Purpose

Bristol City Council (BCC) is proposing to
construct the Bristol Regional Cycling Hub (BRCH) in Lawrence
Weston and Shirehampton, Bristol. A key component of the proposed
facility is a safe/secure and accessible operational/administrative
building which will incorporate offices, training/workshop areas,
toilets, shower rooms, changing facilities, as well as storage
space for operational assets.
BCC has appointed a professional services firm, AHR, to support
progression of architectural designs from RIBA Stage 2/RIBA Stage 3
to RIBA Stage 4 (‘construction ready designs’).
A key decision report was submitted to the Transport and
Connectivity Committee on 12 September 2024, and all four
recommendations in the report were approved by the Committee
including:
- Authorise the Executive Director Growth and Regeneration, in
consultation with the Chair of the Transport and Connectivity
Committee, to take all steps required to bid for, accept, and spend
CRSTS funding (inclusive of the recently awarded funding of
£813k) for procuring and awarding contracts for development
and delivery of the project, which may be over the key decision
threshold.
- The above recommendations will apply to other funding
opportunities that may arise during the project’s life cycle,
but the Committee will be updated on any such funding
opportunity.
The spend is essential to deliver the facility as set out in the
approved Outline Business Case, and the ODN relates to expenditure
of up to £300k for architectural services that are required
for designing the operational/administrative building. The
expenditure is covered by the circa £2.142m CRSTS funding
that has been approved to date by the West of England Combined
Authority (WECA) – comprising an initial grant of £813k
that was awarded in 2024 and additional grant of £1.329m that
was awarded in March 2025.

Content

Approval of this expenditure will enable
progression of the operational building’s architectural
designs and is in line with key decision of the Transport and
Connectivity Committee on 12 September 2024.

Alternative options considered

There is no alternative for this expenditure,
and it cannot be delayed because the CRSTS spending deadline is
March 2027 by which time this project needs to be delivered. If
this request is not approved, an integral component of the facility
(operational/administrative building) will not be delivered.