People living in Beckington Road, off Redcatch Road, have been protesting about ‘historical asset-stripping’ as Bristol City Council contractors started to remove the wrought iron lampposts in their street and replace them with modern ones. The Council confirmed the lampposts would be ‘recycled’ but refused to say where they would be sited.
The historic lampposts were installed when the houses were built in the 1930s. On Monday 25th March council contractors arrived unannounced, removed five lampposts, and replaced them with modern ones. The contractors informed residents the lampposts would be refurbished and put in a more historic area of Bristol.
Residents were furious that they were not consulted. One resident said: “This reminds me of the 1980s and 1990s when parts of Bristol were basically historically asset-stripped and everything was sent to north Bristol in order to make Clifton look lovely … I know the council won’t put these back and that really hurts – we had no opportunity to save them. They’ve been on our road since it was built.”