A planning application which would see the demolition of a number of Victorian buildings on Gloucester Road and the erection of new four storey accommodation, has received major backlash from local residents. Plans to demolish the buildings at number 489 Gloucester Road and 2 Filton Avenue has received some 70 public comments on the application so far (at time of writing), with the majority of them objecting against the development, which many say is "far more significant" than they first realised.
Outlines for the plans, which were submitted/published to the council's planning page on October 18 2022, include knocking down the buildings and replacing them with nine residential apartments and seven small houses, along with cycle parking, waste storage, landscaping and other works. The site sits just over the road from the Memorial Stadium and right next to a very busy junction of the A38.
Currently, the main properties (489 Gloucester Road and 2 Filton Avenue) are in use as four HMOs (house in multiple occupation) with between four and five bedrooms each. The planning application reads: "The two first floor properties have HMO licenses for five bedroom properties and the two ground floor properties are four bed HMOs.
"These historically have not required a license but following an amendment to the requirements do now require a license and these were applied for in April 2022. However, due to the significant backlog being experienced by the Council in processing such applications, the licenses have not yet been formally issued at this stage.
"The single storey extension at 489a Gloucester Road, which has been in use as a separate office, had a prior approval permission implemented to convert this unit into a separate two bedroom residential flat and the site is now occupied as such. Therefore, there are a total of 20 bedrooms at the site at present."
The application also states that, at present, the site is not a Listed building or located within a Conservation Area, though a bus stop sits immediately outside the site, on Filton Avenue, and around 120 metres south along Gloucester Road. The proposed development will be three storeys in height, with a four storey "element on the corner of Gloucester Road and Filton Avenue" and will comprise of nine flats and seven small HMOs.
The plan also states that "no car parking will be provided on site, with the space used instead to incorporate and increase landscaping/amenity space for the proposed future residents of the scheme. External amenity space will be provided to the south of the site with a landscaping zone implemented to provide a buffer between the street and the residents, and a secure, covered cycle store will be located at the northern part of the site which will provide safe and secure parking for at least 40 bicycles."
The plan also mentions a similar HMO development completed just down the road at number 56 Filton Avenue, as how the new buildings on this site could look, but have also included a number of local residential and historical buildings - including Horfield Methodist Church and its Playgroup - Into the plans, to illustrate how the proposal "aims to provide a building which sits comfortably within the existing context in terms of scale and massing but is contemporary in style".
Originally, the plan included 10 HMOs, however the council believed this would "exacerbate the already harmful concentration of HMOs within the 100m of the application site and subsequently exacerbate the negative impacts to residential amenity and character already being experienced and further weaken housing choice and community cohesion", leading to the applicant later reducing this number to seven.
Other worries, many of which come from public comments on the application itself, include the overall change in look of the development, the loss of garden space, height of buildings, parking issues and noise levels, among others. One local resident, who objects to the plans, said: "This proposal suggests massively increasing the number of residents in an already noisy and overpopulated area.
"To squeeze nine apartments and seven houses into such a small plot of land is outrageous. This proposal includes no provision for the inevitable increase in people needing to park in the area which is already an issue.
"If new residences are being built in already busy areas they should include plans for underground residents parking so as not to impact on the already busy roads where a lot of dangerous parking already takes place. The suggested design of the building also does not fit in or look like any other building in this area and totally alters the appearance of the street.
"I strongly object to this proposal due to the inevitable increase in noise and people attempting to park on already overcrowded roads."
Another added: "I think demolishing the existing house would be a great shame, the period properties bring so much to the area. The major concern however would be the parking, there already isn't enough parking for current residents, there is already a lot of illegal parking on double yellows and over garages, which don't get checked and on match days at the memorial ground the parking becomes even worse, it would be unethical for this plan to go ahead without consideration for parking."
Others reiterated how properties housing multiple occupants in the area already cause "significant congestion" which is only added to on match days at Bristol Rovers' home ground just over the road, adding also that building works on such a busy junction would be "chaos" and that the proposed plans "look massively out of place in an area of predominantly Victorian housing".
One even accused the plans of being "shortsighted" and not taking the football stadium, or the bus stop, into consideration and said that demolishing "very old homes and trees to make cramped pile high abodes is immoral", dubbing it as "madness and greed". While a second believed that the modern housing climate consisted a great deal of "non resident landlords selling parts of their rented property garden so that small scale properties can be crammed in, garages turned into houses, and the overwhelming feeling is it's more about making money than caring for the local environment and preserving neighbourhood amenities -we are becoming increasingly crowded and overlooked on all sides and it's not really improving the area."
They added: "Without doubt the owners of this site seem intent on trying to maximise their investment, it's just a shame it is at the cost of the neighbours."
Another concern spanned around the local area's bus service, with one local resident commenting: "What car parking, in an already crowded area are the new residents supposed to use? How many minutes walk is the local train station?
"You might disingenuously say they can use the buses instead, except that they provide a worse service than my sh** would as a house to a rat and run less reliably than I dispense it."
When it came to local residents who had "neutral" opinions on the proposed plans, one said: "Quality of life for residents in this area has already been negatively impacted by the number of HMOs and this will further impact this." While the one comment in favour of the plans, simply commented to say that they did not agree with the demolition of the existing buildings.
In their own comment on the proposal, Bristol Waste outlined their own concerns, writing: "Bristol Waste does have concerns about the proximity of the collection point in relation to the busy junction on Gloucester Road. Although there are limited parking restrictions in the roadway in front of the store a Refuse Collection Vehicle may be forced to park partly on the cycle lane to line up with the refuse store as on the plans submitted.
"We would urge at this stage of the planning process that the developers refer to the Planning Guidance for Waste and Recycling produced by Bristol Waste Company."
What are your thoughts on these proposed plans? Have a local development in your area you'd like us to look into? Let us know in the comments below.
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