News from the Mayor - July 2018

June 29 2018
News from the Mayor - July 2018

I want kick-off this Mayor’s column by wishing the England football team great success in the Russian World Cup. Hopefully they will do well, although they might be on the plane home by the time you read this!

Sport is a key priority for me, particularly as it made such an impact on my own development as a youth. I want to improve Bristol’s sporting offer and make it accessible to all. We’re aiming to do this in three ways: improving elite talent pathways for Bristolians, bringing world-class sporting events to the city and increasing participation.

That’s why I was so pleased to support the launch of Bristol’s Sporting Hall of Fame at an inaugural event at Ashton Gate stadium. Over 70 nominations were uploaded to an online platform consisting of community heroes, young hopefuls, stars who compete at an international level and those who achieve against the odds.

Amongst those mentioned are some of Bristol’s biggest sporting names like former world champion boxer Lee Haskins, three-time ironman world champion Chrissie Wellington and Olympic gymnast Claudia Fragapane. These nominees represent some of the best of what our city has to offer and their achievements and stories will help motivate others to get out and try something new, hopefully inspiring a whole new generation to get involved in sport.

It’s great that Bristol’s Sporting Hall of Fame will celebrate the city’s many sporting inspirations, share stories and encourage others to follow in their footsteps and I would offer my congratulations to everyone who has been recognised as part of it.

There are two other awards I want to mention this month. They are the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) South West Sustainability Award and a RIBA South West 2018 accolades given to a new project called Challender Court in Henbury. This Bristol City Council housing development won the two prestigious architectural awards in recognition of the sustainability of the eight one-bed properties.

I have a commitment of building 2,000 new homes – 800 affordable – a year by 2020. As part of this, we are not just looking at numbers, but also the quality of housing and communities we create. These award-winning homes are designed to meet the Passivhaus building standards which aim to reduce energy usage. This will result in extremely energy efficient properties which will see household utility bills dramatically reduced.

We have completed 81 new homes since the start of the New Build Housing Programme, regenerating brownfield sites to provide new high quality homes across Bristol. As part of the new build programme, four sites are under construction providing a further 64 new homes. We have also gained consent for a mixed tenure development of 133 new homes at Ashton Vale, 53 of which will be council homes.

We have really started to see progress on meeting this challenge and I would like to thank our housing team, along with the contractors and architects, for helping to provide much needed housing for the city.