Work has finally begun to build a long awaited ice rink for Bristol.
The rink is part of a major development being built at Cribbs Causeway on land at the entrance to The Venue where Vue Cinema is located.
It will include an indoor skydiving and indoor skiing complex as well as a coffee drive-thru and a hotel and car showroom.
Developer Baylis Estates has now started construction on the first phase of the development, which includes the ice rink and coffee drive-thru as well as the associated access, infrastructure, car parking and landscaping.
The steel frame of some aspects of the development have already started to take shape at the site off Merlin Road and there are signs advertising Costa Coffee.
According to Baylis Estates the planned opening date for the complex is May 2020 - less than a year away.
The ice rink will be the first to open in the Bristol area since the Frogmore Street rink closed back in 2012 and will become home to the Bristol Pitbulls ice hockey team, along with hosting public skating sessions.
It will be a standard indoor ice rink with capacity for 1,300 spectators.
The second phase of development will see the construction of the hotel, retail space, car showroom and a further car park.
The mammoth development will cover almost two football pitches worth of land.
The long-awaited scheme was formally granted planning permission in April 2017 , and it was hoped the development would open the following year.
However, the main construction of the facility had yet to begin and the developers confirmed in March last year that they need to submit an amendment to the original planning application surrounding 'material alterations' in order to get the project up and running.
The plans were finally given the go ahead in October.
