Campaigners fighting to reverse the closure of Bristol Zoo say they are still confident they can force a change of heart from bosses at the famous Bristol attraction.
The ‘Save Bristol Zoo’ campaigners are marching from Clifton Triangle up to the iconic zoo site this morning, Sunday, March 12, and claim there is still time to save it.
The march comes in the week the zoo, which closed to the public last September, confirmed its two lions had been moved to a sanctuary in Kent, and had been scheduled to take place a few days before a key meeting of councillors that could seal the zoo’s fate - but this has now been postponed.
Read next: Save Bristol Zoo protest march ahead of planning D-Day
The campaigners are questioning Bristol’s Zoo reasons for closing the zoo and concentrating its work on the Wild Place Project site outside of the city, near junction 17 of the M5. The zoo is funding the move and all the work that needs to take place there by selling off much of the zoo site in Clifton for housing development.
But the zoo has not yet obtained planning permission for the scheme to build 220 flats on the site, and the decision was due to be made at a council meeting this coming Wednesday, March 15.
The meeting was due to also make decisions on two other key applications in Bristol - to build flats on the Baltic Wharf caravan park and to demolish the entire Broadwalk Shopping Centre in Knowle and build a new ‘Redcatch Quarter’ development of 850 flats. But, after the Broadwalk Shopping Centre decision was postponed, and there were flooding concerns over the caravan park site, the entire meeting has been cancelled, and it will be at least another few weeks, perhaps even months, before the zoo application is decided by councillors.
The council decision is seen by the Save Bristol Zoo campaigners as a key step in stopping the zoo’s plans and forcing a rethink - if councillors refuse to give permission then it could prompt the zoo bosses to consider alternative options for the site.
Last year, the zoo’s closure prompted a separate campaign to turn the zoo site into an ‘augmented reality zoo’ attraction, utilising Bristol’s two leading creative industries - animation and wildlife documentary-making.
That plan has not yet come to anything, with the zoo itself set on getting planning permission, and moving to an improved Wild Place site. But the news that the two lions that had been a major attraction at the Clifton site were on their way to Kent was a double-edged sword for Save Bristol Zoo campaigners.
On the one hand, they said it reinforced their claims that Bristol Zoo wasn’t moving to the Wild Place and was simply shutting down and being sold off for housing. Much of the Save Bristol Zoo’s message has been their claims that only two large mammals would be moving to Wild Place - the gorillas and the black-eyed lemur.
But on the other hand, the departure of the lions from the zoo site in Clifton is another step towards creating an empty zoo that will be even harder to justify restocking with animals and reopening.
Bristol Zoo has responded to the allegations that their message that they are moving to Wild Place is ‘just spin’, and last week published a full list of all the animal species that are moving to Wild Place.
But the campaigners claim they are in touch with employees and former members of the committees that run the zoo, and say there is ‘growing anger and concern’ at the move and the way the decision was taken.
“According to the unhappy team at the Zoo, only a tiny percentage of the animals will be able to move to The Wild Place in South Gloucestershire – there is no money to build appropriate enclosures and much less land available for them than we have been told,” claimed Tom Jones, the co-founder of the Save Bristol Zoo Garden Campaign.
“All of the rest have been or will be distributed to other Zoos, IF places can be found. Of the large mammals, only two species will be moved – gorillas and blue-eyed black lemur. There is no plan,” he added.
His fellow co-founder is Alastair Sawday. “It is unthinkable that this beautiful and iconic place, loved by generations of Bristolians, should be consigned to destruction on the basis of a secret plan and with no public consultation,” he said.
Read more: List of animals moving from Bristol Zoo to the Wild Place
“The Planning Committee will meet to decide, and we call on all Bristolians to act NOW to stop this madness. Object to the Zoo’s planning application. Bristol needs time and open discussion to plan a future for Bristol Zoo Gardens that takes all options and all views into account,” he added.
Bristol Zoo maintains its position that its future lies at the Wild Place, where it will be better placed to focus on its conservation mission, and its stance is that the decision has been made, the zoo is already closed and the only focus now is on what is going to happen at the Wild Place.
Last month, the zoo released CGI images of some of its plans for how the visitor attraction will look, and chief executive Dr Justin Morris said: “We’re excited to share these images of the new Bristol Zoo. They show how animals will have the space to thrive and future generations will come face-to-face with amazing animals in nature, as well as learn more about our charity’s critical conservation and education work to protect at-risk species and habitats.”
Brian Zimmerman, director of conservation and science at Bristol Zoological Society, which owns and operates Wild Place Project and Bristol Zoo Gardens, said: “We’ve developed our animal species plan so that we can really focus our resources on animals that most need our help and maximise the impact we make to the conservation of wildlife.”
The society says it has developed its animal species plan to focus its resources on 76 species most in need of protection using a number of tools, such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which produces the Red List of globally-threatened species. BZS carries out conservation projects on four continents. Species under threat in these areas will also form part of its plan.
The march is due to set off this morning from outside the Victoria Rooms, and march to the zoo, where a rally calling for it to be reopened will be held.
Read more on Bristol Zoo:
- Campaign launched to 'save Bristol Zoo'
- Save Bristol Zoo protest march ahead of planning D-Day
- Bristol Zoo's new look revealed for the first time in CGIs
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