Skip to content
Search
AI Powered
Latest Stories

Bristol mayor vetoes road name after Navy Cut

Bristol mayor vetoes road name after Navy Cut
An artist's impression of Curo housing association's 70-home development in Imperial Park (Photo: Curo/Stride Treglown via LDRS)

Marvin Rees has vetoed Bristol City Council’s own plans to name a new road after a cigarette brand following an outcry from health campaigners.

But the mayor’s decision has sparked a fresh row after he apparently changed his story as to why he overruled the idea to call the 70-home development “Navy Cut Road”, in honour of a product manufactured at the Bishopsworth site’s former Imperial Group tobacco factory.


It is the latest twist in a saga that began when the council’s street-naming team originally put forward the name of “Crox View”.

Tory ward Cllr Richard Eddy objected to the “ridiculous” idea because residents’ views of the nearby woodland the name comes from, Crox Bottom, is blocked by huge Imperial Park retail centre.

He challenged the local authority and developers Curo housing association to come up with a more “gritty” title reflecting the industrial heritage, and the council’s department proposed four alternatives, all based on Imperial tobacco products, with Navy Cut Road agreed by all.

But the Labour mayor then stepped in to review the decision following criticism from cancer charities and campaigners including Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) which branded the suggestion “morally unacceptable”.

Mr Rees has now agreed that the name is inappropriate and blocked it but gave two different answers to two different councillors about his reasons at a recent City Hall meeting.

In a written reply at member forum, he told Labour Cllr Brenda Massey: “The administration has made a decision that we will not name streets after tobacco brands.

“We’ll announce the name of this road in due course.”

But in an answer to opposition Cllr Eddy, he said while naming roads after tobacco brands was “questionable”, all four suggestions – Strand Road, Passing Clouds Road, Gold Flake Road, and Navy Cut Road – would “contravene the street-naming policy due to ‘current commercial connections’.”

Mr Rees said that although Navy Cut Tobacco cigarettes were discontinued in 2016, Wills Navy Cut was still imported to and sold in the UK, while the other three products either continued to be on sale or remained a registered trademarked product of Imperial Tobacco or related companies.

Cllr Eddy told the meeting on Tuesday, November 8, that you “didn’t need to be a brain surgeon” to realise the mayor’s answer to him was “fundamentally different” to the one he gave a fellow Labour member.

He said the answers would have been drafted by officers who were supposed to be politically neutral and give truthful, consistent information, so he called on the council’s chief executive to investigate why he had been given “such duff information”.

Cllr Eddy said: “In the original media reports the mayor’s office was quoted as reviewing the proposed name on health grounds.

“Was the mayor’s office lying or are the mayor’s comments in his reply today economical with the truth?”

Deputy mayor Cllr Craig Cheney, standing in for Mr Rees who was in Egypt for COP27, said he had not seen the press reports but the mayor’s answers were “pretty straightforward”.

Bishopsworth ward Cllr Eddy replied: “I am perplexed by the grounds given.

“Surely the street-naming team knew their own policies, so why would they propose four names not acceptable?”

He asked whether older, discontinued Wills tobacco products such as Bristol, Cinderella and Three Castles could be considered instead.

Cllr Cheney said: “Politically we struggle to support street names that endorse smoking, which is perhaps separate to the policy around the links to existing commercial brands.

“There are two things – there is a political answer and there’s a policy answer.”

Cllr Massey said: “I hope we will continue to resist naming streets after areas that are not very good.

“Smoking is just not something we should be glorifying in the names of roads anywhere.

“I hope the next administration, whatever that may be, will continue to apply that rule.”

More for you

Cocoa beans are pictured next to a warehouse at the village of Atroni, near Sunyani, Ghana

Cocoa beans are pictured next to a warehouse at the village of Atroni, near Sunyani, Ghana April 11, 2019

REUTERS/Ange Aboa/File Photo

How a hedge fund exodus reshaped global cocoa markets

Behind a record surge in cocoa prices this year, a corner of financial markets that drives the cost of chocolate underwent a seismic shift: the hedge funds that oiled its workings headed for the exit.

Confectionery prices, from candy bars to hot chocolate, are heavily influenced by futures contracts for cocoa beans. These financial instruments, traded in London and New York, allow cocoa buyers and sellers to determine a price for the commodity, forming a benchmark for sales across the world.

Keep ReadingShow less
A woman enters the Selfridges department store

A woman enters the Selfridges department store on December 13, 2024 in London, England

Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images

Retail faces mixed fortunes in 2025 amid cost pressures, AI opportunities, and high street revival


The UK retail sector is bracing for a challenging but opportunity-filled 2025, according to Jacqui Baker, head of retail at RSM UK. While the industry grapples with rising costs and heightened crime, advancements in artificial intelligence and a revival of the high street offer potential pathways to growth, she said.

Keep ReadingShow less
unsafe soft drinks seized in Southend

Unsafe soft drinks seized in Southend

Photo: Southend-on-Sea City Council

1,100 unsafe soft drinks seized in Southend safety crackdown

Southend-on-Sea City Council officials have secured food condemnation orders from Chelmsford Magistrates Court, resulting in the seizure and destruction of 1,100 unauthorised soft drinks.

The condemned drinks, including Mountain Dew, 7-UP, Mirinda, and G Fuel energy drinks, were found during routine inspections of food businesses across Southend by the council’s environmental health officers.

Keep ReadingShow less
Charity Super.Mkt at Brent Cross Shopping centre in north London

A customer browses clothes inside Charity Super.Mkt at Brent Cross Shopping centre in north London on, December 17, 2024

Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images

Brits kindle Christmas spirit with second-hand gifts

Bursting with customers one afternoon the week before Christmas, a second-hand charity shop in London's Marylebone High Street looked even busier than the upscale retailers surrounding it.

One man grabbed two puzzle sets and a giant plush toy as a present for friends, another picked out a notebook for his wife.

Keep ReadingShow less
Nothing is more important than your Mental Elf

Nothing is more important than your Mental Elf

Lancashire Mind’s 11th Mental Elf fun run was its biggest and best yet – a sell-out event with more than 400 people running and walking in aid of the mental charity, plus dozens more volunteering to make the day a huge success.

The winter sun shone on Worden Park in Leyland as families gathered for either a 5K course, a 2K run, or a Challenge Yours’Elf distance which saw many people running 10K with the usual running gear replaced with jazzy elf leggings, tinsel and Christmas hats.

Keep ReadingShow less