Delay to the Zoo Gardens site development
Campaigners opposing the development of the Zoo Gardens site have won the right to proceed with a judicial review of the planning approval granted by BCC Development Control. This means that there will be a court hearing sometime in 2025, hopefully early in the year.
We have spoken to the council’s lawyers, who have taken advice from a planning KC, and they are confident that they can defend the decision. All three grounds put forward by the campaigners are quite technical and we are assured that a judge would find that it would not be reasonable to overturn the whole planning decision on these technicalities.
The judicial review will, however, be costly to both BCC and the Zoo, and if it is, as we are told to expect, refused, then it will just have been an expensive further suspension of the decision taken by the council’s development committee back in 2023.
We understand that there is a great deal of sadness that the Zoo has chosen to move out of Clifton, and we understand that the campaigners don’t like the proposed development, however, there are no real grounds to object to it. We need housing and, now that Labour are promising a ‘bonfire of planning restrictions’ (our quotation marks) we must be careful what we wish for.
In conversations with Bristol Zoo Society directors (before this decision to proceed with the judicial review) they told us that more delays might force them to sell the land without permission, as they need the funding to proceed at the Bristol Zoo Project. Should this happen, we might find ourselves in a position where an application would be brought forward that the proposed buildings were higher and took up more of the gardens; the hard-won open access to the gardens, the education centre and the community cafe/hub could be lost.
This is a hard decision, but having been very close to all stages of the development, since the Zoo announced its intent to close back in 2020, we feel that the best course of action is not to support this application for judicial review. Others, of course, will have a different view and we will keep residents informed of the date of the hearing, etc. should they want to attend.
Keeping Clifton clean
We are still getting a lot of emails about litter and weeds… and now leaves.
GOOD NEWS: Bristol Waste Company has introduced a new ‘alternative waste system’ into Clifton. This was piloted in the Old City and is working well there. BWC are now fining businesses who still have large bins on the street. Traders have had over one month to move over to bag collections and those who haven’t – see image – are being targeted and forced to change.
We believe that the businesses could play a more active role in helping to Keep Clifton Clean. Some businesses, closing for two days, choose to leave their bins on the street rather than have a member of staff come and put the bins into their bin store.
We run regular litter-picking and weeding sessions and we are often stopped by passersby who thank us, but who also ask why we are clearing weeds and rubbish from outside a business premises… and we wonder why too. Others reminisce about the ‘good old days’ when everyone swept outside their own property and cleared leaves, etc.. We know that people think that their council tax should pay for street cleansing, believing that bins and pot holes are what the budget is spent on. However, we must remind people that these days, 70% of the budget from council tax is spent on the 12,000 neediest people in the city. That is to say, adult and children’s social care demand leaves only 30% to cover everything else.
So, what do you say? Is it time to ask people to step up and that each individual – and each individual business – does its bit to Keep Clifton Clean. Your thoughts on a postcard…..
Paula and Jerome
Paula O’Rourke
Green Councillor for Clifton
Paula O’Rourke: cllr.paula.orourke@bristol.gov.uk
Jerome Thomas: cllr.jerome.thomas@bristol.gov.uk