Councillors have made a shock U-turn to reject plans for a cafe on The Downs, just three years after granting permission. Bristol City Council’s development management committee voted 5-4 against allowing the existing toilet block to be demolished and replaced with a glass and timber-fronted single-storey building, despite officers recommending approval and warning refusal would not withstand an appeal.
Members said they feared the development, near the Sea Walls off Circular Road, could be a “slippery slope” and set a precedent at the beauty spot. They were also concerned that the new building’s “footprint” would be much larger than the existing 1950s loos. The application, from The Downs Committee, was resubmitted because the existing planning consent from March 2019, for an almost identical cafe, education booth and replacement toilets, expired three weeks ago.
It attracted 58 objections, including from ward councillors, the Open Spaces Society and CPRE, The Countryside Charity, and 16 letters of support. Committee member Green Cllr Lorraine Francis told the planning committee on Wednesday evening (April 6): “We are getting into a situation where green spaces are being commercialised.
Read more: The Downs cafe plans set for approval despite dozens of objections
“Once we start erecting permanent buildings – outside of a toilet which has been there for a long time – then the next thing you know we are building and building. So I’m a bit concerned about developing protected green spaces into commercial use and where it’s leading to and if you set a precedent. This is going down a slippery slope.
“What happens if no one uses the cafe? You’re left with this elephant in the middle of the green space.” The council’s head of development control Gary Collins replied: “A decision on one application doesn’t set a precedent for another. This wouldn’t provide a green light to any other proposal.”
He said the application should be approved because it met criteria that allowed exceptions for developments that were “ancillary” to existing protected open space. “The reasonableness of a refusal, given the lack of any real change in the circumstances and the recent expiry of the planning permission, it would be an unusual decision to make and one that probably would not stand up at appeal,” Mr Collins said.
“The existence of that recent permission is something we recommend you give significant weight to.” Members heard that since the 2019 decision, a government inspector had approved the necessary consent for the development on common land, which has no time limit, and that the cafe was required to help the Downs Committee meet the £15,000 costs of maintaining public toilets.
Tory Cllr Richard Eddy said he was on the committee three years ago that was “overwhelmingly convinced it was a decent scheme” which remained the case. He said: “If anything, post-Covid, the demand to open these green lungs for the people of Bristol is even more vibrant, so I urge members to vote for this.”
Labour Cllr Fabian Breckels said: “If there have been no significant material changes since the last time this was granted, we’re going to be on very thin ice if we refuse this now and we then find we get absolutely rinsed at planning appeal. Aesthetically the new building is an improvement on the old. The old toilet block looks quite hideous and almost unsafe.
“I don’t think this will suddenly increase the number of people who come to the Downs. No one is going to drive or take two or three buses because there’s a new cafe there, but if people are already visiting on a regular basis, it’s going to enhance their experience. I don’t think, appeal wise, we would have a leg to stand on.”
Green Cllr Guy Poultney said it would be great to have more toilets and information boards on the Downs but they were already there. “So what I’m left with is the cafe. Do I feel the cafe would be ancillary? Ish. But a bigger cafe might be more ancillary. A restaurant might be even more ancillary than that,” he said.
“When you start going down that road, where do you stop if you’re just building things to make money to facilitate the things that are ancillary? The balance hasn’t quite been struck with me, so I don’t think it’s quite worth it.”
Green Cllr Ani Stafford-Townsend, who chairs the committee, said: “I was quite excited by this because I love a public toilet and I like being able to use a toilet when I’m on the Downs. However, I’m not convinced why it needs to double its footprint to have this.” Susan Carter, of the Open Spaces Society, told members: “These toilets don’t require replacing, they’re perfectly usable.
“The Downs Committee has lost its statutory purpose in putting forward this proposal. It’s not there to run toilets. We look to this (planning) committee to show that it has a better grasp of what makes the Downs so wonderful by refusing this application.” Councillors voted to defer the application for officers to bring back a report detailing reasons that could justify refusal, as per council procedure where members are minded to reject plans against officers’ advice.
