THE CHRISTMAS STEPS AREA ASSOCIATION

The Christmas Steps Area Association

The Christmas Steps Area Association was founded over 25 years ago and comments on planning applications in an area roughly bounded by St Michaels Hill, the Hospital, the bottom of Christmas Steps and Colston Street, and Trenchard Street. Our membership is composed of residents and traders - mostly shopkeepers. We hold our AGM in February. We are currently in a phase of transition after the retirement of our Chair and secretary. New officers will be appointed in February. Details of meetings are posted on our noticeboard at the bottom of the Upper Steps, as well as being circulated by e-mail.

The main planning issues that have confronted the Group recently have been
- retention of shops.
- resisting inappropriate late licensing applications in an area where many people live.
- attempts to overdevelop, in an area which is mostly domestic in scale and which is a Conservation Area.
- the retention of Colston Yard as a light industrial site providing premises for trades (and employment) useful to Bristolians.

We believe this area to be one of Bristol's most characterful shopping areas. There is a wide and attractive range of shops, currently with a concentration of galleries and instrument shops. The impact of traffic has been harmful and there are opportunities to make roads, such as Colston Street, with relatively low traffic-loading more attractive to shoppers and pedestrians. We continue to press the City on this. We welcome the 2007 Bristol-wide Retail Study's description of the area as 'a distinctive, charming and attractive shopping destination.'

The Christmas Steps website is currently being revised.

The acting Chair is Hamilton Caswell.

The following can be used as an e-mail point of contact: (replace " at " with "@")

andyfking at btinternet.com