Business leaders have urged city council planners to back a project to build a new ‘Sporting Quarter’ at Ashton Gate Stadium, as well as 510 new homes on a green field site on the edge of the city.
Business West, which says it represents more than 22,000 businesses and employers across the region, has given its ‘strong support’ to two planning applications submitted by the Lansdown family, which are set to finally be decided next month.
The first would see a sports and conventions centre built next to the existing stadium, alongside a 232-room hotel, multi-storey car park, a block of 125 flats and new offices, on land currently occupied by Wickes DIY store and other local businesses between Ashton Gate Stadium and Winterstoke Road.
Read more: Final plans for 4,000 seat arena and 500 homes submitted by Ashton Gate
While few have objected to the Sporting Quarter plans, which would create a 4,000-seater venue and home for the Bristol Flyers basketball team, the plan for new homes on a greenfield site nearby is much more controversial.
The Lansdowns want to build 510 homes in a new development called ‘Longmoor Village’ on half the land between Ashton Vale and the Long Ashton Park and Ride that ten years ago was the subject of an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to build a new stadium for Bristol City.
Now, in a letter to planning chiefs, urging the council to back both applications, Business West said the homes will be ‘much needed’, and the Sporting Quarter plans will help ‘correct historical inequalities’ that have hit South Bristol over decades.
“We recognise this will not only drive growth and prosperity for the South of Bristol area correcting historical inequalities that have lagged social and economic growth in this area; it will also help to ensure across our region all who live, work and visit are met with a built environment that matches our aspiration to be the most liveable, enterprising, attractive and prosperous city in the country and Europe,” the letter from Business West said.
“Bristol Sport and Ashton Gate are both very important organisations and institutions in the city, which in their different guises have contributed positively for many decades to Bristol’s dynamism, economic prosperity and the cultural, sporting and business life of the city and of particularly and positively impacting south Bristol based communities. We believe that this scheme more specifically will supercharge Ashton Gate’s position as a major events and sporting hub for the community in Bristol and the South West region.
“We strongly encourage and support developments that aim to correct historical investment shortfalls in South Bristol; with £126.9 million GVA during its construction and a further £24.5 million operational GVA, this project represents a long-overdue and sustainable redevelopment for this part of our city which should be supported robustly by the Council and other city partners,” they added.
The plans for the area immediately next door to Ashton Gate has met little, if any, opposition, but the plans for Longmoor Village have been much more controversial, with residents in Ashton Vale and Long Ashton objecting in numbers - more than 150 since the plans were first submitted almost 18 months ago now.
The formal objections by the Environment Agency on flood risk appear to now be overcome, and Business West said building homes on the single large green field that is circled by the Ashton Vale Metrobus road, is an opportunity that ‘simply should not be missed’.
“In addition, given the exceptional and ongoing demand for new homes in our city & region over recent decades – sharply rising house prices have a detrimental impact for the city’s businesses, the wellbeing of its workforce and the ability for employers to attract and retain new talent – so that the need for high-quality, sustainable and affordable residential and mixed use space in the wider Bristol city region cannot be overstated,” the Business West letter said.
“We believe that the opportunity to deliver the Longmoor development, creating up to 510 new homes with at least 30% being affordable housing, and at the well-connected land north of the Metrobus Ashton Vale Line and on former landfill land, simply should not be missed,” they added.
The letter from Business West ended by urging the council planning officers to recommend both schemes be given approval.
No date has been publicly set for when the applications will go before the planning committee, but Business West appear to know. The final paragraph of the letter said: “As One City Partners we recognise and support the collective need for the city and its partners to work together, be ambitious and take a long term approach. Given the now extended time period since the application was first submitted a decision not to approve these schemes would send all the wrong negative messages out and so we strongly encourage the planning committee to approve these outline applications at the committee meeting on 5th October 2022.”
Environmental campaigners and local residents have objected to the plans for the 510 new homes. Residents in Long Ashton have said approving plans to build houses there would set a precedent of building homes on green field sites in the green field buffer between Ashton Vale, Bedminster Down, Highridge and Withywood in Bristol, and the villages of Long Ashton and Yanley in North Somerset.
Residents in Ashton Vale have objected for many different reasons, including the fears of development exacerbating the flooding risk from the two rivers that on each side of the development site, and environmentalists have said they fear the plans would set a precedent for building homes on other green field sites in South Bristol - something the council passed a motion opposing, last year.
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Read more on the Ashton Gate Sporting Quarter saga:
- Dec 2020 - New plans for 'Longmoor Village' development revealed
- June 2021 - Final plans for Sporting Quarter and Longmoor Village submitted
- June 2021 - In pictures - what Ashton Gate's Sporting Quarter and Longmoor Village would look like
- October 2021 - Councillors pass motion against building homes on green field sites in South Bristol
- March 2022 - Number of people objecting to Longmoor Village plan reaches 150
- August 2022 - Environment Agency drops flood objection that would have stopped Longmoor Village plan
