Plans for 650 new homes in one corner of Bedminster have been proposed in two different applications along the Malago Road.
The first has been unveiled by developers Watkin Jones, who are emerging as the second major developer of the ‘Bedminster Green’ regeneration project on either side of the main A38 road through Bedminster.
And the second are new plans to demolish the former Selco builders’ merchants site at the end of Malago Road, and build up to 220 new flats next to the railway line and the St John’s Lane bridge.
Read more: Bristol City Council and traders in bid to 'save' East Street as roadworks continue
Watkin Jones’ new plan is for the narrow strip of land on the south side of Malago Road between the road and the railway line - land that used to be the home to Jasper Thompson’s Help Bristol’s Homeless shipping container project.
The developer has bought the land and also bought another key site that form two of the five Bedminster Green plots, which could be about to bring 2,000-plus new homes to a small area of Bedminster.
The Malago Road site is the former Pring & St Hill engineering works, whose factory closed in 2003 and was demolished in 2009. Ever since then, there have been plans to build flats on the site. The most recent plan for the site was one proposed by developers a2Dominion, who wanted to build blocks of student accommodation for up to 550 students, along with 40 separate affordable homes.
That plan, which would have seen blocks of flats up to 12 storeys high, was refused by council planners and again by Government planning inspectors on appeal in April 2021.
You can read more about the plans, and why the Government planning inspector turned them down, here.
The new owners, Watkin Jones, have returned with fresh plans. They want to build accommodation blocks for 432 students, and said they have ‘listened to the community’s concerns’ about those previous proposals. Government planning inspectors agreed with councillors that the a2 Dominion plan was too big and over-developed the narrow site.
Tony Garner, the development director for build-to-rent specialist Watkin Jones, said the new proposals will reduce the number of buildings from four to three, and they won’t be quite as tall either, with the number of students living there reducing from the original 550 to 432.
“This is an opportunity to transform a disused brownfield site to support lowering student demand for local housing, as well as boost the wider investment in Bedminster,” he said. “We estimate that this development would generate up to £2.4 million a year in student spending that could reinvigorate and support local businesses on East Street and across the rest of Bedminster.
“We’ve chosen to give a significant part of the site to open up access to the River Malago for the local community and create new public spaces that everyone could enjoy, as well as paying for improvements to local roads.
“We have really listened to, and acted on, what people said during previous consultation exercises and public meetings. This is why we’re proposing a much smaller scheme with a look and feel that will match the wider Bedminster Green regeneration site. This is a new beginning for the site, and we will keep listening, which is why we want to hear people’s views before submitting a planning application,” he added.
The Pring & St Hill site is known as ‘Plot 1’ of the five Bedminster Green plots. In March this year, Watkin Jones also bought another of those five, known as Plot 3, further up the A38 at Dalby Avenue, on the site of the old NCP car park opposite the back of Iceland.
That site already has planning permission for more than 830 student rooms in a huge development that was brandished ‘Soviet-looking’ when the previous owners submitted a range of artists’ impressions of what it would look like from various vantage points, including Victoria Park, East Street and Bedminster station.
The owners, Deeley Freed - who are now embarking on the demolition and regeneration of The Galleries Shopping Centre instead - sold the NCP car park site at Dalby Avenue to Watkin Jones in March this year.
“Bristol is a great city with top universities, so it is no surprise that more people want to study there,” said Watkin Jones’ chief investment officer Alex Pease, at the time. “Deeley Freed has taken a fantastic scheme through planning, and we are really excited to be able to take it forward and expand our relationship with the University of Bristol.
“We expect to see huge demand from both residents, and investors, who are consistently seeking the best placed accommodation close to universities that are experiencing strong growth,” he added.
Work has already begun clearing the old NCP car park site, and archaeologists unearthed the footprint of one of Bedminster’s most secretive companies, the Capper Pass & Sons smelting works, earlier this year.
The new plans and new acquisitions now mean that two of the five Bedminster Green sites are being developed by Watkin Jones for students - with a total of 1,269 students eventually living on this 300-yard stretch of the road.
Next steps for Malago Road
Watkin Jones haven’t yet submitted a formal planning application with Bristol City Council for the Pring & St Hill site, and first are planning a community consultation.
They are holding an in-person consultation event at the Bedminster Methodist Church on British Road from 3pm to 7pm on Monday, July 25, and have also set up a website for people to find out more and have their say.
The developers said that, as well as the hundreds of new student flats, the scheme would ‘open up a new route for people to enjoy the restored Malago riverfront and a public park accessible to the broader community. There wouldn’t be any car parking for the students who live on the site - apart from three disabled car parking spaces with EV charging - but there would be storage for 116 bikes.
Bedminster’s brownfield sites are becoming popular with the developers of student flats - there are plans for 52 more rooms on the now-closed Paramount car dealership site in West Street - because Bedminster station and Parson Street Station will be able to take students straight in to the new University of Bristol campus at Temple Quarter, by train to Temple Meads.
After Deeley Freed won planning permission to build up to 837 student flats at Dalby Avenue, Bristol University entered into a 15-year lease for the development - now owned and being built by Watkin Jones - as an official student accommodation for the university.
The Selco site
The builders’ merchants Selco announced it was to move from a site on Sheene Way at the end of Malago Road in November 2020 to a new site on the Caters Industrial Estate in Bishopsworth, and the site and its car park has been empty ever since.
Bristol Live reported in February this year that developers PG Group had plans for up to 220 new flats on the Selco site.
Now, the PG Group has moved a step nearer submitting a formal planning application for that site, and said they have entered into a ‘Planning Performance Agreement’ for the site.
They are holding a drop-in consultation day, again at the Methodist Church on British Road, on Tuesday next week, July 26, from 4.45pm to 7pm.
The developers said they will take the feedback from the drop-in session and comments on the project’s website, and come back with new plans in September, ahead of submitting a formal application.
Read next - latest on Bedminster Green
Two and a half years of road disruption begins for Bedminster Green project
Plot 2 - High rise flats with no affordable homes give permission
Plot 3 - What 837 student flats will look like when seen from all over BS3
Plot 4 - Little Paradise plan for high-rise housing first to win permission
Plot 5 - Businesses being evicted ahead of big Bedminster Green development
South Bristol's GPs and schools won't cope with 12,000 new homes claims MP
Excavation reveals history of Bristol's most secret industrial site
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