Timeline: The saga of Brislington Meadows
2014: Under George Ferguson’s Bristol City Council administration, Brislington Meadows was added to the Local Plan - and voted through by all parties at City Hall. A campaign to ‘save’ Brislington Meadows begins, run by local residents.
» 2016: New Mayor Marvin Rees and a new Labour administration took over at City Hall. The then housing chief Paul Smith began pressing the owner of most of the land at Brislington Meadows, London-based development company Olympia & Hammersmith, to work with the council to get new homes built.
» 2019: Bristol City Council owned some of the land at Brislington Meadows, including key access points, but could not complete a deal with Olympia & Hammersmith to develop the land. So the council asked Homes England to intervene.
» FEB 2020: Bristol City Council declare an ecological emergency.
» MAR 2020: The council persuaded Homes England to buy all of Brislington Meadows, spending a total of £15m buying the land from O&H, the council itself, and local business owner Johnny Palmer.
» AUTUMN 2020: Plans were revealed for 300 homes to be built there, including 90 council houses.
» JAN 2021: Homes England announced the start of a consultation process on its plans for 300 homes, but then says that will be delayed so it doesn’t happen during the election campaign.
» APRIL 2021: Just 20 days before polling day, Mayor Marvin Rees, local MP Kerry McCarthy and Labour’s two candidates for Brislington East announced that Brislington Meadows won’t be built on, because the Avon Wildlife Trust had said the land there was too ecologically important to be destroyed by development. Homes England cancelled its planned consultations.
» MAY 2021: Both Labour candidates, Tim Rippington and Katja Hornchen, were elected in Brislington East, as is Mayor Marvin Rees.
» SUMMER 2021: Avon Wildlife Trust said other greenfield sites in South Bristol, including the Western Slopes in Knowle West and Yew Tree Farm on Bedminster Down, should not be built on either - both have developers with plans for hundreds of new homes. Mayor Marvin Rees says Yew Tree Farm should not be developed. A Tory and Green Party motion calling for all green field sites in Bristol to be protected from new housing was passed by the council, with Labour councillors abstaining.
» OCT 2021: Homes England announced it still wants to develop Brislington Meadows, with consultation on its plans starting at the end of November.