The Government’s housebuilding agency has maintained it will build 260 new homes on a green field site in South Bristol, despite council chiefs redrawing the map to take it out of the development zone.
Homes England had said it would be submitting a detailed planning application to build the homes on Brislington Meadows by the end of last year, but now as 2025 begins, the Government’s development agency has pledged to do that by this summer.
But the six month delay could open up a bizarre scenario which may well see council planners having to award permission to new homes on a site they’ve just said homes should not be built on.
Councillors drawing up Bristol City Council ’s new draft Local Plan removed the nine hectares site in Brislington and have now earmarked it as green space that should be protected, and the process of getting that blueprint document adopted is taking a big step forward in the coming weeks.
The 2024 Local Plan is now moving to the stage where the Government’s planning department is to hold a series of public hearings over the next few months to let residents, developers and environmentalists have their say on it, and if it all gets approved by Whitehall ministers, it will officially take Brislington Meadows out of the list of places where new homes can be built.
The meadows, which the Avon Wildlife Trust and the former Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees said are an important wildlife habitat and green lung for Bristol, were listed back in 2014’s Local Plan as a site where homes could be built. That’s still the case until the new 2024 Local Plan is confirmed, and in 2023, the Government over-rode local planners and awarded itself planning permission to develop the land.
Homes England has outline planning permission to build 260 homes on the site, which establishes the principle that new homes can be built there. It needs to get approval for the details of those homes, so has to go back to City Hall, which should be little more than a formality.
A spokesperson for Homes England said they hoped to see the first foundations for the new homes dug early next year. “Homes England intends to submit a reserved matters application for the site in the summer of 2025,” they said. “This will determine the detailed design of the homes, community buildings and public spaces.
“A critical factor in Homes England’s decision to purchase this site, with the encouragement of Bristol City Council at the time, is its allocation for housing in the adopted Bristol Local Plan. The site was allocated because it provides an opportunity to help meet Broomhill’s and Bristol’s housing need in a sustainable location. It is within walking distance of schools, shops, employment, parks and public transport.
“The need for more housing that underpinned the council’s decision to allocate the site has not gone away, and in fact the Council is now struggling to meet the planning requirement of maintaining a five-year housing land supply.
“From a planning perspective, nothing has changed. The allocation remains current planning policy and carries great weight in planning law. It effectively establishes the principle of development on the site,” they added.
But campaigners living in Brislington are still fighting, despite a Government Planning Inspector deciding in 2023 homes should be built there. Some have begun the legal process of formally recognising the various footpaths that criss-cross the area, and last month Hilary Rydon and Jan Wren, from the Save Brislington Meadows group, went to the full council meeting at City Hall to remind them that the issue was still not completely finalised.
“The Green Party ethos of a ‘fairer, greener country’, and the policy of a brownfield site approach first, typify the makeup of the meadows area,” they told council chiefs. “Brownfield for development, whilst retaining the meadow land as a valuable community resource to support physical and mental health alongside the diverse wildlife and ecology. An invitation from local residents to visit this site is extended to cabinet members to appreciate the uniqueness of this site and its invaluable contribution and ecological importance to the local community.
“When any reserved matters application is received from the appointed developer that buys the meadows for housing, can the local and wider community be assured that the Green Party will give all areas of the application a very close attention and scrutiny in line with their policies and values?” they asked. The council’s housing boss replied that the planning application would be dealt with in the normal way, and local residents would be able to have their say.
The saga of Brislington Meadows has been one of the longest-running in the city, and was a key factor in the 2021 Mayor and city council elections. It was controversially added to the Local Plan in 2014 by the administration run by former Mayor George Ferguson, and Labour successor Marvin Rees sought to break a deadlock involving the owner of most of the land. His solution was to persuade Homes England to buy the site from various owners – including Bristol City Council – for around £15 million.
But just a year later, in the run-up to the 2021 Mayoral election, and facing electoral pressure from the Green Party, Marvin Rees conducted an abrupt U-turn and announced he would stop Brislington Meadows from being built on, because it was too important a site for nature for Bristol.
Homes England, who did not want to be left with what would effectively be Britain’s most expensive nature reserve, pressed on and applied for planning permission for a slightly-scaled back scheme to build 260 new homes there. When the council didn’t decide in time, the Government’s development agency appealed to the Government’s planning inspector, pointing out that the site was in the Local Plan, and was awarded permission after a public inquiry, back in 2023.
Local Labour MP Kerry McCarthy joined Marvin Rees in making the 2021 announcement on the meadows, and continued to lobby on behalf of local residents who don’t want their nearby green open space built on, even after the planning inspector’s decision. She called on the then minister in charge Michael Gove to intervene and tell Homes England to drop their plans, but when he didn’t, she said there was little more she could do.
Now, with a Labour Government in power, Kerry McCarthy is a climate minister in Sir Keir Starmer’s Government – which says it wants millions more homes built. Kerry McCarthy did not respond to Bristol Live’s questions about Brislington Meadows, but it is understood the new Labour Government is happy for Homes England to continue with its plans.
“Homes England purchased this site due to it being allocated and the real need for homes in the area which this scheme seeks to address,” a spokesperson for the Government agency said.
“With Victory Park, Eastwood Farm and Nightingale Valley, Brislington has more green space than most Bristol wards. A large part of Brislington Meadows was private land before Homes England purchased it. Given that the site was allocated for housing, which sets a residential land value, it is unlikely that any nature conservation body would be able to afford to purchase this land for the purpose of creating a nature reserve. There would also be further ongoing revenue costs in managing and maintaining the land as a nature reserve,” they added.
TIMELINE – The Saga of Brislington Meadows
2014 – Under George Ferguson’s Bristol City Council administration, Brislington Meadows was added to the Local Plan – and voted through by all parties at City Hall. A campaign to ‘save’ Brislington Meadows began, run by local residents.
2016 – New Mayor Marvin Rees and a new Labour administration took over at City Hall. The then housing chief Paul Smith began working on a deal with the owner of most of the land at Brislington Meadows, London-based development company Olympia & Hammersmith, to get new homes built.
2019 – Bristol City Council owned some of the land at Brislington Meadows, including key access points, and persuaded Homes England to step in and buy the land required from Olympia & Hammersmith so the land could be built on.
Feb 2020 – Bristol City Council declared an ecological emergency
Mar 2020 – Homes England bought all of Brislington Meadows, spending a total of £15m buying the land from O&H, the council itself, and local business owner Johnny Palmer.
Autumn 2020 – Plans were revealed by Homes England for 300 homes to be built there, including 90 council houses
Jan 2021 – Homes England announced the start of a consultation process on its plans for 300 homes, but then said that will be delayed so it doesn’t happen during the election campaign.
April 2021 – Just 20 days before polling day, mayor Marvin Rees, local MP Kerry McCarthy and Labour’s two candidates for Brislington East announced that Brislington Meadows won’t be built on, because the Avon Wildlife Trust had said the land there was too ecologically important to be destroyed by development. Homes England cancelled its planned consultations.
May 2021 – Both Labour candidates, Tim Rippington and Katja Hornchen, were elected in Brislington East, as was mayor Marvin Rees.
Summer 2021 – Avon Wildlife Trust said other greenfield sites in South Bristol, including the Western Slopes in Knowle West and Yew Tree Farm on Bedminster Down, should not be built on either – both have developers with plans for hundreds of new homes. Mayor Marvin Rees said Yew Tree Farm should not be developed. A Tory and Green Party motion calling for all green field sites in Bristol to be protected from new housing was passed by the council, with Labour councillors abstaining.
Oct 2021 – Homes England announced it still wants to develop Brislington Meadows, with consultation on its plans starting at the end of November.
Nov 2021 – Homes England unveiled its plans for 260 new homes, including 78 affordable, and announced a consultation in early December.
Apr 2022 – Homes England submitted an outline planning application
June 2022 – Residents hold a protest march through Brislington Meadows to highlight the strength of opposition to the plans for housing.
Oct 2022 – After realising it would eventually be refused, Homes England appealed to the Government Planning Inspectorate for non-determination, as soon as it was six months since they submitted the application, and it hadn’t been decided.
Nov 2022 – Bristol City Council begins drawing up its Local Plan for 2024, mapping where homes can be built, and promises to take Brislington Meadows back out of the list.
Jan 2023 – The Government Planning Inspector held a public inquiry into whether the land should be developed.
April 2023 – The planning inspector ruled that, because it is in the 2014 Local Plan as housing land, Homes England should get planning permission for their plan.
June 2023 – Residents and Kerry McCarthy MP urge Communities minister Michael Gove to look again at the plan, and tell Homes England to drop the development. He thinks about it, but declines.
Summer 2024 – Homes England say they will submit a ‘reserved matters’ planning application, confirming the details for the housing development by the end of 2024.
Jan 2025 – There is a delay to the detailed planning application. Homes England still has not confirmed which housebuilder it will partner with. The agency say it ‘intends’ to submit a reserved matters application in the summer of 2025.