Liveable Neighbourhood Consultation - What is it good for?

Summary

The Bristol Council Consultation Process is not fit for purpose and requires an immediate review to ensure it is not just perceived as a "fig leaf" for engagement with residents.

One of the main ways that Bristol City Council engages with residents is by "Consultations".

The BCC "Code of Good Practice On Consultation" contains this information:

For nearly a decade, the council has maintained a Corporate Consultation Strategy setting out the principles that should underpin consultation and engagement with the people of Bristol.

Of course, councillors and council officers will always need to weigh the views expressed through consultation against a wide range of other factors: such as legislation and government guidance; demographic data; financial costs and environmental impacts.

....

And because consultation rarely throws up a single opinion – councillors and officers will often have to make their own judgement about the weight to be given to one or other of the views expressed. They may also have to consider carefully whether the aspirations and needs of future generations - who will perhaps be most affected by any change - might differ significantly from those of today’s population. In other words, the results of consultation are never a substitute for the democratic process – and do not replace the legitimate role of elected representatives in decision-making.

However, effective and consistent consultation can certainly help inform good and responsible decision making and ensure that, as far as possible, those decisions - and the actions that flow from them - properly reflect and respond to the needs of our city and its people.

....

We will publish the results of consultations and later how they have been used.

East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood Consultation

"Council boss regrets how traffic trial was rolled out" - BBC News 12 May 2025

Mr Dyer inherited a consultation about the scheme from the previous Labour administration. He suggested that he should have looked more closely at whether "everyone who needed to be involved had been involved".

So, what is the Consultation that Tony was referring to?

A Consultation for "East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood" was run between 31 Jan 2022 and 13 Mar 2022. Consultations usually contain a "Lifecycle" that shows the status of the Consultation. According to the Consultations Website, this Consultation has been "Under Review" for over 3 years and a "Final Report" has never been published.

Another Consultation related to Traffic Regulation Orders associated with the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood was held between 29 Jan 2024 and 20 Feb 2024.

Information about this Consultation was published in an Objection Report published in Mar 2024:

1418 completed responses were received in total, of which 760 were objections and 427 were expressions of support. Of the 6,366 households within the scheme area a total response rate of 4.4% was achieved.

This means that 54% of responses were objections.

A link to the full details was included in the report but was only made available to "Decision Makers" because of "data protection obligations". It should have been possible to publish a redacted version of this material that removed personal information, but this was not done.

These statements were made about the Consultation:

The report also contained these comments from Councillors:

Councillor Asher Craig:
“I understand that there are objections raised regarding the implementation of the liveable neighbourhood scheme. However, it is important to consider the potential improvements that this scheme can bring to the community in St George & surrounding areas.
By creating a more liveable neighbourhood, we can enhance the overall quality of life for residents. This will include benefits such as improved air quality, enhanced safety measures, increased accessibility, and the promotion of active modes of transportation. These improvements will contribute to a healthier and more sustainable environment, fostering a sense of community and wellbeing. It is essential to weigh the potential positive impact against the objections raised, and work towards finding solutions that address concerns while still allowing for the implementation of the scheme.”

Councillor Fabian Breckels: “Following a well-attended walkabout along Crews Hole Road last Summer where a number of ideas were agreed, for example informal crossing points and temporary bollards where a blind exit leads from a footpath straight into traffic. I note the concerns that more traffic will be sent down Crews Hole Road, and while I hope that is not the case, those concerns do make putting these measures in during the trial period even more important. I trust that measures that either don’t work in the trial or have unacceptable consequences will be removed before any permanent scheme goes in. Making that clear will provide reassurance that we are listening to all feedback, both positive and negative.”

Councillor Barry Parsons: “I'm content with the objection report and the officer responses to objections.”

Councillor Yassin Mohamud: “While I support the idea of the Liveable Neighbourhood or the area in concept. I have deep concerns about how residents have been treated during the consultation process. This has left many feeling disempowered and unheard. I think after May the consultation process needs reviewing and more work needs to be done to get residents on board and address their concerns.”

In addition to the BCC Consultations, the Bristol Cable has been collecting data about how residents of East Bristol feel about the scheme and how it has impacted them so far.

These results appear to show that people who are against the EBLN have increased (69% No) since the earlier BCC Consultation (54% Objections).

The Charts above are from Bristol Cable.

The Project Timeline tells us that a Public Consultation on the permanent scheme will be held in September 2025.

Will the Consultation in September be carried out more effectively than the previous consultations?

Other BCC Consultations

The rest of this article presents some analysis of all the BCC Consultation Data and highlights some or the issues and risks related to the current consultation process.

The data used in this analysis can be found on the BU Report Pages (look for the Consultations button)

Since 2017, 192 Consultations have been carried out on Ask Bristol which is the consultation and engagement hub for Bristol City Council.

As at 23/05/2025, 190 of these Consultations have passed the "Finish" date and 2 are still within their consultation period.

The Consultations fall into two main categories.

The first category of Consultations have a published "Lifecycle" where the Council commit to publishing the results of the consultations in a "Final Report", once it has gone through the "Under Review" stage.

However, I have found the many of the Consultations have been left in the "Open" and "Under Review" stage without the "Final Report" being produced.

"Open" Consultations

There are 7 Consultations marked as "Open" and have never moved to "Under Review" despite the consultations passing their closure date.

When you look at the detail of the Consultations you often find that the final reports have actually been produced, but the lifecycle stage has not been properly updated.

"Under Review" Consultations

There are 65 Consultations that are in the "Under Review" phase that have never moved to "Final Report".

"Final Report" Consultations

There are 66 Consultations that are in the "Final Report" phase. This means we know how many responses there were, and details of the responses are published.

One of these reports ("Proposed changes to Bristol Allotment Rent and Tenancy Agreement") has not had a report published, despite being set to "Final Report".

Number of Responses

There are the "Final Report" Consultations with the highest number of responses.

Consultation Finished - No Report Produced

The second category of Consultations are used for information in the Council and the responses are not published, although response information might be included in committee papers. I have categorised these items with an Outcome of "Consultation Finished".

You can see that before 2024, most Consultations had a "Final Report" phase, but since 2024 the majority of consultations do not commit to publishing a "Final Report". This means the Council are publishing information about consultations for fewer consultations, which reduces the transparency of decision making.

Validity of Consultation Responses

The lack of controls around consultation responses means there is a risk that a single individual or pressure group could submit multiple responses to a consultation and provide false information about where they live.

Example: Land at the Former Hillfields Park Community Centre - Community engagement - Consultation closes on 29/05/2025.

I submitted two responses to this consultation. I gave my postcode as SW1A 1AA and my age as 76. I answered the questions neutrally and my responses should be excluded from any analysis as the respondent apparently lives at Buckingham Palace.

If someone really wanted to abuse the consultation process, it would be very easy for them to submit multiple responses using different postcodes to give more support for a specific viewpoint.

If this was to happen it would devalue the consultation process and lead to "real" residents views not being taken into account.

It should be very easy for the Council to use "cookies" and other mechanisms to help ensure that the consultation process is not being abused in this way.

Too Many Diversity Questions?

Using the example of the "Hillfields Park Consultation". There are 3 questions directly related to the proposal, and 9 questions related to the "diversity" of the respondent. The diversity questions are asked to "help us ensure that no-one is discriminated against unlawfully".

As these questions are not mandatory and the responses could be "made up" then it is not a very effective way of ensuring that BCC decisions do not discriminate against anyone.

Does Bristol City Council really care about Consultations?

On the "Petitions and Consultations" webpage, the Council say:

Sign up to the ASK Bristol ebulletin for a fortnightly email about new consultations and other opportunities to have your say.

I have been signed up for these newsletters for years, but haven't received one since January 2010.

You can also follow us on our ASK Bristol twitter.

They haven't posted anything on the account since 2020.

After a consultation has finished we'll publish the feedback and how it's been used in the final decision.

BCC have not published the responses to the majority of consultations since 2024.

Conclusion

The issues with the data quality on the consultations website, the risk of falsified responses, and the lack of published data about responses means that the current consultancy process is not a good mechanism for understanding the views and opinions of the residents of Bristol. If the Consultation process is not dramatically improved then the people of Bristol might feel the only "consultation" that matters is when they cast their vote on election day.