Bristol Council approves property development threatening Thekla’s future

Bristol City Council has approved property development plans for building homes, offices and leisure space 150 metres from music venue Thekla, voting in favour in a ten to one majority.

The future of the beloved spot is now in doubt, with Thekla’s owners labelling the noise assessment carried out by Complex Development Projects as “woefully inaccurate”.

In a statement about the decision, Thekla wrote on Facebook: "We are disappointed that despite our compelling arguments for a deferral of this decision until a suitable and sufficient noise survey can be conducted, this development in its current proposal is going forward

"We appeal to the developer to keep to the promise they made in this hearing to work with us on a new noise survey and then liaise with us on improved sound insulation scheme to protect Thekla and their future residents against noise problems."

Development director Gary Hale told the Bristol Post that closing down Thekla is "the last thing we want to do."

He added: "There is a lot of noise generated around the development site, including the bells of St Mary Church, ambient noise including traffic and even the units which are going to be built underneath the flats, so they will be soundproofed to a high level. We believe we can address all the issues raised by Thekla, so they need not worry."

Complex Development Projects reportedly paid Bristol City Council £777,000 for the land, a sum that was labelled as “peanuts” by the planning committee. Concerns about the low number of affordable flats in the development (three out of 36) have also been raised.

[Via: RA]

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Staff Writer, follow him on Twitter