Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Plan for 6,500 homes on ex-airfield site approved
THE company redeveloping one of the West’s most historic industrial sites has been given the go-ahead to massively increase the number of homes there.
The former Filton Airfield, the spiritual home of Concorde and where the famous supersonic aircraft landed for the final time, is one of the region’s most significant brownfield development sites.
This week South Gloucestershire Council approved Malaysian-owned YTL Developments’ plans to increase the number of homes at the site to 6,500, more than twice the size of its original plan.
The plans also include new schools, a research campus, office spaces, laboratories, cafes and restaurants.
Developers won’t be allowed to build some of the new homes until they can prove public transport has been improved.
Councillors on the strategic sites delivery committee at South Gloucestershire Council voted to approve planning permission on Thursday.
Developers previously had permission to build 2,675 homes, but the new Brabazon development will now be much more dense with nearly 4,000 additional properties.
Speaking to the committee, Simon Fitton, technical planning director at YTL, said: “Today hopefully represents a huge milestone in the evolution of Brabazon. This consent will allow for review to ensure the transport strategy is working, and the right amount of education, community and health facilities are available and meeting everyone’s needs.
“Should the public transport improvements we anticipate not happen, we have committed to pause if needs be and agree to further mitigation to allow the development to continue.
“There’s probably no other site outside of London that can minimise the need to travel by car, plan around new public transport and create a thriving walking and cycling neighbourhood.
“We’ll deliver over 1,700 affordable homes, and the commercial floorspace would also triple with jobs rising to 30,000. And we’ll deliver more public open space than under the current permission.”
Construction is already taking place on the first phase of homes, as well as the main spine road through the area. More than 150 homes have already been finished and are occupied.
As well as new housing, the plans include three hotels, 600 extra care units, 270,000 square metres of offices, 55,000 square metres for industrial uses, 25,000 square metres of town centre uses, student accommodation, two primary schools, one senior school, community buildings, health and sports provision. An arena and new railway station are also planned on adjacent sites.
Councillor Sanjay Shambhu, representing Charlton and Cribbs, said: “The former Filton Airfield site is brownfield and perfectly suited for a development of this size and scope.
“This development will bring significant benefits to my ward and to the wider district with a boost to economic activity and enhanced public services. There’s a great deal of support for this locally.”
The development will be split into phases, to ensure there’s not an adverse impact on the local road network. This means YTL won’t be allowed to build all of the homes planned, unless critical upgrades to buses and trains take place.
As part of the development, several new bike lanes and bus routes are planned, and there will be few car parking spaces for residents.
Cllr Adrian Rush said: “Transport is the one thing that worries me more than anything else. That’s because we’ve completely failed to change modal transport ever in South Gloucestershire.
“We’re looking here to change people’s attitudes away from cars and into buses and trains, where it’s never happened before in this county that we’ve been able to do this. I’m worried it’s not going to happen, and I’m hopeful that if we get to the stage where they review it and it’s not working quite as well as they’d thought, we can go back and start thinking again.”
Speaking after the meeting, Seb Loyn, planning and development director for YTL Developments, said: “The approval of the new masterplan for Brabazon is a once in a generation opportunity.
“It will transform not just north Bristol and South Gloucestershire, but the entire West of England.”