A firm wanting to demolish the 50-year-old shopping centre in the heart of South Bristol and build a new ‘quarter’ of more than 800 flats in its place have said they are reviewing the decision to refuse the permission.
The bid to knock down the Broadwalk Shopping Centre, the car park, bingo hall and snooker hall on the Wells Road in Knowle last month, and now the shopping centre itself faces an uncertain future.
The developers Redcatch Development Partnership will now be poring over the reasons given to refuse the scheme by planners - which will be cemented in place on Wednesday. The developers, a joint partnership between three companies called BBS, Melburg and Galliard Homes, face three choices for the future of the shopping centre.
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The Partnership group could appeal the decision, and ask the Government’s Planning Inspectorate to look again at the decision made unanimously by councillors in May to refuse permission for their huge scheme.
They could go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan that meets the objections the councillors had over the size of the blocks of flats, the sheer number of people who would be living there, and the percentage of the 817 new homes that would be classed as ‘affordable’.
And the third option could be to abandon the idea and try to sell to a different developer to try their luck. Then there is the fourth option which is effectively what is happening now - as the Broadwalk Shopping Centre remains in limbo, with businesses gradually moving out and others looking at the lengths of their leases, and wondering what the future holds.
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The shopping centre has been the biggest in South Bristol since it was built in the early 1970s. But with the uncertainty of the plans for its demolition, coupled with Covid and the general decline in destination shopping centres, businesses have been moving out. In the spring, the centre lost B&M Bargains and the popular greengrocers MW Fresh Foods. In June, the I-Play soft play facility closed down.
“We are gutted to confirm that the rumours are true and that after a lot of thought we have decided it’s time to close the I-Play doors!” a statement by the business said. “We would like to take this time to thank all of our lovely customers that we have been lucky enough to meet over the last 10 years! It’s been an absolute pleasure being able to host birthday parties and events and we hope that we’ve been able to create great memories for all of your little ones!
The temporary job centre within the centre, first opened because of Covid, is also set to close this summer.
A spokesperson for Redcatch Development Partnership said they were still reviewing the reasons for refusal, and would make a decision on what their response would be soon. The company already has planning permission to demolish the car park and snooker hall at the back of the shopping centre, and build around 420 flats there, but on its own that is not economically viable, the firm said, so they are not going to revert back to that idea.
“The retail picture has got considerably worse since extant planning consent was achieved in 2019 to retain the front half of the shopping centre and build homes on the back half of the site, overlooking Redcatch Park,” a spokesperson said. “Changing shopping habits having been exacerbated by COVID, the plans which were approved in 2019 proved financially unviable and the administrators sold the site to the current owners in 2021.
“Years of economic headwinds combined with a change in the way people shop, and a 1970s centre which is unable to adjust, have made it extremely difficult for retailers to succeed in the current centre. The proposed Redcatch Quarter will bring direct, tangible benefits to the local community, including £200 million+ investment in Knowle town centre, a beautiful new pedestrian high-street that connects with Redcatch Park, over 1,300 per cent biodiversity net gain for habitats, brand new facilities for Knowle including a library, neighbourhood cinema and community café and 580 on-site jobs and significant training opportunities,” he added.
It is a vision Bristol city council ’s planning committee did not share, saying the scale of the development was just too much for the area.
Planning officers had recommended the scheme be given permission, initially saying on balance the downsides of the scale of the project were outweighed by the benefits of that investment and the new homes in a city suffering from a severe housing crisis.
But now, after councillors threw out that recommendation, the planning officers will recommend three reasons that the committee can give to refuse it - the high density of the residential development, the size and scale of the buildings, with three 12-storey buildings overlooking Redcatch Park, and the number of affordable homes in the new development.
The councillors meet on Wednesday to ratify that refusal, putting the ball back into the developer’s court.
