Council plans for over 100 homes on Dovercourt depot - have your say!
Once again we face another consultation, this time the Dovercourt Depot and some nearby green space between Dovercourt Road and the railway line. The Council are proposing 120 to 150 new homes on the site and there is a 3 week timescale to get your views across.
This is the key time to respond.
The Council are consulting early on the proposals to get feedback before they create detailed plans. This is before they spend a lot of money on detailed designs. The more money they spend the less keen they are to change their mind - so if you have a view about what should be built here then have your say now! Many residents circulate views on facebook and other social media sites - this is useful to hear what other people think and get the word out, but it doesn’t count in consultation terms, so if you have something to say, make sure you respond here.
Some years ago Lockleaze residents wrote a Neighbourhood Development Plan - this was an opportunity to put residents views in planning law so that developers couldn’t just force through profitable proposals against community need. In addition to the planning protection a Neighbourhood Development Plan would ensure that a greater portion of the community infrastructure levy funds would come directly to Lockleaze. Unfortunately the plan did not get approved and so development in Lockleaze has been driven largely by the land owner, Bristol City Council, and their officers who have been tasked with building as much housing as possible to meet Mayoral commitments and Government targets. We know there is a housing crisis, with some 15,000 on the housing register, 500 of them in Lockleaze, we are not against house building. However, when building 1000 homes it is also important to think about how else to build community. Bristol City Council’s own Economic recovery strategy identifies the need to not neglect building jobs, connectivity and enhancing green space and in the pursuit of building houses. In the draft neighbourhood development plan this site was set was identified as a place for industry and employment. The risk without an overall strategy for Lockleaze is that each site is looked at for maximising housing and nobody is considering where is the community space, the cafes, the shops, where are the opportunities to create local jobs, to have play facilities and to support a thriving Lockleaze?
The risk without an overall strategy for Lockleaze is that each site is looked at for maximising housing and nobody is considering where is the community space, the cafes, the shops, where are the opportunities to create local jobs, to have play facilities and to support a thriving Lockleaze?
We would love to explore how the Dovercourt Depot could be a place where Lockleaze could have some local jobs, maybe support local artistic talent with studios, workshop space, or maybe a mix of housing and shops, or support new industry that can capitalise on the green economy (sustainable housing, energy, transport infrastructure). We would also like to see the wildlife protected and enhanced here, and the Bonnington Development has shown how hard that is to protect. We’d love to get some debate and discussion on this and pause the relentless pursuit of houses above all else.
This kind of development will last for 50-100 years or more, so what seems like a small 3 week consultation on some draft ideas is actually, surprisingly, a momentous moment in the development of Lockleaze. And like the Cameron Centre development if we don’t make our views heard then the opportunity will slip away.
Do come to the Community forum on Thursday to hear more about these plans and discuss with your neighbours what you think about them and what should happen next.
Our Lockleaze Community Forum
Time: Mar 18, 2021 07:00 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/99185630233?pwd=VERJSDcxc0ZYNG8xQUpRRmdHUjE4UT09
Meeting ID: 991 8563 0233
Passcode: Lockleaze