An upcoming report will explore the costs of keeping the track and potential alternative locations

Whitchurch Athletics Track(Image: John Pearce)

Teenage athletes have urged councillors to scrap a controversial plan to build homes on a South Bristol running track. The Whitchurch Athletics Track is due to be handed over to developers as soon as next month despite thousands petitioning for the track to be saved.

Eight months after more than 6,000 petitioners called on Bristol City Council to save the running track, staff will now explore the financial impact of changing the housing plan. After another four months, a report will be published looking at these costs and potential alternative locations too.

But time is running out. The housing plan forms part of the wider Hengrove Park development, and was recently brought forward to a much earlier phase in the long construction programme. Councillors were warned that if they press ahead with building on the track, they would “destroy the opportunities” of young potential athletes, in a full council meeting on Tuesday, March 10.

Kardae Lord, 16, said: “It takes me over an hour and a half to get to Whitehall, and that’s if the athletics track is even available. If a track near my area was made available, it could help my career thrive. When there were 6,000 signatures to keep the track, I feel like it’s unjust and unfair, and the track should be kept so everyone around us can flourish in athletics.”

Hannah Pearce, 15, added: “I love athletics and desperately want to be able to train locally, as the generation of athletes that came before me did. I often watch athletics on TV and see how UK athletics competitions have very few, if any, athletes from the Bristol region, compared to Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Cardiff.

“It’s not safe or practical for me to get a bus to Whitehall at night. It’s not safe for me to run on the roads or alone in the parks as a young woman. Destroying this track feels like you’re destroying my opportunities and those of other young people in South Bristol. Please recognise that these decisions affect our future.”

An aerial view of the Hengrove Park plan(Image: Bristol City Council)

The track was formally closed in 2010 but is still used informally by runners as well as the current home of the Bristol Family Cycling Centre. A replacement cycling centre will be built in Lawrence Weston, but this is too far for many people in South Bristol to travel to. When the council formally closed the track, a new one was built in Whitehall in 2010, but this is also far away.

The Hengrove Park development was brought forward by the former Labour administration. Now in opposition, Labour councillors are saying the housing plans should be changed to save the track. They put forward a motion to the council, asking staff to both consider the financial implications of keeping the track where it is or building a replacement track somewhere nearby.

Labour Councillor Susan Kollar said: “As a child I loved running and I was good at it. The track gave me the space and opportunity to practise, build confidence and stay active. When the residents presented their petition to full council, we said we would support it, providing that plans were designed so that the same amount of houses could be delivered.

“This could have happened. It was phase eight, a long way away. The [council] leader moved the plans forward and has put a bit of a spanner in the works. The least the council should do now is to consider alternative provision in South Bristol.”

Behind the housing plans is Goram Homes, the council-owned developer. But because the plans are so far along, changing them at this late stage would be prohibitively expensive. An alternative location could be at the Oasis John Williams playing fields, a short walk away.

To see all the planning applications, traffic diversions, road layout changes, alcohol licence applications and more in your area, enter your postcode below or visit the Public Notice Portal HERE

Green Councillor Tony Dyer, leader of the council, said: “Throughout the Labour mayoral administration, the redevelopment of Hengrove Park was one of the council’s flagship policies with plans to deliver over 1,000 new homes in South Bristol, including hundreds of affordable homes.

“We have continued with that commitment because we believe that delivering affordable homes is much needed and a necessary objective. But we need to provide a better explanation to those campaigners as to how we got to the position we’re in, including decisions that have been made over nearly a 20-year period, and those made by the previous Labour administration.”

He added that in 2017, when the Hengrove Park masterplan was published, 8,000 households were on the waiting list for social housing. Now there are more than 21,000 households waiting.