The Government is to be asked to step in and hold its own public inquiry into controversial plans for a major development in Bristol city centre - a move that has sparked a spat on social media between the the city’s past and present mayors.
Bristol Civic Society has asked planning ministers to ‘call in’ a plan for nine-storey tower blocks at the High Street end of Castle Park, at a site known as St Mary le Port.
The plan, which would replace some of the city’s worst eyesore buildings on the corner of Wine Street and the High Street and replace them with a new complex of offices and shops, has already been given planning permission.
READ MORE: What is being planned at St Mary Le Port
But the Civic Society is asking the Secretary of State to call in that planning approval and consider overriding it, claiming it ‘conflicts with national policy on important matters’.
In a letter to the Government minister responsible for planning, the Civic Society said it recognises it is an ‘exceptional request’, and on social media hinted that the organisation had consulted Historic England - the Government’s heritage body - before making the request.
The plan for a new area of Bristol city centre around St Mary Le Port church got planning permission on December 15 - or at least the councillors voted to give it planning permission once officers had sorted out the details with the developers.
The development would demolish three 1960s office blocks at the end of Castle Park - the old Norwich Union building and the bank offices that currently surround the ancient church and have consistently been voted Bristol’s worst eyesores.
Instead, the developers want to build office blocks up to nine storeys high, and restore the ancient St Mary Le Port street, that runs from the High Street up to the church.
The developers say one of the buildings would be a modern attempt to recreate Bristol’s famous Dutch House, which stood on the corner of the High Street and Wine Street up until the Second World War.
The Civic Society’s letter to the minister said the proposed buildings would be ‘monolithic blocks which would dominate Bristol’s historic heart and townscape’.
“The buildings’ scale and massing would be inappropriate for the location and, as Historic England have advised, would challenge the 'visual primacy of the various Grade II* listed church spires' in close proximity to the site.
“The character and appearance of the City and Queen Square Conservation Area would be irreversibly harmed, as would the setting of several highly-graded listed buildings,” the Civic Society’s chair Simon Birch said.
“Similar concerns have been made by the Ancient Monuments Society when they say in objecting to the development the 'sheer bulk of the new buildings is completely out of scale and context with the low scale buildings opposite', particularly the Grade II* St Nicholas Market,” he added.
Before Christmas, Historic England slammed the decision to give planning permission, and last month the decision prompted former mayor of Bristol George Ferguson to say 'the gloves were off' in his criticism of present mayor Marvin Rees and all the modern large office and residential buildings being given permission in Bristol city centre.
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The call-in request has been backed by Mr Ferguson. This morning (Tuesday) he went on Twitter and agreed with comparisons with previous battles in the 1970s to protect Bristol’s historic city centre - an area now known as ‘Old City’.
“Bristol is under assault,” the former mayor wrote. “In the 70’s we saved derelict Lodge Street, with Bristol Churches Housing, from demolition and replacement by a large office block.
“Fifty years on our Mayor Marvin Rees seems to have no feeling for our history and environment,” he added.
That prompted Mr Rees to respond with a question: “Our history?”. Mr Ferguson replied: “Yes - I thought we were ‘One City’ - but it’s now clear that your disregard for our built heritage is one of disdain…”
Mr Rees again quote tweeted his predecessor: “Our heritage”, prompting another response from Mr Ferguson. “You seem intent on stoking cultural division through destructive development at Bristol’s expense - a failure of leadership?”
The Secretary of State has a limited time frame to consider the future of the St Mary Le Port development.
City planners are yet to formally give the scheme planning approval, pending the details to be worked out through the delegated powers of officer, so the Secretary of State could step in now and call in the application. It would be a lot more complicated if they waited until after it is given planning permission.
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