£90 million plan to revamp nearly 200 park and open spaces in Bristol
A£90 MILLION plan to revamp nearly 200 parks and open spaces across Bristol during the next 20 years has been revealed today.
Bristol City Council does not pretend to have the money available and so it has identified 62 possible sites which could be sold off – mostly for housing – which could help to raise the funds needed.
More money would come from developers who often have to make one-off payments called section 106 agreements when they are given planning permission for new schemes. The council itself would also provide some funding.
Even so, there would still be a shortfall.
The council is asking for people's views on the suggested schemes and which ones they regard as a priority.
The consultation exercise will run until October and will include a series of drop-in sessions where people can study the options in their area.
People can also look at the plans on the council's website at www.bristol.gov.uk/agsp.
They are being invited to fill out a questionnaire which should be submitted at the latest by 5pm on Friday, October 29.
Cabinet Councillor Gary Hopkins said there had been under-investment in the city's parks and spaces for 30 years.
It meant that many of them have become neglected, under-used and, in some cases, areas for anti-social behaviour.
Two years ago, council officers started looking at ways in which they could be improved.
They identified 180 green spaces in the city where there is public access and consulted with local groups on the best way to improve them.
They talked to engineers, landscape gardeners, youth workers, ecologists, environmentalists and many other local groups and experts before drawing up possible options.
These options are contained in 14 large booklets which cover the whole of the city.
They can be viewed online by visiting the council's website.
Mr Hopkins said: "This set of proposals is the culmination of a long and complex piece of work and it is important that people in Bristol look closely at the details, think about them and let the council have their views."
After October when the consultation period has finished, council officers will draw up a revised document called the Area Green Space Plan which councillors aim to adopt early next year.
It will provide the framework for selling off surplus plots of land and starting to make improvements to parks and open spaces.
It could eventually lead to 28 new play parks in the city as well as more park keepers and better visitor facilities such as cafes and toilets. The exercise runs alongside another document which is being drawn up to create a planning blueprint for the city.
This blueprint is crucial in order to strike the right balance between homes, shops, offices, industrial use, parks, play areas and community facilities as the city continues to change and grow.
It is also a device to make sure that the city can provide an extra 30,000 homes before 2026 to cope with population growth.
Cabinet Councillor Anthony Negus said: "During the next 20 years, Bristol will face competing demands for land to meet a whole range of needs. These include the need for land to accommodate new homes, new businesses, shops and of course, open space.
"Bristol is a great city which is continuing to build an international profile and what we want to do is get the right proposals in place so that in the future, we can continue to preserve what's best and to meet the changing needs here."
19 Comments
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by nina, broomhill
Monday, June 21 2010, 11:13AM
“i back onto one off the sites selected to sell, myself and neighbours will fight this tooth and nail, all our children play on the field, council will not clear up the fly tipping, overgrown hedges. the local residents do it, also we have been in contact with the local dog warden due to the amount of dogs mess. i would have thought that this would show that the local residents do use the field more then what they think, i must add the report that council had done for the useage of the field was done on a wet cold winter school day!!! so not really showing the truth.
the local residents will be making an appearance at the meeting.”
by John, Cotham
Tuesday, June 15 2010, 5:07PM
“They want to sell and raise £90mil. Build 30,000 properties. That works out at £3000 per unit a bit under valued. Where can you buy a plot for £3000?
Are my figs right?”
by Pete, Brislington
Tuesday, June 15 2010, 8:01AM
“Sorry - A lot of people have missed the point on this story. It's all about selling off council assets.
Look at St. Anne's Park in Newbridge/Langton Court Road. A proposal to build houses on a quarter of the park.
I don't thing the council is in the building game, so I guess it'll be sold off to a developer and a proportion of the new houses will be "social housing", automatically allocated to the council. Who they allocate the houses to is another issue!
Then there other green spaces in the area that could be sold off, one of which being the green at the bottom of Newbridge Road, a former tip for the Board Mills boiler house. If this was built on, goodness knows what toxic waste would be disturbed?”
by brian, henbuty
Tuesday, June 15 2010, 7:15AM
“please dont let anyone be fooled into thinking that money raised from land sale in your area will be spent on your area because it wont .you could loose your green space for the money to go to another area in bristol,also note how many wards in bristol held by lib dems are beeing effected by this ,not many of them will be worrying about thier green spaces going.”
by Cabot, Central Bristol
Monday, June 14 2010, 6:04PM
“Better still Hopkins, ask yourself what sense it makes it makes to indulge in bureaucratic bloat, and preside over empire building, while neglecting our public amenities.
Diversity impact assessment managers (and their ilk) don't pick up rubbish and trim hedges. I'm sure it takes a good many staff to do gardening tool risk assessments, and I'm sure we need focus groups to help formulate policy for litter archiving managers, and I know it takes ten million quid plus a consultants report for you guys to decide how to paint a white line on a road. Even so, if council officers talked to engineers, landscape gardeners, youth workers, ecologists, environmentalists and many other local groups and experts for every one of these locations, I'm not surprised it took two years to work up options on how we can improve each of these neglected public areas.
Has it escaped your attention that if we hadn't (undoubtedly) spent a fortune on a two year 'consultation exercise', we could've had a lot more park-keepers and gardeners, and the public could've actually use many of these amenities isn't of seeing them go to rack and ruin? Instead we've got neglect and even more consultation to go through. I thought councillors were elected to manage the council, making these decisions on our behalf and consulting where necessary.
Didn't an alarm bell go off somewhere? Even a teensy, weensy little bell? Off in the distance? Don't you ever get fed up with officers indulging in endless consultation exercises? No? No, of course not. Clearly the primary purpose of Bristol City Council is to endlessly pick the fluff out of its naval, having assessed the activity for risk and having put an appropriate oversight committee in place beforehand.”
by bob, bristol
Monday, June 14 2010, 4:50PM
“Open your eyes folk's its another scam by Bristol council.”
by The Ferret, bristol
Monday, June 14 2010, 4:32PM
“Peter, can`t do that, it`s going to be a travellers site.”
by peter, bristol
Monday, June 14 2010, 2:56PM
“put a big play area on the old dunmail school site in southmead has this is what the locals have asked for since the school was knocked down it would make it a place for the local kids to play and be safe the local kids use the field to play football and other games so just ask the locals of southmead they would like”
by Pogo the Clown, .
Monday, June 14 2010, 2:34PM
“People aren't clamouring for new green spaces. So don't give them any.
Funnel the money into ailing services and wait until people start bleating about having nowhere to let their dogs crap.
In times like these, luxuries have to go first.
Mark my words, we'll have to start paying to visit museums within a year.”
by Anon 1, Bristol
Monday, June 14 2010, 2:29PM
“We have gardens dont we use them instead of moaning about lost of green space”