Bristol Mayor George Ferguson sworn in and scrapping Sunday parking charges
George Ferguson was today officially sworn in as Bristol Mayor - and immediately scrapped Sunday city centre parking charges.
Mr Ferguson was sworn in at a ceremony at the Passenger Shed in Temple Meads this afternoon before an audience of city people.
Within an hour he made good on a pre-election promise to get rid of Sunday charging for on-street parking in the city centre.
He said: “I‘ve heard the traffic management arguments, but I firmly believe in doing everything we can to keep Sunday special and already it is clear that it would only raise peanuts per week, while penalising people coming into the city centre for leisure and shopping.
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"It is a straight-forward decision - on-street parking is free from this coming Sunday and on every Sunday until I can be persuaded otherwise.
“To make Sundays special I shall next year be looking at freeing parts of the city centre of traffic on the first Sunday of the month, taking inspiration from our twin city of Bordeaux where Mayor Alain Juppé has transformed the centre of Bordeaux starting with First Sundays.
"It has been received with great enthusiasm by the people of Bordeaux, and is an example as to how I intend that we learn from the best practice elsewhere.”
VIDEO: ON CAR PARKING CHARGES (ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
Bristol City Council agreed in November 2011 to charge £1 an hour for Sunday parking in the city centre shopping area, and to restrict the maximum stay to one hour.
The charge was introduced on October 28 this year.
The council argued the charges were introduced for traffic management reasons with income expected to be only a few hundred pounds a week.
He also changed the name of the Council House to City Hall and pledged to take his wages in Bristol Pounds.
One of the first big challenges he faces as mayor is to put together a new cabinet.
He said: "Putting together a rainbow cabinet requires diplomacy and all four leaders have entered into conversation in a constructive manner."
VIDEO: ON WORKING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE (ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
He also peldged to work with other councils in the region saying: "I say to you our interests are your interests and your interests are our interests - we are a city region and we must work together"
In the audience was Mark Reid from St Pauls. He said: "I was quite impressed with the speech really. I think he said quite a lot of things that Bristolian's think. It will be interesting to see what he can do to make things better - if possible."
On meeting HM The Queen he said: "I'm not here to break traditions and I will walk behind the Lord Mayor Peter Main and I'll be honoured to do so when we welcome the Queen to Bristol. Her visit will be the beginning of making Bristol the most welcoming city in the UK and Europe."
VIDEO: ON CELEBRATING OUR DIFFERENCES:
VIDEO:OATH:
VIDEO: REACTION TO BUDGET NEWS:
Comments
by JoeFrankie
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 2:47PM
“As a Rovers fan I'm very worried (and not just about the the way the team are playing). This Ferguson bloke wears red trousers and is changing the name of the Council House to CITY Hall. Yet more anti Rovers bias by the Council in my eyes.”
by Big_Gregory
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 2:27PM
“Good idea to change the name from The Council House - its quite a grand building so sharing a name with those little red brick 1960's residences with rusty cars on bricks and old mattresses in the front garden was never appropriate in the first place.”
by Bristolian
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 2:24PM
“"Quite apart from the lesser point that all stationery etc will have to be changed when the council is supposed to be broke."
No stationery needs to be or will be changed. They'll just update it when the current stock runs out. No extra expense there.”
by marmeliser
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 1:47PM
“here's a thought. now we have an (elected) mayor, why not scrap the ''office'' of ''lord'' mayor (unelected and outdated title), along with all the other frippery titles like ''lord sheriff''
here's your first budget cut mr mayor.
and i see no reason why you should - as an ELECTED official - be walking BEHIND either the ''lord'' mayor or the monarch. she isn't elected either (though i have respect for her as an individual)”
by Jonboy100
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 1:14PM
“===by snowymalone re-"@ Jonboy100 "Strongly against changing the name of the Council House. He can't just wipe out 50 years of Bristol history at a stroke like that. I'll go on calling it the Council House."
He's not wiping out history, though, is he? He's not demolishing it, moving everyone out of it and turning into a Tesco Municipal, etc, is he?=======
He IS tampering with our history. The Queen opened the Council House in 1956. I still recall seeing her go by on The Downs after that ceremony. Everyone knows it as the Council House. Does he honestly think people have been confused by its name for half-a-century and he is now clearing the matter up for us?
Just because other cities call their council HQ something else is irrelevant. Why must we copy them? Ours is unique. This stuff about it belonging to the city and not the council is baloney. It does, in fact, belong to the council.
This illustrates the problem with an elected mayor: get someone with a bee in their bonnet about something and they can take decision not supported by the majority. Quite apart from the lesser point that all stationery etc will have to be changed when the council is supposed to be broke.”
by J12345678
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 7:24AM
“So let's get this right. A few hundred quid income on a Sunday at £1/hr means BCC traffic mandarins expected under 1000 cars staying an hour, or a couple of hundred staying around 2 hours? It's that 'closed for business'' attitude that has made the shops topple over like ninepins leading to loss of jobs and thousands of pounds biz rates lost. BCC just don't get the big picture do they? A busy city centre is good for everyone”
by snowymalone
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 7:06AM
“@ Jonboy100
"Strongly against changing the name of the Council House. He can't just wipe out 50 years of Bristol history at a stroke like that. I'll go on calling it the Council House."
He's not wiping out history, though, is he? He's not demolishing it, moving everyone out of it and turning into a Tesco Municipal, etc, is he?
His rationale is that a) virtually everywhere else refers to their seat of local government as the Town Hall / City Hall / County Hall, a term commonly understood by pretty much everyone, whereas Council House sounds like, well, a council house, and b) more subtly, it throws the emphasis on the fact it belongs to the city, for the city, as opposed to belonging to the council, for the council. For our benefit, not theirs.
I voted for George, because I wanted someone not in thrall to party politics, who'd not feel the need to bicker and prevaricate in self-appointed committees until opportunities were long gone, but instead bloody get on and actually DO stuff. On the basis of (admittedly) one day, it looks like that's precisely what he's going to do. Good on him!”
by Jonboy100
Monday, November 19 2012, 11:29PM
“Strongly against changing the name of the Council House. He can't just wipe out 50 years of Bristol history at a stroke like that. I'll go on calling it the Council House.
As for Sunday parking charges - I'm puzzled. I parked outside the Central Library this Sunday (18th) and the meter said there was no charge on Sundays, so I parked free. How was this possible before he had taken action?”
by SlotBoy
Monday, November 19 2012, 10:03PM
“"vrwtuy"
With reference to your point.
The answer might be that the machines are still operative but just issue a free ticket with say a 6 hour period and no return to the same spot within 3 hours. This would help obviate the abuse of the idea.
Rich Fisher”
by Tiny_Steve
Monday, November 19 2012, 9:13PM
“He has certainly made the right decision on Sunday charges, but I am already worried people are reading far too much into this.
GF looks like he will be about common sense, pragmatism and balance. If you believe that the car is king, traffic lights should be switched off, bus lanes scrapped and Bristol turned into a playground for Jeremy Clarksons, then I think you are going to be disappointed. You probably wanted Owain George or Philip Pover, who together gained the votes of 1% of the electorate.”