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A group of Bristol City councillors have challenged Bristol Mayor, Marvin Rees’, decision to scrap plans for an arena in the city centre.

The group - which was made up of Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors - ‘called in’ the decision at City Hall on Thursday, September 20.

The collective claimed the council contravened 18 of its own rules - including constitution and planning guidelines - by allowing the cabinet to scrap plans for a 12,000 seat concert venue.

They presented their arguments to a panel of councillors who will who ultimately decided to reject the challenge.

Bristol Arena

Plans to build the arena project on Temple Island were officially scrapped at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, September 4.

While Mr Rees agreed the best place for a concert venue is the city centre, the Labour Mayor said the existing project was too risky in the current environment.

Instead the council will push forward with a mixed development on the Temple Island land which could include a hotel, offices, homes, a conference centre and shops.

And that's it

There will be no further debate on Mr Rees’ decision to use Temple Island for a mixed development.

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Proposal made

Proposal put forward to take no further action by Don Alexander and seconded by Charlie Bolton.

The proposal is carried by five votes to two.

All four Labour members supported it along with Charlie Bolton for the Green group.

Richard Eddy (Con) and Gary Hopkins (Lib Dem) voted against.

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Charlie Bolton

Mr Bolton says he doesn’t agree with the Mayors decision, but it was probably one of the decisions which had the best scrutiny over the past few years.

He says he doesn’t see what putting the matter back to full council would achieve.

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Mr Rees replies

Mr Rees said he went out to Kuala Lumpur while on a trip to China and YTL offered to pay for his return flight and hotel.

The Labour Mayor says his second visit was mainly for investment opportunities such as the Cumberland Basin.

“The fact that whenever we travel we make our best efforts to ensure that the Bristol taxpayers do not pay,” he added.

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Mr Eddy's second question

Mr Eddy has asked if monitoring officers or legal officers needed to “give the impression” of impropriety by accepting YTL’s hospitality in Singapore?

Mr Lovell has ruled against anyone answering the question.

Mr Alexander has put in a formal request to end all questions.

Mr Rees has stepped in and says he is happy to talk about hospitality.

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Richard Eddy question to the Mayor

Mr Eddy has asked Mr Rees why he didn’t meet with the operators and builders of the Temple Island arena for eight months.

Mr Rees said: “I don’t respond to everyone who makes a phone call to come and see me.”

He also said the arena is not the “new dawn” people think it is and will probably preclude people in the city due to high ticket prices.

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Mr Slocombe comes back

He said Mr Fear is a third party and is not an investor or part of the American company.

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Tim Kent

Mr Kent says businessman Stephen Fear said the American investors are only interested in a city centre arena and the Filton option should be dropped.

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Kevin Slocombe speaks

The Mayor’s aide says “contrary to what we have heard there was only one person from America” at Friday’s meeting.

Mr Slocombe claims Bristol City Council has agreed to work with the American investors to see if there could be arena opportunities in the city.

He added: “What has been clear since July is that there is no offer whatsoever and no deal whatsoever.”

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The Mayor is up

Mr Rees says he wasn’t at Friday’s meeting with the American investors because he was at a LEP meeting.

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Richard Eddy - red herring

Mr Eddy says the American offer is a “red herring”.

“We are here to look at the process which got us where we are here to see whether it was robust.”

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Ruth Pickersgill - there was not offer on the table

Ruth Pickersgill says she understands there was no offer in writing from the American firm, so how were the cabinet supposed to consider it?

Mr Negus said: “This offer was a credible offer - three senior executives were flown in to Bristol.”

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Gary Hopkins

Mr Hopkins asks why the meeting with the Americans was held so quickly after the call-in if it was not credible in the first place?

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Mr Lovell says no exempt session

Mr Lovell says Mr Negus will not be forced to reveal his source.

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Don Alexander - is it true?

Mr Alexander said: “Some of us doubt there is a credible offer to the Mayor, we have not got the evidence in front of us”.

Mr Alexander has asked Mr Negus to share the offer in the chamber.

Mr Negus has said he is not at liberty to disclose this as his information is from a second party. He said he is willing to discuss this in a exempt session.

Mr Rees has asked for an exempt session so Mr Negus can reveal his “deep throat source”.

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Ruth Pickersgill

Ms Pickersgill says the Mayor’s decision is in line with the business strategy and constitution aims which overrules the local plan.

Mr Negus says the reference to affordable housing makes up such as small part of the new scheme it cannot be classed as a constitutional aim as it is not for the benefit of the city as a whole.

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Don Alexander

Mr Alexander says the local plan “creates a set of possibilities” and is not a “strategy document”.

Mr Weston says there was no consultation on the decision to scrap the arena on September 4.

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Gary Hopkins question

Mr Hopkins has asked if there is a fear the Secretary of State might intervene in the decision?
Mr Weston says he doesn’t think so.

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Call-in presented

The call-in group will now be questioned by the panel.

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The Cheney question

Mr Lovell says the constitution states Mr Cheney does not have to be present in the meeting.

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And we are back in

Gary Hopkins - who is sat on the panel - is asking why deputy mayor Craig Cheney is not in the chamber for questioning.

It was Mr Cheney who formally made the decision on the future of Temple Island at the cabinet meeting on September 4.

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Some music accompaniment

Press and public are still sitting outside the chamber - but a choir in the conference hall is blasting out Louis Armstrong ‘What a Wonderful World’.

A brilliant banger.

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A little bit of background

We have three councillors ‘calling-in’ the decision today - Anthony Negus (Lib Dem), Tim Kent (Lib Dem) and Mark Weston (Tory).

We have seven councillors on the call-in panel who will decide whether the arguments presented by the trio are valid. The panel is made up of Jeff Lovell (Lab), Don Alexander (Lab), Ruth Pickersgill (Lab), Estella Tincknell (Lab), Charlie Bolton (Green) Richard Eddy (Tory) and Gary Hopkins (Lib Dem).

The make-up of the panel reflects the make up of parties in the council chamber - hence why Labour have four representatives.

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Exempt session

The press and public have been asked to step out of the meeting for ten minutes while the committee discuss sensitive information.

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Tory leader Mark Weston speaks on the call-in

Mr Weston says he does not think anything “untoward” has happened with the arena decision, but “perception is everything”.

He says the Bristol City Plan has a large section which refers to a Bristol Arena on Temple Island.

Mr Weston claims the plan is created with widespread consultation with the public and council.

“To reverse the budget framework and strategy without consultation I believe is a severe problem when we talk about if we have had an open and transparent process,” he added.

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Tim Kent is speaking on the call-in

Lib Dem councillor Tim Kent is presenting arguments for the call-in.

He claims when the council met with the unknown American Investors last Friday the investors did not say Temple Island isn’t suitable for an arena.

Mr Kent said he has written confirmation that the investors said Arena Island could house and arena but 10,000 capacity was too small.

In fact Mr Kent claims it was a council officer who told the investors to look for a site elsewhere in the city centre.

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A lack of exploration

Mr Negus says the council has failed to properly explore alternative proposals for the arena - it appears he is referring to Harvey Goldsmith’s offer to bring an American firm over to the city.

He says the Mayor also failed to meet with the Temple Island operators and contractors for eight months despite them asking for contact.

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Lib Dem leader leader Anthony Negus launches the call in

Mr Negus is introducing the reasons for the call in.

“The first is to do with proportionality,” he said.

“I want to highlight that other arena viable options have been ignored. The second is consultation, thirdly not taking officer advice, the next one is openness and finally clarity of outcomes.

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Jeff Lovell begins

Labour councillors Jeff Lovell is chairing the meeting.

He explains there are three possible outcomes from today’s meeting -

1. Take no further action.

2. Refer the matter to cabinet

3. Refer the matter back to Full Council for further debate

He said it is not the role of the call-in to reverse the decision made by Marvin Rees and his cabinet on September 4.

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Good afternoon

And welcome to today’s Arena/Temple Island call in.

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