Bristol South MP Karin Smyth today restated her position on the city’s long-awaited Arena.
“I welcome the discussion around the arena proposals – such debate is a good thing, especially with a project as important as this. However, I am increasingly concerned it is generating more heat than light, with unfair questioning of the motivations of those leading the project. While we may disagree, let’s have as our starting point an acceptance that we are all driven by a desire to do the right thing for Bristol.
“My position remains exactly as it was a few months ago when the Temple Meads site was side-lined in a consultants’ report commissioned by Bristol City Council.
“I said then that ‘… if the decision makers are of the opinion that the Temple Meads arena is not viable, a view I disagree with, they are duty bound to say what will take its place. One thing is certain – another twenty years of talk and associated uncertainty simply will not do.’ That was my position then – and remains my position now.
“The arena was always more than a jobs and business project – it was meant to transform and rebalance the cultural offer for people in South Bristol as well. The plan currently on the table simply does not do that.”