Bid to develop Stockwood's Green Belt

Yes, they're back again. Developers Robert Hitchin have applied to build close on 300 houses in the three fields that still separate Whitchurch village and Stockwood.   Just the same houses as were refused by BaNES last year! Presumably they think the political climate's better now.

Deadline for comments is November 27. More on the Friends of Stockwood Open Spaces site

Border Wars

First, the progressive loss of chunks of the Green Belt in Ashton Vale, abandoned by the authorities who should be protecting it. Now the battle moves east, into BaNES territory between Stockwood and Whitchurch Village.

Here, developer Robert Hitchins has come back with an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate against BaNES' refusal to allow a housing development of close on 300 units across the green belt pastureland that separates the two communities on this south-eastern edge of Bristol. 

Big question now: is the new planning regime, with its much publicised presumption in favour of 'sustainable' development, strong enough to override the bid ?

It should be easy for the Inspector to say 'No', in spite of George Osborne's enthusiasm for removing anything that might get in the way of developers' ambitions.   The National Planning Policy that finally emerged from Whitehall last month does include (at p.19) continuing protection for Green Belt land like this. For that, we can thank intensive lobbying by a number of pressure groups in the run-up to publication.

What's more, in a widely reported interview on 'Today', Planning Minister Greg Clark assured listeners that

“The word sustainable is very important, what it means is there is a test of whether it is in the public interest to approve an application. If there are reasons, it destroys the environment, if it builds on greenbelt, if it builds outside a town centre when it's a commercial premises when you want to keep a town centre thriving, that would not be sustainable, it would not be in the public interest and thereforce it would not go ahead “

The site itself is a group of three fields, criss-crossed by four public footpaths*, mostly used for grazing ponies. It's an edge-of-town location, with the neighbouring built-up area almost entirely made up of houses, so this development would simply add to an 'urban monoculture' leaving others to provide essential infrastructure such as schools, transport, etc, which are already thin on the ground, while leaving the new residents to reach employment and entertainment at considerable distance from the new estate. Sustainable, eh?

The place to tell the Inspector what you think is:

http://www.pcs.planningportal.gov.uk/pcsportal/ViewCase.asp?caseid=2174286&coid=2108736 . Closing date is May 28.

*cue, a plug for the current local walks programme – especially the one on 30^th April that includes a traverse of these meadows!

The Land Grabbers are Coming.....

Last time I stood for election in Stockwood, I warned that 'they're moving the countryside further away'. Sure enough, it's all beginning to take shape now.

A new town in our own back yard.

While development plans for the Ashton Vale/ Barrow Gurney green belt have been hitting the headlines recently, we've not heard so much about the equally controversial bid for massive development along south-east edge of the city, bordering Stockwood and Whitchurch, and stretching to Keynsham and Hicks Gate.

That's about to change, as Bath & NE Somerset council consults on its 'Core Strategy' to guide future planning. It sees the development centred on Hicks Gate and on the fields around Whitchurch village.



In the next couple of weeks, they'll be holding two display and drop-in sessions to explain the options that are being considered in relation to a potential SE Bristol urban extension. Both take place at Whitchurch Community Centre (off Bristol Rd, about opposite Maggs Lane) between 3.30pm and 7.30pm. They're on Monday 2nd and Friday 6th November.

The BaNES website at www.bathnes.gov.uk/corestrategy shows the Core Strategy. It's called the 'final approval version' which doesn't give much confidence in their willingness to change anything now!. The details of the SE Bristol Urban Extension can be found in Chapter 5 - much more comprehensive than the map above.

Deadline for comments is December 11th.
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Meanwhile, the Friends of Stockwood Open Spaces somehow find themselves as one of the first ports of call for developers and planners in the area. Our (I confess an interest in this, as the secretary) 'to do' list now includes offering a local (pre-planning application) opinion of possible brownfield residential development immediately behind the Hollway Road shops. There's also an invitation from the City Council's 'Urban Extensions Project Manager' (honest!) to feed into a 'South Bristol Retail and Centres Study' commissioned from consultants GVA Grimley.

Arguably, Stockwood needs a separate and representative group of residents with an interest in local planning to take on these tasks.