News

Lib Dem Councillor for Hotwells and Harbourside, Alex Hartley and members of the local campaign group, Bristol Cladding Action Group, joined hundreds of other protesters in London yesterday afternoon, calling on the Government to end the cladding scandal and reform the leasehold system once and for all.

A local developer is threatening to ‘walk away’ from a new active travel scheme for pedestrians and cyclists in South Bristol due to his “despicable treatment” at the hands of planning officers at Bristol City Council. 

Bristol’s three opposition party group leaders (Cllr Jos Clark - Lib Dems, Cllr Paula O’Rourke – Greens & Cllr Mark Weston – Conservatives) have today written to Mayor Rees to express their disappointment at his conduct in Tuesday’s meeting of Full Council.

Bristol Liberal Democrats are proposing a radical solution to the loss of tree canopy cover across the city of Bristol.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Campaigns Organiser to work for Bristol Liberal Democrats leading their fightback as a local party.

The Bristol Liberal Democrats Silver Motion on LGBT+ mental health provision was approved unanimously by all councillors at last nights Full Council meeting (6th July). The motion calls for the creation of a strategic plan to improve LGBT+ mental health, as well as greater surveying of the LGBT+ community to understand the issues, and more outreach within the Council and to schools to make sure these groups receive adequate treatment.

The Bristol Lib Dem 2021 local election manifesto is centred around three things: Sustainability, Better Service & Better Governance. Our ambitious but achievable vision for Bristol is is an embodiment of the Lib Dem preamble in our constitution 'The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.'

Today Labour and Green councillors joined forces to save the Mayor from the people of Bristol. The Liberal Democrat motion, to give the people of Bristol a referendum on the Mayoral system that was voted on today lost by 11 votes, after Labour & Green councillors voted against it (with some Green councillors abstaining), meaning the motion didn't pass.

The Liberal Democrats have been listening to local people, whose frustration is clear with the Mayor, his failures, and the lack of accountability and democracy in the Mayoral system. 77% of the people of Bristol feel the elected Mayor isn't improving the leadership of the city, and we feel they deserve the chance to scrap the Mayor if they want to.

While we want to offer a special thanks to the two Labour rebels that broke the Labour whip to vote for democracy and their residents, we are disappointed that Green councillors chose to vote against or abstain on the motion, even though their national party policy is to scrap directly elected mayors.

The Bristol Lib Dems are immensely pleased that Cllr Mark Wright’s motion to end the cladding scandal in Bristol has been unanimously passed at Full Council this afternoon with cross party support. This motion is an important first step to ending the cladding nightmare for thousands of Bristol’s residents.

The motion calls on Bristol City Council to officially back the #EndOurCladdingScandal campaign, to provide more training to Cllrs and staff to allow them to assist residents and leaseholders with all matters relating to ESW1 forms, and to lobby MPs & the Govt to devolve powers to Bristol Council and to obtain the funds to fix the issues locally.

The Bristol Lib Dems will continue to fight for affected residents, through lobbying our MPs, working with the Lib Dem parliamentary group, and working with local residents’ groups to do what we can to alleviate the pain that they are suffering. We promise to continue fighting tooth and nail until this injustice is righted.  

In his speech proposing the motion, Cllr Mark Wright (Hotwells & Harbourside) said ‘the vast majority of flat owners affected by this are not penthouse owners, they are very ordinary people who bought fairly ordinary flats right across Bristol. Many of them spent all their savings doing so, and they were told by every organisation along the way that their flats were safe. They clearly never would have bought the flat if they’d known they were going to get hit with a bill for 20, 30 or even £40thousand - money that most of them simply don’t have.’

Alex Hartley, Lib Dem candidate for Hotwells & Harbourside, who has been running the campaign on the cladding issue said ‘I am so pleased that this motion has been passed by Bristol City Council. This is the first step in ending the cladding nightmare for Bristol’s residents. I would like to thank Cllrs of all parties, as well as Mayor Rees, for putting party politics to one side, and choosing to back the Lib Dems’ motion today. I will keep fighting for local residents on this issue.