Council to press on with major regeneration plan
CIVIC leaders in Bristol are pressing ahead with one of Europe’s biggest city-centre regeneration schemes - despite no guarantee over a vital bid for £96 million of government cash.
Bristol City Council’s cabinet agreed a series of decisions to plough on with the Temple Quarter revamp because of concerns that the massive project will stall if they keep waiting for Whitehall’s long-delayed funding decision.
Developers are also showing growing interest in making piecemeal planning applications which could scupper the overall ambitions to create 10,000 homes and 22,000 jobs in the area around Temple Meads station and St Philips Marsh over the next 25 years.
But opposition councillors urged caution and demanded greater scrutiny after members gave senior officials authority to buy “strategic land”, as well as secure high-value contracts to prepare Temple Island for redevelopment over the £500,000 threshold for deals that would usually require cabinet approval.
Bristol’s Labour mayor Marvin Rees insisted the rejuvenation scheme was a “symbol of the city getting stuff done” that would ultimately add £1.6 billion a year to the local economy.
Cabinet members were told the council had received “assurances” but not “absolute surety” of an “eventual favourable funding decision” over the £95.8m bid for government housing infrastructure money.
But Green group leader Cllr Paula O’Rourke said: “The report delegates a tremendous amount of decision-making to a small minority of individuals and bypasses both cabinet and councillors.
“A lot of the funding is still tentative. It’s predicated on getting the money from the government, and the report talks about all the ambition of keeping many plates spinning at once.”
She said there was “concern” about the viability of a proposed office block as part of the £350m deal the council signed in June with Legal & General to develop Temple Island because of the rise in home-working during the pandemic.
Mr Rees assured Cllr O’Rourke that milestones were included in the overall scheme and that it would return to cabinet and scrutiny committees, where councillors have the chance to examine proposals in-depth.
A report to the meeting said: “In an effort to maintain delivery momentum, the Temple Quarter Strategic Board and delivery partners have agreed to a funding strategy which would enable projects to progress at risk in advance of a decision on government funding.”
It said these included Temple Meads’ northern entrance and southern gateway and initial plans for Mead Street, with cabinet agreeing to submit a £7.9m bid to the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) to advance the work.