“A flagrant act of vandalism”: Council agrees to move “ugly” bike rack after churchgoers say it will “block access for hearses”

Bristol City Council has agreed to move the planned location of a cycle rack – originally intended to be positioned outside a city centre church – after churchgoers and opposition councillors branded it a “flagrant act of vandalism” and claimed the bike rack would “block access for hearses”.

The soon-to-installed covered cycle rack forms part of the local authority’s plans to implement measures, introduced on a temporary basis in 2020, that would limit the use of motor vehicles in Bristol’s Old City and encourage cycling and walking, reduce air pollution, and open up the area for more on-street commercial and cultural use.

The rack was initially set to be installed at the top of Broad Street, outside Christ Church with St Ewen, a Church of England parish church and Grade II* listed building, built in the late eighteenth century.

However, the plan was roundly condemned by the church’s members and employees after contractors were spotted installing temporary fencing around a space in front of the building, forcing the council to alter the scheme by moving the rack closer to the existing planters on Broad Street.

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Jonathan Price, the Master of Music at Christ Church with St Ewen, told BristolLive that the installation of an “ugly” bike rack would “spoil the view” of the building and restrict accessibility to the church.

 “I was simply horrified by what the council workmen said they were creating,” he said. “I asked one of the team who was expected to use the covered cycle rack, and he replied, ‘nobody’.

“Christ Church needs clear access here for hearses bringing bodies for funerals, bridal cars, and for our infirm and disabled worshippers. Even the current bollards on the street edge spoil the view of our lovely Grade-II listed church. With an ugly cycle rack here, it will be much, much worse.”

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Conservative councillor Richard Eddy, who also attends Christ Church, claimed that the plans amounted to a “flagrant act of vandalism” and criticised the Labour-controlled council as “deluded secularists determined to close the church”.

“When I heard of the council plans outside Christ Church, I was aghast that the local authority intended to despoil this Grade-II listed building by a flagrant act of vandalism,” Eddy said.

“Over the last six years, worshippers at Christ Church have seen Sunday parking charges imposed on them, the repeated refusal of the council to allow strictly limited parking for the congregation, road closures, and the designation of the Clean Air Zone surrounding the church.”

He continued: “Now we have this hare-brained scheme to erect a cycle rack outside the church. It seems the deluded secularists of the city council are determined to close the church. If there is a demand for a cycle rack nearby, there is a wide and ample pavement only yards away on Wine Street. Why wasn’t this considered by the council?

“The council has a statutory obligation to ensure physical structures in a sensitive conservation area such as this — especially those abutting a listed church — enhance the character of the conservation area, and certainly do not harm it.”

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Following this vocal criticism, Bristol City Council has agreed to move the bike rack further down Broad Street – though the local authority noted that the public had been consulted about the plans to erect a cycle rack outside the church, but that they did not receive any comments or complaints from residents.

Labour Councillor Don Alexander, Bristol’s cabinet member for transport, said: “I met with officers on site to consider feedback and options for the planned cycle parking stand at the top of Broad Street, and asked for it to be moved. It has now been agreed that it will be installed two metres closer to the existing planters.

“This will allow more room for vehicles that need to stop close to the church and will mean the cycle parking stands won’t obstruct the church door. As part of the works to install the new cycle parking stand, the bollards currently in the road outside the church door will also be moved.”

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The condemnation of the proposed cycle rack outside Christ Church in Bristol isn’t the first time that a piece of cycling infrastructure has received ecclesiastical censure in recent years.

Last January, a Presbyterian church in Dublin criticised plans to segregate an existing cycle lane from traffic, which it claimed would prevent worshippers from continuing to park – illegally – outside the church.

The installation of bollards outside Howth Presbyterian Church was intended by the local county council to prevent motorists from parking along the cycle lane and to ensure “safer infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians”.

However, elder Michael Sparksman argued that the proposed bollards would mean that “the right to worship is being overtaken by the right to cycle.”