Deputy mayor Craig Cheney blocks multi-million pound youth project

Multi-million pound plans to transform an old magistrates’ court into an enterprise hub for deprived young people are in tatters after Bristol City Council dealt a crushing blow.

West of England metro mayor Dan Norris has branded the decision “appalling” and “nonsensical” while others called it “outrageous”.

Creative Youth Network (CYN) had already secured £4.25m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and more than £1m from elsewhere and required just the final piece of the financial jigsaw – £758,000 from the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) – to begin work.

The charity, which was run until the start of 2022 by Sandy Hore-Ruthven, the Green candidate who finished second behind Labour’s Marvin Rees at last year’s Bristol mayoral election, was ready to refurbish the derelict Victorian building in Bridewell Street, with the money and full business case expected to be rubber-stamped at a WECA committee on Friday.

But Bristol’s deputy mayor effectively blocked the move, jeopardising the entire scheme, called The Courts, and the millions of pounds already promised.

Bridewell Street’s derelict magistrates’ courts were set to become a new creative enterprise hub – photo: Betty Woolerton

Craig Cheney, standing in for Rees who is taking part in a TED event in Canada on Wednesday on the theme of cities, said the council had already invested £100,000 in the project and could not justify any more taxpayers’ money when other community organisations also needed funding.

This is despite the fact that the cash would have come from WECA, not the local authority.

The Courts would have created 100 jobs, provided training for 500 young creatives aged 16 to 25 from disadvantaged backgrounds throughout the region, including enterprise workshops, mentoring, music studios and paid internships, and been worth £7.3m a year to the local economy – more than the cost to set it up.

A letter in support signed by 50 Bristol organisations and people across the creative, youth and wider business community, including the city’s chamber of commerce, Bristol Beacon, Bristol Old Vic, We The Curious and Business West, was presented to the committee.

Mark Coates, who replaced Hore-Ruthven as Creative Youth Network CEO after 15 years at the start of 2022, told the meeting that the project was in the final stages of design and was already out to tender.

He said: “This is a ‘now or never’ moment. We cannot afford to kick the can down the road – delaying now means getting stuck on a fundraising treadmill where we cannot realistically fundraise quicker than costs escalate, plus a very real risk of losing the existing match funding pledges of £5.35m which will time-out if we cannot get going soon.”

Cheney told the meeting: “We are absolutely supportive of this project and recognise all the work that CYN does.

“In my first few months in this role I coordinated £100,000 of funding to get this project off the ground, but it was always my view that that was where public funding should end.

“So the question to be considered is not whether this is a good project but if it’s one that needs or should receive additional public funds.”

The Courts was going to host enterprise workshops, mentoring, incubator space and paid internships, as well as space for creative enterprises – photo: Betty Woolerton

Labour’s Norris said: “This is an important project that would serve young people right across the West of England, and we mustn’t get bogged down in where it happens to be located.

“You’ve heard the passion spoken by organisations, businesses, the public. It would be a nonsensical decision.

“I’m sure we will come back to revisit this and I hope in future we can reflect a bit more so we can make a difference for our young people.

“This is something that we should have got done.”

Norris said afterwards the decision to block the money was “appalling”.

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read more: Council cuts will ‘hit disadvantaged young people hardest’, union warns 

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