A wildlife-rich meadow in South Bristol will have 260 new homes built on it after a Government planning inspector overturned a decision at City Hall to stop the development.
Planning inspector Owen Woodwards said the need for new homes in Bristol ‘significantly outweighed’ the loss of habitats and trees and hedgerows at Brislington Meadows, and because the land was still officially listed by the council as a place to build new homes, he has given it planning permission.
Mayor Marvin Rees said he was ‘deeply disappointed’ by the decision and said the plans are ‘at odds with my administration’s efforts to save the site from my predecessor’s 2014 Local Plan’.
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Local residents who formed a ‘Save the Brislington Meadows’ campaign group said they were ‘beyond disappointed’. “Unfortunately the planning inspector decided to be on the wrong side of history and allow Homes England to destroy our beloved meadow,” a spokesperson for the campaign said.
“We are beyond disappointed that democracy was ignored and we are looking at our options moving forward. Thanks for your support,” they added.
The Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, posed with local MP Kerry McCarthy and Labour’s two local council candidates in April 2021 when the announcement was made that the council had switched from trying to get homes built there to wanting no homes built on the land.
Today, the mayor tweeted: “Deeply disappointed to see the Government approve plans to build on Brislington Meadows – this wildlife haven needs protection. Homes England's plans are at odds with my administration's efforts to save the site from my predecessor’s 2014 Local Plan.”
Bristol Tree Forum said they too were ‘deeply disappointed’, and thanked the mayor and the city council for the ‘valiant efforts’ to protect the land.
“We are deeply disappointed this precious green space, filled with important habitat including exceptional trees and Important rare, historic hedgerows is being sacrificed to housing,” said a spokesperson for Bristol Tree Forum group. “We thank Marvin Rees and council officers for their valiant attempt to reverse this disaster - one that was created back in 2014 when this SNCI, and six others, where allocated for development despite protests from the local community at the time,” they added.
“We must fight to try to save the SNCIs that are still threatened with development. The council has the power to reverse this both by passing a resolution now to correct the SNCI maps on the LP Policies Map and, with the LP review, by removing them altogether as Site Allocations,” they added.
The planning inspector’s ruling pointed out that the 2014 Local Plan, which was signed off by previous mayor George Ferguson and his cabinet, allocated the land at Brislington Meadows to have 300 new homes built on them.
That Local Plan is still in force, up until the point when a new Local Plan is brought in - and that process takes years. The Planning Inspectorate said that while there would be ‘harms’ to the environment from building new homes there, the need for new homes and the fact that it’s still official council policy to build homes there, trumps that.
“I have found conflicts with regard to character and appearance, and with regard to aged trees,” said Mr Woodwards. “There would also be further harms with regard to loss of trees and hedgerows, ecology and loss of open space and recreation. However, I place limited weight on these factors because they must be seen in the context of the site allocation. It therefore follows that the proposal accords with the Development Plan read as a whole,” he said.
“The benefits of the proposal significantly outweigh the harms and there are no material considerations that would indicate my decision should be made otherwise,” he added.
The Saga of Brislington Meadows
The saga of Brislington Meadows became a huge issue in South Bristol - and a political football at City Hall and beyond, over the last three years.
It was included as a site to build new houses by George Ferguson’s administration in 2014 and, for the first few years of Marvin Rees’ administration from 2016, council chiefs were keen to see new homes built there.
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
There was a stumbling block, because some of the land was owned by Bristol City Council and most was owned by a London-based property firm, who were slow to work with the council to get homes built between 2016 and 2020. Eventually, Marvin Rees’ Labour administration persuaded the Government’s house-building agency Homes England to spend upwards of £15 million buying the land from everyone who owned it - including Bristol City Council - to speed up development.
But within a year of persuading Homes England to buy the land and start proposing 300 new homes there - of which 100 would be council homes - the Mayor of Bristol had a change of heart.
Just 20 days before the delayed 2021 council and mayoral election, Mr Rees announced he would make sure no new homes would ever be built there, and he would take the land out of the Local Plan and keep it as meadows.
That decision stunned Homes England, who had just spent £15 million buying it after being asked to by the mayor. They pressed on with their plans - albeit a slightly smaller-scale plan for 260 new homes. When Bristol City Council’s planning department failed to make a decision on Homes England’s planning application in time, they went to appeal.
City council planners eventually did say they’d refuse permission, and that meant one Government department (Homes England) appealed to another (the Planning Inspectorate) to make a decision.
A planning inquiry was held in Bristol in January, and the decision has now been made, and planning permission has been granted.
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