The honeymoon would appear to be over. It was only last May when the Green Partymade perhaps its biggest political breakthrough yet. Having won 34 of the 70 seats on offer it had become the biggest party on Bristol City Council.

It was now the first major authority the Greens had ever led. Do a good job and perhaps this would be the first of many. Maybe the UK’s political landscape was about to be given a monumental shake up.

But in the city’s Barton Hill neighbourhood there is discontent. And major questions are being asked of the new kids on the block.

One particular flashpoint occurred in January when police were called to a stand-off as contractors tried to install infrastructure limiting traffic in the relatively deprived area.

It was all part of the city’s “Liveable Neighbourhoods” initiative, introduced by Labour but being pushed ahead with by the new council.

A couple of weeks on and Tony Brett, 60, is sitting outside Cafe Conscious, rolling a cigarette, sipping a cup of tea and giving his views on an area he’s convinced has “got worse”, with officials “restricting” community investment and “building on all the public spaces”.

The former caretaker mentions the George Wills Memorial Hall, known by residents as the Dug Out, which has been listed for sale. Locals want the property, which houses some of the earliest artwork by Banksy, to be kept as a community centre.

On Wednesday, the council’s budget was approved, which includes a mammoth 4.99% council tax hike.

Councillors have warned that £43million of cuts are needed, leaving locals fretting about the potential loss of libraries and museums.

Bristol may also become the first English council to collect black bins only every four weeks. A public consultation is ongoing.

Even Bristol’s lollipop ladies and men could have been for the chop, if it were not for a U-turn.

Mr Brett, his cup of tea now empty, says: “Where’s all the public assets? Where are we supposed to go if we want to get a pint? We want somewhere where the kids can play.

“They make it worse with new flats. They’ve got to go up somewhere, but it’s the way they’re doing it. They think they’re doing their best for the community, but they’re not. They don’t even live in the area.

“If you ain’t got no community buildings where you can go? The community is divided.

“In this area, you’ve got a load of Somalians, other nationalities from Africa. But they haven’t put enough resources in for them.”

Down the road is Hamblins Fish and Chips. Armin Amadi, 34, estimates new traffic restrictions, designed to make streets safer and stop them being used as rat runs, will mean he loses 35% of trade. If so, he may have to let staff go and increase his prices.

“It’s going to affect me financially, my livelihood,” he says. “But, at the same time, what can I do?”

In this part of the east of Bristol bus gates are now in place where only buses and authorised vehicles can use certain roads. CCTV cameras are in place to catch anyone driving where they shouldn’t.

Even though the scheme is still just in a trial phase, Mr Amadi says that many people are already avoiding Barton Hill – leaving his business facing a bleaker existence.

He explains: “I have a lot of customers coming from outside Bristol. It’s already affected me because they [now] think that, if they come to this area, they’ll have their photograph taken [by the CCTV cameras].

“My main goal is to provide the best food here, the best food for the community. Let it be. What can I do? If they’re going to do it, they’re going to do it.

“[But] it’s going to affect everyone.”

Despite his obvious anxiety, he insists he’s determined to stay positive. “I’ve got enough stress in my life as it is,” he adds and hopes that if his food is good enough customers will be willing to park five minutes away and walk to the shop.

Tanya Bedford, 52, a mature student, comes into the chippy to pick up an order. She says the new Liveable Neighbourhood is already a “proper nightmare”, and simply creating traffic elsewhere.

Ms Bedford adds that “drug dealers and takers” will use the new benches that are being installed as part of the scheme, “no one else”. Pensioners who rely on cars will also struggle to get to appointments or meet friends, she warns.

Harjeet Singh, 37, who moved to the UK from India in 2005 is the manager of the Spar store in Avonvale Road.

He says: “All the people coming into the shop, they’re not happy.” Mr Singh adds that he has noticed fewer customers already.

Jim Woollan, 66, is a retired glassmaker who plied his trade at Bristol Blue, which has been in business since the 18th century.

He says the traffic restrictions as “crazy”, adding that he wants to see more money spent on Bristol’s outskirts claiming that it all seems to be being used to develop the city centre.

Kids have got “nowhere to go”, Mr Woollan tells the Express, and they instead “hang around the street in little groups”.

“Everything is being pulled away,” he adds. “Businesses are closing, and access to the doctors, it is murder. It was bad before, but it’s even worse now.”

Back inside Cafe Conscious, its owner Denece Dixon, 47, has opened her doors after closing time.

Theresa Saunders, 51, runs a catering business, and the Liveable Neighbourhood scheme will make it harder for her to make deliveries, she says.

The businesswoman’s mother, who passed away when she was a teenager, is buried in Avonview Cemetery.

Graves have been damaged by motorists using it as a short cut to avoid traffic in neighbouring roads, and Ms Saunders says she has had to dodge cars when visiting.

“To be honest with you, I’m all for a greener society,” she says. “As a caterer, I do my bit for a greener environment, and for the carbon footprint.

“We all have to adhere to a lot of rules. But I don’t feel that I am now living in a democratic [society].

“It’s a bit of a dictatorship isn’t it? I feel like I am being dictated to as a driver.

“I am absolutely disgusted. My mum passed away when I was 19 years old, and I’ve visited that graveyard at the top of this road ever since.

“I have never had to swerve away from cars [before].”

She then describes the bin collection cuts being consulted on as “absolutely ridiculous”, and says it seems like the council is “chopping back so much”.

“All I see from the Green council,” Ms Saunders concludes, “is saving the planet at the cost of livelihoods, wellbeing, mental health, community spirit.

“They’re focusing on very little other than their own agenda. They want to get to Z before they get to D, E and F.”

Ms Dixon adds: “It’s ideology [above] people and communities.”

She then highlights knife crime in the city, and the importance of mental health and youth services.

“There’s so many things that, for me, are [bigger] priorities in Bristol.”

She then asks the council: “Why have you come to Barton Hill? In an area like this, there’s a load of people who are carers.

“How many unpaid carers are there in Bristol? Taxi drivers, you’re affecting real people.”

Sue Jones, 65, who runs a pet crematorium called “Forget Me Not” on the outskirts of the city, says she is having to fork out £200 a month extra on fuel.

Natasha Breen, 55, a paediatric nurse, says traffic restrictions have had a “massive impact” on her being able to care for her mother.

She adds that fewer vehicles in the street is “unsafe for women”.

“As a woman, I wouldn’t walk through there now.”

Billy Tozer, 54, a meals on wheels delivery driver, adds: “They’ve got to be seen being green. They will implement their green policies by any means necessary.

“What they’re creating is a small prison, cutting neighbourhoods off.”

Robert Fox, 69, is concerned about public transport being able to cope with people shifting from using cars. Buses, he notes, are now “completely full” every morning.

Melissa Topping, 54, a volunteer, is usually a Green voter, but she thinks the council’s first few months in power have been “appalling”.

She says: “They don’t seem to be doing anything for Bristol itself other than themselves. They’re not listening to anybody. They’ve got their green agenda, and they’re completely ignoring what that’s going to do to lives – the disabled, the elderly.”

She does not think that traffic restrictions locally will clean the air, instead just moving pollution elsewhere.

If bin collections are reduced further, Ms Topping says, it will result in more fly-tipping. She also expresses concern about the future of Bristol’s Acer Unit, a drug and alcohol detox centre.

For the last four years, the ward has been funded by the council. A campaign has been launched to save it as, from April 1, the authority’s contract will end. Services will be provided by a new contractor.

When asked if she had any sympathy for the local authority’s financial struggles amid a huge drop in funding from the Government in recent years, Ms Topping says: “They all blame the previous party for the mistakes. It’s quite simple to rectify them – stop spending money on things that people don’t want.”

The former Green then adds that she hopes what is happening in Bristol is not replicated in other areas of the UK.

“That saddens me, to be honest,” she says. “Because I was a Green voter for years until this year.

“I’ll never vote Green again because their policies aren’t actually green. I’ve seen lots of Green posters come down from windows.”

Bristol City Council’s deputy leader, the Green Party’s Councillor Heather Mack, remains convinced that problems being experienced in Barton Hill will ease in time.

She explains: “We’re hearing a lot of anecdotal evidence, a lot of comments about the scheme and about journeys taking longer.

“But actually, when we sit down and we explore those journeys with people, it does tend to just be an increase in journey time in the winter. A lot more people are getting in their cars in the winter.”

She therefore expects traffic levels to decrease over the next couple of months.

Cllr Mack adds that there has been “unfortunate timing” with roadworks where displaced traffic is now clogging up streets not within the new restrictions.

On the safety of women, she says that the purpose of the scheme is to make streets safer, and more people will be walking and cycling, which will ensure “active vigilance”.

She herself has changed her route home through the Liveable Neighbourhood and away from a busier road due to some “unpleasant incidents”.

On the allegation that the party needs to focus on other things before rolling out the scheme, Cllr Mack points out that the decision to go forward with it was made before the council became Green.

“That was made after three years of engagement and consultation,” she adds. “There’s been an incredible amount of work in that local area to talk to people about the scheme, to get as many voices as possible into designing that scheme.”

Changes were consequently made, Cllr Mack says, including moving bus gates to make sure there is access to the local mosque.

Improving social housing is also an “absolute priority” for the Greens after the city was referred to the national regulator. Investment in Barton Hill and other poorer areas of Bristol is something that will be pursued, she promises.

Responding to Ms Topping’s suggestion that there has been a drop in Green support, Cllr Mack says: “I think right now in that area we’re in a challenging situation because there is a hell of a lot of support for this Liveable Neighbourhood, and a few of the measures have gone in.

“Because of people making it difficult, we haven’t managed to fully implement the trial, and that’s quite a challenge.”

This is “quite frustrating”, she says, adding: “We are getting a lot of emails, we are getting a lot of frustration that this trial and this project, that there’s a lot of money behind, isn’t going in.”

The councillor adds: “We have to change travel and that’s not saying people won’t be driving and using cars.

“There are many reasons why people have to.”

On the prospect of cuts, the deputy leader says the council is having to navigate a “tricky financial situation”.

“The funding is not coming from the Government and the Government is not being brave enough.

“It is looking difficult. We have had a very sensible approach to this Budget, which is about making it sustainable for the future.”

Despite making savings, the council is also “investing £66million in those services where the greatest demand is”.

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When asked if today is a tricky time to be a Green after the re-election of Donald Trump and the Government stepping back from its £28billion green investment plan, Cllr Mack insisted that last year was a “great time” for the party – with the party now having four MPs in Parliament, as well as becoming the biggest party on Hastings Borough Council and now having significant numbers of councillors in the likes of East Hertfordshire, East Suffolk, Mid Suffolk, Lewes, Folkestone and Hythe and the Forest of Dean.

In his office at the end of the working day is Labour’s group leader, Councillor Tom Renhard, who says that Government funding means Bristol has a “net improvement” of just over £27million, which includes Rachel Reeves’ employer National Insurance contributions and National Living Wage increases.

He says of the Liveable Neighbourhood that “concerns have been increasing” and locals are “not feeling heard”. When asked if Labour could have considered ditching the scheme if they were still in power, he says: “We’re not in power.

“I know I’m dodging the question slightly, but I think what we want to see is that residents’ voices are getting heard, and that if there are issues that need looking at that they are looked at and done so quickly and properly.”

For many in Barton Hill that can’t come soon enough.