AROUND 100 protesters marched around areas which could be transformed by housing developments if a new planning blueprint is approved.
Members of Save Our Green Spaces-South Gloucestershire (SOGS-SG) held the joint protest and fundraising walk as part of the Community Planning Alliance’s National Day of Action for Nature, Parks and Green Spaces on April 18.
Different groups of campaigners walked with children and dogs, with some riding horses, from areas where new housing could be built if South Gloucestershire Council’s draft Local Plan is approved by the government, including Warmley, Siston Common, Siston Hill, Oldland Common, Webbs Heath and Carson’s Road in Mangotsfield.
They headed to the old Shortwood Golf Course, near Mangotsfield, where 1,600 new homes could be built under the Local Plan.
A public examination into the legal compliance and soundness of the Local Plan by a government-appointed inspector is due to start at Kingswood Civic Centre on May 19, with a total of 15 days of hearings held in three-day blocks on five separate weeks. The final hearings will take place on July 14 to 16.
The draft Local Plan proposes sites for more than 22,000 homes in the district over the next 15 years.
As well as the golf course, hundreds more homes are proposed for Shortwood and Mangotsfield, while more than 2,000 are proposed for an area north of Lyde Green, between the M4 and Westerleigh and thousands more are planned for Warmley, Siston and Oldland Common.
SOGS-SG used the walk to collect donations towards professional representation by a planning consultant at the Local Plan hearings – as the Voice went to print they had raised more than £10,000.
Chair Darren Lawrence said: “We’ve got to keep pushing.
“People feel they aren’t being listened to.
“It’s not about being radical – there’s no infrastructure to support homes in these areas.
“This isn’t ‘grey belt’, it’s Green Belt – we have to stand up and say enough’s enough.
“I’m absolutely overwhelmed with the support we’ve received on the march – we’ve also had a lot of support online.
“We’re facing the total destruction of the East fringe. We feel that if plans to build in all of the places proposed, from Saltford to Filton to Yate, happen we’ll end up with a mega-city.
“We’re not against housing but we are against mass housing on the Green Belt – there is an alternative.”
Developers have already started to make planning applications on sites included in the Local Plan, even though it has not yet been approved.
Taylor Wimpey has applied to build 150 homes between Cossham Street and Rodway Hill Road in Mangotsfield and Lightwood Strategic Ltd is seeking permission to build 280 homes at Rock House Farm in Shortwood.
The most recent application has been made on behalf of David Wilson Homes for 260 homes on land north of the B4465 road to Pucklechurch, north of Shortwood Hill.
Agents Boyer describe the site as “a sustainable location for development that can benefit from existing infrastructure and transport connectivity within Bristol.
They added: “The proposed development on this site will provide up to 260 homes including 50% affordable and will contribute to the comprehensive and coordinated delivery of development in this area.”
The site is just to the east of the proposed Rock House Farm development and to the north of the former golf course.
Boyer says the development will be made in line with South Gloucestershire Council’s “Urban Lifestyles approach”
Boyer has made a “screening request” to the council to ask whether it needs to produce an environmental impact assessment for the site – the first stage in the application process for many bigger developments.
More details can be found on the council’s planing website by searching for application P26/003/SCR.
Details of Local Plan hearings can be found at localplanexamination.commonplace.is.
SOGS-SG has set up a website with details of upcoming planning applications and its donation page at sogssg.org.
