

Some changes could then be made permanent from early 2025.