Will the show go on?

Mayor George Ferguson has said he wants an arena for Bristol to be his lasting legacy. But questions about the finances to turn the dream into reality are being raised, writes Chris Brown

“We need to deliver a really significant project of which we can all be proud, and I am absolutely determined to deliver an arena for Bristol. It’s disgraceful that we have to go elsewhere to see the big acts. But it will be more than a building, it will be about what Bristol stands for.”

So said George Ferguson on the day of his election as Bristol’s first mayor in 2012. We have been here before, of course, with the first plans for an arena put forward in 2003. It was due to open in 2008 but the project was scrapped before a brick had been laid.

But things are supposed to be different with George, an elected mayor who can ‘get things done’. We have had a sprinkling of regular announcements since election day nearly two years ago now. 

The latest stage is to select the designers. A competition was launched in August and a shortlist of five teams will be invited to take part in a second stage of the competition starting in November. Not riveting news, but another small step taken.

Elsewhere, work has started a bridge is to be built from the road near the derelict Parcel Force building at Temple Meads, to ‘Arena Island’. Why Cattle Market Road needs to be closed for another year for the work to be completed is curious but, hopefully, it’s another step forward.

Next month meanwhile, the final negotiations will take place between Bristol City Council and the firms battling it out to be the operator of the new venue. 

All seems rosy, but serious questions are being raised by the mayor’s most vocal critics at City Hall. Liberal Democrat councillor Tim Kent has warned recently of a £10million “black hole” in the arena finances, while group leader Gary Hopkins has insisted Mr Ferguson ” cannot hide from the simple fact that the current sums do not add up”.

The issue? Parking. How to accommodate the thousands of people attracted to the venue when it opens in 2017. 

It is estimated the arena would need up to 3,000 parking spaces to cope with the 12,000 visitors who would pack the venue to capacity. The plans so far show a maximum of just 250 spaces for disabled users, VIPs, and some arena staff on site. The council says it has about 2,500 spaces, both on-street and off-street, that it owns within a 15-minute walk of the arena.

Compare that to Leeds, which saw its own arena open in September 2013 – a 13,500-capacity venue with a whopping 7,500 car parking spaces within a 15-minute walk.

How will visitors get to the show?

Initially it was estimated £1.5m a year would be made from parking fees but a council review has changed all that. A multi-storey car park is now seen as too expensive, while even a surface-level car park may end up being against planning policy.

So how are the thousands of visitors to our arena actually going to get to the venue? Assuming a large proportion drive, where will they park? There is no dedicated parking plan in place for more than 1,000 visitors all converging on the site? Are they seriously expected to park in the residential streets of Totterdown, or further afield? How do the residents of Totterdown feel about becoming the de facto car park of choice for arena-goers on however many nights a month?

Meanwhile, if parking charges were expected to make up a proportion of the revenue which the city needs to make the project viable, where is the rest of the money coming from?

The arena is estimated to cost about £91m, but a council spokesman told us that “elements of that budget will inevitably vary.

“This may result in the arena breaking-even earlier or later than predicted, however this is a long-term investment for the region that will break-even over the 25-year life of the project.”

Amid the confusion, the mayor’s loudest critics are now beginning to find their voice. Cllr Hopkins said: “Bristol cannot have an arena without secure plans in place for parking. It is disappointing that the mayor is attacking us for asking responsible questions about finances – the money belongs to the public, not to the mayor. The people of Bristol will have to foot the bill for the project for many years to come if he does not get this right.”

‘Irresponsible nonsense’

The mayor with rude haste went on to the attack when Cllr Kent began asking questions about the arena finances. “It is irresponsible nonsense to talk about a funding ‘black hole’,” Mr Ferguson said. 

But when pressed on the details, a spokesman for the council had few details, insisting a “transport strategy” was being developed. Meanwhile, it would appear that parking is now no longer seen as a viable income source – replaced instead by “city advertising”. 

“A transport strategy is being developed for the arena, which is evaluating car parking options, including park and ride options, use of existing car parks within Bristol and the potential of additional new car parking provision either developed by Bristol City Council or by others,” the council spokesperson said. 

“The strategy will provide a robust response to car parking and ensure that surrounding residential streets are not blighted by event car parking. 

“Some income for the arena was initially predicted to have come from car parking, however a report taken to scrutiny has indicated that once the cost of acquiring a site and providing safe access routes was taken into account then income from this source was unlikely. However the council is already looking at other promising options such as city advertising to address this variance to the budget.”

It is estimated that over the next 25 years the arena will bring around £111m into Bristol and a further £157m across the West of England. The council is “confident that that the required income will come back to the council over the 25-year life of the project and that the arena will deliver millions of pounds of investment to the city region”, the spokesperson added.

George Ferguson has stated publicly he wants his lasting legacy to be the arena. But Bristol has been down this road before and is, understandably, wary of big promises and is unlikely to forgive the mayor in the 2016 election should he fail to deliver. 

Fast and detailed answers to the increasing number of questions over the finances won’t quieten the critics, but they may make us all feel that maybe, just maybe, this time the show will go on in Bristol.