The council has been accused of ‘flogging off public assets to the highest bidders’
Councillor Durston and Councillor Logan outside Eagle House
A campaign has been launched to save a former youth centre from demolition and restore it as a vital space for the community.
Eagle House Youth Club served the Knowle West community prior to it being shut down in 2014. Labour councillors claim that the Green-led Bristol City Council now “intends to demolish the building entirely” next spring, prompting a petition insisting it must be “returned to the community” instead.
The Greens say no decisions have been made about Eagle House, describing Labour’s claims as “disingenuous”. However, it has admitted that the future of the building is uncertain.
Since being shut down, the space has been leased to a church, which has the building until May 2026. The council has said it will not be renewing the church’s lease beyond then, when it will consider “alternative options” with input from the community.
Local Labour councillors Lisa Durston and Rob Logan, with support from residents and community leaders, including Carol Casey, chair of the local residents’ association, are now pushing for the council to register Eagle House as an ‘Asset of Community Value’. This would limit how the building could be used and would protect it from certain types of redevelopment.
Labour says that in the run-up to the local elections, the Green Party pledged to return Eagle House to community use within six months of taking office, unless there were ‘unforeseen legal barriers’ with doing so. A year into their term, the building has not been returned to the community.
The two Labour councillors said they received a letter from council leader Tony Dyer “announcing his administration’s intentions to demolish the building entirely as soon as the current lease ends next spring”.
In a joint statement, they said: “Sadly, it looks like ‘returning Eagle House to the community’ can be added to the Green Party’s ever-growing list of broken promises
“Local residents clearly care deeply about the future of this building. They, of course, need to be involved in discussions about its future, not sidelined – predetermined decisions without consulting the people affected benefit no one.
“Whatever the future of the site, the community needs a stake in its future and there needs to be something there to benefit locals. The council leadership is in the process of flogging off our public assets to the highest bidders across Bristol.
“Filwood residents need to be assured that this will not happen to Eagle House. We’re calling for Eagle House to be returned to the community when the church’s lease expires; the community to be fully involved in deciding the future of the building; and for the council to register it as an ‘Asset of Community Value’.
“These are reasonable requests which we sincerely hope the Green administration listen to and implements. Filwood deserves nothing less.” Their petition has 150 signatures at the time of writing on petition site 38 Degrees.
The former Eagle House Youth Club, now a church, in Newquay Road, Knowle West(Image: Bristol Post/Paul Gillis)
A spokesperson for the Greens on Bristol City Council told Bristol Live: “Many of the council’s core services such as children’s services, adult social care and housing are struggling because of the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis and a local funding legacy from a Tory government that has left councils on their knees.
“As an administration, we’re investing to improve these services whilst also trying to bring budgets under control. After being left with uncontrolled overspends from the previous administration we’ve agreed sustainable transformation plans for these vital services.
“These transformation plans rely on capital investment, some of which comes from selling properties. The council owns many buildings, which if faced with the decision to buy now, would not be prioritised above delivering the vital services people rely on.
“The only responsible course of action is to consider all our properties, the cost to the council of maintaining them, and the benefit that them being owned by the council brings to the authority and the city.”
Toby Wells, Green councillor for Knowle, added: “No decisions have been made about Eagle House and for Labour to mislead their residents in this way is disingenuous. Unfortunately, there are no legal grounds to terminate the lease of the current tenant early without potentially leading to a drawn-out legal process that could delay releasing the community facilities for local use, and cost a significant amount of taxpayer money.
“However, we have made it clear to the current occupier that their lease will not be renewed in 2026, and we continue to explore options for them to exit the premises early. We are looking at bringing forward alternative options for when the current lease ends, and once we have a clear and factual idea of what is possible, we will invite the local community for their input.
“I will continue to work hard to ensure that community facilities either at Eagle House or any potential redevelopment will be made available to the local community on a sustainable footing as soon as possible.”
Back in 2013, Eagle House youth centre was closed down, but reopened following a community outcry at the fatal stabbing in Knowle West of teenager Jake Milton. The youth centre was opened for little over a year, before the council closed it again in 2014, Bristol Live previously reported.
Ten years on, the long-running calls to reopen Eagle House saw renewed urgency after two teenagers – Mason Rist and Max Dixon – were murdered in Knowle West.
The new petition states: “Eagle House is located in an area of high deprivation, where community spaces are more important than ever for the role they play in supporting people.”