- We are campaigning to allow local residents to use Harbourside Pavilion at cost only rates for community events and activities at times which are scheduled by and prioritised for the local population.
- This is described on the original architects’ website as “Conceived as an Urban Village Hall, this community space over a commercial restaurant animates this area of the quayside in Bristol. The commission for Crest Nicholson was a critical project in the regeneration of Bristol Harbourside”
- We published a Public Forum Statement for the Council Neighbourhood Partnership Meeting at Brunel House on 21st January 2016 public statement for forum draft 4 420 words
- Please sign the epetition to Bristol City Council here to help get our ‘urban village hall’ community building back into community use through the link immediately following
Petition: Council let The Pavilion be used for Harbourside community events
Collecting signatures
Petition targetBristol City Council
Start dateTue, 16 Feb 16
Closing dateTue, 31 May 16
The Pavilion is a Council owned building on Harbourside, built by Crest as part of the Harbourside master-plan about ten years ago. The purpose of the first floor building as defined by the planning consent is for use as a “public hall”. It has been standard practice by the Council to use this building for internal meetings by the Council and seek bookings for commercial use, as well as community bookings. The Council has recently used the building mainly for its own meetings but will resume the previous approach to external bookings in summer 2016.
Background information
The Pavilion, BS1 5JE, a Council owned building on Harbourside, built by Crest as part of the Harbourside master-plan about ten years ago. The original purpose of the building was as a public hall – the planning application was ref 03/02420/F:
http://planningonline.bristol.gov.uk/online-
applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=0302420F
This is part of a unilateral undertaking that obliged Crest Nicholson/HBOS to build the Pavilion as part of the planning agreement for the Canon’s Marsh scheme. It was intended to serve as the “village hall” for the Harbourside community. However, it appears that the marketing and use of the building has become that of a corporate events asset for the Council. The space is marketed, for example, here:
https://www.bristol.gov.uk/museums-parks-sports-culture/the-pavilion-venue-hire
and here:
http://visitbristol.co.uk/conferences/the-pavilion-p1364503
The going rate for a local community group (assuming they can qualify as a charity) is £200 for an evening, which is clearly far beyond the ability of any typical community group. Similar sized community space in parts of the city like Kingsdown is available for ~£50 for an evening. As if that wasn’t enough, the space is always booked up months in advance, usually by the Council itself (for internal/training purposes, it seems), and sometimes by corporate users who obviously like the easy central location. There really isn’t a way for the actual intended users – the local residents and local community groups – to get a look in to hire this venue, and this really isn’t acceptable.
Requests over the last several months for this situation to be rectified have not met with positive results from the Council.
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Get in touch with us by email if you’d like to get involved.