£500k to kickstart redevelopment plan

NEW public cash will be spent on progressing a long-delayed redevelopment plan on the harbourside for flats, offices and restaurants. For at least a decade, the site at Redcliffe Wharf has been earmarked for redevelopment but suffered years and years of delays.

The plot next to Redcliffe Caves and the Redcliffe Bascule Bridge is currently home to a roller disco, Bump, but developers have planning permission to build 45 apartments there, as well as 6,000 square metres of commercial space, 12 moorings and a water bus stop.

Bristol City Council, which owns the site, originally chose developer Complex Development Projects for the scheme in 2012. The developer then received planning permission in 2017, but so far no construction work has started.

Now the council is planning to pay the developer £516,000 to help make progress with enabling works. The money is coming from the government’s Brownfield Land Release Fund, and is expected to mean works will take place in the first six months of next year.

The council’s cabinet is due to sign off the payment tomorrow. The money will be spent on relocating a Victorian water main, demolition and remediation work, and preparing the site.

Cabinet papers said: “Due to high enabling costs on this brownfield site, the development partners have to date been unable to deliver a viable policycompliant development at Redcliffe Wharf.”