Bristol: former Royal Mail sorting office building eventually chosen as new University city campus

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Bristol Post:

Get it sorted: Petition launched calling on Bristol council to deal with city centre eyesore

It is one of the biggest eyesores in Bristol and it is one of the first sights to greet the thousands of rail passengers who arrive in the city every day.

The former sorting office has been left standing empty for almost two decades and is a graffiti covered wreck overlooking a derelict industrial wasteland.

David Cameron visited the site when he was prime minister after it was announced that the area was at the heart of the new enterprise zone but the intervening years there has been no sign of any progress.

And now a petition has been launched calling on the city council to finally deal with problem which has vexed politicians for the last 18 years.

The concrete shell was bought by the council three years ago in a £5.4 million deal but there is still no sign of any real progress being made on the very public blot on the landscape.

The former owners - a development company based in the Far East - were locked in negotiations with the council for years over the future of the site.

The former sorting office is in a prime position overlooking what will eventually be the home of Bristol's much needed and long-awaited indoor arena.

As reported in the Bristol Post the city's mayor Marvin Rees recently announced that he is aiming to have the arena open for business by 2019 but there are still no signs of what will happen to the abandoned sorting office.

Ben Moss has launched the petition which has been labelled get it sorted and 300 people have already added their signatures. He said: "The Council has budgeted up to £2m for the Sorting Office's demolition with the aspiration to develop a high quality commercially led, high density mixed use development that re-imagines this high profile, strategically significant site.

"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."

He added: "Rather than commercially-led overpriced flats, half-empty office blocks, and national chain stores; could we see community-led council housing, food production and eating, local shops and makers, learning centres, social enterprise, reuse of resources, renewable energy, sustainable transport, art and performance, beautiful spaces and more?

"So far, public involvement in determining the future of this publicly owned building and site has been practically non-existent. The council have only consulted on a 'Spatial Framework'' for the totality of the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone, and there has never been a full public consultation on plans for the Cattle Market site itself.

"As a public asset, shouldn't we, the community, lead its future? A genuine process of engagement, involvement and collaboration with the city's residents, community stakeholders, progressive thinkers and academics, would result in a creative, pioneering and shared vision - truly representative of both the progressive nature of our city and its needs."

The petition can be found here.

[Noggin]

From the Bristol Post:

Get it sorted: Petition launched calling on Bristol council to deal with city centre eyesore

It is one of the biggest eyesores in Bristol and it is one of the first sights to greet the thousands of rail passengers who arrive in the city every day.

{snip...}

Hmmmm, let's have a think why nothing has been announced:

1) The council has only just agreed the planning framework for the area
2) The mayor has got bigger fish to fry reducing headcount at the council
3) Network Rail haven't committed to a station development. That will likely require a chunk of land from the site, though the site will be much more valuable with a southern entrance to the station, but any developer or bank is going to want to be certain of the timelines before committing money.
4) Rail electrification, MetroWest and BRT^▸ (Bus Rapid Transit) are a long way from being finished, which again, diminishes the value of the site
5) Part of the site is being used for a compound for the Cattle Market Road works.
6) There is some substantial development going on in Redcliffe that will dump a lot of office space onto the market in the next couple of years, plus a new building between Temple Quay and Gardner Haskins.
7) We've just voted to exit the EU^» (European Union - about), which might be somewhat off-putting to developers and banks

As for "Rather than commercially-led overpriced flats, half-empty office blocks, and national chain stores; could we see community-led council housing, food production and eating, local shops and makers, learning centres, social enterprise, reuse of resources, renewable energy, sustainable transport, art and performance, beautiful spaces and more?", I think the odds on the council building him and his pals a hippy commune next to Temple Meads are highly unlikely. 

[JayMac]

Rather a 'hippy commune' than more office space to lay empty or expensive flats that go unsold for years, thanks.

Social housing should be the starting point. 

[Noggin]

Rather a 'hippy commune' than more office space to lay empty or expensive flats that go unsold for years, thanks.

Social housing should be the starting point. 

Don't think there is much empty premium office space, or unsold flats in Bristol to be honest.

As for social housing, it's hardly the best location, schools are full to bursting, no GP's surgery, or even a supermarket. However, Bedminster Green is a different matter and I do think there should be more social housing in that development. The council also owns large chunks of land at Hengrove which would be ideal for a high-density village-type development around the college, leisure centre and school, and which of course would benefit from the wonderful new BRT^▸ (Bus Rapid Transit) :-)

[Noggin]

Would appear that the old Royal Mail sorting office next to Bristol Temple Meads is finally going to be knocked down and replaced by a £300m campus for the University of Bristol (more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-38139249) including a student village for some of the 5,000 students that will be based there.

Probably a very good idea, enables the University to expand without placing further pressure on housing in north Bristol, and I guess that the students won't complain about being next to the arena.

Raises some interesting questions though,

1) It's going to generate a lot of vehicles traffic, I hope the roads will be up to it
2) It's going to put a lot of pressure on public transport. Perhaps the University and/or the Council should be contributing to an upgrade of the Severn Beach line? I would have thought that it significantly improved the business case for redoubling and electrifying it. 
3) Given that the council bought the Royal Mail site, are they selling it to the Uni, or leasing it? i.e. Is this as good a deal for the ratepayer as if the council had undertaken a conventional office & resi development? I rather suspect that Mayor Marvin didn't want to be seen to be signing off on a commercial redevelopment so offered the Uni a sweet deal to have it under construction before his term in office was up.

Anyway, broadly good news. 

[ChrisB]

1. Most students get the bus.
2. The buses will cope. Students will be paying fares, unlike most in Bristol on free passes/
3. Ask the Council. Freedom of Information Act if needs be.

Students will love being next to the station too, for obvious reasons.

[chuffed]

No, Chris B you are wrong about your first assumption. As long as the fares remain half the price of a bus ticket and  half the length of the bus journey with no changes, students will use the Severn Beach line.

[ChrisB]

1. I read "lots of vehicle(s0 (sic) traffic" as meaning in the local vicinity of the new build. Students tend to use public transport where it's provided, not their own cars (if they can afford them)

If you mean outside the city centre, apols, I don't know the area.

[Tim]

1, it will generate some car traffic, but probably less than other uses the site could be put to.
2, It will put extra users on public transport.  This is a good thing.  Students will be paying fares (albeit with some discounts sometimes) and they tend on average to spread out their journeys outside the peak.  Extra fare income not concentrated in the commuter peak should be a good thing overall for the finances of public transport and potentially reduce the need for subsidy.  I also expect many students will walk.
3, The council paid £6m for the site from Royal Mail.  I don't know how much the University is paying for it.  Your question makes it sound like the University isn't a commercial entity.  They certainly are these days.

 

[Bmblbzzz]

Firstly, what is this campus going to consist of? Is it going to be just accommodation and admin etc or will the teaching, which at the moment is mostly around the Woodland Rd area of Clifton, be moved there as well? If everything (or at least a lot of things) will be in one place, it could actually reduce student traffic around the city; but it seems unlikely that many faculties would move considering the buildings they're in now (and the newly built life sciences block).

If students are going to travel from this campus to Woodland Rd then I expect some of them will take the train; but I expect the Wessex Red buses will step in with more services too, which I understand give discounts to students.

A lot of students do have cars nowadays. And a lot are very inclined to take the bus even if it's slower than walking; eg from the uni office in the old Habitat building to the Hawthorns on Woodland Road.

[ellendune]

If they follow the example of other universities they will move a whole faculty there with teaching, and accommodation, allowing other departments to expand into the vacated sites in Clifton/Woodlands Road.

[John R]

This will undoubtedly generate a lot of additional traffic for the services into Temple Meads, in the same way that the development of Temple Quay over the last 20 years has made rail a much more attractive option for commuters. Although many students will reside in the Village mentioned, many others may well be tempted to keep their Uni costs down by living at home (despite the social drawbacks that has) if they have a service that will deposit them a stone's throw from their lectures. Not only students, the campus will be a major employer too.

Presumably there will be a new entrance to Temple Meads on that side of the station?

[ellendune]

Presumably there will be a new entrance to Temple Meads on that side of the station?

That is a part of the (as yet unfunded) plan for the Station

[johnneyw]

The promise of an end to the eyesore that is the old post office building is somewhat marred by reports I've read that it's still a good three years away. Plenty of time to give a poor opening impression of Bristol to many new visitors.

[Western Pathfinder]

Maybe they could get on and knock it down I would rather look at a pile of rubble than what is left of the sorting office.
Come to think of it I'm not that busy in the new year anyone got a JCB that I could have a lend of ?.