Temple Meads diesel depot to be used by creative groups. (BBC News 16/12/2011)

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

A derelict depot behind Temple Meads railway station in Bristol could be used by community-based creative groups for the next two years.

The site next to Temple Meads railway station is part of the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone.

Owners of the 8.4 acre site, the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), said it wanted to let the site ahead of long-term development.

They said it would be one of the first steps towards creating the new Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone.

Companies and community groups have been asked to submit ideas.

David Warburton from HCA said: "Until this site is developed, we want to ensure that local organisations have the chance to use it for purposes which show how the objectives of the Enterprise Zone can start to be delivered.

"I have already received some suggestions for very exciting uses, and I am really keen to encourage others to come forward.

"We are not being too specific about what we want.

"This is about inviting people to put their creative energy and ideas to good use to bring this site into active use whilst longer-term plans for redevelopment are put together."

The Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone is expected to create up to 17,000 jobs in the creative, media and communications sectors over a 25-year period.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Hmm.

That's all very well, but how many companies and/or community groups, in these recessionary times, have the money to do anything with this brown field site for just two years before it is bulldozed (again)?

Sorry to sound negative, but if the Homes and Communities Agency have already received 'some suggestions for very exciting uses', perhaps they should proceed with them forthwith, before anyone has second thoughts ... 

[JayMac]

Indeed.

You could read: "This is about inviting people to put their creative energy and ideas to good use to bring this site into active use whilst longer-term plans for redevelopment are put together."

...as being a plan to generate income for the leaseholder of the land while they wait for the economic situation to improve and the real estate to become more attractive to developers/investors.

Get some community based groups to use the land, provide the necessary infrastructure for access and utilities, funded by local taxes and/or charitable contributions that most community based projects rely on, and then turf them out and redevelop once taxpayer funded improvements have made the site more viable.