Strategic Sites Development Committee Roundways site visit takes place

Strategic Sites Delivery Committee members met on the the land East of Roundways on Friday 11th September to see the site for themselves and to hear representations from ward councillors, parish councillors and members of the public.

The visit happened because Bloor Homes have appealed to the Secretary of State on the grounds that South Glos have not determined the application for up to 450 new homes at Roundways according to the statutory timeline.

As part of the appeal process South Glos has to tell the planning inspectors what its decision would have been if it had been able to determine the application in time. The site visit and the committee meeting in Kingswood on Thursday 17th September will determine that decision.

At the site visit committee members heard representations from members of the public, the Parish Council and ward member Jon Lean - all of whom spoke passionately about preserving the land and how large scale development is inappropriate here.

During the time ward members were allocated to speak, Jon focussed on the draft South Glos Local Plan which rejects development at Roundways, saying: 

"As a ward councillor I oppose this application and would like to recommend that committee members reach the decision that they would have refused it. 

"Over the past year, we’ve seen real progress on South Gloucestershire’s new Local Plan - a plan built on evidence, public consultation, and a clear understanding of where development should and should not go. The plan has now cleared the public examination step and all indicators suggest it is right on the cusp of being adopted. Yet at this very last moment, we find ourselves facing an attempt by a developer to sidestep it entirely. Their proposal isn’t shaped by the Local Plan, by infrastructure realities, or by community need. It’s shaped by their need to try to rush these ill thought out plans through before it's too late for them.

"One of the most important principles in the Local Plan is the protection of the Green Belt between Yate and Bristol. This is one of the narrowest Green Belt gaps anywhere in South Gloucestershire, and that narrowness is precisely why it is so important. It prevents Bristol and Yate from merging into one continuous urban sprawl. And because it performs that function so strongly, it cannot be categorised as “grey belt” as it contributes strongly to Green Belt purpose B - to prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another. It fails the Green Belt test because it does not demonstrate the very special circumstances that would be required to justify the harm to the Green Belt it would cause.

"Then there’s the proposed new junction by Manor School. Anyone who travels through that area knows how congested these roads already are at peak times. Adding a major new junction directly beside a school is not just poor planning - it raises serious safety concerns. We should not be placing hundreds of additional vehicle movements at the very point where children are crossing roads, cycling, and walking to school. This is exactly the kind of risk the new Local Plan is designed to prevent.

"The developer is trying to lean on the former Joint Spatial Plan to justify this application — but that plan was rejected years ago, in part because planning inspectors found the strategic development locations like this one had not been considered against reasonable alternatives. And in addition, since the JSP days, the highways impact that this site would cause has worsened. There are no longer plans for a Coalpit Heath or Westerleigh bypass; no longer plans for Junction 18a on the M4; and no longer plans for Metrobus lanes on the A432. All of these were being discussed during the JSP era, and none of them exist now. To pretend the transport network can absorb thousands of additional car journeys is not credible.

"Local services are already stretched. The plans talk about “land for primary school use” but do not actually create additional school places. And when it comes to healthcare, the NHS has been clear: it will take nearly half-a-million pounds to expand local provision to meet the demand created by this development. Yet it is far from clear whether such an expansion is even possible within Coalpit Heath or Frampton Cotterell. It is not acceptable to add a thousand plus new residents without adding the services they rely on.

"Finally, even the developer’s own ecological surveys acknowledge the presence of 13 Skylark territories and 5 Yellowhammer territories on the site. These are red‑listed species, already under pressure nationally, and the developer's ecological survey admits that these territories would be permanently lost. Once they are gone, they are gone forever. 

"So I want to be absolutely clear: this proposal is not aligned with the new Local Plan, it is not aligned with transport reality, it is not aligned with environmental protection, and it is not aligned with the needs of our community.

“These are some of the reasons I would ask that committee members decide that they would have refused this application.”

Other contributions from Westerleigh Parish Council and from local residents addressed further concerns related to risks posed by former coal mining on the site that have not been identified in the documents submitted by the applicant, the lack of water pressure already experienced by residents of Roundways, and the risk to other forms of wildlife, like the deer population which is regularly found on the site.