Plans to boost lives of children in Bristol » Local Government » 24dash.com

An ambitious proposal for a state-of-the-art complex to boost the life chances of hundreds of children in the St Paul's area of Bristol is expected to get support in principle from the city council's Cabinet next week (January 10th 2008).

The proposed £10.5 million scheme would aim to provide a new Cabot Primary School with increased capacity for 420 pupils - plus a Children's Centre to provide care for young children, specialist support for their parents and carers and potentially even a new family doctor's surgery.

The project is envisaged as part of the Dove Lane regeneration programme, being taken forward by a consortium of two leading developers working with local interest groups.

The complex's successful delivery would be subject to community consultation and the commercial viability of the wider Dove Lane scheme and its securing planning permission.

At its meeting, the Cabinet are being recommended to give their backing to the idea and authorise council officers to work with the Dove Lane Consortium and the Bristol Local Education Partnership to develop designs and firm up costs.

Current thinking is that the complex could be a four storey building utilising the latest architectural solutions being successfully delivered in London and other leading European cities where multi-use complexes have been created on relatively small building sites. The design could even include an innovative roof-level play area.

Current estimates suggest that up to £4.5 million of the costs would come from the council's capital programme with the remainder coming from land sales and section 106 planning agreements connected with the wider Dove Lane regeneration scheme.

If planning approvals are secured and supporting commercial development can go ahead, the aim is to complete the project by 2013 at the latest - although every effort will be made to deliver a scheme by 2010.

Cllr Derek Pickup, Executive Member for Children's Services, said: “This is a very exciting, ambitious and innovative proposal and it's got my full backing.

"It won't be an easy scheme to deliver and there are many issues that still need to be resolved. But if we can pull this off we will make a significant difference to the life chances of children in one of our city's most disadvantaged areas.

“ By giving support in principle to this scheme the Cabinet would be demonstrating its commitment to tackling social and educational disadvantage in an part of our city where many people are from the African and African Caribbean communities.

"That's exactly the kind of thing that the Abolition 200 steering group, whose report we will also be discussing at our meeting, is urging us to do.“