Greens make progress on Plot 6 interchange - LibDems claim the credit

Written by Pete Goodwin Thursday, 24 February 2011

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Today, Green Party leader Caroline Lucas was in Bristol highlighting the Greens' long running campaign for a central multimodal transport hub at Temple Meads.
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Green Party leader Caroline Lucas (centre) with city councillor Tess Green and some of the Green Party candidates in the May local elections

Temple Meads in the background, the harbour in the foreground, and Plot 6 in between

In the last few weeks there have some welcome signs of their efforts bringing results. First, Gary Hopkins the senior Cabinet councillor responsible for transport  , admitted the potential for a hub in a BBC Radio interview with Green Party activist Pete Goodwin.

A day or two later, thanks to our sole Green councillor Tess Green repeatedly raising the topic, the council's Transport Scrutiny commission finally agreed to register its (cross party) wish that the Plot 6 site, alongside Temple Meads, should be reserved for use as a hub.

Then yesterday, Gary Hopkins issued a LibDem press release claiming that "thanks to pressure from the city council’s Lib Dem administration" Plot 6 could be safeguarded as a multimodal transport hub.

The news is good, though the credits are laughable - there is not a shred of evidence of LibDem interest in a Plot 6 hub in the last few years, although they've had the means to provide it.

In a guarded welcome to the "Strategic transport supremo"'s statement, Pete Goodwin said:

"These are all promising signs, and show that our political pressure and lobbying from transport activists is at last having some impact.  But the hard reality is that neither the city council nor the West of England Partnership has yet put Plot 6 and the Temple Meads hub into its policy statements or bids.

"The sooner it gets there, the better we'll be pleased.  More Green councillors after May will certainly help make it happen. This is an opportunity for Bristol it would be criminal to miss - offering safe, comfortable, quick journeys to all parts of the city and beyond, with no more than the one easy change.  That could transform public transport for everyone.

Notes:
  1. 'Plot 6' has been a central (and unique) plank of Bristol Green Party policy for some years.  It draws on this being a 'natural' hub, where the rail hub, major roads, harbour ferries, and cycleways all meet at a point where there is undeveloped land waiting for it to happen.  By providing one sheltered change between all these modes it could bring about the huge change in attractiveness and accessibility that the city's public transport desperately needs.
  2. Caroline Lucas is MP for Brighton Pavilion and leads the Green Party of England and Wales