Bristol community win battle over promised trees for road

Avon Crescent had been closed to vehicles since 2020

A community has won a battle over promises for replacement trees around a road which recently reopened to cars.

Bristol City Council promised to turn Avon Crescent, a small residential road at the western end of Spike Island, into a "shared space", in 2014.

They recently applied to scrap plans for 55 trees and making the road safer for people walking and cycling, but this has been blocked.

The plans are hoped to mitigate changes in the area due to the metrobus scheme.

The promises were part of several conditions to the planning permission for a metrobus route, which stretched from Ashton Vale into the city centre and included building new roads.

But now council bosses said fewer trees were needed and the road has reopened to cars after being shut for two years to through-traffic.

Councillors on the development control committee voted to refuse permission for the council to drop the promised conditions during a meeting on Wednesday.

They also heard from several local residents about their views on Avon Crescent.

Since it was temporarily closed in 2020, the road has become popular with walkers and cyclists

Speaking to the committee, resident Valerie Stead, said: "The council has endeavoured by any means to duck its responsibility. They have pretended to consult on various versions of the scheme, for which they've obviously had no intention of ever building.

"No mitigation for the visual vandalism of the new road running through heritage assets in a conservation area.

"No mitigation for the loss of trees and no measures to make the route along or across Avon Crescent any safer for the ever-increasing numbers of pedestrians and cyclists."

The plans for a "shared space" with no separation between pedestrians, cyclists and motor traffic, buses and cars - who were then encouraged to drive at very slow speeds - were scrapped after government guidance changed in 2018 due to road safety concerns.

Instead, Avon Crescent would be changed in future as part of the Western Harbour, a wider redevelopment project.

However, the committee unanimously agreed the council must stick to the conditions it promised in 2014.

They voted to refuse permission, meaning it was now unclear what will happen next with the future of the road.

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