Ferguson: ‘Rees has little understanding of how a city ticks’

Former Bristol mayor George Ferguson has made a stinging attack on his successor, claiming that he has fallen “hook, line and sinker” for Malaysian investment firm YTL’s offer to build Bristol Arena in Filton.

Rees is due to make a decision on the location of the arena in September, with all the signs pointing to the Brabazon Hangars on the site of the former Filton Airfield.

In a letter to the Bristol Post, which can be read in full here, Ferguson said that he wished he had exchanged contracts for Bristol Arena to be built on Arena Island close to Temple Meads before leaving office, but he “trusted Marvin Rees’ word and I also trusted the chairman of YTL UK (Colin Skellett)… when he assured me they would do nothing to distract from the building of the arena at Temple Meads, the project he had so strongly backed from 2012, as chair of the Local Enterprise Partnership, and was instrumental in helping to find the funding”.

Former Bristol mayor George Ferguson at the unveiling of the name of Brock’s Bridge in March 2016, linking Cattle Market Road to Arena Island

Ferguson adds that it “has now become abundantly clear to me that mayor Rees made up his mind to abandon the long awaited Bristol Arena last December, in spite of his election pledge to deliver it.

“Yes, let’s be clear, his promise was to deliver The Bristol Arena – not some remote Malaysian owned arena on the edge of the city!”

The famously red-trousered former mayor says that after being invited by YTL to visit Filton Airfield and the Brabazon Hangars, he phoned his Labour successor “to warn him of what I saw as a barmy alternative arena offer. I was comforted by his absolute assurance that that he was committed to the arena at Temple Meads.

“However it transpired he later chose to meet alone with YTL and clearly fell hook, line and sinker for their Filton offer.”

Ferguson, who stood as an independent candidate for mayor of Bristol, saves some of his most damning comments for Rees’ acceptance of hospitality from YTL, including flights from China to Malaysia in December 2017, a night in the YTL-owned Ritz-Carlton hotel in Kuala Lumpur, meals during the stay and the flight back from Malaysia to Bristol.

Brabazon Hangars owners YTL paid for Rees’ stay at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Kuala Lumpur, and his flights from China to Malaysia, and Malaysia to Bristol

According to Ferguson’s reading of the Local Government Association’s code of conduct, “this sorry sequence of events disqualifies the mayor from being involved with the arena decision, both legally and morally.

“However, it is clear that mayor Marvin Rees has made up his mind and that his apparatchiks are now doing all they can to lobby and justify a decision that may favour the few, but is certainly against the will of the many.”

A Bristol City Council spokesperson said: “The mayor received hospitality from YTL during a stop-off in Malaysia last December. This was to attend discussions about infrastructure and investment opportunities in Bristol, complementing his attendance at the Fortune 500 Forum in China to do the same thing.

“The trip was at nil-cost to the public purse and was publicised by the council at the time. It has been properly declared by the mayor in his published register of interests.”

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Read more: YTL have paid for flights, a hotel and meals for Rees in last seven months

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“As an elected representative I would never have dreamed of accepting such lavish hospitality from a company seeking favours from the city,” Ferguson wrote.

“A modest working lunch is one thing but thousands of pounds worth of flights and accommodation quite another!”

Ferguson has also criticised Rees’ decision to appoint YTL’s recent auditors, KPMG, as consultants, “paying them a hefty fee to tell him what he wanted to hear”.

He also called Rees’ plans for a multi-billion underground railway network in Bristol a “fantasy”.

Furthermore, he predicts that the YTL Arena proposal at Filton will fail at the planning stage, saying that “it would be impossible for any self-respecting city planner to recommend approval for such a significant venue on the edge of the city when alternative sites exist in or near the centre, as they clearly do”.

The proposed arena at Filton would be built within the 1940s Brabazon Hangars

Ferguson wrote: “Cultural activity, and music in particular, are the beating heart of this city. Taking major venues out of the city, whatever cock and bull story about alternative uses may be devised to justify it, is to suck the lifeblood out of Bristol – something that accountants don’t count!

“It would be wonderful to have a decent conference centre – and we should co-locate the Bristol Arena and Bristol Conference Centre in the central area. It is a case of not either-or but of both-and!”

Some £12m has already been spent on planning, fees, tenders and more for the Arena Island site, on top of the new bridge, a footbridge currently being built and site remediation.

Ferguson says that if Bristol Arena proceeds at Temple Meads, “as it should have done two years ago, that money will be recovered, but if it is to be abandoned in favour of the YTL Arena at Filton, it is our money down the drain, as would be the loss of the £50m grant to Bristol that would be spent largely outside the city boundary on transport connections to YTL’s own development site – clearly the prime reason for them touting for their scheme”.

Ferguson concluded his article: “I realise I am burning some bridges here, but have bitten my tongue on most matters since Marvin succeeded me, as I genuinely wish him all success for Bristol.

“However, my patience only goes so far when Bristol’s future is threatened by a lunatic proposal promoted by those with self-interest to a person who seems to have little understanding of how a city ticks.”