Ashton Gate legal challenge thrown out

Article posted by Coliseum, November 14^th, 2024

Image: Ashton Gate

Ground looks set to be broken on the Ashton Gate Sporting Quarter Development in Bristol in 2025 after a legal challenge against the project was thrown out.

Ashton Gate said that the legal challenge which delayed the start of the Sporting Quarter and Longmoor Village developments has been dismissed by the High Court and with no further right to appeal.

Ashton Gate’s vision is to create a world-class Sporting Quarter for the City of Bristol. A two-site development will see an iconic 5,000-seater home for the Bristol Flyers basketball team being built at Ashton Gate and a new urban village development, named Longmoor Village, 500m from the stadium.

Ashton Gate is a stadium in Ashton Gate, Bristol, England (UK), and is the home of EFL Championship club Bristol City and the Premiership rugby club Bristol Bears. Located in the South-West of the City, just South of the River Avon, it currently has an all-seated capacity of 27,000.

The Honourable Mr Justice Lavender ruled that there were no special circumstances which would allow local waste company ETM to have more time after the legal deadline to challenge the planning permission for Longmoor Village, so dismissed its case before it was even heard.

Justice Lavender said: “I have concluded that I should not extend the time for filing the claim form. In my judgment, the factors which point in favour of the claimant’s application are outweighed by those which point the other way.”

Image: Ashton Gate

Speaking on the ruling, Martin Griffiths, Chairman of Ashton Gate Stadium, said: “I’m delighted that the ruling in the High Court means that two very significant development projects for Bristol can finally be restarted.

“It has been hugely frustrating to have these multi-million-pound investments into South Bristol so delayed, but we are pleased that Justice Lavender dismissed the case, and we are now able to pick up where we left off a year ago.

“We have now re-started the project team for the Sporting Quarter and hope to break ground next year.”

Ashton Gate was finally granted planning permission in August 2023 for a Sports & Convention Centre and hotel to be built next door to the stadium.

This will see a home for the Bristol Flyers basketball team at BS3 in a multi-purpose 5,000-seater arena.

The Bristol Flyers are a British professional basketball team based in the City of Bristol, England. The Flyers compete in the British Basketball League, after promotion from the English Basketball League in 2014. The team play their home games at the 1,000-capacity SGS WISE Arena in Bristol.

The development was linked with the planning permission approved for almost 500 much-needed homes at Longmoor, including more than 150 affordable homes, half-a-mile to the south west of the stadium.

When the legal challenge was lodged by ETM both projects were stalled.

Bristol Flyers CEO Lisa Knights said: “This has been a long-time coming and Flyers cannot wait for it to get started. Since 2018, when these plans were first unveiled, the sport of basketball has grown massively in the UK.

“With sell-out crowds consistently at our current home of SGS College Arena, having a bigger, purpose-built venue will ensure the financial sustainability of the Flyers and an exciting future for basketball in Bristol and the South West.”

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