George Robin Paget Ferguson CBE, PPRIBA, RWA (born 22 March 1947)[2] is a British politician, former architect, and entrepreneur who served as the first elected mayor of Bristol from 2012 to 2016.

[7] Ferguson was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to architecture and to the community in the South West of England.

During his career, Ferguson has written and presented articles, broadcasts and lectures on planning and architectural matters and sustainability,[12] and appeared on the 2005 Channel 4 television series Demolition.

[1] He stood unsuccessfully for the Liberals in the 1983 and 1987 general elections in Bristol West, coming second on both occasions with 29.4% and 31.3% respectively, after which he ceased any active political involvement.

On his first day of taking office, Ferguson implemented two policies, revoking Sunday car parking charges and announcing that the 'Council House', the administrative seat of Bristol, would be renamed 'City Hall'.

[45] Kerry McCarthy MP brought the issue to national attention at Prime Minister's Questions where she described the "abject failure by the previous mayor [George Ferguson] to get a grip on council finances.

[47][48] Ferguson had expressed his determination to tackle traffic congestion by trying to force a change in the city's culture and get people out of cars and onto buses or bicycles.

[53] Ferguson made changes to new schemes to reflect feedback from the public, including introducing a traders permit and making the first 30 minutes free in all new areas.

[61][62] In November 2014, Councillors passed a motion calling on Ferguson to give Neighbourhood Partnerships the power to decide on 20 mph limits for their communities.

In July 2013, Ferguson announced that surrounding local authorities had approved the changes he'd proposed to the route of the planned BRT2 to avoid it running through the Bristol Harbourside area.

[72][73][74] However, protest groups who challenged the route, cost, and feasibility of the scheme accused Ferguson of breaking the electoral promises laid out before his election.

[76] Following the approval of the scheme in August 2014 work began in January 2015 causing further protest, and activists set up camp in trees the council were about to fell.

With Bristol's status as European Green Capital in 2015, Ferguson reiterated his support for the scheme and referred to the developing protest as "a challenging situation" and claimed he had "done more than anyone to minimise the environmental effects of the Metrobus project".

[80][81] In March 2014, Ferguson expressed his intention to sell the freehold ownership of Avonmouth and Portbury docks which had been retained by the city council since the leasehold was sold in 1991.

However, elected councillors felt the valuation report undervalued the 2,000 acres (810 ha) estate because the Bristol Port Company had a £13.7 million annual turnover during the years 2013–2014.

Ferguson wrote to the port stating their pursuant of an extraction licence "very unfortunately, in any case, complicate(s) the proposed freehold sale and would cause me major embarrassment if it went ahead in its present form."

Of the 136 groups applied for funding, only 32 were accepted, ten of which Bristol 2015 board members managed or worked for and accounted for £500,000 of the total grants made.

It was stated that there was a lack of transparency in how funds had been spent, and how certain elements, such as a web site that cost almost a quarter of a million pounds, had been procured and managed.

[99] In addition to the money spent by Bristol 2015 Ltd, it later transpired that the city had paid a further £29,000 in hotel bills for the mayor and executive council officers for attendance at the COP21 climate change conference in Paris which was a requirement of the DECC grant.

Stephen Bundred,[106] a retired senior civil servant who had been chief executive of the Audit Commission, was appointed in October 2016 to undertake the review.

[104] Bundred concludes "The bottom line is that measured against the task that it was given, it is impossible to reach any other conclusion than that Bristol 2015 Ltd performed well and the Green Capital year was a considerable success."

In January 2017, Mayor Rees summarised his own view of Bristol's European Green Capital as "an undoubted success with a few bumps in the road".

The committee, who hold an impartial and quasi-judicial responsibility under planning law, deferred making a decision until an appropriate level of supporting information could be provided.

Operating costs arising should the arena not be successful would fall on the council, and expert advice was that the venue size was too small for major events.

[126] More than a year later, in February 2016, surrounding Local authorities had still not been consulted on the "Great Western Cities Plan" leading to concerns that Ferguson was jeopardising devolution discussions with government.

The deputy leader of neighbouring North Somerset Council, Elfan Ap Rees, said "We're in the middle of trying to sort out the devolution deal to our benefit for the West of England and here's the mayor (George Ferguson) trotting off to do something entirely different.

[129] Research undertaken by Bristol University demonstrated increased visibility of city governance under the mayoral model, but revealed citizens felt unrepresented and concerned about how decisions were being taken.

Ferguson himself acknowledged the issues in an interview with the BBC in January 2016 and sought to highlight the positive change the mayoral model had brought about.

[131] During the run-up to the mayoral election, in September 2012, Ferguson had been forced to apologise for suggesting some ways of developing the city may be "too Irish", a derogatory term implying that they were ludicrous or illogical.

The event drew local and UK national media coverage, including the BBC, and quickly generated a series of T-shirts parodying the words he'd used.