Housing union views on evacuated Bristol tower block "irrelevant", says Mayor
Marvin Rees has responded to repeated calls from the housing union Acorn for him to meet with them over Barton House
A week on from the evacuation of a Bristol tower block over safety fears, the city's mayor says he is talking to "everyone serious" about solving the problem.
Around 400 people living in Barton House were told to leave their homes last Tuesday (November 14) after surveys found serious structural issues that mean a fire, explosion or similar incident could cause the building to collapse.
They have been living in a mix of hotels or with friends and family ever since and on Friday (November 17) housing union Acorn held a protest at City Hall about the treatment of residents, saying the hotel rooms they have been put up in are dirty, the quality of food is poor and communication from the council regarding the situation has not been good enough.
Acorn's leaders have been asking to meet with Mayor Marvin Rees since the evacuation, so far without success.
We put that request to him: "It's really irrelevant, what they think," he said.
"I've been in the hotels, we've even been involved in getting work experience for children and young people there, we've been focused on getting the mental and emotional support for people, getting care for pets, we're about the business of taking care of our residents.
"What different campaign groups say or don't say doesn't really have much to do with what we're doing there."
Acorn v Marvin
There has been no love lost between Acorn and the Mayor for some time.
The union, which operates across the country as well as just in Bristol, calls itself "a community organisation fighting for a better quality of life", particularly with regard to housing.
In Bristol, where more than 20,000 people are currently on a waiting list for council homes and the private rental market is one of the most expensive outside of London, they have long been calling for more to be done to solve the problem.
Last year Mr Rees created a Living Rent Commission featuring representatives from across the housing sector, to look at what could and should be done to make rent in the city more affordable.
However, Acorn were not invited to be involved, which led several members to storm the first meeting in July.
After that incident the Mayor compared them to the January 6 rioters in the US, who stormed the Capitol building in Washington DC in 2021, hoping to overturn the Presidential election in Donald Trump's favour.
That comparison, with an event that left five dead and many more injured, was labelled "disgraceful", though some council workers were said to be left shaken by Acorn's actions.
Fast forward to the evacuation of Barton House and Acorn were quickly critical of Rees, who was in Rwanda at a Commonwealth local government event, when the evacuation was ordered.
Upon his arrival back in the city an Acorn member attempted to meet with him while he was visiting residents at a city centre hotel, but claimed to be physically removed by security.
Speaking to Mr Rees during an event at Bristol Beacon, we asked if he would answer their calls to meet.
He said: "Anyone who is serious about solutions and getting things done, we sit down with them.
"I meet with community leaders every Monday and Thursday, from the mosques, from housing associations.
"Like I said, anyone who wants to come seriously with some propositions on how we take care of people, then we'll sit down and talk with them, but all the key partners that are going to make life better for people are involved in our work right now...
"We're meeting residents all the time...
"Anyone who is serious about coming with solutions, and looking at the very real challenges about how we undertake surveys into the building, how we offer wrap round support for people in the immediate (future), how we begin to take on the challenge that if the subsequent investigations prove that the building cannot be moved back into, that we are providing homes for those people, ideally locally...every serious person and organisation that is involved in actually delivering the actual, real life solutions (is involved in that)."