The land earmarked for development at Bristol Temple Meads
A piece of land next to Bristol Temple Meads station could be transformed into a shopping centre and multi-storey car park, Bristol24-7 has learned.
Known as Plot 6, and currently used as a car park, the area aims to be modelled on Birmingham’s Bull Ring shopping centre, with luxury shops and restaurants.
The plans, which appear to have the support of key councillors at Bristol City Council, spell the end for an Integrated Transport Hub (ITH) at Temple Meads.
It has also emerged that:
- An underpass under A4/ Temple Gate would open up more retail space;
- The historic area of Portwall Lane would be developed into yet more high-end retail and the empty buildings into more apartments and possibly offices.
Councillors have pointed out the plans would hit existing shopping areas in the city centre, such as Broadmead and Cabot Circus, as well as plans to breathe new life into Old Market.
“I can see this essentially killing off large parts of the city and dragging us down into the realms of yet another depressed clone town,” a source told Bristol24-7.
Yesterday, it emerged that the flagship Ashton Vale to Temple Meads bendy bus route will not actually stop at the station.
The £50 million scheme is one of three rapid transit routes the council is finalising, ahead of submitting funding bids to government in September.
The idea is that the three routes will make life much easier for people who want to get from one end of the city to another.
It is also supposed to be part of an integrated approach to transport, so buses, rail and rapid transit all work seamlessly together.
The problem is that the latest version of the Ashton Vale to Temple Meads route doesn’t stop at Temple Meads because there isn’t enough money to pay for a stop there.
That means people arriving into Bristol by train won’t just be able to just jump on the bendy bus or vice versa.
Instead the stop for the Temple Meads area is actually outside the KPMG building in Temple Street, the other side of the Temple Circus roundabout.
So anyone who wants to get from the bendy bus to catch a train has at least a five-minute walk across one of the busiest roundabouts in Bristol and several sets of traffic lights.
Councillor Trevor Blythe told the Evening Post: “Ryanair doesn’t fly you ‘somewhere near’ where you want to go, but rapid transit will take you ‘somewhere near’ Temple Meads.
“I really think if we can’t get rapid transit close to Temple Meads maybe we could find a way of getting people there without crossing six junctions.”
Meanwhile, the Greater Fishponds Neighbourhood Partnership has formally objected to plans for a showcase bus route through the area. But it has been told that consultation on the plans will not be extended.
The route from Yate to Old Market is one of 10 bus corridors included in the £78.8 million Greater Bristol Bus Network Project.
Part of it goes through Fishponds Road, but a number of proposed changes to parking and road layouts have alarmed traders and residents in the area.
No more shopping centers we already have two that's enough.
"Councillor Trevor Blythe told the Evening Post: “Ryanair doesn’t fly you ‘somewhere near’ where you want to go, but rapid transit will take you ‘somewhere near’ Temple Meads."
Actually Ryanair often does fly you to an airport which is somewhere outside the place that you actually think the airport is. Simple example London Standstead – 30 miles outside of central London.
Pete: I don't really care a bit about the "retail opportunities", I was mostly just annoyed by the shoddy reporting (comparison with the Bull Ring shopping centre; claiming things 'have emerged' recently that have been in the making for years), and the drama about the bus stop (of course it would be better to have it right next to the station, possibly even as part of a transport hub, but people seem to have no idea how hard and expensive this actually is to do, and that making the BRT scheme depend on such a thing just adds tremendous risks and is as such a bad idea when you're applying for external funding; much better to do a suboptimal stop first, then move it later as part of a different project).
Everyone and his dog is "supporting" the transport hub at Plot 6 (count me in!), but there's very little detail how this would work in practice, both from an engineering and funding point of view, not to mention the actual transport network once you have that hub. Getting money for it as part of the existing bidding process is simply not possible as I understand it, as much as everyone would love that.
As much as I dislike the schemes put forward, or the current transport infrastructure, I do think it's slightly unfair to accuse people of complacency who have to work within the existing system and are trying to do the best they can given the cards the city has been dealt. Sure, if this was Germany or France, we'd have an underground metro system already – but it's not, so we have to live with bendy busses and hope that some day our squabbling provincial politicians will agree at least on an ITA.
Tim M's comment reflects the appalling complacency of his namesake at the Council House. An 'all-city' transport hub at Plot 6 really could transform our public transport, with a safe, comfortable, simple one-stop transfer to complete any journey. That would be infinitely better than any BRT system can achieve; even its greatest advocates will admit BRT is no answer to Bristol's transport problems, but BRT is set to suck in every penny of available transport funding, and a bit more besides.
Other uses for Plot 6, whether retail, office, car parking, or residential, are pretty irrelevant – the key issue is the opportunity loss that those proposals represent. A transport hub would bring retail opportunities anyway, with a passenger concourse within the Digby Wyatt Shed (to the left of your picture) meeting the needs of travellers, with buses, ferries and rapid transit on one side, trains on the other, and shared information, and ticketting in between. It's an opportunity other cities would seize if only it was available. In Bristol, it's available and the city is turning its back.
That in spite of the belated declarations of support from Gary Hopkins, from cross-party committees, and from the Local Enterprise Partnership who've apparently been gifted the site as a local enterprise zone.
What price their promises now?
The title of this article seems highly misleading to me. There simply isn't enough space for anything even remotely the size of the Bull Ring shopping centre on Plot 6, even less so if a multi-storey car park is to be built there as well. Not even if you tear down the existing multi-storey car park and the ugly hotel opposite the station and redevelop all that as well. And given the historical significance of Temple Meads station and adjacent buildings there are also height limits and 'bling' limits for any buildings on Plot 6 (and the entire area, really).
In short, what we're talking about here is that Plot 6 will be re-developed as multi-storey car park plus some additional shopping (plus additional space for ticket sales etc.).
Nothing of this is new. There used to be a website called plot6.org.uk (IIRC) with lots of (very good, actually) studies and a developer brief, which contained exactly this plan. Sadly this website is not online any longer.
I also don't think there's anything wrong with the plan in principle. A station the size and significance of Temple Meads could really do with a few more facilities than a WH Smith and a coffee both (esp. taking into account future forecasts). More space for the ticket office and machines is also urgently needed, and for the barriers. Moving the main pedestrian entrance and passenger drop-off point to the west also seems like a great idea to me.
That the BRT stop for Temple Meads wasn't going to be directly at the station is nothing that has "emerged" yesterday in any way. That's always been the plan. All documents, whether the shiny scheme summary PDFs from the west of england partnership or planning documents said so. It's simply a money question. It would cost two-digit millions to re-engineer that entire intersection and the building so that the bendy busses could drop off passengers on the other side of the gyratory and then (quickly) continue back towards the centre along the centre loop. There is no other option that doesn't introduce silly delays and other complications.
Besides, all that drama about how the stop is on the wrong side of the roundabout is also completely overdone. *If* there is going to be a high-quality underpass (as could be built as part of the redevelopment of Plot 6), the walking distanc to the trains would not be any longer than with any other major interchange, and moving walkways could easily be fitted. How far is it from the trains at Paddington to the actual tube platform (e.g. circle line, or the other lines)? How far do you have to walk from the circle line tube platform at King's Cross to the rail platforms at KX? Much much more, and involving many more stairs and/or escalators.
As much as I love the idea of a 'transport hub' on Plot 6 in theory, I just don't think it's going to work in practice. Fact is, that the coach services will continue to go to the recently-redeveloped 'bus station' in the actual city centre, for many reasons. Fact is also that Temple Meads is too remote and most bus services don't pass through it. Hard to build a transport hub at the edge of the city without redesigning the entire transport network. Lastly, there's simply not enough money to build such a transport hub. It would cost a *huge* amount of money and that would have to come from somewhere. And "somewhere" seems a bit short on cash at the moment.
Last time I checked the Bull Ring was populated by luxury shops and restaurants and was just a modern, abet large, shopping centre with the same shops and facilities that we already have in Broadmead and Cabot Circus. How about redeveloping Broadmead to attract luxury shops and restaurants rather than it languishing as the poor man's Cabot Circus?