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‘Get it sorted!’
Campaigners are calling for Bristol City Council to halt their plans to demolish the former sorting office next to Temple Meads.
A new petition urges the council to “undertake a transparent, participatory and collaborative consultation in order to create a shared, community-led vision for the future of the site”.
The Cattle Market Road building has stood derelict for 18 years and was last year purchased by the council for an estimated £5.4 million.
is needed now More than ever
Some £2m has been budgeted for the sorting office’s demolition with “the aspiration… to develop a high quality commercially led, high density mixed use development that reimagines this high profile, strategically significant site”.
Petition creator Ben Moss believes that the building “could become a vision worthy of our city”.
He said: “The public ownership of the iconic former Sorting Office makes it a community asset and affords Bristol a unique opportunity to pursue a development which meets the needs and aspirations of the people of Bristol.
“By replacing ‘commercially led’ with ‘community led’, the site could become a vision worthy of our city, meeting Bristol’s needs as defined not by commercial boundaries alone, but by the community who own it.”
One idea for the site made earlier this year was plans to bring the Houses of Parliament to Bristol.
Former Bristol mayor George Ferguson praised the scheme as “a great example of the sort of lateral thinking that is required” as central Government ponders a multi-billion pound refurbishment of the crumbling Palace of Westminster.
Whatever happens to the sorting office, it will form part of grand plans for the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone, the biggest regeneration project in the UK.
Read more: Council buys derelict sorting office