Fifth Capital planning application

Fifth Capital submitted their planning application for the Carriageworks and Westmoreland House in November 2014.

All the documents are on the Council’s website

1. Planning application
2. Listed building application

To save you time you can also download all the documents (as of 12 December) in one handy pack:  Download 147Mb in a zip file.  Note that while a planning application is being considered the documents get added to and amended so you should check with the Council website for the latest versions.  There’s also the Cultural Strategy (click to download 5MB PDF) that was submitted as part of the application but isn’t (as of 21 January) on the Council’s website.

The essence of the November 2014 application

Fifth Capital are applying for permission to demolish Westmorland House and 4 Ashley Road.  They will then refurbish / convert the Carriageworks and develop new buildings on the rest of the site.  Their development proposals comprise:

• RESIDENTIAL
  • 59 x 1 bed flats, of which 1 = intermediate housing*
  • 35 x 2 bed flats, of which 6 = intermediate housing*
  • 18 x 3 bed flats with balconies, of which 1 = intermediate housing*
  • 9 x 3 bed houses with gardens
  • Total: 118 residential units.  Density = 231 units/ha
  • There is an assumption that 95 children will live in the scheme.
• COMMERCIAL
  • Maximum 5 x commercial / community units totalling 659sqm along Stokes Croft and Ashley Road frontage.
  • No commercial / community units inside the site.
  • The units will be “able to accommodate a broad range of uses and activities” and “will be carefully managed to ensure a mix of independent businesses and other organisations… (The) incorporation of retail chains or supermarkets has been ruled out.”
• PARKING
  • 6 x disabled car parking spaces
  • 1 x car club space
  • 1 x loading bay in front of the disabled parking spaces
  • No other parking or loading provision
  • 196 x bicycle spaces (inc 6 for staff and visitors to commercial units)
• BUILDING HEIGHT
  • On Stokes Croft Westmoreland House will be replaced with a five storey building (inc. mansard roof).
  • Carriageworks – same height but with additonal storey in mansard roof
  • Ashley Road – new five storey block (inc. mansard roof)
  • Central apartment block – six storeys high (inc. mansard roof)
  • Terraced houses – three storey and pitched roof
  • Perimeter apartment building – four storey (inc. mansard roof)
• OPEN SPACES
  • One space accessed from Stokes Croft through the Carriageworks.  “A courtyard garden” open to the public “during commercial hours”.  Otherwise only accessible to residents.
  • One space to the rear of the site for residents with small play area and “allotment garden”.  Accessible to the public during daylight hours.
• ACCESS
  • Route through the site from Ashley Road to Stokes Croft for public use but there will be gates at the public access points which will be closed during hours of darkness / outside commercial hours (whichever is the shorter).

Our initial thoughts were that there was insufficient affordable housing, that there was insufficient ground floor commercial and community space, that the through-route was inadequate and that the design of many of the blocks bear no relation to the surrounding area and Bristol.

* Intermediate housing = housing provided to eligible households at prices and rents above those of social rent, but below market price sor rents. The housing can include shared equity, other low cost homes for sale and intermediate rents.

What happened next?

Consultation letters went out over Christmas 2014.

We held a community meeting on Wednesday 14th January, 6:30pm at the Salvation Army to discuss the application.  Fifth Capital came to present their proposals and answer questions.  Read more about the meeting.

By the time of the Planning Committee over 1300 objections had been submitted plus a petition. CAG submitted its response in February.  However, the Planning Officer’s report recommended approval of the planning application.

The planning application was considered by the City Council’s planning committee on 8th April.  The Committee deferred a decision pending further discussion on ten key points between the planners, Fifth Capital and, in a welcome and innovative addition, CAG.

After the Planning Committee…

Members of the CAG Liaison Group met with Fifth Capital in April and have carried on in dialogue with them since then. We have had open discussions about the issues and in June it resulted in some changes to their proposals. Fifth Capital then came to the Community Meeting on 11th June which was lets say ‘robust’. In July Fifth Capital released further amendments to their proposals.

Return to the Planning Committee

Fifth Capital submitted revised proposals in late August 2015.

Planning permission was granted in October 2015.  The S.106 agreement was signed in July 2016.

[Updated: 27 August 2015]

[Updated: 14 June 2017]