Rob Bryher
Councillor for St George WestCllr Rob Bryher is the Green Group Whip
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Bristol’s Green Councillors have secured £1million from Wessex Water, which is owned by the Malaysian power company YTL Corporation, as they carry out work at three parks across Bristol over the next three years, causing huge disruption.
Wessex Water will carry out work at St George Park, Canford Park and Old Quarry Park to install storm attenuation tanks underground, to reduce the number of spills from combined storm overflows.
This supports the motion which was unanimously passed on 12th November 2024 to tackle water pollution in the city’s rivers.
However, this will mean huge disruption to the parks over a number of years. After months of negotiations, Bristol’s Green Councillors have secured £1million from Wessex Water for the disruption. This will need to be formally accepted by the council through the Public Health and Communities committee later this summer.
Cllr Rob Bryher represents St George West where St George Park wheel park is located. Most of the wheel park will be shut while the work is carried out.
He said, “For several months I and council officers have been pushing Wessex Water to compensate us for the inconvenience this work will cause to local residents and mitigate the loss of the wheel park’s use.
“I am very happy that they have agreed to provide £1 million to do just this, but I am disappointed that this figure is not higher.”
“This settlement means that we should be able to complete all improvements to the John Deasy Play Area – this is something that local parents have been fundraising to improve for years. It also gives us three years to secure even more funding, to add to the £680,000 capital expenditure already committed by the council, so that when we do rebuild the wheel park it will be a world class facility.”
“However, I know that this will not make up for the inconvenience the loss of the use of the facility will cause. Hundreds of residents sent statements of support when we recently secured £680,000 to improve the wheel park and their disappointment at this further delay is fully justified.
“I will continue to hold Wessex Water to account to ensure we get the best possible deal for St George and the surrounding communities.”
£800,000 will be paid to Bristol City Council for the betterment of the three parks following the works. A further £200,000 will be put into a local community fund for Bristol’s Green Spaces, to ensure direct local community benefit to the parks and their localities which are the subject of works by Wessex Water.
An open application process, defined by the ward boundaries of St George West and Westbury-on-Trym and Henleaze, will be developed to ensure that community groups can apply on an equitable basis. Applications will be assessed by a panel made up of Bristol City Council and Wessex Water, as well as community group representation. The funding window for grants will open annually, with delivery between 2026-2030.
Greens have long called for the nationalisation of water companies and the lack of transparency from Wessex Water has highlighted this need further.
Cllr Cara Lavan, Councillor for St George Central, said, “While this money for Bristol’s parks is welcome, it is a drop in the ocean compared to the £11.7 million in profits that Wessex Water earned from the people of Bristol and the surrounding areas last year.
“The monopoly of the water companies that has given them total control over this most basic of amenities is completely broken and is almost unique to England. And everyone knows it.
“The work to improve storm overflows is happening due to immense political and public pressure and comes too late to redeem a set-up that is clearly not working.
“Greens are calling for public ownership to make sure that all of these profits, paid by the public, are fully invested back into cleaning up the mess the water companies have made and lowering people’s bills.”
Notes:
Cllr Rob Bryher is the Green Group Whip
More about Rob