Plans for new Harbourside flats approved despite ongoing Western Harbour consultation
Proposals for 154 new apartments were approved just days before a public engagement event asking how the area should be developed
Four blocks of flats are to be built on an old shipyard in Cumberland Basin, in the first housing development approved in the so-called ‘Western Harbour’ area.
City councillors have signed off plans for 154 one- and two-bedroom flats on the former Payne’s Shipyard on Coronation Road, despite residents’ concerns about parking and road safety.
Crest Nicholson’s plans will see the demolition of Vauxhall House and a number of large buildings on the riverside industrial site, most of which are derelict.
In their place, four apartment blocks – four and five storeys high – will be built on the 1ha site to the east of the Riverside Garden Centre and bonded warehouse.
The decision by a planning committee on September 22 came just three days before Bristol City Council held a “creative workshop” at the garden centre about future plans to redevelop Cumberland Basin, which it calls ‘Western Harbour’.
Crest originally proposed building 180 flats in three buildings up to nine storeys high at the old shipyard, but these proved unpopular with residents and Bristol City Council officers.
Officers, who have spent four and a half years negotiating with the developer to get these and other changes to the plans, finally recommended them for approval but admitted there were still “some identifiable shortfalls” in their report.
These included a lack of any family-sized homes, a “high proportion” – 42 per cent – of flats with views to one side only, and an “unsustainable” dependence on electric heating.
But Marlies Koutstaal from Crest Nicholson pointed out the scheme provides 20 per cent affordable housing, meets with “brownfield-first ideology”, and “delivers policy compliant renewable energy and significant biodiversity net gain.”
“This is a sensitive, sustainable, forward-looking scheme on a contaminated industrial site in the heart of the city,” she told the committee.
The officer’s planning report says: “The proposal also represents the first residential development to come forward within the Western Harbour area.”
Officers did not share the main concerns of 11 residents who objected to the latest set of revised plans, which were about road safety, parking, and the “utilitarian” design of the “monolithic” blocks.
No residents spoke at the planning meeting or submitted written statements, but one man who lives opposite the site on Coronation Road wrote in his objection: “None of the issues relating to the traffic impacts and major loss of light for neighbours have been addressed in the updated application.
“This application should be rejected on the grounds that the issues related to this development can only be resolved as part of the wider ‘Western Harbour’ consultation.”
Off-street parking for 56 cars and 120 bicycles is provided within the development, which leaves 98 flats without a car parking space.
None of the occupiers will be allowed a parking permit, which means if they own a private car but do not have a parking space they will have to park their car in a street outside the Southville Residents’ Parking Zone.
A traffic island will be installed in the middle of Coronation Road outside the main entrance to make sure vehicles can make only left turns in and out of the development.
But this, and the installation of a pedestrian crossing which a planning officer said was “essential” for road safety, will lead to the loss of nine on-street parking spaces on Coronation Road.
The plans also include a path along the riverside which will be open to the public.
Eight of the nine-strong planning committee voted in favour of the development.
Chair, Conservative councillor Richard Eddy, said he was persuaded to support the application by a statement submitted to the committee from a local councillor.
Green councillor for Southville, Christine Townsend, gave the development her backing in a statement which said: “It needs to be clear to those who may wish to live here that this development promotes non-private car ownership.
“This is further enforced by the car-club scheme that will be managed in-house by the resident’s management company with the space for such vehicles being within the development.”
Liberal Democrat committee member, Cllr Andrew Varney said: “It’s an exciting opportunity to provide much-needed housing in a sustainable location.
“It opens up a stretch of riverbank that’s been closed forever, and the chance of the public having access to that… I think that’s really fantastic. I am concerned about the heating system but I think the benefits of the scheme do outweigh the drawbacks.”
Green councillor for Clifton Down, Tom Hathway, who abstained from the vote, said: “I think there’s going to be parking issues arising from this development and I was also very disappointed about the heaters as well.”
Crest Nicholson’s development will have solar panels and air-source heat pumps for hot water, but its decision to use electric heating for space heating is not compliant with council policy.