Club's relief as new £92m expansion gets thumbs-up

BRISTOL City Football Club has welcomed the news that plans for its new stadium have been recommended for approval by council officers for a second time.

In November, Bristol City Council said it was “minded to approve” the proposals to build a 30,000-seat replacement for Ashton Gate at nearby Ashton Vale.

A revised application is due to be heard for the final time by the south and east development control committee on Wednesday.

Ahead of that meeting, a new report from officers recommends the plans for the stadium – currently estimated to cost £92m – are referred to the Secretary of State Peter Mandelson. If he has no objections, planning permission should be granted, officers say.

 That would remove one of the hurdles to the stadium’s development, but a bigger challenge awaits in the form of North Somerset Council, which has to approve an access road to the new ground.

As previously reported, the revised proposals have removed the Southlands housing development. Councillors had opposed that part of the application, which would have included 62 houses and 54 apartments.

Under the new plans, the land would be used for waste generated by the construction work.

The loss of funding from the housing means there is now a  £5.5m “viability gap”, according to officers who had previously felt it was a break-even scheme.

Because of this, the council has reduced the amount of planning obligation the club will have to pay by £1.9m.

BCFC will still have to pay around £7m to fund road improvements to accommodate the increased amount of vehicle and pedestrian traffic and a residents’ parking scheme.

One sticking point could be officers’ demands that the club drop 150 parking spaces at the new stadium site in favour of drop-off points for buses that fans could use to travel to games. The revised plans also make “substantial improvements to the proposed pedestrian access arrangements” according to the report.

A new route is proposed that links Winterstoke Road directly in to the stadium site via Barons Close, a new footbridge over the Portishead railway line and a new path running parallel to Colliters Brook on its south-east side.

The original pedestrian link at the end of Ashton Vale Road through the Cala trading estate has been removed.

 A further 687 letters have been submitted to the council since the November decision, 647 supporting the scheme based on the club’s support letter template. The last report showed that responses had been split almost exactly 50-50, for and against the development.

A Bristol City spokesman told the Evening Post: “We are pleased that city council planning officers are recommending that members of the development control committee approve our revised plans next Wednesday.

“We have worked hard to resolve the outstanding issues from the first committee, including pedestrian access to the stadium, for example, as well as improving the stadium’s sustainability credentials, and so it is good news that officers are recommending approval.

“As well as being an iconic new home for Bristol City Football Club, this will also be a new regional stadium for Bristol, North Somerset and the West of England. It will be a major asset for the city, and will generate hundreds of new jobs and many millions of pounds of economic benefit, as well as giving the city a new attraction and a new destination.

“We are looking forward to next week’s committee, and are confident that their decision will keep  the stadium’s strong forward momentum going.”