Man stops creating unpermitted youth facilities

A man has dropped his plans to create youth facilities without permission at a derelict site in south Bristol.

Nick Haskins had vowed to turn the old swimming pool site on Filwood Broadway in Knowle West into a new football pitch and BMX track even if he was arrested.

The 61-year-old had begun to cut back the overgrown grass on the site earmarked for housing, with landowner Bristol City Council “strongly urging” him to stop.

But Nick has now revealed to Bristol24/7 why he has decided to not go ahead with his plans, and says it is not due to the council.

Nick Haskins has stopped building an unpermitted football pitch and BMX track at an old swimming pool site on Filwood Broadway in Knowle West – photo: Charlie Watts

Nick says he visited the former Filwood Swimming Baths site one evening to talk to some local children about his plans for the land.

He said: “I showed them what’s been done and told them what’s going to happen, and it was just taken as a complete joke.

“As I was chatting, they were getting lighters out of their pockets and setting fire to the grass I had cut. That could’ve gone up like a tinder box.”

After stamping out the fire, Nick, who was born and bred in Knowle West, decided to stop working on the site.

The former Filwood Swimming Baths site, which has become a fly-tipping hotspot since the pool was closed in 2005 and demolished, could have 29 homes built on it – photo: Charlie Watts

He had only planned for the football pitch and BMX track to be temporary – until housing was built on the site or improvements to nearby football fields were complete.

He added: “I was adamant that it was going to happen. Nobody was going to stop me.

“The council didn’t worry me one ounce. It was the fact that I took the kids on that site and, in front of my eyes, they set fire to it.

“There’s a whole generation of kids in Knowle West who got nothing, and it’s heartbreaking.”

The former Filwood Swimming Baths site has been derelict since the pool was closed in 2005 and demolished.

A section of it is a multi-use games area, but this is due to be removed if planning consent is granted for 29 homes to be built on the site.

Charlie Watts is reporting on Knowle West as part of Bristol24/7’s community reporter scheme, a project which aims to tell stories from areas of Bristol traditionally under-served by the mainstream media   

Main photo: Charlie Watts

Read more: Man starts to create new youth facilities without permission 

Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast: