The future of Bristol’s famous Downs is for more smaller events and a focus on the environment - according to more than 1,800 people who contributed to the first survey of its kind in the history of the historic open space.
The Downs Committee’s survey, which was launched earlier this year, asked people what they thought the priorities for Clifton Down and Durdham Down, and whether the balance of keeping the Downs as green space and as a place where events happen was the right one.
And, by and large, the majority of people who took part in the consultation backed the status quo - both in terms of the kind of stuff that happens on the Downs, and also the way the space is governed.
EXCLUSIVE: Bristol MPs call for Society of Merchant Venturers to disband
With two of Bristol’s MPs leading calls for the Society of Merchant Venturers to disband, and local residents and environmental groups criticising the Society’s involvement in running the Downs, there had been a second questionnaire asking about governance of the open space.
Around half the 1,800 people who filled in the first questionnaire did the second one too, and although 31 people said the Merchant Venturers should not be a part of running the Downs, 90 per cent of the 931 who had their say said any changes to the way the Downs is run should not be drastic, and do away with the 1861 Downs Act which shares responsibility between Bristol City Council and the Merchant Venturers.
The Downs Committee membership is made up of half elected city councillors and half members of the Society of Merchant Venturers - which has been controversial since the saga of the row over using the Downs for overflow parking for Bristol Zoo. The Downs Committee had announced it would cost up to £500,000 to repeal the Downs Act and effectively remove the Merchant Venturers from being legally involved, and that cost appears to have put people off demanding wholesale changes.
Instead, the committee’s proposal is to not seek to change the Downs Act itself, but to ‘look for ways of working within its requirements to improve transparency, participation and effectiveness’. “The committee recognises that a small number of people have concerns about the role of the Society of Merchant Venturers, but the survey was clear that this is a requirement of the Downs Act, and the fact that 838 people supported keeping the Act as it is significantly outweighs those seeking change,” a spokesperson said. “Regarding specific changes that people would like to see, there is clear support for seeking ways to involve stakeholders more often and providing opportunities for people to raise issues for debate at Committee meetings.
“There is already an action in the draft work plan for the committee to work on these processes,” they added.
There was also broad support for the way in which the Downs is managed at the moment, with money raised from large-scale events that take place on the Downs, being put into environmental maintenance of the ecologically-important grasslands. Just over half (56 per cent) of people said funding work on The Downs should be paid for by income from events and activities, while 46 per cent said the council should pay for it.
And the vast majority - some 96 per cent - of the 1,888 people who filled in the survey said they agreed that the Downs’ priority should be as a place for recreation, while 88 per cent said nature should also be prioritised. There was also big support for the idea of a new cafe and toilets at the Sea Walls - which was denied planning permission in April in the face of a large number of objections.
As for the kind of events that take place on The Downs, there was significant enough backing for the large-scale major events, like the music and foodie festivals, as well as the circus - but less so for the funfair.
People were asked whether there were ‘too few’ ‘the right number’ or ‘too many’ of different types of events, and the majority of people responding said there should be more educational activities on The Downs.
After that, outdoor cinema, small music events, charity events, food festivals and the comedy garden event were supported - people either thought there should be more of that kind of thing, or about the same.
Larger-scale events like Bristol Pride have been more controversial in the past with local residents, but around two-thirds of people thought the number of large-scale events was about right - and those who thought there were too many (18 per cent) were pretty much matched by those who thought there should be more (17 per cent).
There was slightly less support for more large-scale music events like The Downs Festival, and the least amount of support was for the circus and the mobile theme park Funderworld.
A quarter of people thought there were too many large scale music events and too many circuses, while more than a third of people thought too much time was taken up by a mobile theme park.
That said, even for the more ‘unpopular’ events, the majority of people said they thought the amount of time and space taken up on The Downs for those was ‘the right number’, and only a couple of dozen of the 1,888 people who responded gave extra comments calling for fewer events and fewer noisy music events.
The survey also asked people if there was anything else that the Downs Committee should be working on, and the most comments - albeit only 81 - were complaining about the number of van-dwellers on the roads of the Downs.
Want our best stories with fewer ads and alerts when the biggest news stories drop? Download our app on iPhone or Android
