Plans to demolish an entire row of shops and flats and rebuild them as part of a multi-million regeneration scheme have moved a step nearer being approved.
A revised set of plans for what will become of the west side of Filwood Broadway has been submitted to council planning officers, and work could get underway this year if the plans are approved.
The scheme would see the demolition of all the buildings that make up numbers 4 to 16 of Filwood Broadway, the run of shop units and flats above on the western curve at the top of Filwood Broadway, facing the play space and the community centre.
The area behind the shops is already well on the way to become a larger residential development, on land that was once the area’s art deco 1930s cinema building.
The shops will be demolished and in its place a row of new shops and business units, with 18 flats above. The new flats will all be classed as ‘affordable’ in planning terms, and will be built to the latest high-tech spec with eco-features like solar panels and heat pumps.
The plans were first submitted to the council back in November, as part of a wider Filwood Broadway regeneration scheme, which was earmarked some £14 million from the Government’s Levelling Up fund in 2023.
Those millions are being spent on a complete refurbishment of the community centre, as well as this residential development and other enhancements to the area.
There has only been one formal objection to the plan – albeit the Bristol Civic Society said it supported the idea in principle, but just had one issue with the internal layout of the flats.
This week, the council’s housing department, which is leading on the project, submitted a whole new set of documents that covered enhancements to the water, sewage and drainage systems in the area, solar panels designs and revised plans for what the front of the entire building would look like. The development is expected to go before the planning committee within weeks, and work could start this year.