Major blueprint for Bristol expansion approved
The City Council has signed off on it's latest Local Plan outlining how Bristol should develop, through to 2040
Councillors have approved a major housing blueprint for Bristol with plans for nearly 35,000 new homes by 2040.
The draft new Local Plan will soon go out to public consultation with a range of policies to guide how and where property developers build new housing in the city.
New housing developments will be mostly built on brownfield urban sites, rather than greenfield countryside areas.
Councillors sought to find a balance between finding enough land to build enough homes that Bristol needs, while also protecting the local environment.
A cross-party working group took four years to draft the new Local Plan, which was voted on by councillors during a full council meeting on Tuesday, October 31.
After a six-week public consultation, the plan will be sent to government planning inspectors to check its evidence.
During the council meeting, Bristol mayor Marvin Rees said: “We got 42 square miles, we’re not getting any more land, we’re 472,000 people and one of the fastest growing cities outside London.
"Our population is predicted to be 550,000 by 2050.
"There are over 20,000 households on our waiting list and 1,300 households in temporary accommodation.
“This Local Plan offers us a blueprint for the city’s future.
"It will be used to guide decisions on planning applications.
"At the heart of the plan is the drive to deliver 34,650 new homes by 2040.
"It’s been an incredibly challenging piece of work, not least because the combined authority has not been involved.”
The plan includes 11 areas of urban regeneration with over 17,000 new homes, three areas of development on the Green Belt with over 1,200 homes, and new offices covering 164,000 square metres of floor space.
Local shopping centres and wildlife are both set to receive extra protections.
Green Councillor Jenny Bartle said: “These policies mean new homes will come with a cheaper heating bill, contribute far less to our carbon footprint, and bring a welcome increase in trees and nature into developed sites.
“This plan sets out the innovation to make developers include affordable units in their designs from the outset, no matter what their viability assessment says.
"This means that we will have significantly more opportunities to deliver housing at a cost Bristolians can afford.”
The new Local Plan is expected to come into force by spring 2025.
Other policies included in the draft are extra protections for pubs, caps on student accommodation, and a ban on artificial grass in new developments, but the draft was not universally welcomed.
Liberal Democrats abstained or voted against the plan, due to the inclusion of a large plot of countryside east of Brislington.
This Green Belt area will see a new neighbourhood of up to 750 homes on the Bath Road, in what is now open countryside.
Environmental campaigners also warned that developers would be able to chop down trees more easily.
Mark Ashdown, of the Bristol Tree Forum, said: “Key policies for protecting green spaces have been watered down.
The document is full of the words ‘should’ and ‘may’, but there is hardly a ‘will’ or ‘shall’ in sight.
The centre of Bristol will become a tree desert and any replacement trees to replace those lost to development will end up being planted in the outskirts or even outside the city.
"Bristol will be destroyed.”