One man, two plans, and approval guaranteed

In February 2020, Cabinet approved L&G’s plans to start work at Temple Quarter for their mixed-use scheme. The following month, YTL were given planning permission to build their 17,080-capacity arena on their site in Filton.

One man’s involvement in that permission, cost Bristol City Council £239,000 a year and ensured the viability of both of these projects. Thanks to the Freedom of Information requests by journalist Joe Lloyd and lawyer Freyja Hardy, among others, we know a lot more about how these two projects came to pass.

That man responsible for much of the management and planning successes, was arena consultant Nigel Greenhalgh. He was appointed in February 2018, three months after the mayor cast doubt on the ‘shovel ready’ arena at Temple Island.

With the arena at Temple Island already on city maps, and a bridge already built— costing the city £12m — the mayor ordered a £100,000 report to find out whether there could be a better use for the arena land. The risks of the arena not being completed rose to their highest score rating. Part of this report was a comparison with another plan for an arena at Filton by YTL.

The following month, YTL paid for the mayor’s trip to Malaysia where he met with YTL officers; two days after that meeting, his Executive Director of Growth and Regeneration…