Charity to run the Coach House for St Pauls community

The Coach House in St Pauls, Bristol

A charity is planning to refurbish and take control over an enterprise centre after a community asset transfer.

Bristol City Council will transfer the Coach House, on Upper York Street, to the Black South West Network.

The group leased the building since May 2021 and uses it to provide workspace and business support to black, Asian and ethnic minority communities.

The charity was praised by council leaders, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Kalpna Woolf, the founder of two local initiatives aiming to "empower communities and deliver inclusion", said that the Coach House plans would benefit many people across Bristol.

"The Coach House has already begun to achieve so much.

"There is nothing in the city which provides this and which feels inviting and inclusive."

Community asset transfers involve the council giving local people the right to run centres like the Coach House.

Other recent examples include the Redcatch Community Garden, Filwood Community Centre, Jacobs Wells Baths, and St George Community Centre.

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees said: "Part of our job is to find good people who want to get good stuff done, and invest in them and allow them to lead.

"It disperses that sovereignty and leadership across the city, outside of this organisation."