News / KNowle West
Rundown high street to receive £15m boost
A rundown high street is to receive a £14.5m funding boost to help kick-start its long-awaited regeneration.
The money, from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund, comes following a successful Bristol City Council bid.
Filwood Broadway has been declining for years – with its shops boarded up, an old cinema awaiting demolition and a former swimming pool site left undeveloped.
Announcing the funding news in a tweet, mayor Marvin Rees wrote: “This will deliver more new homes and community and business space in the heart of Knowle West“.
Filwood Broadway in Knowle West is to receive a £14.5m boost, announced a day after plans to replace its former cinema with homes were approved – photo: Charlie Watts
The money will help deliver regeneration plans for the area which were approved by the council in 2012 but have seen little progress.
Those plans included a new supermarket for Filwood Broadway, with local people having campaigned for one to open on the street for decades.
The funding boost comes a day after the council’s planning committee approved plans to replace the former Broadway Cinema with homes – despite a campaign to save the building from demolition.
There are also plans awaiting approval to build 29 homes on the former Filwood Swimming Baths site – which could see a multi-use games area relocated away from Filwood Broadway.
A hair and beauty salon on the street closed in 2022, while an advice centre overcame closure fears. The street has also been affected by anti-social behaviour and a charity shop was hit by arson.
Charlie Watts is reporting on Knowle West as part of Bristol24/7’s community reporter scheme, a pilot project which aims to tell stories from areas of Bristol traditionally under-served by the mainstream media
Main photo: Charlie Watts
Read next:
- Plans to replace former cinema with homes set for approval
- ‘If this cinema was in Clifton, it wouldn’t be being knocked down’
- Rundown high street could get £12m boost
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