COUNCILLORS have voted unanimously to fight a major planning appeal that would “spell disaster for Coalpit Heath”.
South Gloucestershire Council lost the power to give or refuse permission for Bloor Homes’ plans to build 450 new homes on the eastern edge of the village in the summer.
The developer appealed to the Planning Inspectorate after the authority took too long to make up its mind on the scheme to build on land between Roundways and St Anne’s Drive, the railway line and Woodside Road.
In September the council’s strategic sites delivery committee met to vote on what its decision would have been, had it still been in members’ hands.
The committee voted against officer recommendations that permission should have been granted for the plans, as councillors made an impassioned case to defend their stance at a six-day public inquiry taking place from November 24.
Much of the debate, which lasted over three hours, was around the government’s reclassification of some Green Belt land to a new category of ‘grey belt’, which is deemed less important and easier to get permission to build on.
Frampton Cotterell ward councillor Jon Lean said: “More than 450 people from one small village have objected to this application. Those in support? Just two.
“That’s a community telling you as clearly as it possibly can that this would spell disaster for Coalpit Heath.”
Closing the gap between village and Yate
A council report said the development, which also includes a community centre, public open space and cycle paths, would cut the gap between Yate and Coalpit Heath from 2.3km to 1.6km – from around a mile and a half to a mile.
Cllr Lean said the distance was important to stop the two merging, and the land involved made a “significant contribution to protect the countryside from encroachment”.
In August, council officers rejected 124 homes proposed on similar land at nearby Hicks Common in Winterbourne, without the decision going to councillors, on the grounds that it was “inappropriate development in the Green Belt”.
Cllr Lean said making that decision officers had named Coalpit Heath and Winterbourne together, adding: “This council already made this call on this same stretch of Green Belt only weeks ago.”
Thornbury & Yate MP Claire Young objected to the plans, saying Coalpit Heath was already part of a “trio of conjoined commuter villages, with Frampton Cotterell and Winterbourne, that effectively function as a single large dormitory settlement”.
Westerleigh & Coalpit Heath Parish Council chairman Geoff Williams said if the site was reclassified as grey belt, it would result in Bristol and Yate merging.
He said Coalpit Heath, Frampton Cotterell and Winterbourne together have a population and size equivalent to a small town like Thornbury.
Mr Williams said: “The planned development not only reduces the Green Belt between Bristol and Yate but between the Coalpit Heath, Frampton Cotterell joint communities and Yate itself.”
One resident told councillors the plans would expand Coalpit Heath by 50%, adding that the access road opposite the busy Manor primary school is “already an absolute danger hazard”.
Frampton Cotterell ward councillor Tristan Clark said: “This site isn’t grey belt, and if it was developed, it would fundamentally undermine the purposes of the Green Belt across the entire plan area.”
Committee member Paul Hughes (Con, Bitton & Oldland Common) said the development would result in the loss of top agricultural land, which amounts for 71% of the site.
Officers recommended approval
Planning officers said plans for public space meant not all of the land would be “entirely built over”.
Officers had recommended the council approve the scheme and start negotiating planning deals with Bloor Homes to pay for infrastructure.
Principal planning officer Emma Hardy said the benefits of the development would not be “substantially outweighed” by any adverse effects.
She said: “The application site is grey belt, the proposed development would not fundamentally undermine the purposes of the remaining Green Belt in South Gloucestershire, there is a demonstrable unmet need for the proposed development, the site is in a sustainable location.
“The proposed development is therefore not inappropriate development in the Green Belt.”
The council also has to make a decision on plans submitted in May by Edward Ware Homes to build 860 homes at Frog Lane, immediately to the north of the Roundways site.
By Adam Postans, Local Democracy Reporting Service