A new planning application for St George's Hall was submitted just before Christmas but only went live on the planning portal on Friday. Landrose intended for us to only have a matter of days to object. So please submit your comments asap: Planning – 22/06037/F | Proposed change of use
One vital point to make in your objection is that the plans are not in line with Bristol City Council's Local Plan Review and High Streets Recovery initiative. Church Road was named as a 'Priority High Street' in this plan. Supporting this development completely contradicts what the Council says should be happening here. See the Facebook page for tips on how to write the most effective objection: Save Redfield Cinema | Facebook
The next few weeks are a critical moment in the life of this building as the current owner, once again, seeks to take it out of public use (for the first time in its 110 year history) by converting it into a 44-bed House of Multiple Occupancy. Landrose’s new application is almost entirely the same as their last application, which they subsequently withdrew after receiving around 1000 objections, which we believe to be amongst the highest number of objections ever received by Bristol City Council.
Landrose’s application seeks to remove the largest social gathering space and most suitable leisure and entertainment venue on the Church Road high street and replace it with a substandard much smaller token commercial space. Whilst Landrose state the commercial space could be used as a tiny ‘boutique cinema’ and ‘tap room’, there is nothing which obliges them to do so, and Landrose could allow this space to be used for anything.
Once this space has been permanently removed, it can never be taken back again, and it will stop the continuing positive evolution of the Church Road high street, which has the potential to become the next Old Market, North Street or Gloucester Road.
Simply put, the local community do not want the development in its current form, and the people of east Bristol deserve better.
We are a group of locals who have come together to prove the validity of saving and operating the site as a cinema, events space and community kitchen – a cultural hub for all of us in this diverse area. Among us already are people with decades of expertise in cinema operations, planning, architecture, business and CIC governance models, project management, communications, film production, youth work, catering and more. The team continues to grow and all are welcome to get involved. We particularly welcome further partnerships with people and groups who feel under-represented in the area. Email us here.
On Friday January 13th from 6:30-8pm at Bethesda Church (138A Church Rd, Redfield) we will be holding a public meeting to present an alternative vision, discuss progress to date and talk about the strategy for saving this building for the community. Please join us if you can! Website here.