On Wednesday at Knowle Methodist Church, more than 150 members of the South Bristol community met with the Redcatch Quarter development consortium (Broadside Holdings) for a presentation led by the chief campaigners for the Broadwalk Redevelopment Community Group; Laura Chapman and Helen Evans Morris.
The aim was to update the community on the plans for Redcatch Quarter and to explain what happened with the Judicial Review launched against Bristol City Council by Laura Chapman.
Many months of negotiations ensued between Laura, Helen and the developers about an alternative plan. The developers finally submitted a revised plan in January and after several revisions an agreement was reached and hence the meeting to learn the who, the why and the what next!
After presenting the findings to a judge, it was deemed there were indeed grounds for a JR and so the fight was on. Soon after, in an effort to keep the development moving forward, Broadside Holdings reached out to Laura and Helen and started negotiations to persuade them to drop the JR
The Big Reveal
At the meeting, Laura and Helen explained the JR process in detail, using as little jargon as possible, but with some hard-hitting facts which helped bring context to the human effort and complex considerations involved behind this extraordinary process they found themselves embroiled in. These are, after all, two regular working women who just care about their community, going up against a system which inevitably always seemsstacked against the ordinary person. They were understandably a bit nervous.
But when Laura finally showed the drawings of the new revised plan, the surprise in the room was palpable and the applause was spontaneous.
The difference in the plan was immense.
The audience reaction was clearly a great relief to Laura and Helen who’ve worked tirelessly juggling work, family, meetings and the responsibility of making decisions that will affect the whole community. It’s not a task they took lightly. What welcome balm for these altruists after months of stress and anxiety to have the community thank and applaud your efforts.
Nick Spencer of Montane Partners (part of the development consortium) spoke eloquently of the process and reaching agreement with the dynamic duofor the new plan. Given the extent of the climb down, he was gracious in his praise for Laura and Helen’s efforts.
He said : ‘I have a huge amount of respect for Laura. The community owes a debt of gratitude to her for her dogged determination in her negotiations. She has had the community’s interests front and centre every step of the way. We want to build something we and the community can be proud of”.
The New Plan
The new plan being submitted represents a huge reduction in the main areas of disagreements about the original outline plan; the height and the density.
The new development plan has a reduction from 850 residential units to 492
With 92 of these being three storey town houses in a small development within the footprint of the whole area and having a central greenspace for these houses and for use by the residents of the 400 flats contained across the rest of the development.
The original plan had two 12 storey towers overlooking the park, but now the maximum height will be 10 storeys (in blocks occupying the same area as the current tall Broadwalk building on junction of Wells roadand Broadwalk).
There will be no overlooking on Redcatch Park.
Some of trade-offs of the negotiations have resulted in less retail space. But there will be space for a dentist, metro supermarket, pharmacy and a community hub plus some other retail units. Further retail space will be negotiated in the next stage and Laura and Helen are hoping that their counterparts at KNPG will carry that particular baton forward. It was mentioned several times by members of the audience during the question session.
In addition, the proportion of parking spaces is higher than in the original plan. With individual parking for all 92 town houses and two parking levels being maintained for the rest of the development. There is also still talk of a Resident’s Parking Zone but this will be moved forward by BCC in consultation with the community.
These changes all amount to a clear win for the community and a huge result for the blood, sweat and tears of these two Knowle women.
Helen said:
“This result is not perfect. We wanted and tried for much more. But we think this is the best positive outcome overall”.
Many pertinent questions were raised by the audience with most questioners, starting their turn by congratulating and thanking Laura and Helen for their sterling work. These were answered by one of the four developers present.
The next stage will be a new planning application to alter the parameters of the outline permission from the old to the new scheme. Once agreed the public will then have an opportunity to comment on the new plan. After that the reserved matters stage happens when the nitty gritty detail is hashed out.
The estimate for the next stage is from 4 – 6 months. Helen joked that before she got involved with this campaign she was childless, she’s now got a toddler and another baby due in May. If things go to plan, she’ll have time for a few more, before Redcatch Quarter opens its doors in four years time.
Laura is clearly happy with the outcome of the negotiations and to close her session at the meeting she assured the audience that there is a legal backstop in place to ensure that none of the deal points reached can be rolled back by the developers but, she added with a chuckle, she’s keeping the refunded community war chest, in reserve ‘just in case’, until the new plan is well underway. Frankly, after the last two years, who can blame her?
This meeting had the potential to be an ordeal for all concerned. It was actually a calm, considerate community gathering with an engaged audience, about an issue that has been a huge concern for the residents of Knowle for the last few years. There’s still a long way to go and undoubtedly there will be a few more bumps in the road. But this result is a great positive example of community power and one that Knowle can be very proud of.
Looks like it’s going to be a very exciting next few years.
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