Your say / Bristol Arena
‘The site still lies empty, not generating income and not entertaining the people of Bristol’
We are eight months on from the mayor’s decision to scrap the Arena Plans on Temple Island and move it to Filton. If the mayor had chosen to proceed with the plan when he came into office we would be looking forward to the inaugural gigs soon. But what has happened instead? The simple answer is almost nothing.
YTL (the potential developers of the Filton arena) have produced a video about it. Legal & General, the company earmarked to develop the conference centre and housing to replace it have just bullied Bristol City Council through the courts to build a development with almost no affordable housing.
They offered only four affordable units in a development of 120 homes. As far as we know, they have not brought forward any real plans for the old arena site other than the CGI drawings of a mediocre block of flats.
is needed now More than ever
Legal & General’s plans for Temple Island
Meanwhile, the site still lies empty, not creating jobs, not generating income and not entertaining the people of Bristol. The site would have encouraged concert goers to arrive by train, bus and on foot, helping to create a city for the future. Instead the site is still a mass of weeds – a symbol of inaction.
The development of a project like an arena takes years. Funding, planning, finding the right operators and design are just a few of the pieces in a huge jigsaw puzzle that must be put in place before a project becomes shovel ready.
This is aside from the cost and time spent on getting it there – all paid for by us, the taxpayer, over the last 15 years. All this work had been done and still exists but was thrown away.
Time is ticking and an opportunity is being wasted. But I still believe, by picking up much of the work that has been done, Bristol could build an arena on Temple Island but the longer we delay the less likely it will be.
To make the difference to our city we need to have the courage and vision to see big projects through.
Sandy Hore-Ruthven is the Green Party mayoral candidate
Read more: ‘Proposals for Arena Island and Filton are hollow (not so pretty) pictures’
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