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A LOCAL campaigner has attacked the Highways Agency for stalling the re-development of one of the city’s most famous sports centres.
Sam Townend, Labour’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bristol North West, is appalled that nearly two years after a successful bid was made to reopen the Robin Cousins
Sports Centre in Shirehampton it remains shut. He says the delay is due to excessive demands by the Highways Agency in negotiating access to the site. Now he, and Labour’s Bristol North West MP
Doug Naysmith, have written to the Chief Executive of the Agency urging him to take swift action to reopen the valuable community resource.
The centre on West Town Road was finally closed in late 2005 by the then Lib Dem led Bristol City Council. In May 2006 the North Bristol Community Initiative led by Ian
Moore MBE and Mel Gardner secured the winning bid for the purchase of the centre.
Mr Moore, a recruitment officer for the Avon and Somerset Police and long-time youth worker was determined the centre would be reopened to create a focal point for sports and
community activity in north-west Bristol. His plans include running a number of sports workshops and sessions especially aimed at local youngsters.
Mr Townend said: “With the bid accepted in principle by the council, in June 2006, matters were handed over to the lawyers to sort out the legalities - a matter which was
thought to take a month or two at most. “But a problem arose in relation to a small access way to the centre underneath the M5 which is owned by the Highways Agency and traditionally leased
by the council.
“The Agency firstly demanded £30,000 even to deal with the issue. This was eventually reduced to £10,000 after months of negotiations. The Council offered to do a land
swap with them for greater area of the land close to the A4 but were turned down flat.” The HA made various additional demands, including their full legal costs to be paid for, a profit share in
any sale by the Community Initiative and a 50 year covenant that the site be kept for community purposes which is 25 years more than the usual covenant, and even worse would sit on correspondence
for months at a time without responding. After nearly two years of negotiations the plans for the site are no further along.
"The fact that the site is sitting idle while the Highways Agency make a series of demands is nothing short of a scandal,” said Mr Townend, who has been campaigning for more
recreational facilities for the area. “It a wasted community resource and the people of Shirehampton and Avonmouth have already lost so many facilities over the last years, including the
Bingo Hall, St Mary’s Church Centre, the Snooker Club and the Swimming Pool. But it is also a tremendous waste of money; just dealing with rubbish, graffiti and the most basic security and upkeep
has cost the council in excess of £20,000. “All the time the Centre is not in use it continues to dilapidate and the costs for bringing the whole thing back into use will cost
more. “This is tragic given that the money could have been so much better spent directly on sports and other services for the local community.”
"Both Doug Naysmith MP and I have written to the Chief Executive of the Highways
Agency demanding that they change their negotiating position and take swift action to save the Robin Cousins Centre for community uses.
“They seem to have treated the purchase of the Robin Cousins Centre by the North Bristol Community Initiative as if they were a large
corporation. They look as if they are fleecing it for as much as they can.
“We want them to withdraw their unreasonable demands and to get this handed over to the Community Initiative as soon as possible.” Mr Moore said: “Our intention once the
purchase goes through is to get the building back into community use straight away.
“The main hall is one of the few areas that, subject to checks, could be used without a great deal of work, as are the toilets. We want to run sports training, boxing,
cricket, football schemes from there, especially for young people. In time we want to open the centre for arts uses and for older people too.”
Ash Bearman, Community Development Officer for the Shirehampton Community Action Forum (SCAF), said, “SCAF wants to get more community and recreational facilities into
Shirehampton. “Ian Moore’s scheme appears to do this and we want to support them as much as we can.” Editor’s Notes
1. Sam Townend and Ian Moore are available for interview/photos at the Centre on Thursday 28th February between 2pm and 4pm. Please call Sam to
arrange first.
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Robin Cousins Sports Centre
