News – Kingsdown Conservation Group

Summary of April’s AGM

May 222019

It was very satisfying to see that our AGM in April at St James’ Priory was very well attended. The audience might have been drawn down the hill by our local speaker but they then heard that we had had a busy year in and around Kingsdown. Our chairman, David Winter summed-up for us the myriad of building applications we have commented upon. Amongst these have been several applications by both the Hospital and the University which impact greatly upon Kingsdown.

There followed a discussion about the state of the defunct launderette on the Cotham Road South / Portland Street and the application by the owner to turn it into flats. His application has been turned down twice and lost in appeal. It’s such a pity this important corner site on our local run of shops looks so derelict. New ideas are needed on how to get it back into use.

Also discussed was the possibility of losing the ‘Hare on the Hill’ if it were ever to be changed into accommodation It was suggested that there was a case for it being listed as an ‘Asset of Community Value’.

And St Michael’s Church has a new owner with possible new plans for making it into ’events space’.

It was with huge sadness that in March we lost one of our long standing residents, Ben Hamilton Baillie. Once a chair of the KCG, a leading figure at Sustrans and an influential promoter for ‘Shared Space, he will be sorely missed.

Then we had an excellent talk on ‘Bristol and the Civil War’ by Ronald Hutton, Professor of History at University of Bristol. We will never look at Fremantle Square again without thinking of the 300 soldiers ( slaughtered in the attack by Cromwell on Prior’s Hill Fort) buried beneath the Square.

AGM & Talk, Monday 15th April – reminder

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Apr 102019

This year’s AGM of the Kingsdown Conservation Group will be held on Monday 15th April in the Meeting Rooms, St James’ Priory, Whitson Street, Bristol BS1 3NZ. The doors will open at 7.30 for the AGM, with a talk starting at 8.30. This year we have Ronald Hutton, Professor of History speaking on the topic of ‘Bristol and the Civil War’

There will be refreshments and everyone is welcome. So come and meet your neighbours and keep up with local issues.

St James’ Priory is located between the Bus Station (exit) and the White Hart pub. Entrance to the Meeting Rooms is to the left of the main door.

Green Sunday

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Mar 232019

Is anyone interested in looking after the green spaces of Kingsdown? Maybe you would just like to get out on Sunday and meet neighbours and discuss these green things? Then meet at the Gravel Triangle, St Matthews’ Road at 10.30 on Sunday (23rd March) armed ( if possible ) with spades, scissors or secateurs. We could then move onto Montague Green after tidying up the Gravel Triangle.

UHBT Car Park REFUSED

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Mar 162019

Application No: 18/04977/P
UHBT’s application to demolish all 36 locally-listed flats on Eugene Street, and the existing c.150 place multi-storey car park, in order to build another c.820 place, eight-storey car park alongside was refused planning permission by the planning committee on Wednesday 13th March 2019.

Kingsdown Conservation Group had objected to the application.

The planning case officer’s report to the planning committee recommending refusal can be viewed at planningonline.bristol.gov.uk

UBHT’s proposed multi-storey car park refused planning permission

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Mar 152019

Second Response to the proposed multi-storey car park

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Dec 042018

18/04977/P – Proposed demolition and construction works between Marlborough Street and Montague Hill South

Kingsdown Conservation Group (the Group) would like to emphasise that it does not criticise the desire of the Hospital Board to ease the difficulty some people have when travelling to the various Hospital buildings; it is the particular solution proposed that is objectionable.

In its letter of 8th November, the Group strongly objected to this application. The letter argued that the proposal was in direct conflict with the Joint Transport Plan and the Bristol Core Strategy, that it involved the demolition of the existing multi-storey car park and all 36 of the fundamentally sound flats on Eugene Street and that it adopted an approach of demolition, clearing and re-building which has been entirely discredited for inner city development.

In this second letter, the Group wishes to add that the proposal is also in direct conflict with a number of other BCC policies.

To quote from Bristol City Council’s Kingsdown Conservation Area Character Appraisal,

6.2.1 The topography of the City is unique and views across it make an important contribution to Bristol’s townscape and character. The spectacular City-wide views enjoyed from Kingsdown are fundamental to its special interest.

6.2.2 . . . The tall houses on the escarpment can be seen from many points across the City.

6.2.3 . . . The preservation of Kingsdown’s views is vital in protecting the area’s character and special interest. New developments within the City centre, … the Hospital and University sites, are all posing a significant threat to Kingsdown’s views.

Map 7 in the Character Appraisal shows the site of the proposed development to be within an area where there is a “Threat of insensitive development …”

With regard to the above, it is unfortunate that the Accurate Visual Representations (AVRs) in the Design and Access Statement are from selective viewpoints. There are neither views from the west end of Dove Street nor from Dove Street South. Similarly, there are no section drawing showing the proposed car park in relation to the topography of Kingsdown. These views and sections are important to enable all to comprehend the impact of the proposed multi-storey car park on the townscape setting.

It is a matter of frequent comment that the above proposal is an application to fill in the last significant uninterrupted gap between the Hospital buildings on St Michael’s Hill to the west and the Dove Street flats to the east. An anachronistic and illuminated eight-storey car park would mark the final obliteration of an essential element of Bristol’s topography, the escarpment of Kingsdown.

In the face of the city’s recently declared popularity as a place to live and visit, surely, it cannot be Bristol’s policy to submerge its topography and heritage assets in a rising tide of massive generic buildings.

Advent Winter Warmer

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Dec 012018

Saturday 8^th December. 10am– 12am

Gravel Triangle, St Matthews’ Road

Start the Christmas festive season here with warming drinks and delicious festive nibbles to entice you to come and join your neighbours – and support younger members of our community to raise funds for a good cause, the Lotus Flower Trust

Please come, everyone is welcome

Any further contributions of homemade foods, brought to the stall first thing on the day, would be greatly appreciated

Our Response to Proposed Multi-storey Carpark

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Nov 072018

This is our response to the proposed UHB multi-storey carpark. We hope that as many residents as possible write in and express their opinion on this planning application. This is a link to the relevant on line comment page.

https://planningonline.bristol.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=PFCEQKDN06900

18/04977/P Outline application to block up Eugene Street, to demolish all 36 purpose-built flats on Eugene Street, and to demolish the existing serviceable c.150 bay multi-storey car park, in order to build an 8-storey 820 bay multi-storey car park on the cleared area of ground between Eugene Street and Montague Hill South

Kingsdown Conservation Group is aware of the difficulties faced by those who need easy access to the wide range of buildings administered by UHB. However, it regards the proposed solution as obsolete.

Times have changed. Local roads are highly congested and pollution levels are excessive. Smarter solutions must be found and the city is concentrating on developing new ways for people to travel. The proposed multi-storey car park would conflict with the joint transport plan. In the context of its agenda to keep expanding clinical provision annually by between four and five per cent, the Trust should integrate its thinking and decision making with existing parking provision and emerging modes of transport. The Trust cannot remain trapped on a treadmill of attempting to accommodate an ever increasing numbers of patients’ cars.

In addition to the above aspect of the proposals, the Group is shocked to see that the brief has remained effectively unchanged since the idea was floated several years ago. The idea of demolishing 36 fundamentally sound, purpose-built flats is repugnant. The idea of demolishing a functioning c.160 bay multi-storey car park, in order to build another multi-storey car park alongside, is wholly offensive. All the proposed demolition is unsustainable.

The Planning Statement raises The Bristol Core Strategy, as if to imply accordance, yet the proposals conflict with it, including elements of BCS5, BCS10, BCS15, BCS20, BCS21 and BCS22.

The proposal’s conceptual approach of wholesale demolition, clearance and re-building would repeat town planning errors made across the nation and notoriously on the slopes of Kingsdown, when Bristol’s most important early Georgian suburb was ransacked in the 1950s and 60s. The mass, height and length of the multi-storey car park would assault Kingsdown’s surviving historic townscape by being built to an entirely different scale and, unforgivably, at a low level of the escarpment. Views in and out of the Kingsdown Conservation Area would be obstructed.

Both the Grade II Listed Montague Court and the Locally Listed King Edward VII Memorial Hospital building are immediately adjacent to the proposed eight-storey car park and the setting of other heritage assets that are in The Stokes Croft Conservation Area and The St James’s Parade Conservation Area would be substantially harmed by the brash new building.

The Group profoundly objects to the proposals and intends to lodge further comment elaborating on certain aspects.

Proposed Transport Hub would actually be a monstrous Multi-storey Car Park.

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Nov 012018

An outline planning application has been lodged to block up Eugene Street, to demolish all 36 of the purpose-built flats on Eugene Street and to demolish the present serviceable c.150 place multi-storey car park, in order to build an 8-storey, 820 place multi-storey car park on the cleared area of ground between Eugene Street and Montague Hill South.

Members are advised to look at the application number 18/04977/P on the city’s website or by following the link below.

The Conservation Group believes the proposed gigantic structure would assault the topography of Kingsdown and is the most challenging application to confront the Kingsdown Conservation Area since its designation in 1973.

The Group will be submitting a letter of objection shortly.

https://planningonline.bristol.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=PFCEQKDN06900

October 2018 Committee Meeting

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Oct 192018

At their regular meeting in October the Group discussed the following:

Removal of setts on Dove Street at rear of 22 Fremantle Square. We will investigate whether this is on public land.

25 Somerset St planning application for new garage. The group commented: a preference for a rubble to a brick wall.

Replacement of dead or dying trees. The group will ask BCC what is available.

The group will investigate putting some hanging signs on our shops in Cotham Road South (as in St Marks Road, Easton).

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