There has been a lot of discussion in recent days on a whole host of issues. One of the big ones proved to be about what is happening in South Gloucestershire regarding the housing due to be built. So I thought that it might be easier to try and spell out what is happening – believe it or not what follows is the shortened summary.

In 2010 Filton Airfield closed and the whole area from Haw Wood to the A38 end of the runway began to be discussed by South Gloucestershire as a potential housing development.

What followed was years of debate, petition, argument and discussion. This culminated in 2017 when South Gloucestershire Council gave the final planning consent to new house building on the Former Filton Airfield site and wider area. The whole project is called the Cribbs Patchway New Neighbourhood (CPNN)

So here is my quick summary as to what is happening. I have included a map extract to provide some context.

So here’s what we know:

• There will be around 5700 homes built just over the border in South Gloucestershire. Most of which will be built by three major developers – Deeley Freed (to the west of the dual carriageway), Persimmon Homes (immediately behind Brentry) and YTL (on the airfield site itself). There are several smaller developers in and around these ‘bigger fish’.
• Collectively they have all bought into the ‘Landowner Agreement’ which binds them into providing specific facilities at certain points in the build (such as schools – of which there are 4/5, parks, doctors surgeries, shops etc).
• A large part of the development will be used for ‘employment land’. This is primarily concentrated at the far end of the runway off the A38.
• Building started last year but could take up to 15 years.
• If the normal process is followed then each of the developers will build in 200 house ‘lots’ (taking a couple of years). These will then be sold and work will begin on the next lot and so on. Some of the smaller developers will also start work.
• Traffic will not be granted access down Fishpool Hill, Charlton Road or Station Road. In the latter two cases it will be public transport only (they are also proposing to move the bus lane to over the station road railway bridge to prevent people doubling back from Crow Lane roundabout and turning down no name road).
• As part of the plans two new trains stations will be provided at Henbury (on the Brentry side of the dual carriageway on the way to the Crow Lane roundabout) and Filton North (near the Brabazon Hangar where it will serve the new arena).

So what will the impact be?:

In many ways the development ticks a lot of boxes. It will have local facilities, shops, employment opportunities. It, at least for the moment, seems to be taking a joined up approach. The problem will be traffic which, despite the inclusion of new train stations and bus routes, is going to be bad. How bad it will be we still don’t know but I fear time will tell. I expect we can all agree that the Crow Lane roundabout will be ‘adversely impacted’, and that the road network in North Bristol will get busier.

This isn’t a question of if it will happen – sadly at this stage - it is a matter of when.

You can get more information at the link HERE – it is from 2013 but does provide some good background but doesn’t have some recent developments such as the final location of the Henbury station or the Arena