Anti-smoking campaigners have slammed the decision to name a new South Bristol road after a cigarette brand as “morally unacceptable”. Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and doctors are imploring the city council and a housing association to change their minds to call the street “Navy Cut Road” in honour of a product made at the site’s former Imperial Group tobacco factory in Bishopsworth.
Bristol City Council says the Mayor’s Office is now reviewing the proposed name. The row broke out after local Tory Cllr Richard Eddy secured a U-turn from the original idea to name Curo housing association’s 70-home development “Crox View”, after an ancient nearby woodland.
He branded the suggestion “ridiculous” because the geographical feature, Crox Bottom, is obscured from residents’ view by the huge Imperial Park retail centre, and he challenged Curo to come up with something more “gritty” reflecting the location’s recent industrial heritage. The council’s street-naming team offered four alternatives, all based on the manufacturer’s tobacco products, and Navy Cut, after Imperial Group’s Players Navy Cut cigarettes, was accepted by both the housing association and Cllr Eddy, who welcomed it as “novel” and “inspired”.
