Improving the area’s infrastructure can play a key role in helping to seal Bristol’s damaging north-south divide.
That’s according to city logistics expert Tim Davies from Colliers International who is urging a prompt start on key highway and infrastructure improvements to help bring the beleaguered southern suburbs up to speed with the more affluent northern districts.
Tim, head of office at Colliers International’s Broad Quay office, was commenting after civic calls to ‘reconnect’ the two halves of the city.
He said Bristol’s days of being a ‘two-speed’ city would be numbered if businesses presently based in the city centre and northern fringes could be encouraged to invest across the river.
He said: “We need to tackle the transport stranglehold which has kept South Bristol lagging twenty years behind the north side of the city – not just to improve business prospects but to reinvigorate the communities south of the river.
“Chronic traffic congestion has increasingly discouraged investment and has deterred employers from locating in the area.
“Businesses that do move in to take advantage of the lower rents find themselves in the same boat as local commuters having to negotiate fewer than half a dozen crossing points whereas people on the opposite side of the river enjoy easy access to the big employers, the major out of town centres and of course the principal motorway junctions.”
Tim said the long-awaited South Bristol link road scheme would give the area the chance to compete on a more equal footing.
“Although South Bristol can finally boast its own hospital a large proportion of local people still face the twice daily commute to work places on the northern fringes. The transport infrastructure needs a major overhaul if the area’s highly populous suburbs are to be grafted back on to the city centre and northern fringes.”
Bristol City and North Somerset councils predict the South Bristol Link will unlock up to 2,500 jobs in south Bristol.
“When completed the South Bristol Link will mean the area will no longer have to rely on simply being cheaper than the northern fringe. Improved infrastructure will bring investment and new jobs to the south side of the city and help correct this damaging community divide.”
