THE #BRISTOL CLEARANCE: How “Visitor Experience” Became Ethnic Cleansing for the Poor.
The Destination Bristol Displacement Programme: Your Council Cleared the City Centre by Warehousing Vulnerable People in Working-Class Neighbourhoods.
Headline: Bristol business chief wants homeless people banned as terrorists could ‘hide devices’ in their belongings.Article and image: Bristol Post. 15 Mar 2018.
BRISTOL, UK - While you enjoyed your flat white on the harbourside, Bristol City Council systematically cleared vulnerable people from the city centre and warehoused them in St George, Hartcliffe, Withywood and other suburbs. No additional support. No additional funding. Then, when Bristol ran out of room? They exported people to Kingswood in South Gloucestershire.
This is documented policy with catastrophic consequences now visible on our streets.
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THE PLAN: APRIL 2019
Destination Bristol - a partnership between Bristol City Council and Business West. Six hundred members. One problem: poor people are bad for business.
Not poverty (that’s abstract). Poor people, you can see them in doorways. Shambling through Broadmead, glazed on gear. Asking for change. Not photographing well for tourism brochures.
The mission statement, translated:
“Raising Bristol’s profile as world-class” = Remove homeless people from tourist sight lines
“Improving city centre management” = Make human suffering invisible
“Best visitor experience possible” = Retail profit over human dignity
It’s not quite “Arbeit Macht Frei,” but it’s in the same ballpark.
THE MAP: WHO MATTERS.
Understanding the geography is understanding the strategy:
Premium Bristol - Clifton, harbourside, Broadmead, Cabot Circus. Where tourists photograph. Where people matter.
Dumping Ground Bristol - St George, Hartcliffe, Withywood, Easton. Where problems get warehoused. Not in brochures.
Overflow Zone - Kingswood, South Gloucestershire. When Bristol’s full. Someone else’s council. Someone else’s problem.
This is deliberate geographic segregation by postcode.
You can’t have a world-class visitor experience with someone OD’ing in a Primark doorway. Not because it’s a tragedy (though it is), or systemic failure (though it is), but because it looks bad.
THE SOLUTION: DISPLACEMENT, NOT HELP.
Actual solutions require adequate housing, drug treatment programmes, mental health support, social services, and long-term care infrastructure.
That’s expensive. Complicated. Takes years. Doesn’t improve Q2 retail figures.
Instead, move the problem somewhere invisible.
Sweep doorways. Increase “anti-social behaviour” enforcement. Make the city centre hostile to anyone who can’t afford it. Don’t solve where people go - just ensure they go somewhere else.
First St George, Hartcliffe, Withywood. When those fill? Push them to Kingswood.
Nuthin’ to do with us, guv.
THE PARTNERSHIP: PROFIT MEETS GOVERNANCE.
Destination Bristol was a Council-Business West joint venture.
Translation: People supposed to protect vulnerable citizens partnered with people who wanted those citizens invisible.
Not corruption. Nobody took bribes. Nobody broke laws.
Something worse: complete alignment of public governance with private profit, where “public good” means whatever makes retailers comfortable.
Council claims “supporting economic growth.” Business West gets a cleaner city centre. Everyone wins!
Except displaced people. And people in dumping grounds living with concentrated vulnerability and zero additional support. Oh, and Kingswood residents inheriting the overflow.
But they don’t have 600 members, strategic partnerships, or voice in defining “world-class visitor experience.”
They have addiction, trauma, dealers on corners, and nowhere to go.
THE TIMELINE: 2019-2025
2019 - Clear Broadmead. Launch displacement programme.
2019-2023 - Warehouse vulnerable people in cheap HMOs in working-class areas. No support. No funding. Just concentration.
2023 - Bristol’s dumping grounds hit capacity. Start exporting overflow to Kingswood. Bristol’s problem becomes South Glos’s problem.
2023-2024 - Concentrated vulnerability plus zero support equals predictable explosion of dealing, theft, violence. Both sides of the boundary.
2024-2025 - Council responds with East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood scheme. Traffic calming. Painted bus lanes.
Because once the problem is “bad optics,” the solution is never “social support.” It’s oversized plant pots and streets where emergency services need detours. Pity anyone dying - hold on a few more minutes while ambulances take scenic routes through colour-coded streets. It’s suddenly The Wizard of Oz, with the Tin Man offering life support while everyone waits.
The solution is always “move it where people who matter don’t look.” When that’s full? Move it across council boundaries.
THE SHELL GAME: EXPORTING CRISIS.
Bristol gets: Clean city centre, improved statistics, and avoided support costs
South Gloucestershire gets: Vulnerable people influx, no funding increase, crime from problems they didn’t create
Kingswood residents get: HMOs packed with Bristol’s cleared population, dealers following customers across boundaries, community breakdown
Municipal fly-tipping. Bristol dumps social problems over the fence and walks away.
THE ACCOUNTABILITY GAP: NOBODY’S FAULT.
Destination Bristol? Their job was “visitor experience.” Mission accomplished - Broadmead looks great.
Bristol Council? Just “supporting economic growth.” Besides, the overflow’s in South Glos now. Different council.
South Gloucestershire Council? Didn’t create this. Just dealing with Bristol’s exported misery.
Business West? Just businesses advocating for members.
Nobody’s responsible. Nobody’s accountable. Perfect crime: collective catastrophe, no individual liability, consequences exported across boundaries so they don’t appear in your statistics.
THE MESSAGE.
“They don’t give a f** about you. At all. At all. AT ALL.”*
When “world-class visitor experience” matters more than working-class lived experience, that’s not policy failure. That’s choice. That’s values.
Some postcodes count. Some don’t. Some people are citizens. Some are problems to warehouse where others don’t see them.
The vulnerable don’t disappear moving from Broadmead to St George to Kingswood. They concentrate in struggling areas. In HMOs. With dealers. No support. Creating a predictable crisis.
But Clifton doesn’t look. Tourists get their experience. Bristol shows improved statistics.
Crisis exported? Someone else’s problem.
THE INVOICE.
Bristol City Council partnered with business to prioritise retail comfort over welfare, concentrating vulnerable people in working-class areas with no support increase. When full, they exported overflow to neighbouring councils.
Press releases didn’t say that. But that’s what happened.
Everything in St George, Hartcliffe, Withywood, and Kingswood now? That’s the bill for making vulnerable people invisible instead of helping them.
Who pays: Working-class residents. South Glos Council. Vulnerable people with their lives.
Who doesn’t: Clifton enjoying world-class city attraction, thanks to a bridge. Tourists getting their promised experience. Former Destination Bristol Chief Executive, comfortably retired, working on his golf handicap.
The handicapped of Bristol and South Gloucestershire? Still handicapped. Just evicted from the fairway - one man’s working on his handicap, the others ARE the handicap they wanted removed.
WHAT WE HAVE: OCTOBER 2025.
Six and a half years. Displacement dressed as development. Visitor experience over human welfare. Moving problems, not solving them.
Results:
✓ Broadmead: fantastic
✓ Harbourside: pristine
✓ Clifton: lovely
✓ Tourists: happy
✓ Retailers: content
✓ Someone’s golf handicap: improving
Meanwhile:
✗ St George: burning
✗ Hartcliffe: struggling
✗ Withywood: suffering
✗ Kingswood: inheriting overflow
Cleared vulnerable people? Still vulnerable. Just concentrated where nobody important looks. Warehoused. Surrounded by dealers. Zero support. Predictable, avoidable crisis.
Emergency services take scenic routes past plant pots to reach dying people while councillors celebrate traffic calming.
This happens when tourism consultants define “public good.” When city appearance matters more than city function. When “world-class visitor experience” trumps resident experience. When visible poverty’s solution is invisibility, not help.
Destination Bristol succeeded. Visitor experience: excellent. City centre management: superb. Mission accomplished.
Just that the mission was hiding people, not helping them.
One man’s working on his handicap. Others are the handicaps removed. Now someone else’s problem - geographically segregated, municipally exported, statistically disappeared.
Nuthin’ to do with Bristol, guv. Check the postcode.
Welcome to Destination Bristol. Mind the gap. Watch your step. Don’t feed the homeless - relocated for your convenience.
Enjoy your world-class visitor experience.
Fore!
TAKE ACTION NOW
Bristol residents:
Email your councillor - demand transparency on displacement policies
Ask where support services are for affected communities
Share this article using #BristolClearance
Media contacts:
Affected residents:
Document what’s happening
Connect with local groups
Make your voice heard
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