The Bristol 2050 Plan

 

Please view details of the 20th January Drivers of Change workshop and presentation papers.

 

One hundred years ago a group of visionary business men got together to commission an architect to draw up a plan for a city region. That plan didn’t invent new solutions to all the region’s problems, some were excluded as beyond its scope, whilst others were incorporated from other plans. What it did do was to provide a brilliant blueprint which provided a clear sense of direction for the development of modern Chicago, one of the most prosperous cities in North America.

The plan of Chicago caught the spirit of its time and the character of a place that dreamed the impossible and often accomplished it.

A man called Daniel Burnham was the driving force behind the creation of the plan, working with 344 individual subscribers to the Commercial Club of Chicago. Together they not only conceived the plan but just as importantly they promoted it widely and effectively to business, civic and government leaders, and even to school children through the Wacker Manual. In 1909, the civic leaders behind the Burnham Plan launched an extensive marketing campaign that lasted four decades. Results included North Michigan Avenue, Wacker Drive and Chicago’s spectacular lakefront parks, and regional forest preserves.

Clear parallels can be drawn between the development of the Plan of Chicago and the more recent contemporary plan – Metropolis 2020, and the challenges we face in the Bristol City region. Many of the statements and reasons behind the business community taking action in Chicago are relevant to our area:

  • We are one region with one future. If we continue to act locally on issues that are inherently regional, then we will jeopardise our economic competitiveness and quality of life.
  • A strong region requires that communities cooperate on issues that transcend local political boundaries.
  • Local governments can give up a little in order to get back much more: a region that is attractive and prosperous.
  • The region’s governments, businesses, and residents must make the kinds of informed choices that will make the region attractive and economically competitive 10, 50, and 100 years from now.

Twenty years ago a group of 12 visionary business men got together to see what they could do to address the social and economic ills of Bristol. Under the direction of John Savage, they instigated projects to tackle homelessness, educational deprivation and support economic prosperity. Projects such as The Foyer, Education Unlimited, improving the retail offer of the city, regenerating the Harbourside, promoting tourism and cultural activity were all developed through and by the Bristol Initiative.

Today that group has grown to 250 business men and women, all with an interest in improving the city region, increasing economic prosperity for all and eradicating poverty. This group, still under the direction of John Savage, has now commissioned David Lock, the distinguished town planner, to draw up a plan of the Bristol city region to 2050. Working with businesses, local architects, urban designers, town planners and transport experts, a visual and written interpretation will be developed. It will provide a clear statement about housing, jobs and infrastructure requirements to meet the needs of the area and enable it to continue to develop and grow as the economic powerhouse of the South West. It will illustrate what this growth would look like, where it would go and how it can be achieved.

The development of this vision is exactly what the Initiative was set up to do. It’s what Initiative members have been asking for and are interested in and it is at the very heart of what the Initiative is about – providing leadership to fill a void, ensuring the business voice is heard and promoting the sub region as “the” place to do business and a great place to live. It is about joining up plans and strategies and having a comprehensive view of the future, without getting too bogged down in red tape and bureaucracy.

This is absolutely the right time to be doing this work – the Regional Spatial Strategy for the South West is unlikely to ever see the light of day, national planning policy may well change once the election is over and current plans are lacking a sub regional or visionary element.

The Bristol 2050 plan will go beyond existing and planned strategies and documents, it will utilise the best of all those plans but take them a step further and set them into a longer timeframe, where the emphasis will be on sustainable growth and development of the city region as a successful economic unit.

Imagine a city … … …

  • With a river parkland from Avonmouth to Hanham – a linear park along the Avon Gorge, the Portway as a green space for the residents and visitors alike to enjoy, with a water park running alongside and an activity hub in the Cumberland Basin
  • With a real public transport system, that is understandable, fast, efficient and cheap and links key neighbourhoods and activity centres. We will draw a Bristol Transport map that makes those links and creates an understandable visual representation of transport in the city, bringing back forgotten rail links, new rapid transit and tram schemes, with cycling and walking at the heart of accessibility
  • With a creative media hub that runs from Spike Island and the Cumberland Basin out to Brislington, hosting the likes of Aardman, BBC, ITV, the Watershed, and the Arnolfini
  • With a country park to the south, making the most of the Dundry slopes for recreation and food growing
  • With a port and airport that make it the most attractive place to do business
  • With high quality diverse housing, based around sustainable neighbourhoods
  • With a range of jobs, in different areas, accessible and available to all
  • With a remodelled city centre where people have priority and which makes the most of the historic core of the city 

 

Send us your ideas and add to the Plan – bristol2050@bristol2050.com