The Bristol Pound is the UK’s first city-wide local currency, the first to have electronic accounts managed by a regulated financial institution and the first that can be used to pay local taxes. It is run as a not-for-profit partnership between the Bristol Pound Community Interest Company (CIC) and Bristol Credit Union. While the Bristol Pound is not itself affiliated with any political party, one of its founding directors, Stephen Clarke, is a Green councillor for Southville in the city.
What do you do?
I used to be a lawyer but now I do the Bristol pound three days a week. I’m also a councillor for the Green Party.
What is the point of the Bristol Pound?
There were three main reasons from the outset.
The first is to help local businesses. We saw high streets becoming homogenous and we hated that idea, so the idea is to help local business thrive.
Then there’s something about the cohesiveness of local neighbourhoods, trying to help people be aware of where they live and be proud of where they live.
That leads onto the third point about greening the local economy, many businesses have met Bristol Pound businesses through the network and started working with them which makes the supply chain shorter.
Then there’s an educational point in the broadest sense.
What’s been your proudest moment?
The launch day was an incredible event. We had no idea if people would be interested, we had eight or nine TV stations there and hundreds of people queuing to get the notes.
The Queen has got Bristol Pound number two, the mayor decided to gift her a set on a visit to Bristol. Number one is in the local museum.
What’s been the hardest moment?
Not sure we’ve had one of them!
What drives you?
It’s fun, it’s a project that people can engage with on different levels. People get it immediately, and then there’s lots fo different levels to being involved.
I love working with a team of committed people, there was a lot of sweat equity at the start but we work well together and I love working with a team.
By definition you get to meet the more interesting businesses around town, so every time a new restaurant opens up I get to know about it first!
How did you vote in the EU referendum and why?
I voted to remain of course. I’m a Green Party councillor and 97 per cent of the environmental legislation of this country is at EU level. It would be a disaster for the environment to lose it.
How will the outcome affect what you do?
There is an argument that local currencies are most important when things are really bad with the economy.
I think that Brexit will be a disaster for the country but that might be good for the Bristol pound.
But I don’t know. As a country, we seem to be moving to a right-wing, less liberal environment and we’re running a project that might thrive better in a liberal environment so it might not be so good for us in the long run.
What does community mean to you?
Community is an extremely abstract term in one sense. In another sense, it’s just about people enjoying living together.
We live in these urban spaces where there are these unspoken compacts and contracts between people to just get on, that’s amazing really, and what community groups like ours are doing is just trying to bring these contracts out into the light.
What would you say to someone looking to do the same thing?
It’s very fulfilling. I wake up in the morning and look forward to coming to work.
Get a team of people around you that you’re happy to spend a lot of time with. Don’t worry too much about the mix of skills but make sure you’re going to be happy spending a lot of time with these people in pubs and cafes as you discuss everything from the outset.
