A massive council operation to finish the last remaining parts of the controversial East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood took place overnight and succeeded in installing road blockages and bus gates - almost.
The council, its contractors ETM and Avon and Somerset Police descended on Barton Hill at 3am this morning, Thursday, March 13, in a co-ordinated operation to install planters, bus gate signs and paint the roads.
A small group of residents were alerted and began trying to stop them from around 4.30am, but with a huge police operation, and a co-ordinated programme to work at multiple locations at the same time, the contractors ETM worked almost unhindered for the first time in Barton Hill. Previous efforts to install the traffic blockers have met with mass protests.
A handful of local residents tried to stop the installation in the five remaining locations, but only succeeded at one - at the junction of Marsh Lane and Avonvale Road - where a group of women lay down in the road to prevent the completion of one of the bus gates.
The city council operation was backed by a huge police presence which involved dozens of officers and the police drone operator team. One police liaison officer was filmed telling the protesters they would be blocking the highway if they continued with their protest - even though the highway had already been blocked by ETM’s lorries.
In chaotic scenes between 4am and 5am, a small group of women physically stopped the completion of the bus gate at the Marsh Lane junction, and cheered when the council and the police retreated.
But the dawn revealed the council workmen had been successful in installing the controversial planters, road blockages and bus gates in other locations, including two locations on Victoria Avenue, on Cobden Street and Dulcie Road.
The bus gates on Avonvale Road do not yet appear to be operational - temporary electronic signs indicate it’s not yet active - but the work to complete the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood has been completed in other locations in the area.
One of the residents who came out in the middle of the night was Fadumo Farah, who lives in nearby Barton House. “We got out after 4.30am but they had been there since around 3am,” she told Bristol Live. “I have never seen more police in one place, there must have been 60 of them, and they had the drone up. We had to split up to try to get to all the locations, but we couldn’t manage it.
“We laid down in the road at Avonvale Road, about four of us, and they stopped their work and left,” she added.
First light revealed the result of the direct action protest - the bus gate entrance for drivers heading east on Avonvale Road towards the Marsh Lane junction has been installed, but reads ‘BUS GAT’ on the road itself.
Around the area, more streets have been blocked up to motorised traffic - including Victoria Avenue.
