A city councillor left ‘bitterly disappointed’ that a wildlife haven is being built on in South Bristol has admitted ‘many mistakes have been made’ over the saga.
But Tim Rippington, a councillor in Brislington, is to write to Michael Gove and ask for a rethink - the Government minister has control over both the Planning Inspector who gave permission for 260 homes to be built on Brislington Meadows, and - ultimately - Homes England, the Government’s land agency that wants to build them.
The Labour councillor told people living near the meadows that while ‘many mistakes’ were made in the 14-year saga of Brislington Meadows, the biggest one would be bulldozing them for new homes.
Read next: Brislington Meadows WILL be built on after all as Government has final say
The fall out from the decision by planning inspector Owen Woodwards earlier this week has reverberated around Bristol, sparking another spat between previous and current elected mayors, and a blame game over who made those mistakes that will now lead to an area deemed vital for ecology by Avon Wildlife Trust being cut up for new roads and homes.
Cllr Rippington told residents ‘it could still be stopped’. “Many mistakes have been made over the last 14 years, of that there is no doubt,” he said in a post on social media to residents who have been fighting to save Brislington Meadows.
“But the biggest mistake of all will be to bulldoze the Meadows, and that hasn't yet happened. It could still be stopped, regardless of what the law and planning regulations say. There is still time for the government to change its mind. I will be writing to Michael Gove to personally plead that he reconsiders the position of the Meadows and puts himself on the right side of history,” he added.
“We are bitterly disappointed that the Planning Inspectorate has allowed Homes England to build on Brislington Meadows - an ecologically-important, wildlife-rich meadow that is loved and used by the local community,” he added in a joint statement with fellow Labour councillor for Brislington East, Katja Hornchen. “We, alongside residents, believe that Brislington Meadows’ ecological values far outweigh the benefits of building houses there and we made this view clear to the Planning Inspectorate.
“This is not only our view but the view of Bristol City Council as a whole. We have declared an ecological emergency and, recognising the value of the meadows, have removed the site from the emerging Local Plan following its inclusion by our predecessors in 2014 – instead including alternative brownfield sites to make up for lost housing.
“As local councillors we have opposed the proposals alongside Mayor Marvin Rees and Kerry McCarthy MP, based on the ecological evidence provided by the likes of Avon Wildlife Trust. Sadly, Homes England and the Planning Inspectorate have chosen to side-line local democracy and impose this development on us against the will of the city,” he added.
The blame game
When the decision was announced by the Planning Inspector, the mayor of Bristol tweeted that he was ‘deeply disappointed’ that the plans had been approved. “This wildlife haven needs protection,” he wrote. “Homes England’s plans are at odds with my administration’s efforts to save the site from my predecessor’s 2014 Local Plan.”
That predecessor - former mayor of Bristol George Ferguson wasn’t happy with that. “Snakes in the grass?” he replied. “I was sworn to stop this while you did all you could to enable it! Yes we need homes but not at the expense of our precious bio-diversity. Whatever happened to Bristol’s great green credentials,” added Mr Ferguson.
It turns out they are both right. Or both wrong, depending on how charitable you are.
The main - and pretty much only - reason the Planning Inspector granted planning permission for 260 homes on Brislington Meadows, even though the city council had refused it, was because the site was and still is included in the Local Plan, the map which earmarks which bits of Bristol can be built on in the future.
That Local Plan was created and established in 2014, voted on at City Hall and approved by a majority of councillors from all parties, and ultimately signed off by the city’s then elected mayor, Mr Ferguson.
The Planning Inspector ruled that, even though building homes on Brislington Meadows would be detrimental to a place teeming with wildlife, it was outweighed by Bristol’s need for more houses and the fact the site was in the 2014 Local Plan.
But when Cllr Rippington talked about ‘many mistakes’, he didn’t just mean that one. For Mr Ferguson wasn’t the only elected mayor to facilitate the building of new homes on Brislington Meadows.
Mr Rees was elected in 2016 on a manifesto of getting more homes built. The land there in Brislington was mostly owned by a London-based property company, with the city council itself owning some of the land around the edges, which gave access to the site. By 2019, the council couldn’t persuade that London company to get cracking on building the homes the council’s housing chiefs wanted so, rather than wait for the land-banking Olympia & Hammersmith to get around to developing the Meadows, Mr Rees’ administration made a deal happen.
The council wanted to buy the land from Olympia & Hammersmith but that would be expensive. So the council persuaded Homes England, the Government’s land and development agency, to front up the money. Homes England paid roughly £15 million to buy all the land needed, giving around £12 million to O&H and around £3 million to the city council for its bit.
In return, the agreement was that Homes England would then do the developing, and drew up plans for 300 homes - 100 of them council homes - to be built there, in 2020 and into early 2021.
Then, 20 days before the mayoral and local councillor elections, Mr Rees announced a sudden U-turn. Flanked by Labour’s local MP Kerry McCarthy and the two local Labour candidates, the mayor told Bristol, and Homes England, that he’d changed his mind. No homes would be built there, he announced.
The mayor had been persuaded of the site’s importance by Avon Wildlife Trust, which had partnered the council in drawing up the announcement of an ecological emergency, and subsequent emergency response plan.
The announcement was made, and Homes England suddenly found itself in possession of what might end up being Britain’s most expensive nature reserve. It had paid £15 million for some fields on the instruction of a mayor who wanted houses built on it, but who now said he didn’t.
Homes England went away and waited a few months, then came back with a slightly reduced plan - 260 new homes. It cited the Local Plan 2014, which was and is still in force, and its position was clear - that Local Plan trumped any announcement from a politician, especially one who 12 months earlier had persuaded them to buy the land in the first place.
The announcement in October 2021 of new plans by Homes England prompted consternation in Brislington, not least from Cllr Rippington. He appeared not to have realised the announcement he was part of in April 2021 was not the final word on the matter, and said he'd been let down by the mayor.
He assumed - wrongly, it turned out - that when his Labour mayor announced there would be no homes built on Brislington Meadows back in April 2021, Mr Rees had not only told Homes England it was coming, but got Homes England to agree to that. He also appeared to accuse the Labour hierarchy of misleading him - of telling him they had the power to stop new homes being built there, when they didn't.
“I assumed that this decision had been made in negotiation with Homes England, based on the impossibility of bringing forward a suitable plan for the area that would meet all the ecological restrictions,” he said at the time.
“However, I found out almost immediately that Homes England did not know that the announcement was forthcoming, and no such agreement was in place.
“Some people questioned whether the council had the power to stop the development, but I was informed on many occasions that it did – that it would be removed from the Local Plan and its future as meadows would be secured permanently.
“Since then, I have continued to raise this issue with cabinet colleagues and the mayor’s office and have always been reassured that the development would not go ahead, that the council had the power to stop it,” he said at the time.
The final act came last year and into this year. Homes England applied for planning permission and didn’t even wait for Bristol City Council to refuse it, before it went straight to the Government’s own Planning Inspector to appeal. A public inquiry was held, and the inspector decided that it was Mr Ferguson’s Local Plan that still mattered the most, despite what Mr Rees said now.
Read Next: As it happened, the Brislington Meadows saga, a timeline:
April 2020 - Council persuades Homes England to buy the land
Oct 2021 - Homes England return with new plans for 260 homes
April 2022 - Planning application for homes on Brislington Meadows
June 2022 - March to save greenspace that the Mayor said wouldn't be built on
August 2022 - Roman glass factory discovered at controversial site
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