News / Bristol Arena
Car park concession for arena critics
A multi-storey car park will be built next to Bristol’s new arena and the nearby former Royal Mail sorting office demolished under new plans unveiled just a week before proposals for the long awaited venue go before councillors.
Parking was likely to be a contentious issue when the arena plans go to a vote on Wednesday, March 2, with initial proposals outlining as few as 45 on-site parking spaces.
Mayor George Ferguson told Bristol24/7 in October that he believed only a “stupid city” invests in new parking instead of finding transport alternative.
But in a concession to residents in Totterdown, who have warned their roads will be clogged when the 12,000-capacity arena holds large-scale events, the council has put forward plans to build a 480-space, eight-storey car park on the site of the Kwik Fit garage on Bath Road – across the railway tracks from the arena.
Ferguson is set to take a decision on the car park alongside a raft of other works for the area surrounding the arena at a cabinet meeting the evening before the arena plans are discussed.
Among the other works are the demolition of the former Royal Mail sorting office (pictured in the background of the top image) behind Temple Meads and an improved walkway and cycle way from the Three Lamps Junction to one of the arena’s access points on Bath Road.
The new developments will cost £28 million which will be borrowed by the council against future revenue generated from the Arena Island site, part of which will be made into homes and offices. Demolishing the derelict sorting office is expected to cost at least one million pounds.
The money is set to be put aside at the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, March 1, where Ferguson will also direct £8 million of funding from the Community Infrastructure Levy to the newly revealed plans.
Simon Cook, assistant mayor for place, said: “I look forward to considering this proposal for infrastructure works on Arena Island.
“The plans for the arena building are progressing well and now that the whole of Arena Island is in council ownership we need to make decisions on how to fund the infrastructure required to bring forward development of the rest of the site and connect it with the arena.”
Read more: Only ‘stupid city’ invests in arena parking
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