A community group has been forced to cancel its big bonfire event - after vandals got in and smashed up the site.
The Heart of BS13 group is currently nearing the end of a major £150,000 renovation project at the Roundhouse community facility in Hartcliffe - and has renamed it the Climate Action Hub, with big plans to turn it into an outdoor centre for community events and for young people.
The first big one was planned for tonight (Friday, November 4) hosted by the Hartcliffe Club for Young People, which would have seen 150 adults and children, including families recently arrived from Ukraine, hold a big community bonfire night event.
Read more: The A to Z of Hartcliffe - 26 (and more) things that put the heart into the 'Cliffe
But that event - and the completion of the £150,000 refurbishment and renovation of the community space - has now been put on hold until Bristol City Council fulfills its promise to install new fencing to make the site secure.
Heart of BS13, which this year took over and reopened the Hartcliffe City Farm to add to its list of community spaces in the area, said the break-ins and vandalism at the Climate Action Hub meant they didn’t want to continue with the work to enhance the space until the council could make it secure.
A spokesperson said anyone who had bought tickets for this weekend’s event would get a refund, after an arson attack on Tuesday this week. “Anyone who’s been up there recently will see how the whole site has changed for the better so that we can run the type of events and activities that our community has been asking for,” the spokesperson said.
“Sadly, on Tuesday night there was an arson attempt, and we were due to install the rest of the field kitchen equipment but due to the vandalism we are now holding off as we can’t risk further damage that we just can’t afford to keep repairing,” they added.
“It’s with a heavy heart that we have made the decision to cancel our bonfire event at the Climate Action Hub, as a result of the break-ins and vandalism at the site,” they said, adding that Heart of BS13 has been ‘waiting since June’ for Bristol City Council to install new fencing to make the site secure. “Until the council makes this work a priority, there’s no point investing in the rest of the fittings, so all community events have to be put on hold.”
Heart of BS13’s executive director Georgina Perry told Bristol Live there had been 12 vandalism incidents since a big hold appeared in the fence in June, and each time it happened they have asked the council to go ahead with work to install a permanent security fence - work it had already agreed to undertake.
In the meantime, some of the team that did the renovation work earlier this summer have come back to install a temporary fence, in a bid to try to keep the vandals out.
Georgina said the issue was ‘desperately sad’ because the aim of the Climate Action Hub at the Roundhouse was to create a space for young people in Hartcliffe. “This isn’t just about the council getting the gap fixed, it’s about the community valuing our shared space,” she said. “I totally get that these things happen, but this is about having a space that the community and especially the young people in Hartcliffe can use and feel is theirs. There are so many reasons this is disappointing. One of the big ones is that this event was going to be hosted by young people from Hartcliffe Club For Young People and we were planning to welcome over 150 children and adults as well as families from Ukraine.
Heart of BS13 said since June, the vandalism has cost the organisation thousands, and included broken keypads, windows, sanitary bins, door handles, tables, a wall and the vandals even smeared human excrement on the toilet walls.
Bristol Live asked Bristol City Council on Thursday about the installation of the security fence and is awaiting a response.
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