Kingsdown Conservation Group

Planning Application for a 5G Mast Adjacent to Redland Grove Park

Members may want to comment on a controversial planning application 22/04215/Y, which proposes locating a tall telecoms pole, and various associated cabinets, on the pavement diagonally opposite the Grade II* listed Main Entrance Gates to the separately listed Grade II* Redland Court, on Redland Road.

The application can be seen on Bristol City Council’s website via the link below.

https://pa.bristol.gov.uk/online-applications/simpleSearchResults.do?action=firstPage

Kingsdown Conservation Group objects very strongly to this proposal.

ADDENDUM 23 October ’22: We are pleased to say that this application has now been REFUSED. It is also encouraging that a very similar application near the tennis courts at Kings Drive, Bishopston was also refused earlier this month

Evidently discussions have taken place recently about the future of some of the city’s high-rise residential buildings, in particular Dove Street Flats. This Bristol Cable article https://thebristolcable.org/2021/08/high-rises-under-scrutiny-as-council-considers-rebuilding-social-housing/ makes interesting reading.
There has been minimal communication with the residents of Dove Street Flats in the past. Any such proposals would need much better involvement and consultation.

Kingsdown Conservation Group has objected, as follows, to the University’s planning application to build a new library on the site of The Hawthorns, at the corner of Woodland Road and Elton Road, opposite the Grammar School. 

Residents are encouraged to view the application on the Bristol City Council website and act accordingly. Comment should be submitted by 4th March.

Planning Application 20/00433/F. Proposed new university and associated road closures.

Kingsdown Conservation Group strongly objects to the proposed closure of Tyndall Avenue to two-way motor traffic. The ramifications of such closure would severely interrupt traffic’s ability to navigate the city. Traffic volumes would increase elsewhere. St Michael’s Hill, Park Row and other streets are virtually intolerable as it is. Meanwhile, the streets in which many university buildings are located would become increasingly quiet parking lots, utilised largely by those university staff members allocated residents’ parking permits and busy only during weekdays in term time, otherwise horribly empty of life, particularly at night. It is extraordinary that the University’s governing body is insensitive to this issue. 

Bristol University is favoured for not being a campus university. Its buildings and landscape should celebrate the fact that the university is intertwined with the city as a whole.

The Group feels the same argument applies St Michael’s Park, which should also remain two-way. The current proposal to split the road so that one half is one-way while the other half two-way is confusing and, given the proposal not to separate the cycle route in the one-way section, potentially quite dangerous.

To turn to the library, the size of the proposed building demonstrably exceeds that determined by SPD11. The Group regrets it is unable to support the height, scale and mass of the current proposal. It would be against the grain of the conservation area and of the immediate context. It would overwhelm the nearby buildings of Bristol Grammar School, the former Baptist College and the Victorian villas of Woodland Road and Elton Road. 

In addition to the sheer size of the proposed library, its demanding architectural character would be discordant with the wider cityscape and, when seen from more distant viewpoints, the design would exacerbate the building’s immense scale. The unsettled, cubic forms of the proposed building would cause it to appear ill at ease both with its location and with itself.

The Group recognises the University’s ambition to continue to expand but feels what has been asked of the Hawthorns site should be reconsidered. The brief has asked too much of a finite location. 

This coming Saturday, 7th December. 9.30 – 11.30 am

As before,  we will be in the cosy  Kingsdown Vaults to enjoy our absolutely delicious bacon and scrumptious vegan butties and homemade cakes (all donations again warmly welcomed).  With of course, very good coffee and a variety of teas.
Come to support a good cause, be sociable, friendly, chat, talk and discuss local issues or major events and what we in Kingsdown can be doing. Please invite your neighbours. All welcome, young and old.

All monies raised go to the aiding the homeless during the chill of January.

There is now a section on this website for events on our Calendar. We will try to keep it updated with news of appropriate talks, meetings, concerts or other community events and deadlines.

Kingdown Conservation Group was deeply opposed to the BRI’s proposal to demolish thirty-six flats, and an appropriately-scaled multi-storey car park, in order to build a single monstrous multi-storey car park. 
The application to do so was refused for many well-argued reasons: the council traffic department, which examined the projected traffic flows in great detail, rejected the scheme as unworkable given the area’s already congested and illegally-polluted roads. 
The thirty-six flats are affordable inner-city housing, which should be cherished not flattened. The scheme ignored the destructive visual impact such a huge building would have on Bristol’s historic centre.

The Group recognises that the BRI, as an inner city hospital, should be easier to get to for the infirm, the elderly, wheelchair users, and staff, but believes this could be achieved using infrastructure already in place. There are already serviceable multi-storey car parks in the area, which given the will could be used as part of the transport hub hospital managers say they want.

Destroying perfectly good housing to build a car park is thinking rooted in the 1960’s  The Council was absolutely right to turn down this hopelessly outdated proposal and the Group urges the Inspector now to refuse the appeal.