Latest news with #Knowle
The Sun
29-06-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Giant 90s shopping centre to be demolished ‘as soon as next year' in new plans
GIANT 90s shopping centre to be demolished to make way for new development after years of residential disputes. Developers have announced new revised plans with a scaled-back design, promising hundreds of new homes in South Bristol. 2 The plans Broadwalk Shopping Centre is set to be demolished as soon as next year after the proposed new plans were finally approved. The developers are Broadside Holdings, who are planning to knock down the centre, along with the multi-storey car park and bingo hall at the back of the centre. In its place, nearly 500 new homes will be built in the small village of Knowle, located in South West Bristol. Shops and a pedestrianised street have also been included in the plans to develop the area. Controversy around the development The journey to the sites approval has not been smooth sailing, and the new plans do not resemble the original ideas for the development. Initially, Broadside Holdings wanted to have approximately 850 new flats. In order to have this number, they would have had to build three ten-storey tower blocks overlooking Redcatch Park, which has a children's playground and community garden located inside. 2 As a result, the community in the area were unhappy with the plans. However, while Broadside did get planning permission for the more than 800 flats on the site in 2023, the controversial circumstances which led to the approval led to legal action. Local resident Laura Chapman took Bristol City Council to court over the way it granted planning permission for the original Redcatch Quarter plan. Chapman crowdfunded with residents of the Knowle Neighbourhood Planning Group and the Broadwalk Redevelopment Community Group to bring the legal action to the council. As a result of the action, the development revised its plan, compromising with the local area, so that Chapman would drop the judicial review process. Development compromise The developers compromised massively on their original idea, and recently announced the newly approved plan. Broadside has cut the number of new homes proposed from 850 to 492. Instead of flats, the development will be made up of houses to prevent the flats overlooking and impacting the park. While there will still be shops and a pedestrianised street, the size and the number of shops have been scaled back. Local services such as a new dentists surgery and library are still included. It is believed that construction on the site could start as early as next year, with plans for it to be finished by 2030. To maintain communication with the local community two drop-in sessions are being hosted at Knowle Methodist Church on Friday July 11. The first takes place between 12 noon and 3pm, and the second between 4pm and 7pm.
BBC News
24-05-2025
- BBC News
'If I can save at least one child from knife crime then I'm happy'
A karate instructor running free street lessons after an increase in knife crime has said "if I can save at least one child then I'm happy". Shelim Ali, from Knowle, Bristol, first launched Knives Down Guards Up (KDGU) in 2023. Sessions have been held in various locations - including under the M32 flyover - with the next one taking place at Rawnsley Park in Easton at 14:00 46-year-old teaches basic self-defence, karate drills and awareness skills, while also encouraging attendees to talk to one another about their problems."The only way to prevent knife crime is to intervene early and try and do what we can to influence by implementing some style of discipline and focus," he said. Mr Ali - who has a black belt - has been teaching karate, delivering seminars and participating in competitions for almost 30 years. He grew up watching action films and was introduced to martial arts by his father, before joining Scorpion Karate Academy in Eastville as a teenager. He now works there as a senior instructor, working with about 60 students. The father-of-three said he first set up the KDGU initiative in September 2023 following a number of "very concerning" knife crime incidents in the included that of 19-year-old Eddie Kinuthia, Adam Ali Ibrahim and Mikey Roynon, a 16-year-old from Kingswood, who was fatally stabbed at a house party in Bath in June latest report from the Bristol Community Safety Partnership - published in January - found that there were 400 more crimes involving knives in the city in 2023/2024 compared to the previous year. Data showed that knives were used in 1,953 offences between April 2023 and March 2024. Despite the rise, there were relatively fewer violent crimes in the city compared to the rest of England, but the rate of violent crimes that caused injury per 1,000 population in Bristol was higher than London. The report did however note that the increase in offences with a knife coincided with "increased intensive police operations", resulting in more offences being logged. 'Enough is enough' Mr Ali said he considered waiting for funding or other community projects to offer help to young people, but concluded that "enough is enough" and took it upon himself to share his skills with youths who are "up against the real world".With the sessions all held outdoors, Mr Ali said this helps improve visibility as well as accessibility to the sessions - with young people often coming across them by chance."There's a lot going on in our city and sadly a lot of people are being misguided," he added."It starts off with 'hold this for me', 'can you take this to so and so's house' and next thing you know, they're carrying packages and they're involved in something that they shouldn't be involved in." KDGU was launched as a preventative measure, providing young people with the skills to recognise and respond to peer pressure and conflict, Mr Ali added that the response had been "amazing", with some of the youths developing a more positive recalled one student who was "very active and loud" when he first attended a KDGU session, but after a "calm approach" over the space of six weeks, Mr Ali saw a "huge difference" in the boy. "It's about small steps - you can't apply too much pressure on young people," he added.
