Ashton Gate and Ashton Vale set to both be transformed

Building work could start at Ashton Gate in summer 2023 on the construction of a 4,000-capacity basketball arena and a neighbouring hotel.

Plans for the redevelopment of the stadium site were approved unanimously by councillors but Bristol Sport bosses said that this work could only go ahead if approval was also granted for 510 new homes to be built on green belt land at Ashton Vale.

Three Green Party councillors told a meeting at City Hall that they were against the Longmoor Village scheme, but they abstained rather than voting against the plans and the outline application for the hundreds of homes was voted through by five votes in favour versus one against.

The managing director of Ashton Gate said that the granting of planning permission for the redevelopment of the stadium site was an “incredibly important” day for Bristol.

Speaking to Bristol24/7 after the meeting on Wednesday evening, Mark Kelly said: “The city needs housing and the city needs the sporting facilities that we have been talking very strongly about over the last few years.”

Kelly said that the matchday experience for Bristol City, Bristol Bears and Bristol Flyers supporters will be “incredibly different” with a dedicated fan zone in an amphitheatre area, and the hotel bringing a “new dimension” to both sporting events and concerts.

“It really closes the circle on Ashton Gate being a very credible, international venue. They are few and far between in this country so it also brings that inbound tourism into Bristol through conferences, events, sport and accommodation.”

Bristol Sport say that they want to create a “world-class sporting quarter for the city of Bristol” at Ashton Gate, which would include the arena (officially known as the sports & convention centre), a ten-storey hotel, a multi-storey car park, 125 flats within three buildings of which the tallest will be 14 storeys, as well as office space and three new “arrival plazas” linked by an “enhanced” Colliter’s Brook – which runs parallel to the Lansdown Stand.

Voting for the stadium plans, planning committee chairman Richard Eddy said that “this city and its people owe Bristol Sport a huge debt of gratitude”.

Eddy also voted for the Longmoor Village plans, saying that it would be “craven and dishonest to pretend that just by building on brownfield sites can we meet Bristol’s housing need”.

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Read more: Campaigners slam mayor’s support for homes on ‘beloved green space’

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The meadow on which Longmoor Village could be built is north of the metrobus route and west of Silbury Road, close to the Long Ashton park & ride and David Lloyd gym, and also bordering a material recycling facility run by ETM with noise and dust considered as part of the debate.

To shakes of the heads of those speaking to save the green belt land, Eddy said that Natural England lifting their objection was “a major factor” for him to support the proposals.

Incongruous looks from people wanting to save Ashton Vale from being built on also came when Bristol Sport group communications director, Lisa Knights, called the land a “former landfill site cut off completely by the metrobus route”.

The dual planning applications for Ashton Gate and Longmoor Village were closely interlinked – image: Bristol Sport

Objectors to the plans said that there would be a biodiversity net loss if houses were built, but council officers said that there would be a biodiversity net gain.

Councillors had to agree that “very special circumstances” justified building on green belt land, with some of these appearing to be that future residents of Longmoor Village would be able to buy discounted tickets to stadium events and receive reduced gym membership.

The only councillor in development control committee A voting against the application to build on Ashton Vale was Lib Dem Andrew Brown.

There were abstentions from Green councillors Ed Plowden, Fi Hance and Tom Hathway; and votes in favour from Eddy and fellow Tory John Geater, as well as Labour’s Paul Goggin, Philippa Hulme and Farah Hussain.

Main image: Bristol Sport; videos: Martin Booth

Read next:

• ‘Save Ashton Vale green belt from being built over’
• Arctic Monkeys to begin tour at Ashton Gate Stadium
• Breakfast With Bristol24/7: Mark Kelly

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