A legal challenge is anticipated against the redevelopment plans for the historic site
Bristol City Council and the British Zoological Society have agreed a section 106 planning agreement to allow the development of 196 homes at the former Bristol Zoo Gardens site in Clifton.
The council’s development control committee granted planning consent for the Bristol Zoological society’s application to develop the site in April 2023.
However in the 14 months since, officials and the developers bosses have been working to agree the planning conditions, including how the gardens that won’t be built on will be maintained to be open to the public as a privately-owned park. The agreement has now been signed.
The plan includes the development of 196 homes in blocks of up to six storeys, of which 20% will be classed as affordable. The development will also deliver a new public park, a conservation hub, a café and playground.
A statement from the Bristol Zoo Project regarding the planning approval suggests a potential legal challenge is anticipated.
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It notes: “Following the release of all Decision Notices, there is a six-week period during which anyone can bring a Judicial Review challenge to the planning process followed by Bristol City Council. Should such a challenge be submitted, this will take a few months to resolve”.
On 4 May last year, after the application had been granted planning permission in principle, the Clifton and Hotwells Improvement Society (CHIS) indicated that “if the Secretary of State decides not to call in the application, then CHIS together with Save Bristol Zoo (SBZ) will look to apply for a Judicial Review (JR). We think there are reasonable grounds for this. The time limit for lodging a JR application is 6 weeks after the formal granting of permission.”
Both groups also wrote to the then secretary of state Michael Gove, requesting that he call in the decision, but he refused to.
The Bristol Zoological Society lodged the planning application to redevelop the site, which has operated as a zoo garden since 1836, in June 2022.
A previous application to develop 62 homes in a car park on College Road, adjacent to the zoo, was approved in October 2021.
In June 2022, the High Court quashed the council’s approval of the scheme, on the grounds that the local authority had failed to properly take account of heritage advice from Historic England “as a material consideration”.
In November 2022, the plans were approved for a second time.
The Hill Group acquired the former Bristol Zoo car park from the Bristol Zoological Society in June of last year.
The society will use the money from the sale of the car park to fund the first phase of the construction of a new conservation zoo outside of the city centre, near Cribbs Causeway.
The Hill Group plans to deliver 55 one- and two-bed apartments and seven mews homes on the West Car Park site.
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