People living on an estate in South Bristol are being asked what they would want to see happen to an empty space between their homes that has been left abandoned by Bristol City Council for almost 20 years.
The rectangle of land between numbers 32 and 34 Rodfords Mead in Hengrove had garages for the people living nearby, but they were demolished by the council back in the mid 2000s.
Since then, nothing has happened to the land, but now it is being earmarked by the council as a possible development site.
Read more: Woman moves into Knowle West micro-home built in her parents' back garden
So community organisation We Can Make, based in the nearby Knowle West Media Centre, have got involved, and staged a pop-up community event, asking local residents what they would want to see happen there.
The community land trust group, whose project to get small new homes built in the big gardens of homes in Knowle West has been hailed a huge success, said they wanted to make sure people living in this part of Hengrove had a say about what happens.
“We’re trying to find out what kind of uses for this land the community want to see, rather than just commercial developers coming in and dumping a load of flats,” said We Can Make director Melissa Mean. “Instead we’re asking what kind of development would the community welcome? So could it be a mix of housing? Maybe a cafe? Maybe artists’ studios. One of the really big, strong messages we’ve had from talking to people today is there is nothing here in this neighbourhood for young people,” she added.
“You can see that from just how many young people have just come up here and played and hung out in the space and just doing things,” explained Melissa
The story of the space between numbers 32 and 34 Rodfords Mead is a small one - but locals say it is symbolic of the story of the neglect of South Bristol’s large estates over the decades. When the council-built garages were found to be crumbling, they were demolished, rather than rebuilt. The space then became a car park for local residents - with some simply parking their cars on the concrete hardstanding of their old garages.
But that area became a bit of an anti-social behaviour hotspot, and during the early 2010s, residents complained to the council. Instead of coming up with a solution to the anti-social behaviour, or finding an alternative use for the site, the council simply erected a 6ft high, spike-topped security fence across the front and back of the space, closing it off for everyone and creating an empty and abandoned gap in the community.
Finally now, with the council setting up Goram Homes to get more social housing built, and a review of council-owned ‘micro-sites’, the rectangle of land has been included in a list of potential development sites, and We Can Make have got involved.
We Can Make welcomed families with young children, and older local residents to the space on Friday, and talked to people from across the community about what they want to see happen there.
Inside the spike-topped fence, they put up scaffolding - an idea borrowed from Europe, where, rather than the usual artist’s impressions or scale models, any developer proposing new buildings has to create the building out of scaffolding in situ, to show people what it will look like in the space where it will be built.
“It’s part of thinking about community, and how community-led responses can develop more diverse buildings, more diverse uses, and get the kind of places we want, rather than whatever the market decides we should have.
“The good news is the council got this spot on a list of six sites scattered around the city that could have something happen to them. Two are in Stockwood, one in Withywood and this one here, along with one in Barton Hill and another in Easton,” she explained.
“They are up for development, but could they now be for community development? What would work here, what is needed, rather than just cramming in as many tiny flats as possible?” she added.
The council has put out an invitation for community groups to get involved in the projects to develop the six sites. “It’s about opening up the conversations,” said Melissa.
“We hope to take the ethos of what worked with the project to build homes in the gardens of Knowle West, into this. What worked there was that people opted in to being part of that, so it was done with the backing of the community. Here, we are asking for ideas and suggestions, because at the moment this space is just empty. It’s about starting a conversation and being transparent about what will happen,” she added.
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