Under/Overpasses For Wildlife Survival: The Mayor of Bristol Responds

 

I did write that if Bristol City Council or the Mayor responded to the idea of road under/over passes on wildlife death hot spots I would let everyone know.  They have and the response is basically "let them go on dying":

" Dear Terry,

"Thank you for taking the time to write to me and for your patience while I replied. My office has been receiving an exceptional volume of correspondence in recent months and I have not always been able to respond as quickly as I would like.

"Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention and for your recommendations. I completely agree with you that we need to protect Bristol’s wildlife and ecology and I understand your concern regarding this situation. This is why we developed the One City Ecological Emergency Strategy, created alongside the One City Plan and the One City Climate Strategy. This strategy is our city’s first co-ordinated effort to confront the ecological decline we face and put forward solutions that match the urgency and scale of the issue.

"I have been in contact with the relevant team regarding the plausibility of over and under passes being implemented. The Department for Transport set the rules for what to prioritise with the limited funding we receive. We have a large number of priorities across the city from a transport perspective and unfortunately, this is not something we have been asked to prioritise by the DoT. As well as this, crossings such as over and under passes are hard to implement in dense urban areas due to things such as, services and buildings.

"My team have informed me that if we were to have a project going on at either of the hotspots you mentioned they would look at incorporating something as a solution to this issue. However, this is not something we can commit to or gurantee because the DfT unfortunately does not fund this sort of intervention.

"Thank you for helping to protect Bristol’s wildlife. I hope this information helps. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to get back in touch.

Kind regards"

 

 

Marvin Rees

Mayor of Bristol

t:  +44 (0) 117 922 2420

e:  mayor@bristol.gov.uk