Flood experts have formally objected to the centrepiece development of the huge Bedminster Green regeneration project, because they fear some of the 339 flats could be flooded by a river that is to be uncovered nearby.
The plan for new homes around Bedminster Green includes uncovering and making a feature of the River Malago, which currently flows in a tunnel under the site close to Bedminster train station. But the Environment Agency has told Bristol City Council it objects to the plans from the council’s own ‘development partner’ at Bedminster Green, and has told planning chiefs that if they go ahead and give planning permission anyway, it would have to be sent to the Secretary of State to override their objections.
The plan for ‘Plot 5’ of the Bedminster Green regeneration project would see 339 apartments in buildings up to ten storeys high, built around three sides of the actual grassed area that the developers have called Bedminster Green, between Malago Road and the railway. The scheme is the fourth site either side of Malago Road to go through the planning process as part of the huge Bedminster Green project.
Read next: Bedminster Green by numbers - the 5 plots that will transform South Bristol
Work is already underway to build a massive 817-room student accommodation complex on the north side of Dalby Avenue, and to construct 296 build-to-rent flats around the corner at Little Paradise. Planners have also given approval for more tower blocks and a revamp of the St Catherine’s Place shopping centre, but work is yet to get started there.
Two of the five sites have not yet got planning permission, including the centrepiece of the Bedminster Green project - the apartment blocks up to ten storeys high around Bedminster Green itself. Developers Dandara were named by Bristol City Council chiefs as their 'development partner' at the Little Paradise site opposite when the council struck a deal that is now seeing 21 affordable homes built on a car park, and a multi-storey car park constructed on another.
Dandara submitted a planning application back in September 2021 for Plot 5 across the road, which is partly-owned by the council. But there has been little progress through the council’s planning department for five months, and there is still no date set for the scheme to go before council planners.
According to the reports, letters and correspondence on the city council planning portal, a total of 103 people have objected to the scheme for 339 flats around the green near the railway bridge and Bedminster Station, many of them local residents in nearby Windmill Hill and Bedminster, and the developers regularly submitted more details of the scheme for the first ten months.
In May this year, the developers submitted detailed flood risk assessments. Part of the Bedminster Green regeneration scheme will see the River Malago uncovered and made into a public space feature as it flows out from under the railway embankment and north towards Bedminster Parade and Asda.
The river is currently culverted on this last stage of its journey from the Dundry Slopes. It is open as it flows along the south eastern side of the railway line at the bottom of Windmill Hill, but is then culverted as it passes under the railway by Bedminster Station and continues underground under Whitehouse Lane and the industrial areas that are now being developed as part of the Bedminster Green project.
In 2019, the council agreed a plan to uncover and restore the river as part of a £6m scheme to create and enhance the public spaces around the new development sites at Bedminster Green and Whitehouse Lane. In early 2021, the council revealed the amount the work would cost had increased to £14.3 million - and agreed to spend that amount too, to continue with the project, but get most of it back from the developers, as well as get Government grants for the environmental work.
The council says the river restoration proposals "include creating natural habitats, building new public and green spaces and restoring the existing character of the area, while reducing flood risk". However, it seems the Environment Agency is not yet convinced on the latter, as it has formally objected to Dandara’s flood risk assessment plans.
In a letter sent in July to the council planners from the Environment Agency’s planning specialist Mark Willitts, the formal objection was recorded on flood risk grounds. Mr Willitts said the plans put forward by the developers contradicted those put forward by Bristol City Council, and were therefore confusing. He said the Environment Agency had already raised the issue with the city council when it presented its plans for the river.
“We need to understand the differences between the modelling approaches and see that the river restoration has been represented in the same way. We have also raised this need for consistency with Bristol City Council and JBA, who are looking to undertake a comparative exercise. This should be submitted by the applicant to the local planning authority, to aid our review of their modelling,” he wrote.
Mr Willitts also said the Environment Agency were concerned by the proposal to build homes so close to this uncovered river. “The buildings themselves are not included as a layer in the proposed model – we need to understand the approach to modelling the proposed buildings as they have potential to impact flow routes,” he wrote.
“It appears Building 2 is located extremely close to the River Malago, a designated Main River and not sufficiently set back. At the very minimum, a 5 metre set back distance from the brink of the bank is required. The applicant should submit a clear sectional drawing showing the setback distance as requested previously,” he added.
In the six months since the Environment Agency objection there have been no further updates or submissions on the plan from Dandara, and neither Bristol City Council nor the Environment Agency have submitted any revised documents.
The issue is not one that cannot be overcome, however - earlier this autumn, there were formal statutory objections to a controversial plan to build 510 new homes on land between Colliters Brook and Ashton Brook at Ashton Vale, proposed by Bristol City owner Steve Lansdown as part of his Sporting Quarter project. These were more minor and were overcome in the days before councillors met to decide the application’s fate.
This time, however, the issues are much more complex, with the council’s own project to reopen the River Malago affecting the scheme to build flats alongside it.
Read next:
Two and a half years of road disruption begins for Bedminster Green project
Plot 2 - High rise flats with no affordable homes give permission
Plot 3 - What 837 student flats will look like when seen from all over BS3
Plot 4 - Little Paradise plan for high-rise housing first to win permission
Plot 5 - Businesses being evicted ahead of big Bedminster Green development
South Bristol's GPs and schools won't cope with 12,000 new homes claims MP
Excavation reveals history of Bristol's most secret industrial site
To keep up-to-date with the latest South Bristol news, join our community of subscribers with my South Bristol newsletter here.
