Local people say a ‘dangerous’ new planned development of 36 homes, on the former Charborough Road School playing field and Filton Park Preschool, will put existing homes at risk of flooding, create dangers for children attending the school and nursery and affect biodiversity and will cause parking chaos in an already busy neighbourhood.
South Glos Council, which owns the site, wants to create the new cul-de-sac with an entrance where the former preschool playgroup was located.
A block of flats will overlook Charborough Road with the remaining homes a mix of houses and flats.
There would be 23 ‘open market’ homes (18 houses and five flats) and the development would have 13 units designated as ‘affordable’ housing – five houses and eight flats.
The development provides 61 parking spaces, including eight visitor parking bays, one of which would be a disabled parking bay. This is in excess of the Council’s minimum policy requirement.
Aequus, who are wholly owned by Bath and North East Somerset Council, are delivering the project in partnership with South Gloucestershire Council to deliver ‘high quality affordable homes that create places and address local housing needs’. This partnership has delivered several new housing sites across the authority area.
A large number of objections to the planning application have been submitted and residents have raised their concerns at meetings of Filton Town Council and South Glos Council.
They also said the original consultation period gave them less than two weeks to respond and South Glos has now agreed to an extension.
The residents told Filton Town Council: “The message we are getting is that South Glos seems to be able to do what it likes. Once gone, the school will never be able to expand.
“The traffic is bad enough as it is and now there will be more cars going in and out.”
Residents in Clyde Grove and Dunkeld Avenue, which will back on to the new development, say they are already affected by flood water since the school created a hard surface MUGA play area and that this new development will make things much worse.
There are also concerns that wildlife, including badgers, will be adversely affected.
In a concern submitted to the council, Dave Baker, CEO of the Olympus Trust which runs Charborough Road School, said: “We are very concerned about safeguarding because of the proximity of dwellings to the school site and need assurances about plans for screening to ensure that the playground and MUGA are not directly overlooked from the 1st floor of most dwellings backing onto the school but also from the 2nd floor and balconies of plots 15 and 16.
“Directly related to the new housing proposals, but separate from the development, we are hugely concerned about the safety of children and their families on the way to and from school as Charborough Road is already over-busy with traffic, some of which travels too quickly. Parking and safety for families at pick-up and drop-off need to be considered as part of the planning proposals for the new housing as 36 new dwellings and 67 additional vehicles is too much.”
In planning documents, some of the concerns about open space and flooding are addressed.
The planning statement says: “All surface water run-off from storm events up to and including the 100-year plus 40% climate change will be retained within the overall site.
“The existing field is of poor recreational and sporting quality. The majority of the field slopes in a downwards direction from east to west, which limits its suitability for anything other than general recreational use.
“The small area of flat land near the north-west boundary has occasionally been utilised by the school for sport (e.g. running track for sports day), but is too small for anything more meaningful.”
Dunkeld Ave resident Heather Stevenson told South Glos’s Cabinet: “This development was first conceived over 15 years ago and the council’s been quietly moving step by step to replace a playing field with houses ever since then. In that playing field, a bio-diverse eco system exists. A wildlife corridor has managed to survive for 70 odd years because that life could co-exist alongside the school.
“In order to argue this playing field is surplus, the school was funded for a synthetic flat sports pitch. It has a bit of grass surrounding it and the rest is hard. Those of us surrounding the site fear flooding as we already have flooding of gardens from surface water and ground water and this is a sloping site with impermeable clay soils. We would need to hold the council responsible for any flooding post development.”
Resident Bill Ferrier said ‘significant issues’ had been raised by statutory consultees, saying it cannot be ‘acceptable’ for houses to be built overlooked schools play areas.
He also said there were fears over traffic, flood risks and the design of the new homes, saying claims that the development represented ‘seamless integration’ was not the case.
He added: Due to the topography of the area, all the surface water run-off from the proposed housing development will cascade towards houses in Dunkeld Avenue and then progress to houses along Southmead Road, ending up at BAWA playing fields.
South Glos councillor Adam Monk told Filton Town Council: “South Glos has to build a certain number of houses and although the site is small, it is brownfield.
“The land has been earmarked for disposal for 12 years,” he said.
It is understood Filton Town Council will receive an undisclosed sum of money from the developer.
Cllr Monk said he would investigate holding a public meeting into the plans.
Resident comments:
“I’m a parent that uses Charborough Road daily for drop offs/pick ups at the school and the traffic is already chaotic with the headmaster and deputy on the gate daily to help with children crossing into the school. The building of such a project would mean that school kids/parents would encounter multiple workmen vehicles/lorries whilst being built which is unsafe.”
“When we have heavy rainfall, even though we are on a hill, our back garden plus both neighbouring gardens get awash with rainwater that seems to have nowhere to go. I go out to feed the birds every day and when this happens the water comes up over my shoes!”