Since the Netham Park Pavilion in Redfield closed to the public at the start of the first lockdown two years ago, it has not reopened and is currently boarded up. Due to funding shortages the council put the Pavilion and pitches forward to be leased to third party organisations.
Although several community organisations applied to take over the building a year ago, there is still no news in regards to the council’s plans. Bristol City Council said they are in touch with the interested parties and the Sports Facilities Transfer Project is now currently up and running after being paused.
A local row over how the building should be used erupted during a public meeting that took place at Easton Community Centre last year. Some of the locals attending the meeting said they were unaware of the council’s plans to transfer control of the building to third party organisations.
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The hosts of that meeting, held in early 2021, Eastside Community Trust, were one of the local organisations that wished to submit a bid to run the Pavilion and playing fields at Netham Park. At the time, they joined up with Bristol Co-operative gym, Bristol Pakistanis Cricket Club and Easton Cowboys and Cowgirls.
The deadline for organisations who wanted to take over the Pavilion and sports grounds was March 31, 2021, with the 25-year lease to be completed by February 2022. Clearly there has been a delay in the process and neither the Friends of Netham Park group or the local councillors are aware of the current plans.
The Barton Hill steering group set up a petition last year, calling for the March, 2021 deadline to be postponed. In their petition entitled “Save our Park” they criticise the council for handing the building to “semi-private” organisations.
The petition states: “Bristol City Council decided to handover the beautiful green space at the heart of one of the poorest area of UK to ‘charitable’ or semi-private organisations which are now going to bid to manage it.”
A spokesperson from Bristol City Council said “Although the project was paused earlier in 2021 it is now fully up and running again and was allocated further funding in autumn last year. The full closure of the pavilion was introduced as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.
"We kept in touch with interested parties during the pause and were in contact with each party in March to review their applications and seek more information from them if needed. The process continues and we remain committed to finding a third party to operate the site and realise its full potential.”
“This is the approach we are taking to for number of community assets. We want to ensure they remain in public use and benefit their local neighbourhoods. In many cases the community are the best people to run these facilities, and we remain open to conversations with local groups about keeping them in the community.”
Samira Musse, a local mother who lives in a tower block, metres away from the park, told Bristol Live that the council “tried to privatise (the Pavilion) but we kicked up a lot of fuss.” Like those who started the petition and the community volunteers who attended the public meeting last year, she felt that asset transfer could exclude groups that lack the funds to hire community spaces.
Samira, who co-founded Barton Hill Activity Club in 2018 to meet the needs of the community and provide them with a voice, said that her group has never had access to the Pavilion, although she has tried.
Samira said: “We tried to get access but if you talk to the council, they send you round and round. It’s a park, so when the weather is good, the children can play outside and use the facilities.
“They tried to privatise it so we made a lot of noise about that, the issue was that they wanted to make it into a private gym, it didn’t make sense to privatise it.”
The Bristol Co-operative gym prides itself on being the “only member-owned gym in the UK” and hopes through their inclusive approach, to remove common barriers to gym-based physical activity.”
Although the gym operates as a non-profit organisation, a discounted monthly membership costs £26 per month, £12 more expensive than the existing private gym in the local area.
Due to the “long periods of silence” from the council, the cooperative gym found themselves a new venue for their gym. Bristol Live contacted the other organisations that were known to have submitted an expression of interest in the Pavilion but received no response.
Guy from Bristol Co-operative Gym said: “We were excited by the idea of taking on the Netham Park as a cooperative of volunteer-run community sports organisations but the reception to the asset transfer and long periods of silence from the council have meant that we had to get on with finding a different home, so we’re now based at St. Anne’s House in Brislington instead.”
Margaret Castle, a spokesperson for the Friends of Netham Park said she is frustrated with the ongoing closure of the building and felt that the community partnership bid was “encouraging”.
Margaret said: “It’s so frustrating because the community has got together and were willing to work together; all the local sports organisations and community organisations. We even had a local couple who are chefs and dieticians and they wanted a café.
“The whole building would have benefited because Bristol Co-operative gym is a cooperative, so it’s for everybody. It could be such a good community hub for outdoor activities because it’s a wonderful space on the Netham, everybody says so and we just want this building utilised properly.”
In recent years prior to the building’s closure in 2020, the building had been used for free children’s holiday activities that were run by the Avon Wildlife Trust, alongside the building being leased for private groups and functions.
The council said that although they paused the project in 2021, it is now up and running again. The council insists that they have kept in touch with “interested parties” in 2021 and made further contact in March this year.
Local Green councillor for Easton, Barry Parsons claims that himself and local residents have been left “confused” as to what the council plans to do with the building.
Cllr Parsons said: “When the government said Covid restrictions were lifted we were expecting the Pavilion to reopen. They have now told us they don’t have the resources to reopen it.
“Their only plans to reopen it are as part of the sports facilities transfer programme but it has been put on hold since spring last year. I’m left now very confused about what the plan is going to be.
“Even if it does get reopened as part of an asset transfer, you’re looking at next year at the very earliest. Meanwhile there’s all these groups that had been using the Pavilion for all sorts of things, from judo classes to weddings.
“They haven’t had access for a couple of years and it’s now going to be at least another year. You’ve got a publicly owned toilet, even if they just made that open, it would be an improvement on what we’ve got at the moment.
“Plus there’s a kitchen, community room and changing rooms for the sports. A Lot of stuff that would be really valuable to the community, it’s just really frustrating that nothing much is happening.”
