Developers look to build on popularity of hit film to engage with children

THE area around Bristol Temple Meads was recreated in a Minecraft world costing taxpayers £5,000 to help children learn about a regeneration project.

- Alex SEABROOK Local democracy reporter

Children in primary schools across the city were told about the plans for the Bristol Temple Quarter project using the video game, whose movie spin-off starring Jack Black, inset, has proved a hit in the cinema this year.

The Temple Quarter regeneration scheme will include 10,000 new homes and space for 22,000 jobs in the land around the city's main train station. In March, councillors complained they had been left in the dark about progress, as a master-plan has not been made public.

However, children in 15 primary schools in Bristol have been given a chance to get updates, and even inform the design work by “building something” in the Minecraft world. The Temple Quarter team worked with the University of the West of England on the school workshops.