Planning permission granted again for homes on Bristol Zoo car park
Some local residents say it will damage the Clifton conservation area
Last updated 17th Nov 2022
Plans have been approved for 62 new homes on a Bristol Zoo car park despite locals warning it will “scar the Clifton conservation area”.
The zoo now has permission to build 55 apartments on seven houses off College Road, which it says will raise millions for the Bristol Zoological Society.
This is the second time the plans have been given planning permission.
The green light was given for the first time last year, but this was later quashed after residents threatened to take legal action amid concerns about how the scheme could impact architectural heritage.
Architects revised the scheme and councillors on the development control A committee have now once again voted to give the green light to the new homes.
But concerns remain among local people on how the new buildings will affect the historic nature of the surrounding area.
Speaking to the development control committee on Wednesday, November 16, Adam Chivers, a local resident, said: “Nobody is objecting to the sale of the zoo’s assets or the principle of housing.
"The only question is whether you give the zoo permission for an awful development to which all fair-minded people object.
“The design of the scheme is wholly out of keeping with the conservation area.
"This is most emphatically not a case of nimbyism, just an overriding concern that the greedy and unimaginative design of this scheme will leave a permanent scar on the conservation area.”
Bristol Zoo closed in September after almost two centuries at its home in Clifton.
The zoo is relocating to its sister site in South Gloucestershire, called the Wild Place Project.
The site was described by the zoo as a now unused staff car park.
There is a separate planning application, which has not yet been decided, about developing the actual former zoo site and building 200 new homes, while protecting the existing gardens.
Chris Booy, vice chair of trustees of the Bristol Zoological Society, said: “We closed Bristol Zoological Gardens as part of our strategy to create a new world-class zoo at the Wild Place Project on the edge of Bristol.
"This will allow us to focus even more on conservation, education and research at this time of climate and ecological crisis.
"We need to develop the site to help fund this.
“However, we wish to leave a really positive legacy.
"So instead of securing permission for this brownfield, largely redundant car park and selling it to the highest bidder, we have this really high quality and detailed scheme.
"This development will be part of our legacy, including bringing affordable homes to a part of Bristol that for most is unaffordable.”