Featured image credit: Ashton Gate Stadium
Bristol’s Ashton Gate Sporting Quarter project is set to break ground next year after a legal challenge was dismissed in court.
The Sporting Quarter and Longmoor Village project includes a new sports and convention centre, a four-star hotel, flats, offices, 500 new houses, and a multi-storey car park.
A legal challenge from waste company ETM, whose recycling plant overlooks the proposed Longmoor Village site, had postponed the start of construction.
But the High Court of England and Wales dismissed ETM’s opposition to the project on the grounds that newly built homes close to the plant would be inconvenienced by the noise which it generates.
“I have concluded that I should not extend the time for filing the claim form,” Justice Nicholas Lavender wrote. “In my judgment, the factors which point in favour of the claimant’s application are outweighed by those which point the other way.”
Permission was granted in August 2023 for a sports and convention centre and a hotel to be built next door to the multi-purpose stadium.
The venue is currently home to Bristol City FC and the Bristol Bears rugby union team and has an all-seated capacity of 27,000.
The development will see a home built for the Bristol Flyers basketball team in a 5,000-seat arena.
“I’m delighted that the ruling in the High Court means that two very significant development projects for Bristol can finally be restarted,” said Ashton Gate stadium chairman Martin Griffiths.
“It has been hugely frustrating to have these multi-million-pound investments into South Bristol so delayed, but we are pleased that Justice Lavender dismissed the case, and we are now able to pick up where we left off a year ago.
“We have now re-started the project team for the Sporting Quarter and hope to break ground next year.”
The stadium project is linked with the planning permission for the 500 homes, half-a-mile to the southwest of the venue, due to financial reasons. When the legal challenge was lodged by ETM, both plans were stalled.
“This has been a long-time coming and Flyers cannot wait for it to get started,” said Bristol Flyers chief executive Lisa Knights.
“Since 2018, when these plans were first unveiled, the sport of basketball has grown massively in the UK.
“With sell-out crowds consistently at our current home of SGS College Arena, having a bigger, purpose-built venue will ensure the financial sustainability of the Flyers and an exciting future for basketball in Bristol and the South West.”
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