Councillors report

COUNCILLOR REPORT

By Tim Rippington Last week at Full Council I asked a question regarding Mass Transit, and specifically whether the Council is considering the idea that a mass transit system could run up and down the A4 with little additional modification to current road layouts. The idea of trams or tram-like vehicles running both ways on a single carriageway is not new, indeed it has been used on the railways for centuries. I am worried that the council’s fixation with fully segregated lanes for firstly buses and then later mass transit will both delay the implementation of such schemes, and make them more expensive/ destructive.

I am pleased to say that the response I received was a positive one and I understand that the ideas I submitted have been added to the long-list of options currently being considered. Time will tell, but if we are still discussing how to do this in ten years’ time we will certainly have failed on our promise to deliver a working mass transit system to a city that desperately needs it. Although I had to self-isolate after receiving the dreaded “ping” last Tuesday, I was also able to ask a second question regarding the cost of retrofitting our housing stock with carbon neutral heating systems. If we, as a city and as a country, are to meet our climate emergency targets, it is vital that we start to replace gas boilers with other systems such as heat pumps, which draw heat from the air or water sources rather than burning gas or coal. Unfortunately, the government is failing us on this completely, with a tiny proportion of the money needed being made available to help with this retrofitting at the current time. Bristol is, however, well ahead of most other cities in terms of installing Heat Networks, which will supply heat to entire neighbourhoods from carbon neutral or very low-carbon sources. The City Leap project has also been set up to try to attract investors into the city and hopefully this will soon be up and running, as it seems government are not going to take a lead on this ony time soon. You can read more about what the council is doing here: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/policies-plans-strategies/the-energy-service?fbclid=IwAR0TAFNHlJJjveLxBoqpcg24wsMLTTqaM4Pym7tB2M9GneTwsxJMD4ufcAI

Also at the Full Council meeting my fellow councillor Katja Hornchen presented the petition from local residents calling for a once-way system and new double yellow lines in Wyndham Crescent. I will also be raising this at Cabinet this week, where funding for Liveable Neighbourhoods schemes in the city will be discussed. It’s really important that these schemes don’t just become the purview of the wealthier parts of the city, but are fairly spread for the benefit of all.