Last hope as residents urge Michael Gove to intervene to save Brislington Meadows

Featured Sponsor

Store	Link	Sample Product
UK Artful Impressions	Premiere Etsy Store

Residents in south Bristol fighting plans to build 260 new houses on wildlife-rich meadows have started a campaign urging Communities Secretary Michael Gove to change the plans.

Local councilors and residents have joined activists from across the country, after the future of the brislington meadows featured on Channel 4 News, following a decision by a government planning inspector to give permission for new housing development.

The government’s own land and development agency, Homes England, was granted planning permission on appeal last month, despite the objections of hundreds of local residents, the Avon Wildlife Trust, Bristol City Council and the city’s mayor, Marvin Rees.

Read below: Brislington Meadows blame game as councilor tells residents ‘a lot of mistakes were made’

The mayor has told residents that the council is receiving legal advice on the chances of a successful appeal against the planning inspector’s decision, before making a decision on whether or not to file a legal challenge, but residents say they believe that their best chance is to convince the government minister ultimately in charge of both Homes England and the Planning Inspectorate, Michael Gove, to annul both and halt development.

Residents have been sending Gove photos of Brislington Meadows, a cluster of undeveloped fields that were surrounded by the southern Bristol sprawl before and after the war, urging him to think again. “These stunning old meadows are now in their end game for survival, having received initial planning for 260 homes,” local resident Deborah Hurst told Mr Gove.

“This, if it goes ahead, will mean the destruction of 75 per cent of these grasslands, a globally recognized threatened habitat, and in the UK alone, 97 per cent of grasslands have disappeared in the UK since World War II. World, and 85 percent of the acclaimed millennial hedgerows that will also disappear, along with all the flora and fauna dependent on it, so abundant for the time it has existed in its current format, since the mid-18th century.

“Bristol fully appreciates the need for housing in the city, but currently, and for some time, planning has been granted for the construction of more than 13,000 houses, although no start date has yet been set for any of them,” added. .

Local councilor Tim Rippington (Lab, Brislington East), told Mr Gove: “You will be hard-pressed to find someone in Bristol to support the development. We cannot tell you how much anguish and upset this has caused the local people who love this area so much and value it as an integral part of their community. The decision to go ahead can only be seen as a very short-term gain that will cause irreversible damage to ecology and the environment.

“We understand that, as the building permit was granted directly by the Urban Planning Inspectorate, you do not have the capacity to intervene in the planning process. However, as the Chief Executive of Homes England ultimately reports to the Secretary of State, he can direct the company to halt its plans or indeed not to proceed at all,” he added.

There is not believed to have been any reply to any of the letters Mr Gove has received so far, but Homes England is said to be keen to go ahead with the development, which they first began planning in 2020 and early of 2021.

and there is a political element to the context as well – the only reason Homes England spent £15m of taxpayers’ money to buy Brislington Meadows from a London-based property company in 2020 was because the Labour-controlled Bristol City Council urged them to do so, because at that time the city council wanted to build 300 new homes on it.

But in the run-up to the 2021 mayoral and municipal elections, Mayor Marvin Rees changed his mind and announced that the meadows would not be built, leaving Homes England with the option of canceling its £15m or pushing with a slightly reduced development plan in the face of local opposition.

It is unknown when the diggers will move in to build houses in the fields, but it is understood that Homes England is keen to go ahead and start work this year. Conservationists including the Avon Wildlife Trust and RSPB have opposed it. The RSPB’s Bristol Local Group has also written to Mr Gove, urging him to intervene.

“We believe the importance of preserving habitats like Brislington Meadows is very clear,” the group’s letter said. “The site is very popular with those who live in the surrounding community, as evidenced by public objections to the plans, and many see it as a means of escape to nature from the noise and bustle of residential and industrial areas that surround. they added.

Read below:

To keep up with the latest South Bristol news, join our community of subscribers with my South Bristol Newsletter. here.