Bristol's first-ever rainbow crossing in the city centre has faded less than a year after it was first painted leading to questions about its future. The puffin crossing celebrates the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and ace (LGBTQ+) community by displaying all the colours of the Pride Progress Flag.
The colourful crossing was installed as a "permanent" feature - as reported by ITV - on Wine Street, near Castle Park at the end of June last year to mark the return of Bristol Pride. While last year's celebrations were reduced due to the pandemic in 2021, including the cancellation of the Pride march and the festival, the organisers hoped the crossing would represent "visibility" for the LGBTQ+ community.
Some nine months later, the city's first rainbow crossing has faded significantly with some colours vanishing all together. As there are high levels of both traffic and footfall in the area, this has meant the colourful paint has worn away quickly. Bristol City Council has said the crossing was only installed "as a temporary measure" and there is currently no availability in its budget to repaint it.
