The politicians have got to listen to the voices of the people

WELL that’s that then, all the election results are in and we know who’s won and the composition of the local political leaders.

In Bristol, the Labour Mayor won on the second preferences. Just. The Green Party did well and bagged some council seats from Labour.

There’s surely a lesson there for the Mayor: Bristolians want “green change” and green policies. We don’t just want “Old Labour” or even “Old Marvin”. We need “Green Marvin”.

The politicians have got to listen to the voices of the people. This was no resounding vote in favour of Marvin Rees’ policies for Bristol.

A lot of people have understandable concerns about the Chinese Metro, the Arena in Filton and the Western Harbour development.

The pandemic changes the balance of all these key decisions. It doesn’t make any sense to be borrowing billions – yes, billions! – from China to build an underground which nobody wants to use in a pandemic. It could end up like Bristol’s Maginot Line: expensive old technology, and static. Modern travel is all about mobility and zero pollution, and that means walking, cycling, e-scooters and e-bikes, plus more and better buses. These things are also a hell of a lot cheaper!

A lot of people say they’d rather have trams than an expensive, disruptive underground. Trams should be looked at again. This underground thing is probably anyway a “dead cat idea” which gets thrown onto the table to distract attention, and then everyone is talking about it. Daft idea, Marvin and Kevin, daft idea.

People seem to prefer houses with gardens now to new flats without them.

We need to preserve nature and give people opportunities to get out into green spaces, and we should also therefore preserve the heritage views across the western harbour to view the iconic suspension bridge.

Political leaders in all roles should recognise that things have changed and adapt to what we, the electorate, say we want.

So let’s have more “deliberative democracy”, more involvement of citizens’ panels and representative groups of people looking at the key issues we face, such as housing, transport, skills, jobs and the arena site.

Bristol and around seems to be Labour-Green, and that’s progressive. Now that needs to be translated into effective action.

P Evans

Bristol

E-scooters will never mix

✒ YOU would think that anyone on high salaries and in responsible jobs, like our transport chiefs, would at least have what is commonly referred to as common sense, but it seems this is far from common these days.

Anyone with the least bit of common sense would know that e-scooters will never mix safely with traffic on our roads. They are accidents waiting to happen. Already there have been incidents of road rage towards their riders and charges made by the police.

How long will it be before the first rider is killed by falling off in the road and being run over by another vehicle?

Or perhaps it will be a pedestrian on the pavement because an e-scooter rider has decided to ride on the pavement after near misses on the road.

If this happens, will the transport chiefs be held responsible for allowing them on roads in the first place? Or will an innocent car driver have to live with the fact that he killed someone for the rest of his life?

The situation can only get worse as their numbers increase.