Today’s guest blog is written by Dan Deeks, MD of Motion Nightclub.
Motion brings more than 200,000 people to Bristol every year. It is a cultural hotspot that provides people with a place to lose their inhibitions and leave their daily worries behind. If you have visited our venue for one of our signature Drum & Bass or Techno Events you will understand the environment and what we do.
As in so many cases across the UK, Motion, our home, is under threat due to development near to the venue. Our concerns exist for many reasons. Many stem from the fact that Agent of Change, which could in theory offer protection, is a fairly new planning principal. Agent of change means that those bringing about a change take responsibility for its impact. In our case, it is the developers around us that are bringing change to the area.
That said, the question remains: if people moving in to new developments close to our venue complain about noise, are we adequately protected or could this still impact my business? The answer is yes. And it is this answer that has led me to campaign for something called Deed of Easement, which I believe would offer us stronger protection.
We want our venue to survive the changes going on around us, and think it can do. So, last week we submitted our Community Right to Bid application to Bristol City Council to make our intention clear that if our landlord decides to sell our building we want to buy it. This is a positive move for us, safeguarding jobs and valuable income to the local night time economy.
The Community Right to Bid allows communities to nominate buildings or land for listing by the local authority as an asset of community value. If the assets come up for sale, the community can ‘pause’ the sale and take up to six months to find the funding required to buy the asset.
The last few months of working to find a solution with developments next door have made me more determined than ever to keep going to protect our club and culture. I have always been highly focused on my role, which is very much away from the public eye. Seeing a lot of the comments from the public and customers have given the whole team so much drive.
Cllr Nicola Beech and Mayor Marvin Rees have supported us throughout our recent work, pushing through measures to protect us from new residents moving in and working out sensible solutions. I cannot express enough how important it is to support these people in the future. They are working to protect Bristol nightlife and expand it in the future. I am positive that with their support we will find the right solution.
Rave culture has been such a massive part of my life and for so many others. Please support our petition.