News / News Wire
New images of proposed Parliament for Bristol
North East Somerset MP Jacob Rees Mogg has dismissed the idea of bringing the Houses of Parliament to Bristol as new images are released of designs put forward.
Rees Mogg, who sits on the committee reviewing the future of the 150-year-old building, told the BBC: “The new home would have to be near, otherwise you’d have to move all 650 MPs and that’s a much bigger and more expensive undertaking.”
New images were released at an exhibition promoting bizarre proposals to bring the parliament to the site of the former Royal Mail sorting office next to Bristol Temple Meads.
is needed now More than ever
The plans have been developed to trigger a debate about the disparities between London and the rest of the country and the realities of devolution.
Mayor George Ferguson has praised the scheme as “a great example of the sort of lateral thinking that is required” as central Government ponders a multi-billion pound refurbishment of the crumbling Palace of Westminster.
MPs may have to be relocated during the six-year renovation which is estimated to cost about £3.5 billion.
Architecture firm Studio Egret West are holding an exhibition starting on April 19 where they will be putting forward their option and attempting to trigger a debate about the growing economic and social disparity between London and the rest of the UK.
Bristol City Council recently purchased the former Royal Mail sorting office and are looking to renovate it as part of grand plans for the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone, the biggest regeneration project in the UK.
The design for the Houses of Parliament in Bristol is a building in the form of a hill which visitors are invited to scale and look down from a viewing platform into the “speakers’ theatre”.
Studio Egret West said the debating chamber is “inspired by the idea of a clearing in the woods encourages a less combative approach to government business with opportunities for better cross party cooperation”.
Read more: Temple Quarter will be ‘less Canary Wharf, more Kings Cross’