A developer’s plans to build what would be the tallest building in South Bristol have begun – but have already met with opposition from local residents over what it will look like from a nearby park.
The Galliard Apsley Partnership have started the formal process of getting planning permission for a series of tower blocks on part of a large industrial estate in Bedminster which lies at the foot of the hill at Victoria Park.
The developers agent Savills has submitted a formal request to Bristol City Council asking if they need to undertake a full environmental impact assessment before they submit a full planning application for the development, which would see up to 460 new build-to-rent flats, and a purpose-built student accommodation block to house up to 420 students.
But one of the issues that an environmental impact assessment might have to consider is the impact on the views across Bristol from Victoria Park. The site is directly across the railway line from the foot of Victoria Park, with park-goers at the top enjoying panoramic views across the city centre and the rest of the city.
Bristol Live revealed the plans from Galliard Apsley before Christmas, and the developers said the tallest of a number of different buildings – the one housing the students – would be 21 storeys tall. The development is the first in a much wider project to build much-needed new homes on the light industrial area of Bedminster between the railway line and the River Avon. With the Whitehouse Lane area and the Mead Street area on the other side of St Luke’s Road, there could be as many as 3,500 new homes built in the next few years – almost all flats and with tall buildings included.
At present, the tallest building south of the river in Bristol is Northfield House, in Catherine Mead Street in Bedminster. Built in 1969, it is the tallest block of council flats in the whole city, at 18 storeys, or 52 metres, high.
While the developer’s plans displayed to local residents in early December said the proposed student block would be 21-storeys, the planning request submitted to City Hall and revealed this week states the tallest block would be 19 storeys high. Either way, both would be the tallest building in South Bristol, and the height is already attracting criticism.
The Totterdown Residents Environmental & Social Action group (TRESA) have already objected to the developer’s submission that an assessment of the impact of the tower blocks on the environment isn’t needed.
“The height, scale and massing of the scheme has been developed to reduce its visual impact on the townscape,” a spokesperson for Savills said, explaining to council officers that tall buildings are part of the ‘Whitehouse Lane Regeneration Framework’, a document put together by the previous Labour administration, to be used as a template for the transformation of the area between Victoria Park and the River Avon. And in any case, the developers said, the impact of the tall buildings on the views from Victoria Park will be looked at as part of the planning application anyway.
“Given the urban setting, it is considered that the proposed development can be accommodated within the local townscape with appropriate design and massing measures,” they said. “The potential effects are not considered to be of a significant level that would warrant an Environmental Impact Assessment,” they added.
A spokesperson for TRESA disagreed. “We strongly disagree,” they said. “The 21-storey tower is totally unacceptable. It is massively over-sized for this area and will create an overbearing tower block that dominates the surroundings and adversely impacts the skyline,” they added.
Council planning officers will decide whether an Environmental Impact Assessment is required before the developers submit their full planning application later this year.