There are growing calls for the sale of a community-owned building in Southmead to be called off and it to be sold instead to a locally-run martial arts club instead.
Bristol City Council have instructed agents to auction off the old library and youth centre building – and that could well mean it’s demolished, and a memorial garden established more than 20 years ago is destroyed.
Hundreds have so far signed a petition set up to call for a council re-think on its sale, and the area’s two local councillors say they are lobbying hard at City Hall for a change of plan.
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For decades, the building in the heart of Southmead housed a library and youth centre, and a memorial garden for three young people in Southmead who died in the same year was set up more than 20 years ago in the area next to it.
Around five years ago, bosses of the Aldi store next door said it had big plans to expand as part of a wider regeneration project in Southmead, so the council closed the youth club and moved the library to another site nearby, leaving the buildings empty. But with the pandemic and the recession, Aldi changed its plans and said it didn’t need the land anymore.
The council have since been renting out the youth club side to two local brothers, Luke and Clayton Chamberlain, who run the Roger Gracie North Bristol Martial Arts Club there. Since 2020, the club has grown to more than 500 members, including children and adults from all backgrounds from across Southmead and the wider North Bristol area.
The library side of the building, meanwhile, has been taken on by a care company. Now, the city council has announced that it wants to sell the building and end the meanwhile-use rents to the martial arts club and the care company.
With the site ripe for development, local residents and councillors said they fear a developer will buy the land, demolish the building completely and destroy the Southmead Memorial Garden, which was set up following the traffic deaths of Lee Webb, Wayne Goldsmith and Alan Stevens.
Luke Chamberlain said he has offered to buy the building from the council without it going to auction in October, but has been consistently knocked back by council chiefs, despite the backing of local councillors Kye Dudd and Kaz Self (Lab, Southmead).
“Being based here isn’t integral to the martial arts club business, we could easily just move to somewhere up by Cribbs Causeway or something. But I’m from Southmead and we’re very much part of the community,” said Luke.
“So it’s about more than just money and profit and making the most for the council, it’s about keeping a community asset for the people of Southmead. We’re happy to pay the price the council put on it, but we’ve been asking to be considered for a pre-auction sale, but we’ve been getting nowhere,” he added.
“We’re just saying to the council ‘please don’t be greedy’, it’s about them doing the right thing, it’s so clear cut to everyone in Southmead,” he added.
Cllr Kye Dudd agreed. He said: “Luke and the martial arts club do a lot for the community, Southmead is a better place with them there in the heart of the community, and it would be terrible if the council were stubborn about this and this asset was lost to Southmead.
“We’ve been asking for a direct sale to be considered, and there’s still time for that to happen. We shouldn’t be losing him from Southmead, and he has committed to keep the community garden, and all the other work he does with the club being open and a place for people to go,” he added.
Luke said the club has a ‘huge social impact on the local community’. “This includes programmes supporting more than 30 vulnerable women from the local community with a free weekly women’s-only self-defence jiu jitsu class, a community of 38 ex-military service people as members, providing 18 scholarships for Southmead and BS10 children whose families struggle with costs,” he explained.
“The scholarships include free memberships, uniforms, mentorship programmes and paid access to competitions. We do a crisis management and rehabilitation programme for children with ongoing issues of parental drug addiction, neglect and abuse. As well as being a safe and positive space to encourage young and old into healthy habits and away from negative choices that lead to many of the issues the local community is challenged by,” he added.
Bristol Live approached Bristol City Council on Wednesday last week (August 7), about the situation with the former youth club building, and a response is still awaited.