Plans to build office blocks on green belt land in Brislington have been criticised by two local councillors. Developers have announced a bid to build a three-storey office block, as well as 70 to 80 two-storey units which could be used for light industrial use or as offices, on the former Wyevale Garden Centre site on the A4 Bath Road.
The land is in the green belt, but Stokes Morgan Planning, which is acting as planning agent of behalf of developers Litt Holdings, argues that the council's 2019 draft local plan identifies the area as somewhere that will be removed from the green belt so that a new neighbourhood can be built there. No local plan has currently been decided on by Bristol City Council.
And local councillors Jos Clark and Andrew Varney, who represent the Brislington West ward, say they are in favour of developing on brownfield sites first before developing on the green belt.
Read more: Lord Mayor says she was called a 'trespasser' and booted off controversial garden centre site
Cllr Clark told Bristol Live: "We have a number of reservations. We don't think it should be developed because we believe it's on the green belt, and until it's all resolved with a local plan then we feel that it shouldn't be."
However, Kit Stokes, the director of Stokes Morgan, has argued that it should be viewed as a brownfield site despite being in the green belt. "It's in the green belt, I agree, but it's previously developed land in the green belt," he said.
The plans also include building a "new and improved" access junction at the Keynsham end of the site, which Cllr Clark said is "completely inappropriate". The site has been controversial, with the developers receiving four enforcement notices from Bristol City Council in April 2022 for alleged damage to the green belt site.
The enforcement notices are against alleged breaches of planning control for allegedly using the Wyevale Garden Centre site as a builder's yard and for laying hardstanding beyond the car park. The enforcement notices also allege that land around the site was damaged when developers stored construction plant equipment and portable buildings there.
Stokes Morgan has appealed the enforcement notices to the government's planning inspectorate, and Kit Stokes has denied any damage to green belt land.
"It's previously developed land so there's no damage to it. The accusation is that there was some unlawful usage taking place there, but that has been appealed against and it's with the planning inspectorate," he said.
The developer is also the subject of a restocking order form the Forestry Commission for allegedly cutting down trees without permission in March 2020. It has been appealed, and Mr Morgan also denied that this was illegal and said: "None of the trees that were removed were protected, so it isn't in a conversation area and there were no protection orders."
But Cllr Varney says that he has concerns about the actions of the developer. "They just have no scruples really, the local community is absolutely exasperated," he said. "So obviously we're not going to support anything that they propose for that site really, but they've done that to themselves by behaving so badly."
In 2020, Cllr Clark was involved in a dispute with the developers over the site when she claimed that they were doing unlawful work there. She also claimed that she was kicked off the site and called a trespasser by the foreman.
Bristol Live has previously reported that several planning disputes that Litt Holdings, and its associated firm UKS Group, were involved in with Bristol City Council. In 2017, residents in Highridge had complained repeatedly to the the council about a development of 14 homes on the A38 being built too big. And in 2018, the Litt Brothers’ company was again being accused of not conforming to planning permissions on a development in Withywood, on the site of the old Woods pub on Four Acres.
Land around the A4 Bath Road near the garden centre site is also subject to a proposal from a separate developer, Bellway Homes, to build a new community of 555 homes between the Brislington Park and Ride and the former Wyevale Garden Centre. But Cllr Clark has said that building an office block there as well would be "completely incongruous".
"Who wants a massive housing estate, which essentially that A4 corridor (could) become from the Park and Ride down, with a bloody great light industrial unit in the middle? It's just going to look completely incongruous".
Mr Stokes has argued that having the office block there would be appropriate, even if the plans for new homes go ahead. "If there was a new neighbourhood being built there then it would be appropriate, in this location, to have employment facilities or housing," he said.
To see the proposals in full, click here. You can leave comments until July 21.
Read next:
