Minister overturns caravan site move plan due to ‘risk of life’

BRISTOL’S popular caravan club faces an uncertain future after a minister overturned planning permission to move – because he said he was worried people could die if the site floods.

The Bristol Caravan Club is being moved off its site at Baltic Wharf on the harbourside close to the Cottage pub, because the city council have plans to build apartments there.

The Caravan Club had struck a deal to move to the old police dog and horse training centre on the other side of the Cumberland Basin at Clanage Road, between Ashton Court and the River Avon – but the move has been mired in planning controversy.

The Caravan Club’s initial application to convert the police training centre into a caravan site with 62 pitches was given permission by Bristol City Council planners, but was ‘called-in’ by the Government because of fears of flooding.

Then, last summer a Government planning inspector said it would be OK, and gave them permission for the move, pointing out that the Caravan Club brought £1 million a year into the city’s tourism industry.

The planning inspector said she was satisfied there would be enough warning of a flood, given the Avon Gorge’s high tides alongside any huge storm could be predicted in advance.

But now the Minister of State for Housing, Stuart Andrew MP, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State, has overturned that decision and refused the Caravan Club permission to move, after the Environment Agency again objected and said they feared people could die if it floods quickly.

In his written judgement on the planning saga, Mr Andrew said he preferred to believe the Environment Agency, and conceded that how high the floodwaters might rise if a storm or flood coincided with a high tide – and how quickly that might happen – are ‘very difficult to predict’.

The Caravan Club and the Environment Agency argued over what happened earlier this year, when Storm Eunice struck Bristol and closed the city down, with dire warnings of floods and high winds.

The Caravan Club said that despite what was described as the worst storm in 30 years coinciding with a high tide, the warnings from the Met Office and the Environment Agency came hours beforehand, and there would have been plenty of time to evacuate the site.

But the Environment Agency said any future storm, tidal surge or flood might not be as easy to predict.

Mr Andrew said evacuating the site in enough time was too risky because it relied on human behaviour.

So the Caravan Club now no longer have planning permission to move to the Clanage Road site, and face an uncertain future at Baltic Wharf, where the council’s own housing company Goram Homes have plans for 166 flats there.

Google Earth Baltic Wharf Caravan Club will eventually be made to move from its home beside the Cottage Inn