Blueprint to build tens of thousands of homes across South Gloucestershire approved despite protest

Protesters with placards accused South Gloucestershire Council of triggering the “wanton destruction of the greenbelt” near Bristol as a 15-year final draft housing blueprint for the district was approved. It came as the councillor in charge of the Local Plan, which earmarks sites for homes and jobs from 2026-41 and includes 48 policies for how planning decisions should be made, admitted she had been in tears about some of the decisions that had to be made to meet government housing targets.

Campaign group Save Our Green Spaces (SOGS) criticised the authority for allocating huge swathes of the greenbelt for development, as the document was given the green light at a cabinet meeting ahead of a vote at full council, more public consultation and then an inquiry next year by government planning inspectors, who have thrown out previous versions of the masterplan. A row erupted when council leaders were accused of “lies” by opposition Conservative group leader Cllr Sam Bromiley on behalf of residents at the meeting on Monday, February 3, a claim strenuously denied by the Lib Dem/Labour administration which asked for details that were not given.

Former South Gloucestershire Council Conservative councillor, SOGS member and Warmley resident Steve Reade told cabinet: “You are about to endorse the wholesale destruction of greenbelt and the environmental consequences it will bring. This is not necessary. You asked for views of residents, they gave them in their thousands.

“You seem to have ignored them. Your plan states changes have been made as a result but a lack of transparency hides the changes.

“SOGS is not against building housing to meet true local need. SOGS is against wanton destruction of the greenbelt.”

SOGS campaigner and Oldland Common resident Eileen Tilley said: “We are asking why the plan is to build so many more houses on the semi-rural East Fringe where there are not employment opportunities. The roads are very congested. We are risking overloading infrastructure.

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“The health service is stretched to breaking point. The bus services are sporadic and unreliable.” Geoff Maggs, representing Hanham District Green Belt Conservation Society, said plans for 125 homes in Castle Farm Road, known as The Batch, and 60 homes at Castle Inn Farm, should be ditched.

He said the plans were unjustifiable and unsustainable, violated greenbelt policies, harmed biodiversity, strained infrastructure, degraded heritage assets, and posed significant risks due to unstable ground and potential contamination. Similar concerns were raised by Andrew and Susan Smith who said 774 homes planned across eight sites in Bitton, Oldland Common, Warmley, Willsbridge and Bridgeyate would worsen traffic congestion and the over-subscription of schools and GP surgeries, while there was no obvious plan to improve public transport.

Roger Hall, of Thornbury Residents Against Poorly Planned Development (TRAPP’D) said he largely welcomed the document but added: “Disappointed landowners and their developers are lawyering up, as I speak, to attack this plan if and when it gets to examination stage.” Cabinet member for planning, regeneration and infrastructure Cllr Chris Willmore (Lib Dem, Yate North) said the council shared campaigners’ pain that land had to be found for so many new homes.

She said: “I would love to be bringing a plan that enabled me to sleep easy but we are in the world as it is, not the world we would like. I spent my life campaigning to protect the countryside and, in the world we are in, the best way to deliver that is to get this plan moving quickly.

“I spent ages in tears about some of the things we are having to do in this plan. But the evidence says that this is the best way to meet our legal requirements and to deliver things that our area needs and that we value.

“If we don’t publish this plan by March 12, the target goes up by 5,000 houses.” She said the plan’s allocation of 22,500 new homes would be painful but that the suggestion that they could be built around South Gloucestershire’s villages would mean doubling every one in size.

Cabinet member for adults and homes Cllr John O’Neill (Lib Dem, Charfield) said data published last week showed 74 children in temporary accommodation across the country had died in the last five years because of damp, mould or cold homes. He said: “That is absolutely shameful.

“We’re the fifth largest economy in the world, it’s 2025, and we’ve got children dying in temporary accommodation. In South Gloucestershire we are increasing our affordable homes to 40 per cent and we will do whatever we can for children at risk and families to get them into warm, safe and secure homes.”

Council co-leader Cllr Ian Boulton (Labour, Staple Hill & Mangotsfield) said: “We have a sound Local Plan that will go to the inspector and at long last won’t be laughed out. We have a housing crisis. This is national, it is local, it is immediate.

“We have to look the next generation in the face who struggle to think how on earth will they ever find a home, and this is a way of doing that. Without a Local Plan, every inch of our green space and our greenbelt is currently at risk of speculative development and planning by appeal.

“I know it sounds counterintuitive but actually this protects our greenbelt. We don’t have that protection at the moment without a Local Plan and anyone who says differently is selling a dud.”

Cllr Matt Parsons (Labour, New Cheltenham) said the previous Conservative administration failed to bring forward a Local Plan and that cost £300,000 of taxpayers’ money when the blueprint, then called the Joint Spatial Plan, was thrown out at an early stage of the public examination process by government planning inspectors. He said this also left many housing developments that had been approved on appeal without the necessary schools, roads and other facilities.

Cabinet member Cllr Simon Johnson (Lib Dem, Pilning & Severn Beach) said: “Losing any greenbelt is heartbreaking. I know people are passionate, they are emotive about this, as am I, but we also want our children and grandchildren to grow up in the area where they have belonged for so long with appropriate homes and infrastructure around them.”

Council leader Cllr Maggie Tyrrell (Lib Dem, Thornbury) said: “Getting any Local Plan to this stage is a monumental task but in this case there has been added pressure of last-minute changes to government guidelines including how we calculate the housing numbers. Understandably much of the public focus is on the housing numbers and sites but this plan is so much more than that.

“It supports our strategic objectives on climate emergency and nature recovery with thoughtful policies. It looks at how to support our businesses and the connectivity between jobs and homes.

“It means housing will be delivered in the most sustainable locations where schools, health and transport issues can best be addressed while, despite what some people might claim, using only 2.5 per cent of greenbelt land. The plan acknowledges that some areas have seen significant development, including damaging speculative development with poor infrastructure in recent years.

“That’s because we’ve had no up-to-date Local Plan in place. So to have this going forward, which at least has a fighting chance of getting through that inquiry, it will stop that speculative development and lead us into well-made local planning decisions that won’t be overturned on appeal.”