Join the fight to keep Bristol green! 

A business owner has just been granted planning permission and listed building consent by the Planning Inspectorate (supported by the Bristol City Council Planning Officers) to turn a grade 2* listed garden in a conservation area into a 10-space car park. 

If a garden can be turned into a car park in these circumstances within just a few feet from local residents windows and onto a narrow road near to a primary school, we believe this will set a precedent, opening the floodgates for any owner of a green space in Bristol to request having it concreted over and turned into a car park. The only course of action available to us now is to issue a case in the High Court.

We’re a group of local residents fighting this case to save a historic garden that could set a dangerous precedent for car parks on the green spaces and gardens in Bristol.  We’re going up against a deep-pocketed business owner and the Secretary of State and we really need your help!  Please donate as much or as little as you can, and/or please share this page with as many people and organisations as possible: it really will make such a difference. 

Ironically, Bristol City Council hails itself locally, regionally and nationally as a ‘green’ council. The building is sited in a position where there are excellent public transport links, with a bus stop right outside.

Is this the kind of city we want to live in, where car parks are replacing gardens?

Case Background 

In one of the most beautiful parts of Bristol there is a building called Mortimer House, a former maternity hospital in the conservation area of Clifton, Bristol, dating back to the 19th Century and being grade 2* listed, where many Bristolians will have been born. The owners were granted planning permission and listed building consent in 2016 for six parking spaces to the front of the building (in keeping with all the other buildings on the same road). The new owners are turning it into an office Headquarters, and applied for planning permission and listed building consent to move the parking area to the rear of the property to create 10 parking spaces in the historic back-garden. 

Not only will this result in a significant reduction in garden space in the area, but the proposed car park is within a few feet of six local residents' homes and windows and will have a terrible impact through noise and light pollution, pollution from fumes, and vibrations.  They will need to knock down part of a historic wall in order to create gates, which will open out onto a very narrow road with a primary school at the end.  Given it is a commercial building  the use of the new 10 space car park will involve numerous vehicles, including the possibility of vans/lorries etc, which could be used 24/7 days a week.  Along with the narrowness of the road and poor visibility mixed with children running/walking along the road this is a recipe for a serious accident.

This 10-space application was recommended for approval by Bristol City Council’s Planning Officers, but local councillors in the Planning Committee supported the objections of local residents in January 2018 and rejected the application. In Summer 2018, the owners put a new application in that didn’t address the concerns of councillors or local residents and just reduced the number of spaces from 10 down to 8.  In less than two days, we collected over 200 signatures in objection.  Once more the Council Planning Officers supported this application, but the councillors in the Planning Committee rejected the application. The owner of  Mortimer House then appealed to the Planning Inspectorate against the decision to reject the 10-space application. 

We were devastated when we heard back on 23 November 2018 that the Planning Inspector had approved the appeal. 

The Planning Inspectorate's decision will set a precedent that may see gardens and other green spaces throughout Bristol being turned into parking, undermining the Council’s own ‘green’ plans and wishes of many people in Bristol to see a Green City minimising vehicles.

The Legal Challenge - our last chance

The only option now open to us is to go down the very expensive legal route of a Statutory Review (like a Judicial Review) through the High Court – this could cost up to £50,000!!!!  

If we win, the decision then has to be reconsidered by the Planning Inspectorate, with the advice being that it is highly likely the decision will be in our favour.  If we lose, then we understand there are no other options available to us.

How much are we raising and why? 

As the time allowed to bring this challenge is so short (and with the Christmas holiday’s coming up) we’ve had to act very fast. 

We have appointed a Solicitor and Barrister to undertake the initial stage, which includes advice on the grounds of challenge and a ‘pre-action’ letter to the Secretary of State (who appoint Planning Inspectors) setting out our case and inviting them to concede the case on a number of grounds.  We should soon know their response.

In order to complete this initial stage of proceedings, we require your help please with raising £4,800.  We will then go on to raise more funds as the legal action proceeds.