Plans for building a £90 million Bristol Arena have been granted planning consent, paving the way for the 12,000-seat venue and redevelopment of the wider site.

The new arena would be built on land former diesel depot site on Bath Road and is scheduled to open in 2018. This site is now known as Arena Island and forms part of the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone.

The 100,000 sq ft building will be split over four floors with the main entrance from a plaza to the north, accessed from a new bridge over the River Avon.

It has been suggested that the venue could hold up to 116 events each year of which about 20 would make use of the full capacity (10,000 seated and a further 2,000 standing). Up to 400 staff would be working at major events.

Proposals for the Arena Island site include 205,000 sq ft of retail, office and leisure space as well as a hotel, student accommodation and affordable housing.

Bouygues UK has been named as preferred bidder to build the arena, which has been designed by London Olympic Stadium architects’ firm Populous with Bath-based architects’ practice Feilden Clegg Bradley and engineering firm BuroHappold.

Bristol mayor, George Ferguson, has previously confirmed that that 65 per cent of the construction workforce will come from the region with at least a third of that coming from Bristol itself.