{"id":692585,"date":"2026-01-13T05:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T05:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/692585\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T05:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T05:52:13","slug":"urgent-calls-to-stop-plans-to-replace-south-bristol-running-track-with-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/692585\/","title":{"rendered":"Urgent calls to stop plans to replace South Bristol running track with housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opposition Bristol city councillors want investment in grassroots sports\"Aerial<\/p>\n

Whitchurch Athletics Track(Image: John Pearce)<\/p>\n

Plans to rip up a South Bristol running track and replace it with housing must be stopped, opposition Labour<\/a> councillors have demanded.<\/p>\n

The group has submitted a motion to a full council meeting of Bristol City Council<\/a> on Tuesday, January 13, calling for major investment in the city\u2019s sport facilities by the Green-led administration, including a commitment to save Whitchurch Athletics Track and refurbish the dilapidated Downs football changing rooms.<\/p>\n

It follows a debate at a council meeting in July<\/a> triggered by a 6,500-name petition to keep the track open to local joggers and a family cycling club despite plans by Goram, the local authority\u2019s housing developer, to build 150 homes on the site.<\/p>\n

The strategy and resources committee heard in September that the running facility<\/a> could be replaced on nearby school playing fields in Hengrove<\/a> from money made from Oasis Community Learning academy trust selling off 28 acres of playing fields near Wells Road for housing.<\/p>\n

The income would pay for a replacement, bigger primary school, SEND provision and a track for \u2018running, walking and scooting\u2019, but nothing has yet come of this.<\/p>\n

Cllr Kye Dudd (Labour, Southmead<\/a>), who submitted the motion to Tuesday\u2019s meeting<\/a>, said: \u201cThe council needs to play an active role to promote sport in Bristol.<\/p>\n

\u201cSport benefits our physical and mental health, provides an outlet for children and young people, and brings communities together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good work going on such as the Robins Foundation\u2019s investment in Filwood Play Fields, but the council can do more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re about to write new strategies to promote sport, but these won\u2019t achieve much unless they\u2019re backed up with cash.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m calling for investment in these strategies so they can achieve their aims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe council has let the Downs changing rooms fall into a state of disrepair<\/a> \u2013 they\u2019re falling apart and if the council doesn\u2019t step up soon, the historic league\u2019s future is at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve put forward proposals to fix it before but these have been blocked by the council leadership for no good reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping they swallow their pride and admit this is the right thing to do, even if it\u2019s being suggested by a councillor who\u2019s not a member of their parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are all commonsense suggestions that I hope get cross-party support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bristol Labour group leader Cllr Tom Renhard said: \u201cSport is a great unifier, bringing communities together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must invest in its future and at the grassroots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some easy wins. South Bristol has told the council loud and clear \u2013 we want Whitchurch Athletics track protected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are plans to build housing there, however it is years away and there\u2019s nothing to prevent it being built on a different part of the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can keep the track while building the same number of homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cProtecting and delivering infrastructure, including community facilities, health services and better transport links, must happen alongside new homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere can be no more excuses not to invest in the services that matter most to our residents, including sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u2018silver\u2019 motion, which means it is likely to be debated at full council, also calls for investment to support an upcoming updated \u2018playing pitch strategy\u2019, aimed at providing playing pitches to meet the city\u2019s future needs, and a \u2018sport and active recreation facilities strategy\u2019, focused largely on leisure centres.<\/p>\n

It said: \u201cHowever, no funding has been allocated towards these strategies, meaning its proposals will go unfunded.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevelopments across the city, notably those within the Temple Quarter regeneration project, will generate a large amount of Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy Funding (SCIL).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Downs Football League welcomes hundreds of players from across the city and has existed for over a hundred years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, its changing rooms are rundown, putting the league\u2019s future at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny funding the council spends on sports facilities will be eligible for match funding from organisations such as Sports England, the Football Association, and so on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe campaign to save Whitchurch Athletics Track is yet to be backed up with any firm commitments or action.<\/p>\n

\u201cA community asset transfer of Netham Pavilions is ongoing but progress is slow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The motion asks the council to allocate SCIL funding, which is from developer contributions, to the two strategies and upgrading the Downs changing rooms, as well as speeding up the community asset transfer for Netham Pavillions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opposition Bristol city councillors want investment in grassroots sports Whitchurch Athletics Track(Image: John Pearce) Plans to rip up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,3893,748,2266,393,4884,14144,10001,528,285,10963,16,15,10000],"class_list":{"0":"post-692585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-council","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-green-party","15":"tag-hengrove","16":"tag-labour-party","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-southmead","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-whitchurch"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115886236844674020","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}