Construction work on Bristol’s delayed £200m Sporting Quarter is expected to start next year following the dismissal of a judicial review in the High Court.
The scheme, pictured, close to Ashton Gate Stadium – home to Bristol City Football Club and the Bristol Bears rugby club – will include a 5,000-capacity multi-purpose arena and convention centre, which would also provide a permanent home for the Bristol Flyers basketball club. 
In addition, the development plans include a four-star hotel, flats, offices and multi-storey car park.
The court ruling has been warmly welcomed by the Bristol hotel bosses, who say it give the city’s leisure offering a much-needed boost and have a positive impact on the hospitality sector following a series of knock-backs over recent years.
Waste management company ETM Contractors had opposed Bristol City Council’s decision to grant outline planning permission for more than 500 homes, behind the company’s waste treatment works at Ashton Vale.
The challenge had halted the sale of the development land, owned by Bristol Sport owner Steve Lansdown CBE, and prevented work from starting on the Sporting Quarter as the developments were interlinked.
Mr Justice Lavender, sitting in the High Court, dismissed ETM Contractors’ application for a judicial review into the council’s decision to award planning permission.
Kary Withers, partner in the Bristol property litigation team at national law firm Clarke Willmott, for the prospective developer Esteban Investments.
She said: “In what the Judge described as an ‘unusual case’, I am absolutely delighted that the decision dismissing the Judicial Review claim will now help unlock this substantial development.
“Not only will it provide much needed new homes – many of them affordable – but it will also give rise to a new sport and convention centre, plus commercial space, that will help to regenerate this part of my home city.”
Martin Griffiths, Chairman of Ashton Gate Stadium, added: “I’m delighted that the ruling in the High Court means that two very significant development projects for Bristol can finally be restarted and hope to break ground next year.
“It has been hugely frustrating to have these multi-million-pound investments into South Bristol so delayed.
“With significant support from our legal teams at Clarke Willmott and Landmark Chambers we’re delighted, following Judge Lavender’s dismissal of the case, to be able to pick up where we left off a year ago.”
Bristol Hoteliers Association chair Raphael Herzog said: “These plans were first unveiled in 2018 and we’re delighted that the recent High Court ruling means that things can start moving forward and some top-class new facilities can be created in the south of the city.
“With the 19,000 capacity YTL Arena in the north of the city – the fourth largest UK venue – expected to be up and running by 2027, and potentially generating 300,000 ‘bed nights’, there is cause to be extremely optimistic about the future of Bristol’s hospitality sector.
“The past few years have been extremely challenging, coping with the fall-out from Brexit, the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.
“We’ve been left disappointed by successive Government budgets, which have not given our sector the support we have been calling out for.
“But it’s not all doom and gloom, with these two developments alone signifying significant investment which will inevitably have a positive impact on existing hospitality providers in the city.
“We can’t wait for these new developments to be realised and for Bristol’s appeal as a go-to destination to be massively increased.
“Business is still tough in the current climate, but there is definitely cause for optimism. The dismissal of the legal challenge to the Ashton Gate Sporting Quarter means there is a brightening light at the end of a long tunnel for the city’s hospitality sector.”
