Some good news at last. We have managed to re-engage with the Carriageworks developer, PG Group, to discuss the cultural plan for the site. Re-engagement was as a result of a meeting hosted by Kuumba to discuss the impact of the Carriageworks development on their site next door, and which gave us the opportunity to talk about the cultural plan.
Since then a couple of meetings have taken place and more are planned. We then hope to hold a community meeting in mid January where we can say a lot more about how the site is going to be used, how it will be managed, and what the opportunities are for local community involvement and benefits especially relating to arts, culture and local enterprise.
In the meantime we recently came across an interesting innovation in town centre property called Platform. Backed by Shoosmiths LLP, the British Property Federation, Power to Change and others, it’s looking at how to rethink the approach to town and city centre property so that local enterprises can access property (often denied to them through all manner of obstacles) and really thrive. At a webinar (Click for webinar slides) Bywater Properties talked about their approach to asset ownership (page 24-28). Their sites in the UK’s big cities have occupiers guides and green leases that feel like they offer something to inform where we’re hoping Carriageworks will go.
Carriageworks & Westmorland House, Stokes Croft, Bristol 