Bristol Council have decided not to build Bristol arena in Bristol but in the neighbouring county. Instead they’re guaranteed rent for forty years to some landlords. Makes sense 😅.
It’s an unpopular opinion, but I really don’t see how an arena near Temple Meads would be feasible. The traffic there is abysmal, Temple Meads can barely handle the traffic it gets now, and both Brislington and Totterdown rejected any plans for RPZ.
I’d love a central arena, but without significant investment in the train station AND a dedicated car park that can get people to Temple Meads (i.e. a new local station) I don’t see how it was feasible.
With that said, the entire point of moving was to start right away. With the mayor now gone there’s no incentive to complete, so I would put money on it never happening now…
A new arena next to the station would have come with a lot of what you think needs to happen. It represented investment on Bristol rather than South Gloucestershire.
But our ex Mayor didn’t see it that way after his trip to the company that wants to build the arena in South Gloucestershire, YTL.
Temple meads was being redeveloped for the new Bristol Uni campus (whenever that happens), but there wasn’t any increased development for the arena. I don’t really know how either Bristol train station would cope, to be honest. It was also widely called out for having very little parking, which led to residents like myself having to deal with the calls in Knowle, Brislington, and Totterdown to implement RPZ to stop people parking in residential areas and walking.
The YTL deal was sketchy, especially with Rees now gone and no arena in sight. It’s why I don’t see it ever happening, because Rees used it to line his pockets and bailed. It won’t be much better in Filton, as anyone that’s been near UWE in rush hour will tell you - but it’s at least feasible.
At this point, I just want an arena built. My parents remember calls for it decades ago, there have been calls in my lifetime, and frankly, I think that my children probably won’t see an arena. The mayor was a problem, but BCC are just as bad.
