Bristol mayor makes final State of the City address
Marvin Rees warned the “catastrophic impact” of major road closures required for a Bristol transport network that goes only overground would scupper the entire scheme
Marvin Rees has warned that the “catastrophic impact” of major road closures required for a Bristol transport network that goes only overground would scupper the entire scheme.
In his eighth and final annual State of the City Address, the city mayor, who has long championed a proposed underground, said the huge disruption from having to permanently shut Gloucester Road, Church Road and St Luke’s Road would make such a project “undeliverable”.
It comes less than two weeks after metro mayor Dan Norris vetoed a tube-style mass transit system against the wishes of Mr Rees and the leaders of South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset councils.
The decision – or lack of – at a meeting of the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) committee has left the region’s future transport plans in limbo as the politicians failed to reach agreement over what should happen next, but it has likely sounded the death knell for tunnelled routes.
Bristol’s Labour mayor, however, is refusing to back down and used part of his speech at the Wills Memorial Building on Wednesday evening (October 18) to address the impasse, while also issuing a challenge to his successors at City Hall from May 2024 when the new committee system replaces the mayoral model.
Mr Rees said: “The absence of a mass transit system is one of the city region’s biggest challenges.
“We must go beyond make do and mend.
“This is a moment where we can make a decision that shapes the city for a century and more.
“The mass transit system has to include elements of underground in the densest areas.
“The geological work has been done. The economic case is well underway. We are ready to progress to the business case.
“The reports suggest the overground option could be hugely expensive due to the catastrophic impact on the highways network and moving of utilities and future legal wrangling over compulsory purchase orders on land and buildings.
“They show that an overground cannot be delivered without the permanent closure of major roads, including Gloucester Road, Church Road and St Luke’s Road.
“When this is taken into account, the overground becomes undeliverable.”
He said businesses, the city council and Weca officers backed taking a proposed underground forward and that the National Infrastructure Commission had this week recommended £22billiion of investment in mass transit systems for Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Bristol.
“The opportunity is there. But we need to step forward to take it,” the mayor said.
Mr Rees said the 2022 referendum vote to scrap the mayoral model and move Bristol City Council to a system of decision-making cross-party committees “wasn’t wise” but that it also presented opportunities – “if those challenges are properly understood and successfully met”.
He said: “The challenge for the committee designing the committee system, and the councillors who will eventually sit in it, is to shape something that the city – rather than the councillors – actually need.
“We need serious, full-time leadership, engaged and working with the whole city.
“We need leadership that can drive investment and thrive in a competitive world.
“The specific challenge for the committee system is that they must not operate in a local political abstract – it is essential that it looks up and out at the city, rather than talk to itself.
“It is essential that the committee structure sees itself as city leaders and enablers, not as council managers, not as arbiters choosing between officers’ recommendations as a committee that votes yay or nay.
“The full measure of leadership is not a vote in a moment of time following an officer briefing, it is an ongoing relationship with all the moving parts.
“The council cannot just be a collection of services – it must be a leader of place.
“It must Influence and be influenced by every aspect of Bristol life.”
Mr Rees said there was “nervousness” among housing developers over the change in leadership structure and that his successors must bring investors to the city and ensure confidence in the authority’s commitment to delivering homes.
He said the Weca mayor would become the “high-profile leadership of the city” from next May and the “political face and voice on the national and international stage”.
Mr Rees said: “There are some challenges for Weca.
“The voice of the city must remain strong in the combined authority and shouldn’t be diluted.
“This is not to say that the rural areas are less important but it is to recognise the pivotal and unique role of the city in driving regional, national and international growth.
“The combined authority must take forward the scale of ambition for Bristol that the city deserves and the region and the country needs.”
He said Weca must deliver “big tangible outcomes for the city region” and become its voice in Westminster and Whitehall and globally, “rather than the passporter of government funds to the region”.
“We need Weca to lead with us and secure government investment in line with the region’s agreed priorities, rather than operating with the government’s limited ambitions,” the city mayor said.
“The combined authority must be more connected to the public, improve accountability and transparency.
“As Weca increases in prominence and power of Bristol, it is critical that Bristol voters and councillors have greater sight and purchase over the decisions that will be made.”
He added: “Being mayor of Bristol has been an incredible opportunity.
“I won’t pretend it has been easy – the challenges are real, the aspirations are beyond the ability of any individual or organisation working alone, and many of the elements that shape our city are not in our direct control.
“On top of all that, there is a lot of noise. Some of it helpful, some of it not, and some of it very personal.
“It is at moments of real delivery, in real lives, that the noise evaporates.
“This job is about making real change.”