News / St Philips
Council paying Crown Estate over £117k for ‘right of air’ over bridge
Bristol City Council has agreed to pay the Crown Estate over £117,500 for the “right of air” at a recently built bridge.
The Crown Estate, which is owned by the monarchy, is charging the council an “air space levy” over the footbridge to Temple Island, which was finished in 2019.
Talks over the charge took five years, and council bosses took a decision to pay the levy last September.
is needed now More than ever
The Crown Estate gave a half-price discount for the St Philips Footbridge, originally asking the council to pay £300,000 in 2021.
The council agreed to pay a levy of £117,500, plus the estate’s costs. Details of the decision were published on the council’s website, and were first reported on the Bristolian website.
The area dubbed Temple Island is set to be transformed in the coming years – photo: Ellie Pipe
Bristol City Council was asked to comment. The Crown Estate said it had entered into a commercial agreement with the council.
The decision states: “The council must pay the Crown Estate for the right of air being granted the Crown Estate land in order to provide the St Philips Footbridge connection between Temple Island and Albert Road.
“This has been in discussion between the Crown Estate and Bristol City Council since 2018. Now is the right time to finalise the negotiation, as more construction work begins in the Temple Quarter area.”
The Crown Estate, which generates money for the royal family and the Treasury, is one of the largest property managers in the country and owns £16bn of assets.
This includes much of the seabed and foreshore around England, such as the riverbed underneath the bridge.
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Read more: Bristol’s second bridge to nowhere opens
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The St Philips Footbridge, also known as the ‘bridge to nowhere’, was built between 2017 and 2019, connecting a footpath along the New Cut river with Temple Island.
It was originally designed to provide access to a new indoor arena — but after the location of the arena was moved to Filton, the western end of the bridge has been fenced off.
Temple Island will instead be the site of new flats. Legal & General, a financial services firm, is planning to build 500 apartments, a new hotel and a conference centre.
The development forms part of the huge Temple Quarter regeneration project covering a much wider area.
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