Priorities?

The deteriorating state of the ‘Our Common Ground’ artwork on the Centre in Bristol | Image credit: Martin Booth, B24/7

There’s an artwork called Our Common Ground on the Centre in Bristol by Oshi, implemented by Upfest, in the area that used to be occupied by the fountains. The 700 square metre street-level artwork on the Centre was intended to be “a bold celebration of heritage, identity and unity”. It was laid onto the Centre and then unveiled last September. Ever since then, due to wear and tear plus a wetter than average winter, the condition of the paintwork on the artwork has been deteriorating to the point where parts of it are starting to disappear.

Heather Mack (Green Party), the deputy leader of Bristol City Council has expressed her embarrassment and disappointment in how the artwork has deteriorated since it was laid onto the centre. This is reported here: Deputy leader ’embarrassed, disappointed and frustrated’ with state of Centre artwork - Martin Booth | B24/7 | 10.2.26.

I’ve only been living just outside of Bristol for just over three and a half years after moving down from Essex. I’ll be honest and admit that understanding just how Bristol City Council functions has been a bit of a learning curve. It’s one I’m still on. Having previously covered both Thurrock and Basildon councils when I used to run the Thurrock Heckler blog, I thought I’d seen it all. How wrong I was!

When Our Common Ground was unveiled last September, what immediately struck me as odd was the concept of putting a huge public artwork on the ground. How are the public walking across it meant to comprehend what it’s trying to convey? It’s pretty much impossible because it cannot be seen in it’s entirety. The only way it has ever been seen in its entirety is by the use of drone images. All anyone walking across it will see are what to them will seem like random bits of colour. Public artworks nearly always go up on walls for a good reason – to be seen in their entirety. It’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? Unless you’re Bristol City Council that is, operating to a ‘logic’ that’s lost on the rest of us mere mortals…

If you paint a huge mural on an area of paving in the middle of a busy city centre, it’s going to have lots of feet walking across it. Feet that will eventually start to wear away the paint. Aided and abetted by an incredibly wet winter. Our Common Ground is not going to last unless someone can come up with a way of defying the laws of physics, chemistry and what Mother Nature drops on it in the form of precipitation.

A seriously faded, almost disappeared zebra crossing in Manor Road, Fishponds | Image credit: BBC Bristol

Do you want to know what else is fading and deteriorating across the city of Bristol? The white paint on the zebra crossings that are there to allow pedestrians to cross the roads in relative safety. This deterioration is documented here in some considerable detail: Zebra Crossing Danger - Chris McEvoy | Bristol Uncovered | 1.2.26. It’s been reported on here: Faded zebra crossing ‘accident waiting to happen’ - Mike Gilmore | BBC Bristol | 29.1.26.

Somehow, Bristol has managed to acquire a reputation as being a ‘walkable’ city: Bristol named one of the world’s most ‘walkable’ cities - Karen Johnson | B24/7 | 9.7.24. As a non-driver who visits Bristol on a regular basis and has to negotiate what passes for pedestrian infrastructure in the city, the idea of the place being ‘walkable’ is quite frankly, a joke. It’s not just the fading and disappearing zebra crossings that make walking around Bristol a bit of an unwanted adventure, it’s the generally parlous state of too many of the pavements as well.

You would have thought that the Green administration in the city would be bending over backwards to actually make Bristol properly walkable by maintaining zebra crossings, pavements and other aspects of the pedestrian infrastructure to a decent safe standard. You know, just getting the basics of running a city right. Something that shouldn’t need to be questioned because it’s the adult thing to do, without any fuss or complications. What we have instead is a pedestrian infrastructure that’s been allowed by successive administrations in the city to deteriorate to the point where in parts, it’s hazardous to use.

It’s down to getting the priorities right, isn’t it? Particularly when it comes to the essential basics such as ensuring the pedestrian infrastructure is safe to use. Something that successive administrations in Bristol have failed to do. Something that a Green administration that you would have thought would want to take practical action to make Bristol a genuinely walkable city are, on current evidence, failing to do. Instead of making a start on reversing the neglect of the pedestrian infrastructure by previous administrations, we get what some may describe as a ‘virtue signalling’ artwork that started to deteriorate almost from day one. You couldn’t make it up, could you?