HOUSEBUILDER Taylor Wimpey has applied for permission to build 150 new homes on a Green Belt site in Mangotsfield.
The developer has formally submitted plans to South Gloucestershire Council, which published them on its website in December.
Taylor Wimpey owns the field where it wants to build the homes, between Cossham Street and Rodway Hill Road, next to Mangotsfield United FC, Cleve Rugby Club and Mangotsfield School.
It is currently designated as Green Belt land – but the housebuilder’s agent claims “very special circumstances” exist which justify developing it.
The current application is for permission in principle to develop the site.
But it also includes detailed plans for road access to the site from a single entrance in Cossham Street, which has already brought objections from residents.
In a planning statement supporting the plans, agents Turley say they will “make efficient use of a currently underutilised site to provide a high-quality and landscape-led residential scheme, delivering a mix of sizes and tenures (including affordable homes) in a sustainable location”.
A previous bid by Taylor Wimpey to build 180 homes on the site was refused by South Gloucestershire Council in 2010 because of its Green Belt status.
Since then the council has earmarked the site for potential development as part of its new Local Plan, which is expected to be examined by a planning inspector in late 2025, with a view to adoption the following spring.
Taylor Wimpey held a drop-in consultation event in October to show how it intends to redevelop the land with a mix of one, two, three, and four-bedroom homes.
At the time the company said it intended the outline planning application to be considered by the council once the Local Plan had either been adopted or passed the examination stage.
But its new planning statement says: “Very special circumstances exist which justify the proposed development in this Green Belt location, resulting from the significant public benefits of the scheme and the limited harm to the Green Belt and other respects.”
The agents said the site is “suitable for residential development”, is a “sustainable location” and is “likely to meet the emerging ‘grey belt’ definition”, which the government has proposed for Green Belt sites that could be developed.
They added: “As such, we consider that outline planning permission should be granted without delay.”
Taylor Wimpey has submitted design details of the proposed road access to the site, via a single junction with Cossham Street.
The firm says the access road will include traffic calming and an existing 4m-wide path will be retained as a shared foot and cycle path.
But the reliance on a single road in and out was the main source of comments at the company’s consultation event in October and has been cited by people registering objections on the council’s website.
One resident said: “Traffic on Cossham Street is already regularly at unsafe levels, with lots of speeding and road rage happening on a daily basis.
“The road isn’t fit for current volumes of traffic, let alone the addition of another 150 houses, which would most likely mean another 300 cars minimum.”
Another said: “I would prefer an access on Rodway Hill Road instead but, if it stays on Cossham Street, then a traffic light-controlled junction where Cossham Street meets St James Street should be included in the plans.”
Concerns have also been raised over the number of homes proposed, harm to wildlife, and “ridiculous” assumptions over how easily new residents will be able to walk, cycle or use local bus services for day to day travel.
One objector said: “Schools are already at breaking point, doctors at breaking point, parking at breaking point.”
The plans can be viewed by searching for application P24/02685/O on the council’s planning website.