Plans to transform the former site of a Bristol school into an £85m retirement community and leisure hub have been recommended for refusal.
Investment firm FORE Partnership and care operator Amicala submitted proposals in December for the five-acre site at Westbury Park, which borders Clifton Downs and is the former location of St Christopher’s School, which closed in 2020.
The companies, which have appointed developer Socius to manage the project, previously said the scheme could provide around 120 extra care homes for older people.
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The scheme, titled St Christopher’s Square, could see refurbishment of the site’s existing buildings, including the villas fronting Westbury Park and the Grade II listed building Grace House, with the site opened to the public for the first time in years.
Under the plans, residents of the retirement community and wider local area would be able to access a new leisure centre, including a café, an urban village hall, a wellness centre featuring a hydrotherapy pool and gym, plus activity rooms.
In documents seen by BusinessLive, planning officers have recommended Bristol City Council refuse permission for the development, when councillors meet next Wednesday (May 31) to form a final decision on the application.
In a report published online, planning officers said the proposals, which could see the demolition of existing buildings on the site and the erection of new blocks of flats ranging between three- and five-storeys in height, would be “unacceptable in terms of design”.
The report pointed to the proposed scale of the project, adding it would be out of context with the surrounding Downs Conservation Area and the heritage buildings on the site. Planning officers also noted the work could result in the loss of “important existing trees”.
Planners added that the application for the development, which is being devised with a view to making it one of the few extra care communities in the country to operate with net-zero carbon emissions, did not demonstrate a resilience to climate change through its site layout, nor through its approach to design and construction.
According to the report the plans have received objections form Historic England, local councillors and residents, who have voiced concerns about the impact the scheme could have on traffic and parking.
On behalf of the team behind the scheme, investor FORE Partnership, specialist operator Amicala, and development manager Socius, Basil Demeroutis, managing partner of FORE Partnership, commented:
“We have worked incredibly hard on this scheme for two years now, in close consultation with the community and other stakeholders, and we strongly believe that our plans deliver important benefits for Bristol. Our proposal addresses the shortage of specialist accommodation in the city for older people, enabling them to live independently for longer – a priority recognised by government just last week with the creation of the Older People’s Housing Taskforce. Not to mention, the wider benefit our proposal brings by freeing up under- occupied family homes in the local housing market and helping first-time buyers.
“We are ambitious with our designs in order to achieve the highest standards in sustainability, setting a new standard for the city and the wider care sector when it comes to low carbon, socially impactful design, construction, and operation.
“Beyond that, this is a significant opportunity to open a location that has been gated for decades, and to breathe new life into a deteriorating heritage building on an otherwise derelict site. A chance to deeply integrate community use, creating new opportunities, facilities, and open green spaces for local residents and the wider city – the benefits of which we can already start to see with the socially-driven community initiatives we have delivered to date.”
Mr Demeroutis added: “While we are disappointed that these benefits have not come to the fore in the officer’s report and recommendation, we stand by and remain confident in our proposal.”
The application was submitted in December, following a public consultation that lasted several months, with the companies saying “significant changes” had been made to the plans, including a reduction in height of some of the buildings.
Under the revised plans the tallest element of the proposals had been moved to the centre of the site, while other buildings had been moved away from the site boundary to minimise the impact of the development on existing neighbouring properties.
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