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.   

The Liberal Democrats have condemned the Conservative Government’s plans to reform the planning system, arguing that proposed changes will do nothing to alleviate the housing crisis in the West of England.