ARENA NEWS

Adepts at the art of reading runes, the philosophy of semiology or the mysteries of poetics and symbology may have noticed the Reverend’s recent PLAN put before his cabinet to “facilitate the necessary cycle lane works on Airport Road”.

So what? He’s building a cycle path on Airport Road in Hengrove? Big deal. But this is what catches the eye – “This proposal seeks approval to submit a Local Growth Fund (LGF) GRANT REALLOCATION request to the LEP”. So why might the Reverend be reallocating a grant and from where?

“Due to the fact that the coach parking scheme on ALBERT ROAD can no longer be completed within the originally agreed LGF funding window, this proposal seeks approval to reallocate £790k to the Airport Road scheme,” breezily explain the Reverend’s transport minions.

Of course, a coach parking scheme on Albert Road is an integral part of transport plans for the Arena at TEMPLE MEADS. If there’s no coach park planned then there’s no arena going ahead at Temple Meads.

So look out for that arena at Filton announcement coming soon and be sure to enjoy your cycling lane on Airport Road instead!

2 thoughts on “ARENA NEWS

  1. SpeculativeType

    Not necessarily, LGF has three year funding windows, the current one is 16-19. An arena at temple meads wouldn’t be completed in time so unlikely that other infrastructure spending would happen prior to final completion of the arena build phase. Because the project you mentioned has already been approved, councils have to request reallocation. You might be right, but this doesn’t tell us enough to give any proper insight.

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  2. paul

    God I hope so, Council Tax payers could do with a break, the arena will end up being an expensive millstone around the neck of Council Tax payers and Bristols vulnerable whose Council services they depend on will be cut in the years to come to fund the profits of the operator and pay back the loan. There’s even now a public sector word for these schemes, ‘optimism bias’.

    The last operator only agreed to run the arena in return for a NET profit guarantee.

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