The battle over whether one of the last remaining bits of leftover farmland in South Bristol should be built on is hotting up with two different environmental organisations disagreeing on the damage 260 houses will do.
Avon Wildlife Trust has submitted a formal objection to the plans for a new housing estate on Brislington Meadows, which was farmland left over when the council estate at Broomhill and the Brislington Trading Estate was built around it more than 50 years ago.
But Natural England, the Government’s statutory body responsible for preserving nature sites, has said they don’t have any objections to the plan for new housing - which has been submitted by the Government’s own house-building body, Homes England.
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A third branch of the Government will now actually decide the plan - the Government’s Planning Inspectorate, who is due to hold a two-week public inquiry into the issue, starting on the last day of January. People now have until the end of Monday - November 28 - to submit their objections or letters of support for the proposal to build 260 homes on Brislington Meadows, and some of the late submissions already made this week could play a big part in the final decision.
Ben Jones, from Natural England, said there was nothing special enough about Brislington Meadows for new homes not to be built there. In Natural England’s submission raising no objections, he said: “Based on the plans submitted, Natural England considers that the proposed development will not have significant adverse impacts on statutorily protected nature conservation sites or landscapes.”
But Avon Wildlife Trust disagree. Their objection to the Government’s planning inspector said the area of fields, hedges, copses and meadows was an important wildlife haven. “We do not oppose all housing development in the city, but seek to ensure that where development does happen, nature is fully taken into account, with habitats integrated into high quality design or created elsewhere to deliver an overall gain for nature,” their objection stated.
“There are though, sites in the city that are so important for nature that they should not be developed. We believe that Brislington Meadows is one of these. Brislington Meadows is important for a number of reasons: it is a valuable habitat for wildlife designated as a Site of Nature Conservation Importance for its rich grassland habitats, it gives local people access to nature, it provides key ‘ecosystem services’, reducing flooding and supporting water quality in Brislington Brook (which rises on the site) and downstream in the River Avon and Bristol City Centre as recognised in the West of England Nature Partnership's State of Environment mapping
“We do not believe that it will be possible to maintain the ecological value of Brislington Meadows, whilst developing the site for housing. Brislington Meadows should continue to be recognised as a valuable local wildlife site and protected from development,” they added.
Homes England, the Government’s housing and land agency, are the owners of the land at Brislington Meadows, only because Bristol City Council asked them to buy it for £15 million so that it could be built on. The land there - and other key battleground sites in South Bristol - were included in the 2014 Local Plan for future housebuilding.
But just 11 months later and just before the 2021 council and mayoral election, the Mayor of Bristol announced he’d changed his mind - after lobbying by Avon Wildlife Trust - and said that new homes should not be built on it at all, leaving Homes England with what could be one of Britain’s most expensive nature reserves.
Homes England pressed on with their housing plans, submitted an application for 260 homes instead of the original plans for 300, sparked fury among local residents who had fought the plans for development for more than ten years. Council planners did not decide on the application within the legal maximum time so last month, Homes England didn’t wait for the plan to be turned down by council planners and instead appealed to a different Government department - the Planning Inspectorate - to judge the project itself.
More than 700 people have objected to Homes England’s plans and those objections, along with the council’s own case, will be heard by a Government planning inspector at a planning inquiry in the first couple of weeks of February next year.
Read Next: As it happened, the Brislington Meadows Scandal
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
