Future City – final reflections

We were very lucky to be joined by Emma Powell for a month of work experience, culminating in her helping us with the write up of the week of Future City conversations. We asked her to reflect on the final session where we looked back at the week. Her notes are below.

In the meantime, we wish Emma good luck for the future and in particular for her studies in Business and Environment at Leeds University which she starts this summer after she has spent some time volunteering with a charity in India (and spent some time at the beach in various places around the world). Enjoy.

By Emma Powell

To finish the week off we had one final discussion, involving people who had come along throughout the week to the talks. This session consisted of trying to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Stories in Bristol in regards to becoming a more sustainable city and the Big Ideas/ Quick wins that Bristol could think of pursuing for the future.

The BS3 campus was one of the many stories that was discussed. This project consists of transforming the Bristol BS3 campus into a new sustainable neighbourhood which is also owned and managed by the community. Furthermore Ashley Vales which is a derelict building and eyesore site of 2.5 acres is being re-created to provide a wonderful community. Another notable story is the Bristol Bike project and Bristol as a cycling economy. In 2008 Bristol was chosen as England’s first ‘cycling city’ and received £11 Million from the Department for Transport to transform cycling in the city and this has been extremely successful. Green Volunteers are another great success in Bristol. Many people are pursuing a hands on experience and working together to increase the quality and quantity of ‘green’ volunteering in the City by implementing a series of workshops and events that makes a real difference to the city. The final story that came out of this discussion was Artspace Livespace. This project is an artist led scheme that recycles un-used and vacant properties and transforms them into thriving active creative centres, with an example of this development is the Pro Cathedral.

During the discussion we examined the quick wins that would bring Bristol closer to becoming a Green Capital. One of these was to try and make the city a Low Carbon Zone, which is what London has done. This will help reduce the carbon footprint and CO2 emissions by involving local communities, businesses and residents. Secondly within Lockleaze a proposed idea was ‘Street of Solar’ which portrays that Lockleaze is trying to get involved in Bristol’s future as a more sustainable city. Moreover, another quick solution that came up repeatedly throughout the week was safe storage for bikes. This was due to many people complaining of having their bikes stolen therefore safe storage was a quick and effective way to get people cycling more. A film channel on youtube on for example Sims Hill, was an interesting concept that came up in the quick wins. This would hopefully enable more people to see what our week has consisted of and become more knowledgeable and involved in all these aspects that have been discussed. Other features which were touched on were Living Heart which involves producing a city centre that is beautiful, economically vibrant, happy and should be enjoyed by everyone and People Supermarket which was based on the public signing up to the supermarket and working together as a community within the supermarket. Pen ultimately, asking businesses to promote the use of buses to improve service with a known demand and a recurring idea that was discussed was to present a free green university/poly in Bristol. This will enable students to gain the knowledge that they need and have the tools to apply this knowledge. When they have finished the students will be ready for the long-term learning journey – ‘Life’, all for free.

Despite these great quick win ideas, there are many weaknesses that were presented, which stemmed from firstly the city centre being noisy and polluted, with congestion occurring and car parking problems. Furthermore Bristol has many barriers to innovative ‘eco’ ideas and seem to be talkers not walkers. Despite cycling being a strength it has also posed weaknesses in that many bikes are stolen and they are occasionally problematic for drivers in Bristol. It was mentioned earlier to in quick wins that new media would be a creative idea; however it has not realised its potential. All these weaknesses could be down to poor leadership – which could be argued as being the worst weakness of all. It seems to have beset Bristol for many years, with many changes of political leadership, as well as a lack of joined up leadership from communities and organisations.

Bristol is not only a centre for wildlife excellence but it is also England’s first ‘Cycling City’ conveying just two of the strengths. Another includes communities within Bristol being very strong, e.g. Stokes Croft and Lockleaze in Stoke Bishop. This has created community collision and allowed people to collaborate and work together to create a better society around where they live, illustrating the strength of social enterprise. Car sharing has also increased due to a special lane being introduced for people who are sharing cars; these are located at Weston-Super-Mare and North Bristol Ring road. Similarly, the BS3 campus represents strength in community growth in a resilient and sustainable way. This is also expressed in Bristol’s festivals which has allowed many more people from within the city to get involve in greener events, for example, Bristol Harbour Festival which is Bristol’s biggest cultural event that has been awarded A Greener Festival award. Along with healthy festivals there are healthy food shops within Bristol causing people to eat a lot more healthily, an example being Better Food Company, conveying another strength in Bristol.

The last paragraph is Bristol’s big ideas, one of these being Bristol becoming the centre of excellence for ‘total city’ large scale eco-refurbishment based on energy efficiency, resilience, economic stimulation and heritage expertise. This idea links with another idea which was for Bristol being the centre for green professional services. A further proposal that has already been mentioned was Bristol’s free eco university. Eco-hubs, was an interesting concept which would allow each community to have a local building where they could go for advice on energy, waste etc which would not only bring the community closer but also increase their knowledge. An ambitious thought was to try and make Bristol a car free city; however a more realistic idea which still relates to cars was to make clean fuels and vehicles. Big Green week is a great idea allowing everyone to pose their big green week ideas and to hear about the latest green initiatives. An interesting concept posed was can green-ness expand beyond its middle class core community. These big ideas could make a huge difference to Bristol and allow the public to increase awareness and get more involved in these  eco-innovative ideas.