Campaigners fighting to save Bristol Zoo Gardens in Clifton have sent a letter to the Mayor asking for a Tree Protection Order to be issued for the entire site to stop another incident of ‘environmental vandalism’ which saw the leader of Plymouth’s council resign this month.
The letter, which is signed by seven different organisations in the city, warns Marvin Rees that the kind of ‘justifiable and widespread outrage’ from around the country, that has been directed at local authorities in Plymouth and Sheffield in recent months will be coming his way, unless he expands the protection orders to cover the whole of the famous zoo site.
Bristol Zoo Society closed the zoo to the public on September 1 last year, and wants to obtain planning permission to build 220 flats on much of the site.
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The campaigners say that the Bristol Tree Forum, which is one of the signatories to the letter, applied for all the trees on the zoo site to be covered by Tree Protection Orders back in June 2021, after anticipating the risk to the trees from any development of the site, but only 29 received that protection in the end.
The Bristol Zoo Gardens site is quite heavily wooded, with a canopy covering much of the ground there. The campaigners said they fear the plans for 220 new flats would see almost half of the trees cut down, with a section of the site left as a publicly-accessible gardens.
The signatories to the letter point to recent outcries over the cutting down of mature trees in Sheffield, and the overnight felling of a huge number of trees to make way for a new development in the centre of Plymouth, which was eventually stopped by a court order, and ended within days with the resignation of the council leader there.
The letter to Mr Rees is signed by the Bristol Tree Forum, the Save Bristol Zoo Gardens campaign group itself, along with ex-mayor George Ferguson’s People and Cities group, We Love Stoke Lodge, Friends of the Western Slopes, Bristol Friends of the Earth and the group Avon Needs Trees.
They write: “We write in light of the recent acts of environmental vandalism against established trees by Plymouth and Sheffield City Councils, and the proposed destruction of an ancient orchard by Cambridge City Council. Underlying the justifiable and widespread outrage that attends these events is a growing concern that some councils and local authorities cannot be relied upon either to protect the environmental heritage of their cities, nor to take notice of the concerns of their citizens before irreparable harm to the cityscape is caused.
"Mature trees demand the same protection as heritage buildings. We call on Bristol City Council - which has declared an Ecological Emergency and committed to doubling the tree canopy by 2046 - to place an Area Tree Protection Order on ALL the trees growing in the Bristol Zoo Gardens site with immediate effect.
“You will be aware of the new People’s Plan for Nature, which calls for nature to be considered in decision making at all levels. This initiative, with others that respond to our climate emergency, will become an irresistible force for change in planning policy,” they added. “Bristol of course, as the first and only Green Capital City in the UK, has a proud heritage of acting to protect its natural environment. Indeed, the Zoo Gardens have long been recognised as a potent symbol of the city’s biodiversity and ecological awareness.
“Bristol City Council’s opportunity here is to become a beacon of best practice in working with all stakeholders to ensure that precious, historic, civic assets are protected. Extending TPOs to all trees at Bristol Zoo Gardens would be a visible sign of such leadership,” they added.
The city council’s planning committee will have to decide on the zoo’s application to build 220 flats on the site - and a decision is expected on that in the coming months, but campaigners hope a Tree Protection Order on the entire site would effectively scupper any plans to develop the site at all.
Bristol Zoo maintains its position that its future lies at the Wild Place, where it will be better placed to focus on its conservation mission, and its stance is that the decision has been made, the zoo is already closed and the only focus now is on what is going to happen at the Wild Place.
Last month, the zoo released CGI images of some of its plans for how the visitor attraction will look, and chief executive Dr Justin Morris said: “We’re excited to share these images of the new Bristol Zoo. They show how animals will have the space to thrive and future generations will come face-to-face with amazing animals in nature, as well as learn more about our charity’s critical conservation and education work to protect at-risk species and habitats.”
Brian Zimmerman, director of conservation and science at Bristol Zoological Society, which owns and operates Wild Place Project and Bristol Zoo Gardens, said: “We’ve developed our animal species plan so that we can really focus our resources on animals that most need our help and maximise the impact we make to the conservation of wildlife.”
The society says it has developed its animal species plan to focus its resources on 76 species most in need of protection using a number of tools, such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which produces the Red List of globally-threatened species. BZS carries out conservation projects on four continents. Species under threat in these areas will also form part of its plan.
The mayor's office has been approached for comment.
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