People / Interviews
Ambitious leisure park planned for Hengrove
Two temperature-controlled domes could form the centerpiece of a huge new leisure facility at Hengrove Park.
The ambitious plans drawn up by local resident Anne White include 1000 homes, a public park and most importantly and the leisure facility called 2 Degrees which will include one hot dome for swimming, roller skating and climbing, and one cold dome, for skiing, ice skating and ice hockey.
Providing thousands of jobs, Anne has started a petition to gain support for her project which has been signed by more than 2,500 people.
“The issue is the people of Bristol,” Anne says. “If they say ‘yes we would like this incredible fun pool, and ski dome and we’d love to be able to have this on our doorstep that we can go to evening and bank holidays and school holidays’, then everything is possible.”
If the petition gets 1000 more signatures, the council will have to hold a debate on a subject. Could our new mayor help move Anne’s project forward?
“Well, ideally it would be great if Marvin Rees noticed the petition and realised that actually this is going to be fantastic for his next four years to have something like this achieved. Who wouldn’t want it?”
Anne looks back to the beginning of the Eden Project: “If you imagine Sir Tim Smith, sitting here in 1995. He had a dream for the Eden Project. He had no money, he had a dream. He had a vision. And now we have the Eden Project. It exists.
“I’m sure there were people in his day that said ‘oh gosh, how will you raise the money, oh gosh’. But he stuck to his vision, and it’s there now. And what this city needs is people with vision. Money is not the obstacle, it’s vision. That’s the key. And I’m hoping that all the politicians in this city, including the mayor, will have vision.”
To find out more about the 2 Degrees project, visit www.joshuatrust.com/projects/2degrees/