The building is leased to a church until May next year, after which its future is uncertain
The former Eagle House Youth Club, now a church, in Newquay Road, Knowle West(Image: Bristol Post/Paul Gillis)
A former youth club in Knowle West could be demolished next year despite an election pledge to return the building to the community. An evangelical church has rented Eagle House from Bristol City Council for the past decade and its lease expires next May.
In the run up to the local elections last year, Green candidates campaigned on ending the lease early and reopening the building as a youth centre. The building is located on Newquay Road, very close to where two teenagers, Max Dixon and Mason Rist, were fatally stabbed last year.
The youth club closed just over a decade ago as part of wider cuts to youth services across Bristol. A lack of youth centres has often been linked to rising rates of knife crime. However Bristol City Council will likely knock down the building after the church’s lease expires.
Green Councillor Tony Dyer, leader of the council, faced questions about Eagle House during a member forum meeting. In a written answer before the meeting, he said that vacant buildings attract anti-social behaviour, and “demolition would prevent this”.
Labour are calling on the council to renovate Eagle House. The council’s capital budget — spent on upgrading infrastructure like buildings, roads and bridges — has a lot of money left over this year, some of which could be used on the former youth club.
During the meeting, Labour Councillor Lisa Durston, representing Filwood, said: “We’re happy to arrange any meetings with residents and officers about the future of the building. But these meetings would be pretty pointless if residents decide that they’d like it renovated, just for the council to come back and say ‘we’re not prepared to fund that’.
“We regularly engage with residents in community meetings and they have been pretty clear about what they want. As renovation costs would be less than half a per cent of the capital budget underspend for this year, would you be able to show some accountability for the previous promises made to the community?”
She urged the council leader to commit using some of this unspent money on renovating Eagle House. Labour estimates this would cost £280,000, although this figure was disputed by Cllr Dyer who claimed the refurbishment might be much more expensive than that.
Cllr Dyer said: “What I am committed to is working with the councillors for Filwood and Knowle to look at bringing forward a solution that is both supportable by the local community but also is reasonable for the council to put funding into. We need to make sure what are the costs involved, and how much it would take.
“But beyond that, there is a commitment to make something there that’s available for the community to use. We need to make a decision that’s best long-term for the community, and that may not be simply leaving the building there until we can find the funds to bring it up to speed. We need to work out what the potential options could be going forward.”