BUILD BEDMINSTER BETTER and help STOP the Princess St. Tower Blocks!

We need your support to help fight the proposed development right in front of Victoria Park which will remove the panoramic view across the city. Our elected councillors are increasingly unable to refuse inappropriate planning applications due to pressure from the planning authority and developers who are driving student accommodation, height and density as the solution to Bristol’s housing crisis.

South Bristol is undergoing massive redevelopment and new homes are needed. However, student accommodation is being put forward in applications to justify the building of regular homes. This is what we have in the Princess St development: a massive 23 storey student tower of 400 beds in exchange for 437 rental apartments - with only 20% proposed as affordable (which may become less, as we all know and as the developers plead poverty!).

Princess St is within the Whitehouse St Framework - a public consultation document that was meant to allow existing local people and businesses to help shape the future community as it transitions from industrial warehousing. The total area is supposed to deliver 2000 new homes. This framework has, disappointingly, been largely ignored in this application. Excessive height was one of the key elements that people commented upon as being inappropriate in this location due to the adjacency to the park - and no where was there a reference to, or requirement for, more student beds.

As a group of concerned individuals and community groups, we are taking a stand against this application and doing whatever we can to help the voting councillors and planning authority rethink this decision. With your financial help we are doing the work and have engaged a barrister to take on the case to investigate the grounds for a Judicial Review. We are making headway but there is a lot to do and funds will be needed! EVERY £ AND SHARE COUNTS and will go towards achieving a better outcome for the communities of Totterdown, Windmill Hill and beyond.

*Update: 17th April

Next Wednesday 22nd April the conditions for the delivery of the development are on the agenda for a vote of approval. We have lots of questions and will be submitting statements to help the councillors see that they still have a choice. IT IS NOT TOO LATE to refuse this application and work with the developer to find a better solution for the area. Our barrister is being a huge help and we will let you know next steps after the meeting.

The public can submit statements also (2 pages) sharing your discontent with how South Bristol is being shaped. Get involved and have your say!

*Update: 25th March.

We have been a little quiet on our updates - so much has been going on behind the scenes that we hope to be able to share in more detail very soon. Did you see some of us on ITV news last night? We were interviewed in front of the view in the park that looks out over where the blocks will be built and there was a good turn out of local people (mainly off camera) who came to show support. Bristol Post was there also - and the Bristol Civic Society, who are deeply concerned about the plans and the impact they will have on the views from the park and across the city.

Thank you to everyone who has donated, shared and proven that south Bristol does care about what is being done here by the developers. We appreciate everyone of you and please continue to share, donate where possible, and help us to reach our next goal. You have already taken this campaign to a point where we are engaging a barrister to look at the case - but this is just the beginning...

BACKGROUND

In January, Councillors from across Bristol were asked if they believed that planning permission should be granted to the proposed development of Princess Street, which includes a 23 story block of student flats. They voted it down, because it was too tall, too dense, and would cause harm to views of views of the Bristol Skyline and Totterdown Escarpment. The Council's planning team were supposed to write a new report which formalised these reasons, but instead their new report told Councillors that they COULDN'T refuse the planning permission because they were scared about the Developers taking them to court if they didn't get their own way.

This is not democracy, and we cannot allow our community to be destroyed because the Council's planning Officers are too weak to stand up to greedy developers. We agree that more housing is needed, but this is not the way to do it. We are a democratic country, and local Councillors were asked to make the decision to ensure democracy was upheld. If they think it's too big, the Council should be able to tell the Developers to go back to the drawing board without fear of being sued.

So if our civil servants are not going to stand up to Developers, we will. It is unlawful for planning decisions to be made based on the threat of legal action, so we think we have a really strong case to get the decision overturned. But to do that, we need to raise approx £4,500 to hire a Barrister to begin working on our case. The Barrister we want to use has already proved that he can successfully stand up to the Council and Developers, as he led the Broadwalk legal action and negotiated the deal which dramatically reduced the height of the buildings.

So our potential Barrister knows his stuff and he's all lined up and ready to get started. We are confident that we can turn this around - we just need the money to make it happen!

We just need 200 people to show they also believe we can do it by donating £20 each... are you with us???

If we find that we cannot raise enough to begin a legal challenge, you will be given the option to have your donation refunded.