In memory of Chris Johnson. So long, mate.

Be exactly who you want to be, do what you want to do.

I am he and she is she but you’re the only you.

No-one else has got your eyes, can see the things you see

It’s up to you to change your life, and my life’s up to me.

- Crass Big A Little A

It’s Chris’s funeral today. So I wish to take a little time honour my good friend - the man who set up Keep Bristol Moving and to whose memory this Substack is dedicated.

He and I met through the Together Declaration, which is interestingly now being branded by some in Bristol as a ‘far-right’ organisation because it is bringing people together to say No Thank You to government overreach. Go figure. It might have something to do with those ‘divide and rule merchants’ our friends at The Stirrer write about, but who can really say?

Early in 2023, with the threat of mandatory covid medical procedures having receded, Chris was quick off the mark when Bristol City Council (at that point still in the hands of Labour Mayor Marvin Rees) made its first official moves towards introducing the city’s first low traffic neighbourhood - the East Bristol ‘Liveable Neighbourhood’.1

Living just outside the designated area of St George, Redfield and Barton Hill, he quickly made connections with residents who were also looking sceptically at the council’s plans. There weren’t many, because despite the council’s current stuck-record repetition that the consultations they held were extensive and that all residents were contacted many times, the vast majority had no idea what was going on.

Working with Alex Klaushofer and Together, he set up Keep Bristol Moving with a public forum meeting2 of 150 people at the Rose Green Centre in East Bristol in July 2023, raising awareness around the EBLN scheme and bringing together diverse voices. These included a large contingent from the Barton Hill Somali community, who were becoming increasingly vocal with the council about their objections to the plans. Councillors said they were listening but, as is their wont, also chose to ignore what they heard.

Over the next year Chris faithfully chaired monthly Keep Bristol Moving meetings, remaining tenacious despite often sparse attendance. He set up a Facebook cause page and a website (now here), while Alex was our regular tweeter. And we kept up a presence at full council meetings, where possible presenting statements and asking questions.

I believe his efforts, particularly from the Rose Green meeting, together with organised objections from the Somalis and others, contributed to the delaying of the next phase of the scheme, though in practice this only meant that the ‘Liveable Neighbourhood’ team were shifting around Traffic Regulation Orders within their own parameters rather than taking objections to the scheme as a whole seriously.

When the council held their delayed three-week long online Traffic Regulation Orders consultation in January-February 2024, Chris and others leafleted the whole EBLN area once more to encourage residents to make their views known. Despite the ensuing report showing that only 4.4% of households in the area responded (so much for the flyers!), and that 54% of responses were objections with only 30% support, the inevitable decision was taken to plough on3 with the scheme.

Not long after this Chris was forced through various family circumstances to gradually step back from the campaign. Though he was able to rejoice at local residents finally stepping up during the Spring and Summer, he had little time to take part actively himself. By the time the Stop the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood campaign truly kicked off with the first stages of implementation of the scheme in early November, he was seriously ill, having been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October.

2024 was for him a true annus horribilis. We lost him at the end of December only a few months after the diagnosis. He is mourned by his two children and his father, along with so many friends.

I feel so much gratitude for our brief friendship. We spent many phone calls bouncing ideas off one another, finding our way together as novice activists in the insanity of today’s world. I learned much from him about not taking crap from any would-be authoritarians. I learned to just put one foot in front of the other and trust it would take me in the right direction. I learned that I am quite possibly an anarchist! And a little bit about punk. It felt like we truly understood one another so it was easy to be in his presence. And it was desperately hard to watch helplessly as his health declined.

Missing you, Chris.