Council papers recommend scrapping Bristol city centre arena

Bristol's Mayor has called the plan for an arena in the city centre a "completely undeliverable vanity project" as his council officers suggest it should not be built on 'Arena Island'.

Bristol City Council officers are recommending that Arena Island or Temple Island, the land near Temple Meads Train station, should not be used for an arena.

The Cabinet will be asked to approve the recommendation not to progress with proposals for an arena on the city centre site, at a meeting on 4 September.

Instead officers suggest, Temple Island should become home to a conference centre, hotel and new homes.

These plans have been put forward by Legal & General, which has already spent £240m on the surrounding area and has agreed to fund the £300m it expects it will cost to develop Temple Island.

The report also recommends that £53m that was earmarked as public money for the arena should be spent elsewhere in Bristol on housing and transport. But this would need to be approved by the the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

Former Bristol Mayor George Ferguson has launched an angry attack on Mr Rees after the announcement.