'If you must close ice rink – at least improve the area'
TRADERS and conservation groups want the city council to pay special attention to a "forgotten" corner of the city centre when they consider the planning application to turn Bristol's ice rinks into student flats.
The £20-million scheme to redevelop the 1960s building on Trenchard Street is due to be heard by the end of the year.
If the scheme goes ahead the ice rink will disappear and the building will be partly demolished and replaced by new flats by student accommodation firm Unite. The new block of flats will be built above the O2 Academy concert venue.
The plans include improved landscaping and access but local organisations are calling for the scheme to go further.
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The group includes Bristol Civic Society, the Christmas Steps Arts Quarter and the Kingsdown Conservation Group. The trio has written to the council calling for extra conditions to be added before the scheme is given planning permission.
The area around Frogmore Street has been neglected for several years and campaigners are hoping the project will be a springboard for major improvements.
Heather Leeson, the chair of Bristol Civic Society, said: "Trenchard Street in its current state is not particularly attractive, with three ugly oversized buildings, narrow pavements and a wide road that encourages fast-moving traffic.
"The scheme gives the council and Unite this not-to-be-missed opportunity to realign and reduce the width of the road which will in turn create more space for the entrance to the O2 music venue."
The group say a new road layout would give pedestrians and cyclists priority and improve the area.
Ms Leeson added: "A critical question is the amount of money that a planning condition can make Unite pay to the council to improve Trenchard Street.
"Unite's enterprise and opportunity will give it a profitable investment but the cost to the community will be the lost ice rink, which is a major and popular public service. We call on the council to make it a condition that Unite funds a Trenchard Street improvement scheme upon completion of the development.
"To improve the blank brick wall of the O2 music venue Unite proposes a new café and to cover the whole of the O2 building with cladding with saw tooth roof profile. A cafe may be unsustainable in student holidays.
"The saw-tooth cladding would be out of scale with the buildings on the other side of Trenchard Street. Our recommendation to the council is that Unite should not make a significant investment to alter the appearance of the O2 building before the council publishes a Trenchard Street improvement scheme."
Despite the opposition to the plans, the firm says that the scheme will improve an area of the city which has been neglected in recent years.
Unite believes its design for the new structure will open up the area and attract new businesses.
The land around the building will be landscaped with the aim of opening up the area for pedestrians.
Comments
by DazzyBoy
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 3:25PM
“Why are the the Civic Society not more vocal in trying to stop the demolition of the Ice Rink and instead support the improvement of a much needed facility!!!”
by CurtisHewitt
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 1:43PM
“@Bristol1978
"So the T junction is encouraging fast moving traffic along the whole length of its 90ft? "
Perhaps it being downhill has something to do with it. Or the fact that it's not a very busy road. Or that people use it as a rat-run to avoid Park Street. I don't know. I wasn't making a point about traffic speed down there and certainly don't support the idea of narrowing it.
I was just pointing out that Trenchard Street does get wider after Orchard Lane and then tapers again at the top of the hill where it becomes one-way. People who know Bristol should know this, and if they don't Google Street View will show it.
(and you're right about lorries and tour-buses needing wider roads to allow access to The Academy and Colston Hall)”
by Bristol1978
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 1:06PM
“@CurtisHewitt
So the T junction is encouraging fast moving traffic along the whole length of its 90ft? Not allowing lorries and coaches to navigate around narrow back streets to get access to the O2 Academy, Colston Hall or the Hippodrome.”
by CurtisHewitt
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 12:09PM
“Perhaps Ms Leeson has a better knowledge of the area than she's being given credit for. This looks like a pretty wide road to me;
http://tinyurl.com/9ydmsaz
(hopefully the link works - it's meant to be Google Street View looking at the Trenchard Street/Pipe Lane junction)”
by CurtisHewitt
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 11:49AM
“The 'narrow pavements/wide road' comment is certainly off the mark by The Hatchet, but maybe she means the section up around Pipe Lane, which is a very wide section of road. The pavements seem pretty average there, though. Not overly narrow.”
by Spiggett
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 11:07AM
“-The un-elected "Bristol Village Green Preservation Society" should butt out!
"Ugly oversized buildings"? -And what would they replace them with -a duck pond?
There are no over-sized buildings in Bristol, everything is a scaled down compromise for these interfering busy bodies who should be retired to the countryside where they belong...”
by Lone_Ranger
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 11:03AM
“I'm surprised that the (BE)P journalist conducting the interview with Ms Leeson didn't question her on the "wide road, narrow pavesments" comment. Assuming, of course that the journalist is Bristol-based and knows the area he/she is writing about.”
by smoosername
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 10:57AM
“Have to agree with Bristol1978.
It appears Heather Leeson from the Bristol Civic Society doesn't have a clue when she says "narrow pavements and a wide road that encourages fast-moving traffic".
http://tinyurl.com/9rw3ugg
Doubt she has ever been to the area and probably just says the same thing about every development in Bristol.”
by Bristol1978
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 10:16AM
“Heather Leeson, chair of Bristol Civic Society "narrow pavements and a wide road that encourages fast-moving traffic"
Has this imbecile of a woman actually visited Trenchard Street!! If you narrowed the road any more it'd be pedestrianized!”
by gashead1970
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 9:39AM
“This should have been: "If you must close the Ice Rink, relocate it within the City so that we don't lose another asset to Cardiff"”