Bristol Residents RAGE Against the EBLN
Highlights from the 13th Jan Full Council Meeting
Ed Plowden feels the heat from EBLN Residents:
The fight against the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood (EBLN) roadblocks is heating up in 2026. The latest Full Council meeting that took place on 13th Jan 2026 proves just how widespread the opposition really is.
In the Public Forum, dozens of local residents delivered powerful, unfiltered statements and questions, slamming the scheme for its reckless implementation, devastating impacts on businesses, misleading council tactics, and outright failures like dangerous signage and endless extensions.
You could feel the anger in the room.
There was much applause after important statements were read, and questions asked. The sheer volume of anti-EBLN voices from both St. George, Barton Hill (and South Bristol!) visibly put Councillor Ed Plowden (Chair of the Transport and Connectivity Committee) under intense pressure as he faced wave after wave of resident scrutiny and demands for accountability.
We have pulled together the most damning highlights into a short, hard-hitting video below that captures the anger, frustration, and determination of EBLN residents.
> Watch here (Timestamps are below)
😡 Key moments you won’t want to miss:
(Note: You can click the red timestamps below too)
0:00 - The reckless EBLN, the council’s misleading timelines, and HUGE damage to local businesses.
3:58 – Wording changed from “6-Month Trial” to “6-Month Monitoring Phase”. Watch Ed Plowden feel the heat as he knows full well that the EBLN was always meant to be permanent from Day 1, as evidenced by the 3:00am police, drone and helicopter raid in 2025 in Barton Hill.
7:35 – A direct request for the council to stop bullying residents into accepting EBLN road blocks through delay tactics and rebranding the scheme as a never-ending “monitoring phase”.
13:44 – Cumberland Bus gate exposed as a huge cash cow for the Council. They have taken zero action to remove a poorly designed road sign which meets the bare minimum standard for compliance.
20:42 – Southville / SBLN roadblocks' brutal impact on businesses, residents, and visitors
21:54 – The damaging effects of Bristol City Council’s biased and harmful transport policy on EBLN businesses and residents
23:00 – Ed Plowden’s classic Bait & Switch for the EBLN
🚧 EBLN: A Failed, Hated Scheme
The highlights above show the real human cost of the failed EBLN: gridlock, struggling family-run shops on the brink, isolated vulnerable people, and a council that seems more interested in ideology than genuine listening.
The scheme's "trial" has already dragged on far beyond promises, with monitoring reports and decisions pushed into spring 2026 and beyond.
Enough is enough: we can't let this open-ended experiment continue to harm our neighbourhoods.
🎬 What YOU Can Do Right Now:
💬 Watch the full video above and SHARE IT widely - post on social media, WhatsApp groups, local Facebook pages, and email it to neighbours who are affected.
👍 Like, comment, and subscribe on YouTube (and below) to boost visibility and show the council the growing opposition and anger.
📧 Contact your councillors and MP (especially Ed Plowden and the Transport Committee members) and demand they halt extensions, audit the scheme independently, and scrap EBLN for good.
Contact Ed Plowden here: Cllr.Ed.Plowden@bristol.gov.uk
Contact your MP and Councillor here: theyworkforyou.com
💨 Keep the Pressure On - Sign and share any active petitions, attend future meetings, and reply here with your stories or ideas for next steps.
Stop EBLN Resources: get involved here: website
Together, Our Action and Voices Are Powerful
Although copying the way people are fighting back against their tyranical Government in Nepal may be a stretch for the Anti-EBLN community, Bristol City Council can be defeated if we stay loud, persistent and united. This is how LTN roadblocks have been removed, or did not proceed, in other parts of the UK.
If you’re new here, subscribe to this Stop EBLN Newsletter for regular updates, and ways to get involved.
Thanks for standing up for East Bristol.
And a final New Year’s message for the anti-democratic authoritarians within Bristol City Council:
WE’RE NOT BACKING DOWN
Really useful editing. Thank you.
It is shocking how. 'due process' is used to sneak in whatever they want. Oh whoops, the previous administration agreed TROs after a consultation to which only 4.4 per cent of residents responded, and which received much more criticism than support, and now we can't do anything to rectify its mistakes until we've held another sham consultation. Where we will also ignore whatever you say and do what we want.
And by rectifying those obvious mistakes we mean surveilling you instead of physically blocking your passage. That's the even more serious bait and switch.
https://keepbristolmoving.substack.com/p/every-move-you-make-ill-be-watching
Debates over signage regulations hide the fact that the bus gate shouldn't be there at all.
And you peasants have half an hour a month between all of you in a city of half a million to express your all your concerns at a full council public forum, and we'll hassle you to say it all as fast as possible and make you look like little children taking up too much of our valuable time.
If there are any councillors reading this, please wake up, now!