George Ferguson, RPZ, confusion and strife

'Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.' The Onceler, from Dr Seuss' The Lorax.

Hello!

Since I have come back from Denmark, I have been involved in campaigning to stop the new residents' parking scheme (known as RPZ) from coming into play. This scheme is being introduced by the Mayor of Bristol, George Ferguson. In this blog, I will talk about what I know, what I have seen and done and how I feel about it. I must note that this is all my own opinion, and there may be some things that I mention that I am actually incorrect on. Of course, this is always the case with my blogs, but I felt that on such a contentious subject it was important to remind any readers of this.

I'll just explain, for those who don't know, exactly what our system involves. Last year, Bristol was the only city to choose a mayoral system, and we have an independent mayor, architect George Ferguson. Ferguson now apparently has the power to ignore anything thrown at him, and press on regardless with his own ideas. One of his most prominent plans at the moment is this RPZ thing. RPZ stands for Residential Parking Zones, and it ultimately means that people will only be allowed to park in residential streets if they live there.

A lot of people think that this means that they will always be able to park outside their house. This is not the case. What it means is that people will have to pay a certain amount of money per year to be allowed to park on their street, if there is room - so the bare bones of it are, they will be paying for a 'privilege' that they actually already have. If there is no room on the street - which there may well not be, given that many houses are converted into flats -, they will need to park somewhere else - which will be less feasible than it is now, because the same system will apply to the neighbouring streets, meaning that going there will encroach on their neighbours.

This is also going to be awful for businesses. I have spoken to people who run local businesses, who may have to close if their staff can't park. It will also make it harder to get custom, as customers who use the business rely on using their cars, and sometimes come in from all over Bristol. Even larger businesses may suffer. I'm thinking specifically about Bristol Zoo, which has 200-odd volunteers and is situated in a residential area. (I don't really believe in zoos, but that's a moot point.)

One of my main objections to this is the manner that it is being rolled out. George Ferguson seems to think that he knows best all of the time. He says that all of the consultation will be in terms of technicalities, and not on whether or not we actually want it. Mike Owen, a local who ran a petition to halt RPZ, memorably likened this to asking a lamb whether it wants to die by knife or bolt. In actual fact, there is very little consultation about this at all. I have talked to a lot of people in Bristol about this, and it is very clear that it is only 'those of us in the know' who are even aware of this. I only know about it because I have a lot of contacts within various political groups, and I like to be aware of what is going on. We have not had information through our doors; most of the information has been as side articles in newspapers and, for those of us who use it frequently, on Facebook. Even those who know about it don't really seem to understand what it means. As I said, many people think that this means that they'll always be able to park on their street, which absolutely is not true.

The reasons for it happening seem to centre mainly around encouraging less people to use cars. Less people use cars in London, they say, where this scheme is implemented. Well that may be so, but the difference is that in London (and in many other cities) there is a reliable, cheap public transport service. We don't have that in Bristol. We have a very expensive, unreliable bus service. I myself have not used one of our buses since 2009, because I hate them and I always have. George Ferguson talks about improving the transport system sooner rather than later - but for RPZ even to be considered, I think that the transport system needs to be sorted out first. And even then there are lots of other issues with it. Even those who agree with RPZ tend to have issues with the methods involved in bringing it in.

I have been very involved in the campaign to prevent this from happening. There is a fantastic team of people in the community who have been involved with this. In all honesty, I have not been impressed at all my the attitude of my local councillors in this. One of them - Rob Telford - raised some supplementary questions at a council meeting on Tuesday, but that is the only thing that I have seen from either of them that I think is helpful or useful. However, I have met some people who are really motivational, very passionate and reinstate the hope in me that we can beat this thing. I think it's important to remember a phrase that I once heard a woman shouting through a vocoder: 'There ain't no power like the power of the people 'cause the power of the people don't stop!' ('Say what?' is the response to that!) I think that if people focus on what they want to happen, and do the work to make that thing happen rather than just complaining about it, that is how great results are achieved. This is the attitude that I focus on in my life, and what I'd like other people to focus on as well.

There are four people that I'd like to mention in People to Respect and Admire, as I thought they have all spoken excellently at meetings. Mike Owen ran the petition against this, and made the comment about the lamb that I have mentioned above. Sion Hannuna told the Mayor that he is treating the citizens of Bristol with disdain, and believing that he knows best no matter what anyone else thinks. Helen Holland pointed out that there has been no proper consultation to anyone about this. Anthony Negus asked a series of very challenging questions to the Mayor, which he found extremely difficult to answer and I think just shows how woolly his point of view is (I believe the official report is only two sides of paper long.) So these are my four commendations for people I respect and admire this week.

More updates soon.