Baltic Wharf Environment Agency drops objections to housing plans
BUILDING 166 new flats on the site of the Caravan Club campsite next to the Floating Harbour look set to go ahead, after the Environment Agency withdrew its three-year-long objection to the idea.
Bristol City Council’s own housing company Goram Homes want to build the blocks of flats on the Baltic Wharf caravan park, located between the Bristol Marina and the Cottage pub, but the plans have been held up by hundreds of objections, and the official line taken by the Environment Agency, that the site will flood and people won’t have an escape route that won’t also be under water.
But now, after the developers agreed to contribute to the Bristol Avon Flood Strategy – a £100m scheme to build flood defences for the Cumberland Basin and the city centre in the 2030s – the Environment Agency has officially dropped its objections and said the development can go ahead. It will now be considered by councillors next week at the last planning committee of Marvin Rees’s time running the council as Mayor, before the May 2 elections.
Goram’s plans were first submitted in 2021 and initially came up against fierce opposition from environmentalists concerned that building on the caravan park would mean cutting down all the trees there. Protesters even staged symbolic wedding ceremonies which saw women ‘marry’ individual trees on the site.
But in the background, the Environment Agency were also strongly opposed to the plan, describing how, in the event of a flood where a high tide and high river level combined to flood the site from the New Cut River Avon, there wouldn’t be an escape route on dry land for anyone living there, and that residents of the flats would be put at risk of harm or their lives in danger.
The EA maintained its objection, despite repeated reviews of flood strategies, modelling and flood planning, until now. Last month, the Post revealed the U-turn was likely, after the council’s own flood
management officer dropped his objection to the development.
And now, the EA has indeed changed its position, and said the development can go ahead without their objection, because the developer will contribute to the Bristol Avon Flood Strategy.
In an update letter to City Hall, the EA’s planning specialist told council officers that even though the flood defences won’t be in place for a decade or more, it would be ok. “The applicant will be complying with the new draft local plan policy, by providing a financial contribution towards the Bristol Avon Flood Strategy (BAFS)...The applicant has also incorporated additional mitigation measures to manage the risk of flooding until the BAFS is complete and the residual risk of flooding once defences are in place,” she said, adding: “We wish to remove our objection to this planning application.”
The developers have agreed to put people’s homes above ground level so they won’t be flooded themselves, and only putting ‘less vulnerable uses’ – like car parks or businesses – on the lower ground floor level. The plans have also changed to make sure that doors out of the building will open onto raised ground, and they have demonstrated ‘safe access until the Bristol Avon Flood Strategy is built.
“There have been significant developments to the Bristol Avon Flood Strategy (BAFS) recently, however it is of vital importance that Bristol City Council continue to develop and deliver both phases of the BAFS as this will reduce the risk of flooding and provide safe access and egress until 2130,” she added.
The application is now set to go before the planning committee on April 24, the last major council meeting before the May 2 election, with a recommendation from planning officers to councillors that permission should be granted.
The planning application lists the percentage of affordable homes as 40 per cent – but Goram Homes and the city council have pledged to make that 100 per cent, mainly through shared ownership schemes.