POLL: How should Bristol mayor George Ferguson spend his £14 million?

“The one option not included was using it to stop some of the cuts in vital services which Mayor George Ferguson is now making.
This is because the "rules" say it can only be spent on "capital" projects (ie on roads, buildings etc).
Am i the only person who is outraged by this crazy situation when government rhetoric says decision making should be devolved locally and thousands of vulnerable Bristolians are going to really suffer from these cuts. Why can't we the local people decide to spend the money where it's most needed?
Already several million pounds is unspent out of past allocations from developers levies to neighbourhood councils partly because there is little point in building a new day centre for example when the funds to run the services in them probably wont be available! I'd much prefer my neighbourhood council to use their money to save an elderly persons home or day centre but i will never have that choice as things stand. No wonder people are disconnected from the so called democratic process.
Can i urge community groups and concerned Bristolians to protest about this situation and launch a campaign to press local politicians just for once to stand up and fight these scandalous restrictions”

“Wouldn't it be nice to bring diverse community to gather in celebrating diversity in art,culture,architecture and all by building a performing art centre,grand community centre as well as interfaith space for dialogue,yoga,meditation,conferences on global issues and education @harbourside,fusion architecture ,people's cultural palace.it can also double up as a wedding venue for gay as well as hetrosexual marriages and for celebration of festivals and it would also become an iconic tourist attraction like Sydney opera house and shard building in London.gloria in excels is.hari om tut suit.”

“To clarify, this £14M is through a central Government initiative called the Community Infrastructure Levy. It is not a Bristol City Council, or Bristol Mayor initiative and the money is ring-fenced by the Government for infrastructure in which the planning approved developments are built ie. local parks, libraries, school places, road improvements,

On no level is this "George Ferguson's" money”

“How should George ferguson spend *HIS* £14M?!?!

I think you'll find that's *OUR* £14M, the CITY's! NOT the elected offical's.”

“@Richard34

Best of luck to them. Hopefully they can turn around the mess the previous LidBem cabinet left and put Bristol before their own party.

At least the dastardly trio of Hopkins/Kent/Rogers haven't managed to worm their way back into any form of responsibility or power.”

“@Smoosername. Why wait until may... common sense has prevailed and two more very experienced Lib Dems are now on the Rainbow Cabinet. Excellent news. Visit: http://tinyurl.com/bj2lr3o”

“@Richard34 - "if the Lib Dems do really well in May then George Ferguson will offer them seats to reflect this success."

If they do as they did in May 2012 elections, can we remove the seat they have?

http://tinyurl.com/9lzgycw”

“@BEP
'But he can use the money for "infrastructure improvements" – that means road improvements, transport systems,.........'

It is interesting that you see those two things as separate concepts.”

“@smoosername, regardless of the result, the Rainbow Cabinet is fair and if the Lib Dems do really well in May then George Ferguson will offer them seats to reflect this success.
The fact is that other party votes all collapsed and as much as people say that the Conservative Vote and the Lib Dem vote collapsed, one could argue that the largest collapse was Labour who thought they would win by a landslide and 1000's of their own supporters voted for George Ferguson. It was obvious what was happening when their support imploded on twitter and supports announced they were voting for George.”

“Hi Paulie, I'm guessing you're a green party follower? That's good to hear.
However Gloucester Road was becoming damaged a long time before the Lib Dems were ever elected, in fact Cllr Rogers has spent a huge amount of his time and energy trying to return a lot of what Stokes Croft, Chelternham Road and Gloucester Road once offered. Look at the Carriageworks which is owned by London based tycoons and other areas of the city which are neglected eyesores and are owned by people living in tax havens over seas.

Anyway, to be fair there's no way on earth that the Lib Dems have had time to put Bristol's education system right in the short time that they've been leading, but they've done a great job of trying and what they started is changing the face of education. Federations and Partnerships are now taking local schools in a wonderful direction and results are getting better every year at secondary level and primary schools are about to get better as well with the restructuring.
But of course this is politics so the other parties will all claim Lib Dem success here.”